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bullion worth several millions. The taking of Malta would have more than strategic value for the Egyptian expedition.

IX
    “Josephine! . . . And I am 600 leagues away!”
    N APOLEON’S tactical brilliance at the Battle of the Pyramids, together with his whirlwind of activity during the first weeks in Cairo, is rendered all the more remarkable by the single-mindedness with which he put aside a revelation that had devastated him. A couple of days before the battle, he was walking on the edge of an oasis with his loyal aide Junot at his side, his secretary Bourrienne and his staff entourage following a few paces behind. 1 Some time prior to this he must have been boasting to his officers, as was his habit, about how lucky he was to have the love of a good woman—namely his wife, Josephine. By this stage, her infidelities had become common knowledge amongst his senior officers. Junot must have noticed their exchange of scoffing looks when Napoleon spoke of his feelings for his wife, and must have wished to put his master straight on this matter to avoid Napoleon humiliating himself any further. This is of course conjecture, but something must surely have taken place along these lines—for there is no doubting Junot’s loyalty, and it is difficult to imagine why else he might have chosen to bring up such a painful subject at this particular, highly inopportune moment.
    At any rate, as Napoleon and Junot were walking on the edge of the desert, Junot revealed that Josephine had persisted in her affair with Hippolyte Charles, giving precise details of their liaison and even showing Napoleon a letter that confirmed these details, which according to Junot were the talking point of all Paris. On hearing this news, Napoleon went into a state of shock: his limbs began moving in an involuntary spasmodic fashion, all the blood drained from his already pale face, turning it quite white, and he slapped his hand to his forehead several times. Then he turned to Bourrienne and Berthier behind him, demanding to know if this was all true, and if so, why they had not told him. When Berthier confirmed the truth of what Junot had said, Napoleon flew into a rage. “Josephine! . . . And I am 600 leagues away! . . . I have no wish to be the laughingstock of all those useless Parisians. I will publicly divorce her.” According to Bourrienne, in his rage he kept repeating the word “divorce” again and again. 2
    Inevitably, Josephine’s son Eugene Beauharnais soon got to hear of what had happened. Five days later he wrote to his mother, informing her of what Napoleon had been told, and adding hopefully that he was sure all this gossip had been invented by her enemies. The following day Napoleon wrote a letter to his elder brother and confidant Joseph in Paris, in which his extreme rage and despair are all too evident. “I am weary of human nature. I need solitude and isolation. Greatness no longer interests me. All feeling in me is dried up. My thirst for glory has faded at the age of twenty-nine. I am completely worn out.” 3 This was July 25: in the intervening period he had fought the Battle of the Pyramids, made his triumphal entry into Cairo, and begun his “revolution” of the affairs of Egypt. The supreme effort of will involved in putting such emotional turmoil out of his mind can only be marveled at. In his letter to his brother he also wrote: “I can be in France in two months. Have a country house ready for me when I return, either close to Paris or in Burgundy. I count on locking myself up and spending the winter there.” In the midst of his triumph he wished to give it all up; yet paradoxically, at the same time he continued laying the foundations of his “Oriental empire.”
    This letter in which Napoleon poured out his soul (“The veil is torn . . . the same heart is torn by such conflicting feelings”), and the letter from Eugene Beauharnais revealing the precise details of why Napoleon was in such a state, were