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452 General History of Europe 787. Bonaparte's Ambition. Bonaparte paid little attention to the wishes of the Directory and managed affairs as if he were already ruler of France. He set up a court near Milan as if he were a king. He declared that he was just at the beginning of his career, and seems already to have dreamed of making himself head not only of France but of Europe. He was a short man, very thin at this time, with searching eyes and rapid, if somewhat incor- _____^^_^_^__^^^_^^^_ rect, speech. He was at once a dreamer and a man of supreme practi- cal ability. He once told a friend that when he was a poor young lieutenant with no pros- pects he was wont to imagine just how he would wish things to be ; then he would con- sider the exact steps to be taken. His utter un- scrupulousness, tireless energy, and extraordi- nary military genius brought him to his goal. At twenty-eight he was head of the French armies ; at thirty he was destined to become the ruler of France itself. 788. The Egyptian Expedition. Bonaparte foresaw that the Directory was likely to get into trouble with the European powers, and so he decided to leave them to discredit themselves and show their weakness and incapacity. He organized an expedition to Egypt with the idea of cutting off Great Britain's commerce with the East and perhaps seizing her possessions in India. He man- aged to land his army safely at Alexandria, but the British fleet under Nelson destroyed the French fleet as it lay in the harbor and cut Bonaparte off from Europe. He easily defeated the troops of the Turkish Sultan, who was ruler of Egypt, in the famous EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGN