CHAPTER TENLa Muiron set sail on a moonless night on 23 August 1799 with one other
frigate as escort. At first they hugged the North African coast and twice
saw British sails in the distance. On one of these occasions Napoleon was
sufficiently alarmed to make preparations for landfall, intending to
proceed across the desert to some other port of embarkation; but the
ships of the Royal Navy stood away at the last minute. Sailing for much
of the time in bad weather, La Muiron was forced into the gulf of Ajaccio
on 30 September by contrary winds. This was to be Napoleon's last visit
to his native island, and he spent a few nights in the family home which
Letizia had so expensively refurbished. But all the time he was p1agued
with anxiety. When learning the latest news from Paris he was heard to
say despairingly: 'I will be there too late.'
On 6 October La Muiron put to sea again, only to fall foul of the
weather once more. And no sooner had the full storm on the 7th blown
itself out than English ships under Lord Keith were again spotted.
Napoleon ordered the captain to make for Frejus, where landfall was
achieved in the bay of St Raphael on 9 October. Without doubt Napoleon
had been lucky to escape naval interception. When the British realized
that Napoleon had passed through their fleets on the return run as well,
after a perilous 47-day voyage in the Mediterranean, popular fury was
unbounded. A London caricature showed Nelson dallying with Emma
Hamilton while La Muiron passed through his legs.
Napoleon was lucky in a second sense, in that he arrived in France just
four days after the news of his great victory at Aboukir reached Paris.
The Directory, fearful that the huge and growing army of malcontented
ex-servicemen might flock to his banner, dared not impose on Napoleon
the strict quarantine regulations governing all arrivals from the Orient at
France's Mediterranean ports; still less could they object that Bonaparte
had deserted his army in Egypt. At 6 o'clock on the evening of the 9th,
Napoleon set out on a seven-day journey to Paris, hoping vainly to arrive
in the capital before the Directory even knew he was in France. Using
rapid relays of post horses, he passed through Aix-en-Provence, Avignon,