Mirage by Nina Burleigh

Author:Nina Burleigh
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: HarperCollins

CHAPTER 7

THE MATHEMATICIAN

My friends, if we leave for France, we didn’t know anything about it until midday today.

—Monge’s last words to the scholars before leaving them in Egypt

Cairo, Summer and Fall 1799

On the night of August 15, 1799, the scholars of the Institute of Egypt were not enjoying another scientific debate among the orange blossoms in their “flaming core of reason.” On the contrary, they were arguing about rumors that their modern Alexander was about to cut and run, leaving his scholars and soldiers behind. Napoleon had been back from Acre for almost two months, and had celebrated his “victory” in the Holy Land with a public fête. The pretense had fooled no one, least of all the sickly, shoeless army, which was approaching mutiny.

Everyone knew the situation of the French in Egypt was insecure. But leave? Napoleon? Unthinkable.

In early August, Sir Sidney Smith happily shared with the French some European newspapers from May and June: France was at war with Austria again, and its forces had been kicked out of Germany and Italy, reversing Napoleon’s finest military achievements. The Directory was tottering, and a complete overthrow of the Republic seemed imminent. Reading this news just after the disaster at Acre, Napoleon decided he couldn’t waste another minute chasing Alexander’s ephemeral legacy to the East. He needed only a moonless night and the temporary absence of British ships off a section of the Egyptian coast to sneak away and get himself back to Paris, where, he reasoned to his comrades and close aides, he was more immediately needed. Luck was on his side. The English—who would have loved to sail home with the little French general as a trophy—were watching another part of the coast and missed their chance again. The general sailed away ignominiously with a small party in a ship with all lights extinguished.

Napoleon invited a lucky trio from the Institute—Berthollet, Monge, and Denon—to leave Egypt with him. The three men guarded the secret as best they could, but the small, gossipy community of scientists at the Institute was growing suspicious. A day earlier, at the Institute’s weekly meeting, the notion would have seemed implausible. At that time, Napoleon had ordered two groups of scholars to explore Upper Egypt, giving them detailed instructions and behaving in all respects like a man committed to the enterprise. Later that afternoon, though, he’d sent a case of sugar, wine, coffee, and spirits to a waiting French ship under the code label “Pour Monsieur Smith.” Thus assured of luxury provisions for himself on the way home, he hosted a lavish dinner for members of the Divan, inviting Monge and Berthollet to join them.

Back at the Institute, the civilians argued all evening. Men who couldn’t believe Napoleon would abandon Egypt shouted down those who dared to suggest his departure was imminent. The rumor gained strength, though, as various savants shared their own eyewitness observations. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire had no doubt of it: he had told Napoleon of a draft manuscript he wished to post to a colleague in Paris.

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