The remaining episodes of the Eastern Expedition may be briefly
dismissed. After a painful desert march the army returned to Egypt in
June; and, on July 25th, under the lead of Murat and Lannes, drove
into the sea a large force of Turks which had effected a landing in
Aboukir Bay. Bonaparte was now weary of gaining triumphs over foes
whom he and his soldiers despised. While in this state of mind, he
received from Sir Sidney Smith a packet of English and German
newspapers giving news up to June 6th, which brought him quickly to a
decision. The formation of a powerful coalition, the loss of Italy,
defeats on the Rhine, and the schisms, disgust, and despair prevalent
in France--all drew his imagination westwards away from the illusory
Orient; and he determined to leave his army to the care of Kléber and
sail to France.

The morality of this step has been keenly discussed. The rank and
file of the army seem to have regarded it as little less than
desertion,[121] and the predominance of personal motives in this
important decision can scarcely be denied. His private aim in
undertaking the Eastern Expedition, that of dazzling the imagination
of the French people and of exhibiting the incapacity of the
Directory, had been abundantly realized. His eastern enterprise had
now shrunk to practical and prosaic dimensions, namely, the
consolidation of French power in Egypt. Yet, as will appear in later
chapters, he did not give up his oriental schemes; though at St.
Helena he once oddly spoke of the Egyptian expedition as an "exhausted
enterprise," it is clear that he worked hard to keep his colony. The
career of Alexander had for him a charm that even the conquests of
Cæsar could not rival; and at the height of his European triumphs, the
hero of Austerlitz was heard to murmur: "J'ai manqué à ma fortune à