There was a story in Aesop's Fables.
One day, a beautiful stag with long antlers was desperately thirsty. It came to a spring to drink, then became entranced by its reflection in the water.
The stag was immensely proud of its graceful, beautiful antlers, but felt ashamed when it saw its thin legs. Just then, a lion suddenly pounced on it. Terrified, the stag turned and ran. Its thin legs were powerful and fast, and in an instant it left the lion far behind.
But the lion refused to give up. When they reached the woods, the stag's antlers were accidentally caught in the branches. No matter how it struggled, it could not move, and the lion rushed over and seized it.
As it lay dying, the stag muttered to itself, "What is going on? I thought the legs I found so embarrassing could save my life in a crisis, yet the antlers I was so proud of have caused my death just as I was about to escape danger?"
Many things were like that. They began smoothly, only to end badly—marriages, for instance, or founding a nation. At the outset, everyone involved was full of hope, but the outcome was often far from wonderful.
So what about marriages or nations that were terrible from the very beginning?
Napoleon and the army he led had flooded into Italy like a torrent rushing down the Apennines. He achieved astonishing victories in a short time, but there was no doubt that the French army, which had possessed nothing at the time, was like a band of brigands. Not every Italian representative liked Napoleon as much as the people of Milan did.
The Egyptian expeditionary army felt even more humiliated. They were not even qualified to return to Paris to receive a triumphant