The First Republic, Or, the Whites and the Blues (Volume 1-2) Paperback - 1201

From the publisher

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1894. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... XVIL IK WHICH WE FIND THAT Hox A I'A ItTK's PRESENTIMENTS WERE NOT MISTAKEN. On the 24th of May, the army reached Jaffa. There they remained till the 28th. Jaffa was indeed a city of ill-luck to Bonaparte. Our readers will remember the four thousand prisoners of Eugene Beauharnais and Croisier, who could not be fed, or guarded, or sent to Cairo, and were therefore shot. A more serious and painful necessity -- perhaps a necessity -- awaited Bonaparte on his return. A pest-house, or hospital for the plague, was at Jaffa. We have in the Museum of the Louvre a magnificent picture by Gros representing Bonaparte touching his plaguestricken soldiers in this hospital at Jaffa. Though it represents a fact that never existed, the picture is none the less fine. Here is what M. Thiers has to say about this matter of the plague at Jaffa. We regret to find ourselves, a puny novelist, once more in opposition to the giant of history. The author of the " Revolution" and of the "Consulat et l'Empire" says: -- "When he returned to Jaffa Bonaparte blew up the fortifications. There was in the town a hospital for our men who were ill of the plague. It was impossible to remove them; if not removed, they were left to certain death, either from disease, or hunger, or the cruelty of the enemy. Bonaparte said, therefore, to the surgeon-incharge, Desgenettes, that it would be more humane to give them opium than to let them live; to which the surgeon answered: 'My business is to cure them, not to kill them.' The opium was not administered, and this fact has been used to promulgate an unworthy calumny, which is now forever silenced." I humbly ask pardon of M. Thiers, but that answer of Desgenettes (whom I knew intimately, as I did Larrey, as I did all the Egyptians, the companions of my fath...