I do not have access to Sparrow either, but she did assist Tom Pocock with his book The Terror Before Trafalgar; from the Napoleon-Series web site is quoted the following, which seems to differ in one detail on Napoleon's return to France, over Pocock's story. Here is a brief comparison between the two:

From: http://www.napoleon-series.org/research/napoleon/c_greatest.html

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The Egypt Campaign

Napoleon decided to invade Egypt in May, 1798. His goal was to sieze Egypt and destroy Britian's trade with India . Napoleon brought along a team of one hundred and sixty seven scientists to study and learn about Egyptian history and culture. Napoleon got to Malta on June 9, 1798. The Prussian Naval Base Commander, Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim, surrendered a very important naval base to Napoleon. Napoleon only lost three men. Napoleon was pursued by the British Royal Navy. He eluded capture and landed at Alexandria on July 1, 1798. The French launched the Battle of the Pyramids a week after landing but Napoleon's forces were out numbered three to one. He did end up winning the battle and suffered only a loss of three hundred French troops; but his army had killed six thousand Egyptian troops!

Horatio Nelson

Horatio Nelson, the Britsh Admiral, launched an attack on Napoleon's fleet on August 1st, 1799 and destroyed all but two of the French ships. Napoleon's Navy was ruined. His strength in the Medditerean Sea was gone but his army on land had temporarily increased. In his conquest of the coastal towns, this is one battle that will always be remembered. Napoleon had won and had captured one thousand four hundred prisoners. These prisoners were executed either by bayonet or drowning in order to save on bullets. Then even the local men, women and children were killed for next three days.

Napoleon Retreats and Leaves Egypt

The French army had been weakened by disease, (mostly the Bubonic Plauge), so Napoleon ordered a retreat of all of his troops on July 25 1799. He ordered them to have all of the sick and wounded men poisoned and killed so that his army would not be slowed down. On August 24 1799 he left his army in the command of Jean Baptiste Kléber. Napoleon had set sail back to France .
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Here is a brief quote from Pocock's Prologue:

"The news from Egypt was of an assult landing in Aboukir Bay by the whole of the British army's stategic reserve on 8 March, followed two weeks later by a victorious battle outside Alexandria. This broke the French army, which had been led by General Bonaparte into Egypt in the summer of 1798, but then marooned there when the supporting French fleet was destroyed in Aboukir Bay by Lord Nelson. Subsequently Bonaparte had tried to lead his troops back to France overland, by way of Constantinople and Vienna, only to be thwarted by another British naval officer, Captain Sir Sidney Smith, who held the coastal fortess of acre, which the French dare not leave in their rear. Now it was only a matter of time before the remaining French in Egypt surrendered and the threat they presented to the Ottoman Empire and India was elimated."

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skip down two paragraphs --
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"Soon after news of victory in Egypt had reached London word spread that that, too, could have been avoided. A year earlier Captain Sir Sidney Smith, the victor of Acre, had negotiated with General Kléber, who had succeded General Bonaparte on his return to France, and he had offered to withdraw from Egypt without further bloodshed. Through the diplomatic skill of a multilingual liaison officer, Lieutenant John Wesley Wright, an agreement known as the Convention of El Arish -- after the coastal fort where it had been signed -- had provided for the peaceful expulsion of the French from Egypt. But once this became known to Smith's superiors -- notably Nelson and the commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, Admiral Lord Keith -- there was outrage. Only the unconditional surrender of the French was acceptable; the agreement was revoked and the war continued. Yet now, at the cost of many hundreds of British and French lives, the British government was about to agree to the same terms for the return of the French to France."
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and from Chapter 2:

in "the first of several interviews with admirals and politicians there [in the Admiralty] and in Downing Street ... he explained the double military and diplomatic game he had played in the Middle East, pointing out that, had his advice been taken, the British invasion of Egypt at the beginning of the year would have been unnecessary and many lives saved. The Smith brothers' orders had been to expel the French from Egypt and they could have done so far sooner by diplomatic means. Nelson and his superior Lord Keith had believed only in the use of force."

HTH,

Regards, John