Thrown into a dungeon.

Finally, towards the end of March, the islands of Hyères are in sight, France, finally, so desired. Saved? No. On the outskirts of Toulon crosses the British frigate Dorothy which, better armed than the travelers, arrests them on the spot on the principle that their passes are not valid [..] Lord Keith being the only one authorized to deliver them [..]

George Elphinstone, commander of the Dorothy, therefore convoys them to Livorno where Keith holds his quarters. As soon as they land, they are taken to Lazaret, the ancient fortress of the old Medici port, and thrown into the dungeon. The admiral, moreover, to mock the equality which is dear to the French revolutionaries, allocates the general the same indemnity as the soldiers, twenty sous a day. Immediately, the latter wrote to him: "I dealt with the Mamelukes, the Turks, the Arabs of the great desert, with the Ethiopians, the blacks of Darfur and the Tartars, all respected their given word and they did not insult misfortune." It is not the condition of the detention which hurts him but the affront which is done to him, so he concludes:" I am better with my soldiers than with all the admirals of England. Deliver straw to the wounded and rid me of your presence. "

For a month, Desaix chomped at the bit and his morale would be catastrophic if Miot, by his good humor, did not raise the mood with his jokes: "I made all the pleasures of high school reappear. We were playing lame devil [..] hopscotch, tag. Sometimes we made sieges and we broke our doors and windows. Desaix commanded one corps, General Davout the other. " The conquerors of Upper Egypt playing four corners? It is true that these men are barely in their thirties [..]

Finally, the British government ordered the release of the captives [..] Understanding a little late that the agreement of El Rachich was hurting the English interests relating to the control of the gate to India, King George's cabinet changed of politics and disowned the commodore, thereby invalidating past agreements. At first reluctant then in favor of this "betrayal", the Turks then started double-dealing, which Kléber ended up realizing. The latter therefore refused to evacuate Cairo and put his army back on a war footing. Hostilities therefore resumed, and to the surprise of the Turkish-English coalition, Kleber, in Heliopolis, crushed the Ottoman army, throwing the grand vizier out of Egypt. Cleverer than is generally said, the day after the second Cairo uprising (March 21) he decided to deal with Mourad Bey, the latter coming to understand that it was better to help the French to leave properly than to endure the British or Ottoman yoke.

Gonzague Saint-Bris - Desaix, le sultan de Bonaparte