Kléber

“ The French ships were burned. The news of this disaster spread rapidly in Egypt, and for a moment filled the army with despair. Bonaparte received the tidings with imperturbable composure. “Well,” he said, “we must die in this country, or get out of it as great as the ancients.” He wrote to Kléber: “This will oblige us to do greater things than we intended. We must hold ourselves in readiness.” The great soul of Kléber was worthy of this language: “Yes,” replied Kléber, “we must do great things. ”

“ The grand vizier insisted that Cairo should be given up to him; Kléber, on the contrary, that the vizier should fall back to the frontier. Under these conditions, fighting was the only resource.
On the 20th of March, 1800, in the plain of Heliopolis, ten thousand soldiers, by superiority in discipline and courage, dispersed seventy or eighty thousand foes. Kléber gave orders for the pursuit on the following day. When he had ascertained with his own eyes that the Turkish army had disappeared, he resolved to return and reduce the towns of Lower Egypt, and Cairo in particular, to their duty. ”

“ CHAPTER XIV THE PRICE OF PEACE
"They have nothing to fear; are they not our people?"
Was it possible for the people of Cairo to have any better assurance than these words of General Kleber, that the "Aman," or amnesty, that was so loudly proclaimed and, by the French, so enthusiastically celebrated, was to be the full and free "Aman" which alone is understood by Oriental peoples? One would have thought not, but the Cairenes were to learn differently. ”

“ Though conqueror of the grand vizier’s army, Kléber had a serious difficulty to surmount to subdue an immense city, peopled by three hundred thousand inhabitants, partly in a state of revolt, occupied by twenty thousand Turks, and built in the Oriental style; that is to say, having narrow streets, divided into piles of masonry, which were real fortresses. These edifices, receiving light from within, and exhibiting without nothing but lofty walls, had terraces instead of roofs, from which the insurgents poured a downward and destructive fire. ”

“ Then when old Kleber died and Menou came to the top, I felt that it was time for me to go. It is not for me to speak of my own capacities, monsieur, but you will readily understand that the man does not care to be ridden by the mule. ”

“ Never had such audacity and ardor, never had more impetuous courage and obstinate valor, struggled for the possession of a city.
Generals, officers and soldiers fought together in confusion in the trench. Kléber, armed with an Albanian rifle which he had wrested from its owner, made a club of it, and raising it above his head as a thresher uses his flail, he brought down a man with every blow. Murat, with his head uncovered and his long hair floating in the wind, was flashing his sabre back and forth, its fine temper bringing its message of death to all those who came in contact with it. ”

“ Klausthal (9) , in Hanover, 25 m. NE. of Göttingen, is the chief mining town of the northern Hartz Mountains, and the seat of the German mining administration, surrounded by silver, copper, lead, and zinc mines.
Kléber, Jean Baptiste, French general, born at Strasburg; originally an architect, served with distinction in the Revolutionary army, accompanied Bonaparte to Egypt, and was left by him in command, where, after a bold attempt to regain lost ground and while in the act of concluding a treaty with the Turks, he was assassinated by an Arab fanatic (1753-1800) . ”

“ If I was amused at this recital of the chevalier, I could not avoid feeling piqued at the greater success he had than myself; for still the chilling reception I had met with was rankling in my mind.
“Let us move away from this quarter,” said Duchesne. “Here we have got ourselves among a knot of old campaigners, with their stupid stories of Cairo and Acre, Alexandria and the Adige. By Jove! if anything would make me a Legitimist, it is my disgust at those confounded narratives about Kleber and Desaix; the Emperor himself does not despise the time of the Revolution more heartily than I do. ”

“ In this situation, Kléber showed as much prudence as he had just shown energy in the field. He resolved to gain time, and to let the insurrection wear itself out. The insurgents could not fail at length to be undeceived respecting the general state of things in Egypt, and to learn that the French were everywhere victorious, and the vizier’s army dispersed. Nassif-Pasha’s Turks, Ibrahim Bey’s Mamluks, and the Arab population of Cairo could not agree together long. ”

“ Kléber and Menou were both honest, upright men; but one wanted to leave Egypt, the other to stay in it; the clearest and most authentic returns conveyed to them totally contrary significations; misery and ruin to one, abundance and success to the other.
In September, 1799, Desaix, having completed the conquest and subjugation of Upper Egypt, had left two movable columns for the pursuit of Murad Bey, to whom he had offered peace on condition of his becoming a vassal of France. ”

“ France acknowledges all the influence of your conquests on the restoration of her trade and the civilisation of the world. The eyes of all Europe are upon you, and in thought I am often with you. In whatever situation the chances of war may place you, prove yourselves still the soldiers of Rivoli and Aboukir—you will be invincible. Place in Kléber the boundless confidence which you reposed in me. He deserves it. Soldiers, think of the day when you will return victorious to the sacred territory of France. That will be a glorious day for the whole nation. ”

“ The soldiers who were to effect a junction with Roland's two hundred men, a portion of whom had already slid down into the town, while the others were fighting on the ramparts or in the ditches, being assailed by volleys from four sides, hesitated as the bullets whistled and the cannon roared around them, falling like hail and passing like a hurricane. Lannes, wounded in the head by a musket ball, fell upon his knees, and was carried off by his soldiers. Kléber held his own like an invulnerable giant in the midst of the fire. ”

“ Cairo paid ten million francs, a burden far from onerous for so large a city, and the inhabitants considered themselves as most fortunate to get off so easily. Eight millions more were imposed upon the rebel towns of Lower Egypt. The army, proud of its victories, confident in its strength, knowing that General Bonaparte was at the head of the government, ceased to doubt that it would soon receive reinforcements. Kléber had in the plain of Heliopolis made the noblest amends for his momentary faults. ”

“ We have always gone together, almost in the same stride; I was even made general before you. While my campaigns on the Rhine were less brilliant than yours on the Adige, they were not less profitable for the Republic; and when I had the honor to serve under you, you found in me, I hope, a subordinate devoted, if not to the man, at least to the country which he served. It is true that since your departure, general, I have been more fortunate than you in not having the responsibility of a great army, which, if one may believe Kléber’s despatches, you have left in a disastrous position. ”

“ But the Government, with absolutely nothing to guide it but Sir Sidney's report, declined to listen to his advice or to accept the action he had taken, and ordered him to insist upon the French making an unconditional surrender. A wiser and stronger man than Sir Sidney would have ignored instructions so fatal to the honour and interests of his own country, and so gratuitously insulting to brave and honourable foes; but, to the great misfortune of all concerned, Sir Sidney had not the courage to do justice to himself, and so communicated the decision of the Government to General Kleber. ”

“ At once Krewl threw in a mass of heavy stones, which so weighted down my poor father that his body could not rise again to the surface. It is impossible to kill anyone in this land, as perhaps you know, but when my father was pressed down into the mud at the bottom of the deep pool and the stones held him so he could never escape, he was of no more use to himself or the world than if he had died. Knowing this, Krewl proclaimed himself King, taking possession of the royal castle and driving all my father's people out. I was a small boy, then, but when I grew up I became a gardener. ”

“ Now he cared for nothing but to gaze into the waters at Moneta and her child.
One day, the water-kelpie appeared to him in the form of an old man.
THE WATER-KELPIE. Page 70.
[Pg 71] “Why sit you here, sighing like the north wind?” said the kelpie.
“I have loved gold better than my best friends,” replied Ivan; “and now my best friends are taken away from me, and the gold is left; but I love it no longer.”
“Ah, ah!” growled the kelpie; “I have heard of such men as you: nothing is dear till it is missed. ”

“ Since childhood thus the twain had rushed
Each morn to Clebach’s fountain-cell
Ere earliest dawn the East had flushed
To bathe them in its well:
Each morn with joy their young hearts tingled;
Each morn as, conquering cloud or mist,
The first beam with the wavelet mingled,
Mouth to mouth they kissed!
They stand by the fount with their unlooped hair—
A hand each raises—what see they there?
A white Form seated on Clebach stone;
A kinglike presence: the monks stood nigh:
Fronting the dawn he sat alone;
On the star of morning he fixed his eye:
That crozier he grasped shone bright ”

“ Now Cout el Culoub knew that the Khalif was come back from his journey; so she turned to Khelif and said to him, ‘Arise; go to the bath and come back.’ So he arose and went to the bath, and when he returned, she clad him in a dress worth a thousand dinars and taught him manners and the rules of good breeding. Then said she to him, ‘Go hence to the Khalif and say to him, “O Commander of the Faithful, it is my desire that thou be my guest this night.”’
So Khelif arose and mounting his mule, rode, with slaves and servants before him, till he came to the palace of the Khalifate. ”

“ Young men should be diffident of themselves, you know, M. Clerval; I was myself when young: but that wears out in a very short time."
M. Krempe had now commenced an eulogy on himself, which happily turned the conversation from a subject that was so annoying to me.
Clerval was no natural philosopher. His imagination was too vivid for the minutiæ of science. Languages were his principal study; and he sought, by acquiring their elements, to open a field for self-instruction on his return to Geneva. ”

“ He loved a creature, as man should love none but their Redeemer and his Church. Heaven chastised him. A letter came to Rome. She was dead."
"Poor Gerard! Poor Margaret!" moaned the penitent.
Clement's voice faltered at this a moment. But soon, by a strong effort, he recovered all his calmness.
"His feeble nature yielded, body and soul, to the blow. He was stricken down with fever. He revived only to rebel against Heaven. He said 'There is no God.'"
"Poor, poor, Gerard!"
"Poor Gerard? thou feeble, foolish woman! Nay, wicked, impious Gerard. ”

“ In these vast solitudes, where nothing seems to indicate the route, where the wind covers up all traces of the track with sand, the khebir has a thousand ways of directing himself in the right course. In the night, when there are no stars in sight, by the simple inspection of a handful of grass, which he examines with his fingers, which he smells and tastes, he informs himself of his locale without ever being lost or wandering. ”

“ A few days later the Reverend John called on Number Five. “Why haven’t we seen you before, Padre?” said they.
“I’ve been watching times and seasons and events and men—and boys,” he replied. “I am pleased with my Tenth Legion. I make them my compliments. Clewer was throwing ink-balls in form this morning, instead of doing his work. ”

“ In the former and darker ages of the world when people had not half the wit and sagacity they now possess, and when, consequently, they were much easier duped by such designing agents, the “Ech Uisque,” or Water-Horse, as the Kelpie is commonly called, was a well-known character in those countries. The Kelpie was an infernal agent, retained in the service and pay of Satan, who granted him a commission to execute such services as appeared profitable to his interest. ”

“ So does our author, when describing the life of Clement. He relates only one or two miracles, in order to give us an idea of the others, and then refers to a great number of them in a few words, without order or detail; "many and astounding were the miracles he daily wrought."
Clement, like the apostles, had power over nature to heal it. By his prayers the eyes of his persecutors were blinded; by his prayers the blind recovered their sight, and were brought to the light of the true faith. ”

“ Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, speaks of Clement, in turn, as his master: “for we acknowledge as fathers those blessed saints who are gone before us, and to whom we shall go after a little time the truly blest Pantænus, I mean, and the holy Clemens, my teacher, who was to me so greatly useful and helpful.” St. Cyril of Alexandria calls him “a man admirably learned and skilful, and one that searched to the depths all the learning of the Greeks, with an exactness rarely attained before.” ”

“ And soothed with idle dreams her frowning fate.
"Ten summers pass'd, and how was Clelia then?"
Alas! she suffer'd in this trying ten;
The pair had parted: who to him attend,
Must judge the nymph unfaithful to her friend;
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But who on her would equal faith bestow,
Would think him rash—and surely she must know.
Then as a matron Clelia taught a school,
But nature gave not talents fit for rule.
Yet now, though marks of wasting years were seen,
Some touch of sorrow, some attack of spleen ”