On the 6th of May, 1799, Buonaparte summoned the commandant of the
garrison of Jaffa to surrender, who replied to the demand by very
unceremoniously decapitating the messenger who carried the summons. The
French commenced the attack on the city, and soon became masters of it;
they put the garrison to the sword, and abandoned the city to pillage by
the soldiers. This horrible scene lasted for six and thirty hours; and
to the disgrace of the French be it said, they massacred their prisoners
without mercy.
“This conduct on the part of the French,” says one of their own
historians, “conquerors so generous in Egypt, no motive to vengeance
could justify, but it became no less calamitous to them than it was to
their victims. The plague, that terrible scourge of the East, began its
ravages among the French soldiery the very day after the taking of
Jaffa.”
The frightful cry, “It is the plague!” spread itself amongst the
soldiers, and struck terror into the hearts of the most courageous.
On his return to Jaffa, on the 24th of May, Buonaparte repaired to the
hospital, where there were many of the soldiers, some of them wounded,
some afflicted with ophthalmia, uttering most pitiable cries. The
painter has attempted to convey an idea of this scene, and represents
Buonaparte as touching a patient under the blight of the plague.
[Illustration: THE PLAGUE OF JAFFA.]
“YOU ARE THE GREATEST OF MEN.”
Buonaparte reached Alexandria on the evening of the 24th of July, 1799,
where he found his army already posted in the neighborhood of Aboukir,
and prepared to attack the Turks on the morrow.
Surveying their entrenched camp from the heights above with Murat, he
said, “Go how it may, the battle of tomorrow will decide the fate of the
world.” “Of this army, at least,” answered Murat; “but the Turks have no
cavalry, and, if ever infantry were charged by horse, they shall be so
by mine.”
On the 25th the attack was commenced by the French, and resisted for
some time by the Turks with success. Murat, at length, was able to
charge their main body in flank, when the troops became panic-stricken,
and the battle was changed into a massacre; and numerous Turks, to
escape the swords of the French, precipitated themselves into the sea,
where they were nearly all drowned. This eventful day crowned the labors
of Buonaparte in Egypt with glory and honor; and after the victory,
Kleber, in a transport of admiration, pressed Napoleon in his arms,
saying, “General! you are the greatest of men!”
[Illustration: “YOU ARE THE GREATEST OF MEN”.]