The Washington herald., 1914-02-15

~ . plunSe INTO lne desert
" which stretches between Africa and
Asia is true example of Napoleonic
Rudacity. With the British bulldogs Of
the sea growing along the shore and the
martial hordes of Turkey swarming for
a descent upon him. he boldly took the
aggressive, and with only 12oo0 soldiers
invaded Asia in the month OF February.
ITse
The traveller from Egypt to Palestine
goes today by rail through the land Of
Goshen to Port Said and thence by boat
to Jaffa But for Napoleon there was no
iron road, only trail in the sand. and
no safe passage by sea, where British
warships were scouting along the coast.
He was obliged to risk his heavy siege
artillery on boats because il could not be
dragged across the desert IL was enough
for his army to drag its feet over the
more than $50 miles OF hot sand drifts and
for the long camel trains to bear the
burden of food and ammunition.
For a week and more the soldiers were
In land that offered not morsel Of
food, and where there was only an occa-
sional bunch of desert weeds for the
hundreds of beasts with which they
marched, since there is hardly an oasis
In all the miserable desert of FL Tih.
Engineers went ahead to clear the wells,
which were merely holes in the sand
The army had to march in divisions a
day apart lest the wells be drunk dry at
single gulp, and the bitter, brackish
water was measured out like brandy TO
the thirsty mouths of the soldiers.
In his skirmishes Napoleon had de-
veloped the camel as an efficient aid FOR
Murat's cavalry. With two armed men
on the back of this steed of the desert 1t
became a thing of terror even 70 the
Arab horsemen-- fortunately they did
not modest the syriAa expedition and the
unit rod IN hun mr.
the long, silent, burning road through the
desert which Napoleon said was the
image Of immensely to my thoughts. 1t
had neither beginning nor end. il was
an ocean for the foot of man
A Battle of scarecrows.
out of that vast waste FL Arish. The
first outpost of Asia, rises in the valley
of the Biblical River of Egypt" Be-
fore it stretches a beautiful irrigated
plain where date palms and fig trees cast
their cool shadows and where the shining
green OF the vines is most welcome
sight to the eyes long blinded by the
glare of sky and sand.
FL Arish is 50 old that history cannot
count its years. Its cameIs and mules
urink from a stone trough that was once
the sargophagus OF a proud Egyptian,
and it was only the day before yesterday,
In its reckoning of time, when Baldwin
], King of Jerusalem. lay down to die
within its walls. 1t is today a town of
Iivid white houses and perhaps 1900 peo-
pie, who plunge about ankle deep in :;s
sandy streets as they go to bend their
heads to Mecca in the mosque or to swell
the chaffering hubbUb of the bazars.
When Napoleon stood before its gate
he had no artillery with which to bonn
bard the garrison behind i've walls
Therefore, he Sci up behind his Garth
works twenty cross sticks and hung q
soldiers coat and hat on each. History
asks us to believe that the simple Turks
blazed away at those scarecrows three
days. until their ammunition was nearly
exhausted, when. they surrendered
While crossing the desert Napoleon
underwent a torture of the soul far
more excruciating than any bodily suf-
fering. His mother and brothers and
sisters. who now surrounded Josephine
In Paris. had already entered upon the
relentless Corsic:ih vendetta which was
TO give him as well as her many a bad
half hour. Apparently some one among
them bore witness against his wife by
almost the first mail he received in
Egypt, for after the Battle of the Pyra-
mids the conquercr of the land of the
Pharaohs wrote to his brother Joseph.
complaining of his domestic troubles and
saying. 1T is a sad condition to have
a. NiSe every hlDu Oh lteinS toward the
same person in one heart. / am
disguised with human nature. Great
ness pals On me. My feelings are all
Wlthered. Glory is trivial at g. =. {.
Farewell, my only friend"
Mime. de RemUsat tells us that had
Napoleon been better loved he might
have been better man. But then does
not a woman always blame woman ?
Whether from Josephine's fault or for
Eipling's geographical reason that he
found himself by the fortunes of war
in that pclygamous East where the best
is no better than the worst Napoleon
lost within two months after his ar
rival in Egypt that exclusive attachment
tG his VIE which had ruled his heart
through the two years since their mar
riage. At first he looked in vain 10 see
Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt and
then fell under the spell OF the wife
OF a lieutenant. one Of the many French
women who. against the strict orders of
the government, had followed her hus-
band In the army OF the Orient by
smuggling herself aboard the TRANSPORT
in soldiers garb.
The ;renadiers honored this little ex-
mlliner of Carcassone with the title of
Cleopatra. but Josephine's son delicately
objected TO riding as an aid beside his
stepfather's carriage on his drives
abroad with Nine. Lieutenant. Eugene
says in his memoirs that a somewhat
lively Interview followed this refusal
but that the drives were discontinued
Sauce for the goose. however. is never
quite the same as sauce for the gander.
and when JUnot while walking with his
general-in-chief in the desert one day
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