Below caption title: See, Buonaparte's Speech to the French Army at Cairo; published by authority of the Directory, in Volney's Letters.
Print shows Bonaparte wielding a bloody sabre, inscribed 'Egalité'. Under his right foot is a torn paper headed 'Nelsons Victory over the Fleet of the Republic'. He wears an enormous cocked hat decorated with feathers, aigrette, tricolour cockade, and crescent and around his waist is a sash, in which are thrust a pistol and a jewelled dagger. He declaims: "What? our Fleet captur'd & destroy'd by the Slaves of Britain? - "by my Sword & by holy Mahomet I swear eternal Vengeance! ... [etc.]" A French dispatch rider, dismounted from a camel, gapes at the general, hat in hand and with a bundle labelled 'les Dépéches', under his arm.