Did Junot rat out the man sleeping with Napoleon’s wife because of a months-old practical joke? Maybe. Maybe not. But I like to think so.

>On July 19, while they were at Wardan on the way to Cairo, [Junot](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/General_Jean_Andoche_Junot.jpg) confirmed what [Napoleon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Jacques-Louis_David_-_The_Emperor_Napoleon_in_His_Study_at_the_Tuileries_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg) might have already have suspected: that [Josephine](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Baron_Fran%C3%A7ois_G%C3%A9rard_-_Jos%C3%A9phine_in_coronation_costume_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg) [**Napoleon’s first wife**] had been having an affair with Hippolyte Charles. >[…] >Junot now showed Napoleon evidence in the form of a letter – we don’t know who it was from, and no post had been received since landing – and added that his cuckolding was the talk of Paris. >It is a mystery why Junot chose that particular time and place to confront Napoleon. Charles had played a joke on him, gluing his sword into its scabbard, but that had been months earlier. _________________________________ **Source:** Roberts, Andrew. "Egypt." *Napoleon: A Life*. New York: Penguin, 2014. 171. Print. **Original Source(s) Listed:** Bourrienne, *Memoirs I* p. 66. Stuart, *Rose of Martinique* p. 234. ________________________________________ **Further Reading:** [Jean-Andoche Junot, 1st Duke of Abrantès](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Andoche_Junot) [Napoleone di Buonaparte / Napoléon Bonaparte / Napoleon I](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon) [Joséphine de Beauharnais (née Tascher de la Pagerie)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9phine_de_Beauharnais) [Hippolyte Charles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippolyte_Charles)