But in the next year, or in 1813, he will send an expedition of 40,000 men from the Scheldt, as if to menace Ireland; and, having thrown us off our guard, he will divide that force into four parts for the recovery of the French and Dutch colonies in the West Indies.

He counts also on having a part of his army in Spain free for service elsewhere: it must be sent to seize Sicily or Egypt.
But this was not all.

His thoughts also turn to the Cape of Good Hope.
Eight thousand men are to sail from Brest to seize that point of vantage at which he had gazed so longingly in 1803.

Of these plans, the recovery of Egypt evidently lay nearest to his heart.

He orders the storage at Toulon of everything needful for an Egyptian expedition, along with sixty gun-vessels of light draught suitable for the navigation of the Nile or of the lakes near the coast.[242] Decres is charged to send models of these craft; and we may picture the eager scrutiny which they received.