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16 fortress; he descended the Nile, reached Alexandria on the 24th July, saw his men posted near Aboukir, and gave orders for the assault early next morning. This accordingly took place; Murat doing wonders with his cavalry. Victory sided with the French, and Napoleon returned to Cairo on the 9th August; and on the 22d reached the coast with his staff, and embarked on board a French frigate. After a perilous voyage he landed at Frejus, and arrived at Paris on the 16th Oct., and shortly after was made chief consnl.

A refusal on the part of the British government to enter into accommodation with Bonaparte's consulate, determined him to consolidate his power by fresh victories. The army of the Rhine, 100,000 strong, being confided to Moreau, Napoleon made a new levy of 50,000 men, which left Geneva in three bodies, 6000 to cross Mont Cenis, 7000 the little St. Bernard, and 37,000, under Buonaparte, the great St. Bernard in the Alps. After four days of excessive toil, the army crossed that stupendous range, and on the 20th May, 1800, Napoleon staid for a short time at the mountain convent, whose benevolent fathers had given refreshment to every soldier in his route. It had been extremely difficult, by casing artillery in trunks of trees, to drag them over