He observed that Nelson could not return from Syria for several days.
Bonaparte listened to these representations with impatience and ill-humour.

He replied peremptorily, "Admiral, we have no time to lose.
Fortune gives me but three days; if I do not profit by them we are lost." He relied much on fortune; this chimerical idea constantly influenced his resolutions.
Bonaparte having the command of the naval as well as the military force, the Admiral was obliged to yield to his wishes.
I attest these facts, which passed in my presence, and no part of which could escape my observation.

It is quite false that it was owing to the appearance of a sail which, it is pretended, was descried, but of which, for my part, I saw nothing, that Bonaparte exclaimed, "Fortune, have you abandoned me?
I ask only five days!" No such thing occurred.
It was one o'clock in the morning of the 2d of July when we landed on the soil of Egypt, at Marabou, three leagues to the west of Alexandria.

We had to regret the loss of some lives; but we had every reason to expect that our losses would have been greater.
At three o'clock the same morning the General-in-Chief marched on Alexandria with the divisions of Kleber, Bon, and Menou.

The Bedouin Arabs, who kept hovering about our right flank and our rear, picked up the stragglers.
Having arrived within gunshot of Alexandria, we scaled the ramparts, and French valour soon triumphed over all obstacles.
The first blood I saw shed in war was General Kleber's.