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THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book II.

five centuries after him. But, even from Damiettahe could have reached Cairo, if he had manoeuvredlike Napoleon; but to this Michaud has a full rightto reply that it would have been quite impossiblefor St Louis’ unwieldy army to have executed themanoeuvres of the French, in 1798. 1

The bravest of the Moslems despaired of Egyptwhen Damietta fell; but not so the sultan, thoughlabouring under a mortal sickness, and totallyunable to mount a horse. What could he do? Areproach to Fakr-eddin, who hardly forbore frommurdering him, and a capital sentence on many ofthe deserters, were ineffectual; hut what more couldbe done by a pale and dying man, who saw theemir’s looks interrogating Fakr-eddin’s, ready at theslightest assent to hasten his sovereign’s departure,nor allow his life to spin out fora few hours longer?He had got himself carried to Mansourah, the precisefield of Brienne’s overthrow thirty years before.Could nothing open the eyes of the French? Yetnot one appears to have felt a presentiment! Dis-soluteness, disobedience, high living, continued intheir camp outside Damietta, produced epidemicsand famine. The Count D’Artois particularly, ayoung and effervescent prince, proud of his birth,and prouder of his reputation for military bravery,

1 Michaud: Hist., iv. 173 and 189.