INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Louis Adolphe Thibbs, the renowned historian and for a time the Président of the French Republic, was born 1797 at Marseilles. In 1815 he was sent to Aix to study law. In 1821 he went to Paris, where, as a contributor to Le Constitutionnel, a leading Libéral organ, he became distingaished for the élégance and manly vigor of his style. In 1823 he began the publication of his great work " Histoire de la Révolution française " (8 volumes, completed 1827), which at once placed the young writer in the foremost ranks of literary celebrity; and in 1845 he began his yet larger work " Histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire" (20 volumes, completed 1860).

It is the former of thèse two famous works which contains the account of Napoleon's* campaign in Egypt. The historical background of this campaign was, in brief, as follows:

The kingdom had been abolished in France on the 22d of September, 1792, and Louis XVI. beheaded on the 21st of January, 1793. In the war which then followed against the powers of the first Coalition, Napoléon distinguished himself at the capture

* Napoléon Bonaparte was called Bonaparte until lie became emperor, and then Napoléon. But no such distinction is made in the f ollowing notes.