_Napoleons campaign: Battles of the Pyramids and of Abukir: Siege of
Acre: Klébers administration: The evacuation of Egypt._
At the close of the eighteenth century Egypts destiny passed into the
hands of the French. Napoleons descent upon Egypt was part of his
vast strategic plan for the overthrow of Great Britain. He first of all
notified the Directory of this design in September, 1797, in a letter
sent from Italy. Late in the same year and during 1798 vast preparations
had been in progress for the invasion of England. Napoleon then visited
all the seaports in the north of France and Holland, and found that a
direct invasion of England was a practical impossibility because the
British held command over the sea. The suggested invasion of Egypt was
now seriously considered. By the conquest of Egypt, it was contended,
England would be cut off from the possession of India, and France,
through Egypt, would dominate the trade to the Orient. From Egypt
Napoleon could gather an army of Orientals and conquer the whole of the
East, including India itself. On his return, England would prove to be
too exhausted to withstand the French army at home and would fall a
prey to the ambitions of the First Consul. The Directory assented to
Bonapartes plans the more readily because they were anxious to keep
so popular a leader, the idol of the army, at a great distance from the
centre of government. While the preparations were in process, no one
in England knew of this undertaking. The French fleet lay in various
squadrons in ports of Italy, from which thirty thousand men were
embarked.
Bonaparte arrived at Toulon on May 9, 1798. His presence rejoiced the
army, which had begun to murmur and to fear that he would not be at the
head of the expedition. It was the old army of Italy, rich and covered
with glory, and hence had much less zeal for making war; it required all
the enthusiasm with which the general inspired his soldiers to induce
them to embark and proceed to an unknown destination. On seeing him at
Toulon, they were inflamed with ardour. Bonaparte, without acquainting
them with their destination, exhorted the soldiers, telling them that
they had great destinies to fulfil, and that the genius of liberty,
which had made the republic from her birth the arbitress of Europe,
decreed that she should be so to the most remote seas and nations.
[Illustration: 083 BEDOUINS IN THE DESERT]
The squadron of Admiral Brueys consisted of thirteen sail of the line,
and carried about forty thousand men of all arms and ten thousand
seamen. It had water for one month and provisions for two. It sailed on
the 19th of May, amid the thunders of the cannons and the cheers of the
whole army. Violent gales did some damage to a frigate on leaving the
port, and Nelson, who was cruising with three sail of the line in search
of the French fleet, suffered so severely from the same gales that he
was obliged to bear up for the islands of St. Pierre to refit. He was
thus kept at a distance from the French fleet, and did not see it pass.
It steered first towards Genoa to join the convoy collected in that
port, under the command of General Baraguay dHilliers. It then sailed
for Corsica, to call for the convoy at Ajaccio commanded by Vaubois, and
afterwards proceeded to the sea of Sicily to join the division of Civita
Vecchia, under the command of Desaix.
Bonapartes intention was to stop at Malta, and there to make by the
way a bold attempt, the success of which he had long since prepared by
secret intrigues. He meant to take possession of that island, which,
commanding the navigation of the Mediterranean, became important to
Egypt and could not fail soon to fall into the hands of the English,
unless they were anticipated.
Bonaparte made great efforts to join the division from Civita Vecchia;
but this he could not accomplish until he was off Malta. The five
hundred French sail came in sight of the island on June 9th, twenty-two
days after leaving Toulon. This sight filled the city of Malta with
consternation. The following day (June 10th) the French troops landed
on the island, and completely invested Valetta, which contained a
population of nearly thirty thousand souls, and was even then one of
the strongest fortresses in Europe. The inhabitants were dismayed and
clamoured for surrender, and the grand master, who possessed little
energy, and recollected the generosity of the conqueror of Rivoli at
Mantua, hoping to save his interest from shipwreck, released one of
the French knights, whom he had thrown into prison when they refused to
fight against their countrymen, and sent him to Bonaparte to negotiate.
A treaty was soon concluded, by which the Knights of Malta gave up to
France the sovereignty of Malta and the dependent islands. Thus France
gained possession of the best harbour in the Mediterranean, and one of
the strongest in the world. It required the ascendency of Bonaparte to
obtain it without fighting; and it necessitated also the risk of losing
some precious days, with the English in pursuit of him.
The French fleet weighed anchor on the 19th of June, after a stay of
ten days. The essential point now was not to fall in with the English.
Nelson, having refitted at the islands of St. Pierre, had returned on
June 1st to Toulon, but the French squadron had been gone twelve days.
He had run from Toulon to the roads of Taglia-mon, and from the roads
of Tagliamon to Naples, where he had arrived on June 20th, at the very
moment when Bonaparte was leaving Malta. Learning that the French had
been seen off Malta, he followed, determined to attack them, if he
could overtake them. At one moment, the English squadron was only a few
leagues distant from the immense French convoy, and neither party was
aware of it. Nelson, supposing that the French were bound for Egypt,
made sail for Alexandria, and arrived there before them; at not finding
them, he flew to the Dardanelles to seek them there. By a singular fate,
it was not till two days afterwards that the French expedition came in
sight of Alexandria, on the 1st of July, which was very nearly six weeks
since it sailed from Toulon. Bonaparte immediately sent on shore for the
French consul. He learned that the English had made their appearance
two days before, and, supposing them to be not far off, he resolved that
very moment to attempt a landing. It was impossible to enter the harbour
of Alexandria, for the place appeared disposed to defend itself;
it became necessary, therefore, to land at some distance on the
neighbouring coast, at an inlet called the Creek of the Marabou. The
wind blew violently and the sea broke with fury over the reefs on the
shore. It was near the close of the day, but Bonaparte gave the signal
and resolved to go on shore immediately. He was the first to disembark,
and, with great difficulty, four or five thousand men were landed in
the course of the evening and the following night. Bonaparte resolved
to march forthwith for Alexandria, in order to surprise the place and
to prevent the Turks from making preparations for defence. The troops
instantly commenced their march. Not a horse was yet landed: the staff
of Bonaparte, and Caffarelli himself, notwithstanding his wooden leg,
had to walk four or five leagues over the sands, and came at daybreak
within sight of Alexandria.
That ancient city no longer possessed its magnificent edifices, its
innumerable houses, and its immense population. Three-fourths of it was
in ruins. The Turks, the wealthy Egyptians, the European merchants dwelt
in the modern town, which was the only part preserved. A few Arabs lived
among the ruins of the ancient city: an old wall, flanked by towers,
enclosed the new and the old town, and all around extended those sands
which in Egypt are sure to advance wherever civilisation recedes. The
four thousand French led by Bonaparte arrived there at daybreak. Upon
this sandy beach they met with Arabs only, who, after firing a few
musket-shots, fled to the desert. Napoleon divided his men into three
columns. Bon, with the first column, marched on the right towards the
Rosetta gate; Kléber, with the second, marched in the centre towards the
gate of the Catacombs.
The Arabs and the Turks, excellent soldiers behind a wall, kept up a
steady fire, but the French mounted with ladders and got over the old
wall. Kléber was the first who fell, seriously wounded on the forehead.
The Arabs were driven from ruin to ruin, as far as the new town, and
the combat seemed likely to be continued from street to street, and
to become sanguinary, when a Turkish captain served as a mediator for
negotiating an arrangement. Bonaparte declared that he had not come to
ravage the country, or to wrest it from its ruler, but merely to deliver
it from the domination of the Mamluks, and to revenge the outrages which
they had committed against France. He promised that the authorities of
the country should be upheld; that the ceremonies of religion should
continue to be performed as before; that property should be respected.
On these conditions, the resistance ceased, and the French were masters
of Alexandria. Meanwhile, the remainder of the army had landed. It
was immediately necessary to decide where to place the squadron
safely--whether in the harbour or in one of the neighbouring roads;--to
form at Alexandria an administration adapted to the manners of the
country; and also to devise a plan of invasion in order to gain
possession of Egypt.
At this period the population of Egypt was, like the towns that covered
it, a mixture of the wrecks of several nations,--Kopts, the survivors of
the ancient inhabitants of the land; Arabs, who conquered Egypt from
the Kopts; and Turks, the conquerors of the Arabs. On the arrival of
the French, the Kopts amounted at most to two hundred thousand:
poor, despised, brutalised, they had devoted themselves, like all the
proscribed classes, to the most ignoble occupations. The Arabs formed
almost the entire mass of the population. Their condition was infinitely
varied: some were of high birth, carrying back their pedigree to
Muhammed himself; and some were landed proprietors, possessing traces
of Arabian knowledge, and combining with nobility the functions of the
priesthood and the magistracy, who, under the title of sheikhs, were the
real aristocracy of Egypt.
[Illustration: 091.jpg THE PROPHET MUHAMMED]
The original of the illustration (upon the opposite page) is
to be seen in a finely illuminated MS. of the ninth century,
A. D., preserved in the India Office, London. The picture is
of peculiar interest, being the only known portrait of
Muhammed, who is evidently represented as receiving the
divine command to propagate Muhammedanism.
In the divans, they represented the country, when its tyrants wished
to address themselves to it; in the mosques, they formed a kind of
university, in which they taught the religion and the morality of the
Koran, and a little philosophy and jurisprudence. The great mosque of
Jemil-Azar constituted the foremost learned and religious body in the
East. Next to these grandees came the smaller landholders, composing the
second and more numerous class of the Arabs; then the great mass of the
inhabitants, who had sunk into the state of absolute helots. These last
were hired peasants or fellahs who cultivated the land, and lived in
abject poverty. There was also a class of Arabs, namely, the Bedouins
or rovers, who would never attach themselves to the soil, but were the
children of the desert. These wandering Arabs, divided into tribes
on both sides of the valley, numbered nearly one hundred and twenty
thousand, and could furnish from twenty to twenty-five thousand horse.
They were brave, but fit only to harass the enemy, not to fight him. The
third and last race was that of the Turks; but it was not more numerous
than the Kopts, amounting to about two hundred thousand souls at most,
and was divided into Turks and Mamluks. The Turks were nearly all
enrolled in the list of janizaries; but it is well known that they
frequently had their names inscribed in those lists, that they might
enjoy the privileges of janizaries, and that a very small number of them
were really in the service. Very few of them composed the military force
of the pasha. This pasha, sent from Constantinople, was the sultans
representative in Egypt; but, escorted by only a few janizaries, he
found his authority invalidated by the very precautions which Sultan
Selim had formerly taken to preserve it. That sultan, judging that
Egypt was likely from its remoteness to throw off the dominion of
Constantinople, and that a clever and ambitious pasha might create there
an independent empire, had, as we have seen, devised a plan to frustrate
such a motive, should it exist, by instituting a Mamluk soldiery; but it
was the Mamluks, and not the pasha, who rendered themselves independent
of Constantinople and the masters of Egypt.
Egypt was at this time an absolute feudality, like that of Europe in
the Middle Ages. It exhibited at once a conquered people, a conquering
soldiery in rebellion against its sovereign, and, lastly, an ancient
degenerate class, who served and were in the pay of the strongest.
Two beys, superior to the rest, ruled Egypt: the one, Ibrahim Bey,
wealthy, crafty, and powerful; the other, Murad Bey, intrepid,
valiant, and full of ardour. They had agreed upon a sort of division
of authority, by which Ibrahim Bey had the civil, and Murad Bey the
military, power. It was the business of the latter to fight; he excelled
in it, and he possessed the affection of the Mam-luks, who were all
eager to follow him.
Bonaparte immediately perceived the line of policy which he had to
pursue in Egypt. He must, in the first place, wrest that country from
its real masters, the Mam-luks; it was necessary for him to fight them,
and to destroy them by arms and by policy. He had, moreover, strong
reasons to urge against them; for they had never ceased to ill-treat the
French. As for the Porte, it was requisite that he should not appear to
attack its sovereignty, but affect, on the contrary, to respect it.
In the state to which it was reduced, that sovereignty was not to be
dreaded, and he could treat with the Porte, either for the cession of
Egypt, by granting certain advantages elsewhere, or for a partition of
authority, in which there would be nothing detrimental; for the French,
in leaving the pasha at Cairo, and transferring to themselves the power
of the Mamluks, would not occasion much regret. As for the inhabitants,
in order to make sure of their attachment, it would be requisite to win
over the Arab population. By respecting the sheikhs, by flattering their
old pride, by increasing their power, by encouraging their secret desire
for the re-establishment of their ancient glories, Bonaparte reckoned
upon ruling the land, and attaching it entirely to him. By afterwards
sparing persons and property, among a people accustomed to consider
conquest as conferring a right to murder, pillage, and devastate, he
would create a sentiment that would be most advantageous to the French
army. If, furthermore, the French were to respect women and the Prophet,
the conquest of hearts would be as firmly secured as that of the soil.
Napoleon conducted himself agreeably to these conclusions, which
were equally just and profound. He immediately made his plans for
establishing the French authority at Alexandria, and for quitting the
Delta and gaining possession of Cairo, the capital of Egypt. It was
the month of July; the Nile was about to inundate the country. He was
anxious to reach Cairo before the inundation, and to employ the time
during which it should last in establishing himself there. He ordered
everything at Alexandria to be left in the same state as formerly; that
the religious exercises should be continued; and that justice should be
administered as before by the cadis. His intention was merely to possess
himself of the rights of the Mamluks, and to appoint a commissioner to
levy the accustomed imposts. He caused a divan, or municipal council,
composed of the sheikhs and principal persons of Alexandria, to be
formed, in order to consult them on all the measures which the French
authority would have to take. He left three thousand men in garrison in
Alexandria, and gave the command of it to Kléber, whose wound was liable
to keep him in a state of inactivity for a month or two. He directed a
young Frenchman of extraordinary merit, and who gave promise of becoming
a great engineer, to put Alexandria in a state of defence, and to
construct there all the necessary works. This was Colonel Cretin,
who, in a short time, and at a small expense, executed superb works at
Alexandria. Bonaparte then ordered the fleet to be put in a place of
security. It was a question whether the large ships could enter the port
of Alexandria. A commission of naval officers was appointed to sound the
harbour and make a report. Meanwhile, the fleet was anchored in the road
of Abukir, and Bonaparte ordered Brueys to see to it that this question
should be speedily decided, and to proceed to Corfu if it should be
ascertained that the ships could not enter the harbour of Alexandria.
After he had attended to all these matters, he made preparations for
marching. A considerable flotilla, laden with provisions, artillery,
ammunition, and baggage, was to run along the coast to the Rosetta
mouth, enter the Nile, and ascend the river at the same time as the
French army. He then set out with the main body of the army, which,
after leaving the two garrisons in Malta and Alexandria, was about
thirty thousand strong. He had ordered his flotilla to proceed as high
as Ramanieh, on the banks of the Nile. There he purposed to join it, and
to proceed up the Nile parallel with it, in order to quit the Delta and
to reach Upper Egypt, or Bahireh. There were two roads from Alexandria
to Ramanieh; one through an inhabited country, along the sea-coast and
the Nile, and the other shorter and as the bird flies, but across the
desert of Damanhour. Bonaparte, without hesitation, chose the shorter.
It was of consequence that he should reach Cairo as speedily as
possible. De-saix marched with the advanced guard, and the main body
followed at a distance of a few leagues. They started on the 6th of
July. When the soldiers found themselves amidst this boundless plain,
with a shifting sand beneath their feet, a scorching sun over their
heads, without water, without shade, with nothing for the eye to rest
upon but rare clumps of palm-trees, seeing no living creatures but small
troops of Arab horsemen, who appeared and disappeared at the horizon,
and sometimes concealed themselves behind sand-hills to murder the
laggards, they were profoundly dejected. They found all the wells, which
at intervals border the road through the desert, destroyed by the Arabs.
There were left only a few drops of brackish water, wholly insufficient
for quenching their thirst.
[Illustration: 097.jpg STREET DOGS]
They had been informed that they should find refreshments at Damanhour,
but they met with nothing there but miserable huts, and could procure
neither bread nor wine; only lentils in great abundance, and a little
water. They were obliged to proceed again into the desert. Bonaparte saw
the brave Lannes and Murat take off their hats, dash them on the sand,
and trample them under foot. He, however, overawed all: his presence
imposed silence, and sometimes restored cheerfulness. The soldiers would
not impute their sufferings to him, but grew angry with those who took
pleasure in observing the country. On seeing the men of science stop to
examine the slightest ruins, they said they should not have been there
but for them, and revenged themselves with witticisms after their
fashion. Caffarelli, in particular, brave as a grenadier, and
inquisitive as a scholar, was considered by them as the man who had
deceived the general and drawn him into this distant country. As he had
lost a leg on the Rhine, they said, He, for his part, laughs at this:
he has one foot in France. At last, after severe hardships, endured at
first with impatience, and afterwards with gaiety and fortitude, they
reached the Nile on the 10th of July, after a march of four days. At
the sight of the Nile and of the water so much longed for, the soldiers
flung themselves into it, and, bathing in its waves, forgot their
fatigues. Desaix division, which from the advance-guard had become the
rear-guard, saw two or three hundred Mamluks galloping before it, whom
they dispersed by a few volleys of grape. These were the first that had
been seen, which warned the French that they would speedily fall in with
the hostile army. The brave Murad Bey, having received the intelligence
of the arrival of Bonaparte, was actually collecting his forces around
Cairo. Until they should have assembled, he was hovering with a thousand
horse about the army, in order to watch its march.
The army waited at Ramanieh for the arrival of the flotilla. It rested
till July 13th, and set out on the same day for Chebreiss. Murad Bey was
waiting there with his Mamluks. The flotilla, which had set out
first and preceded the army, found itself engaged before it could be
supported. Murad Bey had a flotilla also, and from the shore he joined
his fire to that of his light Egyptian vessels. The French flotilla had
to sustain a very severe combat. Perrée, a naval officer who commanded
it, displayed extraordinary courage; he was supported by the cavalry,
who had come dismounted to Egypt, and who, until they could equip
themselves at the expense of the Mamluks, had taken their passage
by water. Two gunboats were retaken from the enemy, and Perrée was
repulsed.
At that moment the army came up; it was composed of five divisions, and
had not yet been in action with its singular enemies. To swiftness and
the charge of horse, and to sabre-cuts, it would be necessary to
oppose the immobility of the foot-soldier, his long bayonet, and masses
presenting a front on every side. Bonaparte formed his five divisions
into five squares, in the centre of which were placed the baggage and
the staff. The artillery was at the angles. The five divisions flanked
one another. Murad Bey flung upon these living citadels a thousand or
twelve hundred intrepid horse; who, bearing down with loud shouts and
at full gallop, discharging their pistols, and then drawing their
formidable sabres, threw themselves upon the front of the squares.
Encountering everywhere a hedge of bayonets and a tremendous fire, they
hovered about the French ranks, Fell before them, or scampered off in
the plain at the utmost speed of their horses. Murad Bey, after losing
a few of his bravest men, retired for the purpose of proceeding to the
point of the Delta, and awaiting them near Cairo at the head of all his
forces.
This action was sufficient to familiarise the army with this new kind of
enemy, and to suggest to Bonaparte the kind of tactics which he ought to
employ with them. He pursued his march towards Cairo, and the flotilla
ascended the Nile abreast of the army. It marched without intermission
during the following days, and, although the soldiers had fresh
hardships to endure, they kept close to the Nile, and could bathe every
night in its waters.
The army now approached Cairo, where the decisive battle was to be
fought. Murad Bey had collected here the greater part of his Mamluks,
nearly ten thousand in number, and they were attended by double the
number of fellahs, to whom arms were given, and who were obliged to
fight behind the intrenchments. He had also assembled some thousands
of janizaries, or spahis, dependent on the pasha, who, notwithstanding
Bonapartes letter of conciliation, had suffered himself to be persuaded
to join his oppressors. Murad Bey had made preparations for defence
on the banks of the Nile. The great capital, Cairo, is situated on the
right bank of the river, and on the opposite bank Murad Bey had pitched
his tent, in a long plain extending from the river to the pyramids of
Gizeh.
On the 21st of July, the French army set itself in motion before
daybreak. As they approached, they saw the minarets of Cairo shooting
up; they saw the pyramids increase in height; they saw the swarming
multitude which guarded Embabeh; they saw the glistening arms of ten
thousand horsemen resplendent with gold and steel, and forming an
immense line.
[Illustration: GATHERING DATES]
The face of Bonaparte beamed with enthusiasm. He began to gallop before
the ranks of the soldiers, and, pointing to the pyramids, he exclaimed,
Consider, that from the summit of those pyramids forty centuries have
their eyes fixed upon you.
In the battle of the Pyramids, as it was called, the enemys force
of sixty thousand men was almost completely annihilated. The Mamluks,
bewildered by European tactics, impaled themselves upon the bayonets
of the French squares. Fifteen thousand men of all arms fell upon the
field. The battle had cost the French scarcely a hundred killed and
wounded; for, if defeat is terrible for broken squares, the loss is
insignificant for victorious squares. The Mamluks had lost their
best horsemen by fire or water: their forces were dispersed, and the
possession of Cairo secured. The capital was in extraordinary agitation.
It contained more than three hundred thousand inhabitants, many of whom
were indulging in all sorts of excesses, and intending to profit by the
tumult to pillage the rich palaces of the beys.
The French flotilla, however, had not yet ascended the Nile, and there
was no means of crossing to take possession of Cairo. Some French
traders who happened to be there were sent to Bonaparte by the sheikhs
to arrange concerning the occupation of the city. He procured a few
light boats, or djerms, and sent across the river a detachment of
troops, which at once restored tranquillity, and secured persons and
property from the fury of the populace.
Bonaparte established his headquarters at Gizeh, on the banks of the
Nile, where Murad Bey had an imposing residence. A considerable store
of provisions was found both at Gizeh and at Embabeh, and the soldiers
could make amends for their long privations. No sooner had he settled
in Cairo than he hastened to pursue the same policy which he had already
adopted at Alexandria, and by which he hoped to gain the country.
The essential point was to obtain from the sheikhs of the mosque of
Jemil-Azar a declaration in favour of the French. It corresponded to
a papal bull among Christians. On this occasion Bonaparte exerted his
utmost address, and was completely successful. The great sheikhs issued
the desired declaration, and exhorted the Egyptians to submit to the
envoy of God, who reverenced the Prophet, and who had come to deliver
his children from the tyranny of the Mamluks. Bonaparte established a
divan at Cairo, as he had done at Alexandria, composed of the principal
sheikhs, and the most distinguished inhabitants. This divan, or
municipal council, was intended to serve him in gaining the minds of the
Egyptians, by consulting it, and learning from it all the details of the
internal administration. It was agreed that similar assemblies should
be established in all the provinces, and that these subordinate divans
should send deputies to the divan of Cairo, which would thus be the
great national divan.
Bonaparte resolved to leave the administration of justice to the cadis.
In execution of his scheme of succeeding to the rights of the Mamluks,
he seized their property, and caused the taxes previously imposed to
continue to be levied for the benefit of the French army. For this
purpose it was requisite that he should have the Kopts at his disposal.
He omitted nothing to attach them to him, holding out hopes to them of
an amelioration of their condition. He sent generals with detachments
down the Nile to complete the occupation of the Delta, which the army
had merely traversed, and sent others towards the Upper Nile, to take
possession of Middle Egypt. Desaix was placed with a division at the
entrance of Upper Egypt, which he was to conquer from Murad Bey, as
soon as the waters of the Nile should subside in the autumn. Each of
the generals, furnished with detailed instructions, was to repeat in
the country what had been done at Alexandria and at Cairo. They were to
court the sheikhs, to win the Kopts, and to establish the levy of the
taxes in order to supply the wants of the army. Bonaparte was also
attentive to keep up the relations with the neighbouring countries,
in order to uphold and to appropriate to himself the rich commerce of
Egypt. He appointed the Emir Hadgi, an officer annually chosen at Cairo,
to protect the great caravan from Mecca. He wrote to all the French
consuls on the coast of Barbary to inform the beys that the Emir Hadgi
was appointed, and that the caravans might set out. At his desire the
sheikhs wrote to the sherif of Mecca, to acquaint him that the pilgrims
would be protected, and that the caravans would find safety and
protection. The pasha of Cairo had followed Ibraham Bey to Belbeys.
Bonaparte wrote to him, as well as to the several pashas of St. Jean
dAcre and Damascus, to assure them of the good disposition of the
French towards the Sublime Porte. The Arabs were struck by the character
of the young conqueror. They could not comprehend how it was that the
mortal who wielded the thunderbolt should be so merciful. They called
him the worthy son of the Prophet, the favourite of the great Allah, and
sang in the great mosque a litany in his praise.
Napoleon, in carrying out his policy of conciliating the natives, was
present at the Nile festival, which is one of the greatest in Egypt.
It was on the 18th of August that this festival was held. Bonaparte
had ordered the whole army to be under arms, and had drawn it up on the
banks of the canal. An immense concourse of people had assembled, who
beheld with joy the brave man of the West attending their festivals.
It was by such means that the young general, as profound a politician as
he was a great captain, contrived to ingratiate himself with the people.
While he flattered their prejudices for the moment, he laboured
to diffuse among them the light of science by the creation of the
celebrated Institute of Egypt. He collected the men of science and the
artists whom he had brought with him, and, associating with them some of
the best educated of his officers, established the institute, to which
he appropriated a revenue and one of the most spacious palaces in Cairo.
The conquest of the provinces of Lower and Middle Egypt had been
effected without difficulty, and had cost only a few skirmishes with the
Arabs. A forced march upon Belbeys had been sufficient to drive Ibrahim
Bey into Syria, where Desaix awaited the autumn for wresting Upper Egypt
from Murad Bey, who had retired thither with the wrecks of his army.
Fortune was, meanwhile, preparing for Bonaparte the most terrible of all
reverses. On leaving Alexandria, he had earnestly recommended to Admiral
Brueys to secure his squadron from the English, either by taking it into
the harbour of Alexandria, or by proceeding with it to Corfu; and he had
particularly enjoined him not to leave it in the road of Abukir, for it
was much better to fall in with an enemy when under sail than to receive
him at anchor. A warm discussion had arisen on the question whether
the ships of 80 and 120 guns could be carried into the harbour of
Alexandria. As to the smaller ships, there was no doubt; but the larger
would require lightening so much as to enable them to draw three feet
less water. For this purpose it would be necessary to take out their
guns, or to construct floats. On such conditions, Admiral Brueys
resolved not to take his squadron into the harbour. The time which he
spent, either in sounding the channels to the harbour, or in waiting for
news from Cairo, caused his own destruction.
Admiral Brueys was moored in the road of Abukir. This road is a very
regular semicircle, and his thirteen ships formed a line parallel to
the shore, and so disposed that he believed no British ship could pass
between him and the shore, if an attack were made.
Nelson, after visiting the Archipelago, and returning to the Adriatic,
Naples, and Sicily, had at length obtained the certain knowledge of
the landing of the French at Alexandria. He immediately steered in that
direction in order to seek and put to flight their squadron. He sent a
frigate to look out for it, and to reconnoitre its position. The English
frigate, having made her observations, rejoined Nelson, who, being
informed of all the particulars, immediately stood in for Abukir, and
arrived there August 1, 1798, at about six oclock in the evening.
Admiral Brueys was at dinner. He immediately ordered the signal for
battle to be given; but so unprepared was the squadron to receive the
enemy, that the hammocks were not stowed away on board any of the ships,
and part of the crews were on shore. The admiral despatched officers to
send the seamen on board, and to demand part of those who were in the
transports. He had no conception that Nelson would dare to attack him
the same evening, and conceived that he should have time to receive the
reinforcements for which he had applied.
Nelson resolved to attack immediately, and to push in between the French
ships and the shore at all hazards. Before this time to-morrow said
he, I shall have gained a peerage or Westminster Abbey.
The number of vessels was equal on both sides, namely, thirteen ships
of war. The engagement lasted upwards of fifteen hours. All the crews
performed prodigies of valour. The brave Captain Du Petit-Thouars had
two of his limbs shot off. He ordered snuff to be brought him,
and remained on his quarter-deck, and, like Brueys, waited till a
cannon-ball despatched him. The entire French squadron, excepting the
two ships and two frigates carried off by Villeneuve, was destroyed.
Nelson had suffered so severely that he could not pursue the fugitives.
Such was the famous battle of Abukir, the most disastrous that
the French had ever sustained, and involved the most far-reaching
consequences. The fleet which had carried the French to Egypt, which
might have served to succour or to recruit them, which was to
second their movements on the coast of Syria,--had there been any to
execute,--which was to overawe the Porte, to force it to put up with
false reasoning, and to oblige it to wink at the invasion of Egypt,
which finally, in case of reverses, was to convey the French back to
their country,--that fleet was destroyed. The French ships were burned.
The news of this disaster spread rapidly in Egypt, and for a moment
filled the army with despair. Bonaparte received the tidings with
imperturbable composure. Well, he said, we must die in this country,
or get out of it as great as the ancients. He wrote to Kléber: This
will oblige us to do greater things than we intended. We must hold
ourselves in readiness. The great soul of Kléber was worthy of
this language: Yes, replied Kléber, we must do great things. I am
preparing my faculties. The courage of these men supported the army,
and restored its confidence.
Bonaparte strove to divert the thoughts of the soldiers by various
expeditions, and soon made them forget this disaster. On the festival of
the foundation of the republic, he endeavoured to give a new stimulus to
their imagination; he engraved on Pompeys Pillar the names of the first
forty soldiers slain in Egypt. They were the forty who had fallen in
the attack on Alexandria; and the names of these men, sprung from the
villages of France, were thus associated with the immortality of Pompey
and Alexander.
Bonaparte, after the battle of the Pyramids, found himself master of
Egypt. He began to establish himself there, and sent his generals into
the provinces to complete their conquest. Desaix, placed at the entrance
of Upper Egypt with a division of about three thousand men, was directed
to reduce the remnants of Murad Beys force in that province. It was in
the preceding year (October, 1798), at the moment when the inundation
was over, that Desaix had commenced his expedition. The enemy had
retired before him, and did not wait for him till he reached Sediman;
there, on October 7th, Desaix fought a sanguinary battle with the
desperate remainder of Murad Beys forces. Two thousand French had to
combat with four thousand Mamluks and eight thousand fellahs, intrenched
in the village of Sediman. The battle was conducted in the same manner
as that of the Pyramids, and like all those fought in Egypt. The fellahs
were behind the walls of the village, and the horse in the plain. The
field of battle was thickly strewn with slain. The French lost three
hundred men. Desaix continued his march during the whole winter, and,
after a series of actions, reduced Upper Egypt as far as the cataracts.
He made himself equally feared for his bravery and beloved for his
clemency. In Cairo, Bonaparte had been named Sultan Kebir, the Fire
Sultan. In Upper Egypt, Desaix was called the Just Sultan.
Bonaparte had meanwhile marched to Belbeys, to drive Ibrahim Bey into
Syria, and he had collected by the way the wrecks of the caravan of
Mecca, plundered by the Arabs. Returning to Cairo, he continued to
establish there an entirely French administration. Thus passed the
winter between 1798 and 1799 in the expectation of important events.
During this interval, Bonaparte received intelligence of the declaration
of war by the Porte, and of the preparations which it was making against
him with the aid of the English. Two armies were being formed, one at
Rhodes, the other in Syria. These two armies were to act simultaneously
in the spring of 1799, the one by landing at Abukir near Alexandria, the
other by crossing the desert which separates Syria from Egypt. Bonaparte
was instantly aware of his position, and determined, as was his custom,
to disconcert the enemy and to forestall any offensive movement by a
sudden attack. He could not cross the desert which parts Egypt from
Syria in summer, and he resolved to avail himself of the winter for
destroying the assemblages of troops forming at Acre, at Damascus,
and in the principal towns. Djezzar, the celebrated pasha of Acre, was
appointed seraskier of the army collected in Syria. Abd Allah Pasha of
Damascus commanded its advanced-guard, and had proceeded as far as the
fort of El Arish, which is the key to Egypt on the side next to Syria.
Bonaparte resolved to act immediately. He was in communication with the
tribes of the Lebanon. The Druses, Christian tribes, the Mutualis, and
schismatic Muhammedans offered him assistance, and ardently wished for
his coming. By a sudden assault on Jaffa, Acre, and some other badly
fortified places, he might in a short time gain possession of Syria,
add this fine conquest to that of Egypt, make himself master of
the Euphrates, as he was of the Nile, and thus command all the
communications with India.
[Illustration: 112.jpg A FOUNTAIN AT CAIRO]
Bonaparte commenced his march very early in February at the head of
Klébers, Régniers, Lanness, Bons, and Murats divisions, about
thirteen thousand strong. He arrived before the fort El Arish on
February 15th, and, after a slight resistance, the garrison surrendered
themselves prisoners, to the number of thirteen hundred men. Ibrahim
Bey, having attempted to relieve it, was put to flight, and, after a
severe march across the desert, they reached Gaza. They took that place
in the sight of Djezzar Pasha, and found there, as in the fort of El
Arish, a great quantity of ammunition and provisions. From Gaza the army
proceeded to Jaffa (the ancient Joppa), where it arrived on March 3rd.
This place was surrounded by a massive wall, flanked by towers, and it
contained a garrison of four thousand men. Bonaparte caused a breach
to be battered in the wall, and then summoned the commandant, who only
answered by cutting off the head of the messenger. The assault was made,
and the place stormed with extraordinary intrepidity, and given up
for thirty hours to pillage and massacre. Here, too, was found a
considerable quantity of artillery and supplies of all kinds. There
were some thousands of prisoners, whom the general could not despatch to
Egypt, because he had not the ordinary means for escorting them, and he
would not send them back to the enemy to swell their ranks. Bonaparte
decided on a terrible measure, the most cruel act of his life.
Transported into a barbarous country, he had adopted its manners, and he
ordered all the prisoners to be put to death. The army consummated with
obedience, but with a sort of horror, the execution that was commanded.
Bonaparte then advanced upon St. Jean dAcre, the ancient Ptolemais,
situated at the foot of Mount Carmel. It was the only place that could
now stop him. If he could make himself master of this fortress, Syria
would be his. But the ferocious Djezzar had shut himself up there, with
all his wealth and a strong garrison, and he also reckoned upon support
from Sir Sidney Smith, then cruising off that coast, who supplied him
with engineers, artillerymen, and ammunition. It was probable, moreover,
that he would be soon relieved by the Turkish army collected in Syria,
which was advancing from Damascus to cross the Jordan. Bonaparte
hastened to attack the place, in hopes of taking it, as he had done
Jaffa, before it was reinforced with fresh troops, and before the
English had time to improve its defences. The trenches were immediately
opened. The siege artillery sent by sea from Alexandria had been
intercepted by Sir Sidney Smith, who captured seven vessels out of the
nine. A breach was effected, and dispositions were made for the assault,
but the men were stopped by a counterscarp and a ditch. They immediately
set about mining. The operation was carried on under the fire of all
the ramparts, and of the fine artillery which Sir Sidney Smith had taken
from the French. The mine was exploded on April 17th, and blew up only
a portion of the counterscarp. Unluckily for the French, the place had
received a reinforcement of several thousand men, a great number of
gunners trained after the European fashion, and immense supplies. It was
a siege on a large scale to be carried on with thirteen thousand men,
almost entirely destitute of artillery. It was necessary to open a new
mine to blow up the entire counterscarp, and to commence another covered
way.
Bonaparte now ordered Klébers division to oppose the passage of the
Jordan by the army coming from Damascus. The enemy was commanded by Abd
Allah Pasha of Damascus, and numbered about twenty-five thousand men
and twelve thousand horse. A desperate battle was fought in the plain of
Fouli, and for six hours Kléber, with scarcely three thousand infantry
in square, resisted the utmost fury of the Turkish cavalry. Bonaparte,
who had been making a rapid march to join Kléber, suddenly made his
appearance on the field of battle. A tremendous fire, discharged
instantaneously from the three points of this triangle, assailed the
Mamluks who were in the midst, drove them in confusion upon one another,
and made them flee in disorder in all directions. Klébers division,
fired with fresh ardour at this sight, rushed upon the village of Eouli,
stormed it at the point of the bayonet, and made a great carnage among
the enemy. In a moment the whole multitude was gone, and the plain was
left covered with dead. During this interval the besiegers had never
ceased mining and countermining about the walls of St. Jean dAcre. The
siege of Acre lasted for sixty-five days. Bonaparte made eight desperate
but ineffectual assaults upon the city, which were repulsed by eleven
furious sallies on the part of the besieged garrison. It was absolutely
necessary to relinquish the enterprise. The strategic point in the East
was lost.
[Illustration: 116b.jpg Cairo--Eskibieh Quarter]
For two months the army had been before Acre; it had sustained
considerable losses, and it would have been imprudent to expose it to
more. The plague was in Acre, and the army had caught the contagion at
Jaffa. The season for landing troops approached, and the arrival of a
Turkish army near the mouths of the Nile was expected. By persisting
longer, Bonaparte was liable to weaken himself to such a degree as
not to be able to repulse new enemies. The main point of his plan was
effected, since he had rendered the enemy in that quarter incapable of
acting. He now commenced his march to recross the desert.
Bonaparte at length reached Egypt after an expedition of nearly
three months. It was high time for him to return; for the spirit
of insurrection had spread throughout the whole Delta. His presence
produced everywhere submission and tranquillity. He gave orders for
magnificent festivities at Cairo to celebrate his triumphs in Syria. He
had to curb not only the inhabitants, but his own generals and the army
itself. A deep discontent pervaded it. They had been for a whole year
in Egypt. It was now the month of June, and they were still ignorant of
what was passing in Europe, and of the disasters of France. They
merely knew that the Continent was in confusion, and that a new war was
inevitable. Bonaparte impatiently waited for further particulars, that
he might decide what course to pursue, and return, in case of need, to
the first theatre of his exploits. But he hoped first to destroy the
second Turkish army assembled at Rhodes, the very speedy landing of
which was announced.
This army, put on board numerous transports and escorted by Sir Sidney
Smiths squadron, appeared on July 11th in sight of Alexandria, and
came to anchor in the road of Abukir, where the French squadron had been
destroyed. The point chosen by the English for landing was the peninsula
which commands the entrance to the road, and bears the same name. The
Turks landed with great boldness, attacked the intrenchments sword
in hand, carried them, and made themselves masters of the village of
Abukir, putting to death the garrison. The village being taken, it was
impossible for the fort to hold out, and it was obliged to surrender.
Marmont, who commanded at Alexandria, left the city at the head of
twelve hundred men to hasten to the assistance of the troops at Abukir.
But, learning that the Turks had landed in considerable numbers, he did
not dare to attempt to throw them into the sea by a bold attack, and
returned to Alexandria, leaving them to establish themselves quietly in
the peninsula of Abukir.
[Illustration: 119.jpg CAIRO FROM THE LEFT BANK OF THE NILE]
The Turks amounted to nearly eighteen thousand infantry. They had no
cavalry, for they had not brought more than three hundred horses, but
they expected the arrival of Murad Bey, who was to leave Upper Egypt,
skirt the desert, cross the oases, and throw himself into Abukir with
two or three thousand Mamluks.
When Bonaparte was informed of the particulars of the landing, he
immediately left Cairo, and made from that city to Alexandria one of
those extraordinary marches of which he had given so many examples in
Italy. He took with him the divisions of Lannes, Bon, and Murat. He had
ordered Desaix to evacuate Upper Egypt, and Kleber and Régnier, who were
in the Delta, to approach Abukir. He had chosen the point of Birket,
midway between Alexandria and Abukir, at which to concentrate his
forces, and to manouvre according to circumstances. He was afraid that
an English army had landed with the Turks. The next day, the 7th, he was
at the entrance of the peninsula.
Bonaparte made his dispositions with his usual promptitude and decision.
He ordered General D Estaing, with some battalions, to march to the
hill on the left, where the one thousand Turks were posted; Lannes to
march to that on the right, where the two thousand others were; and
Murat, who was at the centre, to make the cavalry file on the rear of
the two hills. DEstaing marched to the hill on the left and boldly
ascended it: Murat caused it to be turned by a squadron. The Turks, at
sight of this, quitted their post, and fell in with the cavalry, which
cut them to pieces, and drove them into the sea, into which they chose
rather to throw themselves than to surrender. Precisely the same thing
was done on the right. Lannes attacked the two thousand janizaries;
Murat turned them, cut them in pieces, and drove them into the sea.
DEstaing and Lannes then moved towards the centre, formed by a village,
and attacked it in front. The Turks there defended themselves bravely,
reckoning upon assistance from the second line. A column did in fact
advance from the camp of Abukir; but Murat, who had already filed upon
the rear of the village, fell sword in hand upon this column, and drove
it back into Abukir. DEstaings infantry and that of Lannes entered the
village at the charge step, driving the Turks out of it, who were pushed
in all directions, and who, obstinately refusing to surrender, had no
retreat but the sea, in which they were drowned.
From four to five thousand had already perished in this manner.
The first line was carried: Bonapartes object was accomplished. He
immediately followed up his success with desperate fighting to complete
his victory on the moment. The Turks, affrighted, fled on all sides, and
a horrible carnage was made among them. They were pursued at the point
of the bayonet and thrust into the sea. More than twelve thousand
corpses were floating in the bay of Abukir, and two or three thousand
more had perished by the fire or by the sword. The rest, shut up in the
fort, had no rescue but the clemency of the conqueror. Such was that
extraordinary battle in which a hostile army was entirely destroyed.
Thus, either by the expedition to Syria, or by the battle of Abukir,
Egypt was delivered, at least for a time, from the forces of the Porte.
Having arrived in the summer before the inundation, Bonaparte had
employed the first moments in gaining possession of Alexandria and the
capital, which he had secured by the battle of the Pyramids. In the
autumn, after the inundation, he had completed the conquest of the
Delta, and consigned that of Upper Egypt to Desaix. In the winter he had
undertaken the expedition to Syria, and destroyed Djezzars Turkish army
at Mount Tabor. He had now, in the second summer, just destroyed the
second army of the Porte at Abukir. The time had thus been well spent;
and, while Victory was forsaking in Europe the banners of France, she
adhered to them in Africa and Asia. The tricolour waved triumphant over
the Nile and the Jordan, and over the places which were the cradle of
the Christian religion.
Bonaparte was as yet ignorant of what was passing in France. None of the
despatches from the Directory or from his brothers had reached him,
and he was a prey to the keenest anxiety. With a view to obtaining some
intelligence, he ordered brigs to cruise about, to stop all merchantmen,
and to gain from them information of the occurrences in Europe. He
sent to the Turkish fleet a flag of truce, which, under the pretext of
negotiating an exchange of prisoners, was for the purpose of obtaining
news. Sir Sidney Smith stopped this messenger, treated him exceedingly
well, and, perceiving that Bonaparte was ignorant of the disasters of
France, took a spiteful pleasure in sending him a packet of newspapers.
The messenger returned and delivered the packet to Bonaparte. The latter
spent the whole night in devouring the contents of those papers,
and informing himself of what was passing in his own country. His
determination was immediately taken, and he resolved to embark secretly
for Europe, and on August 22nd, taking with him Berthier, Lannes, Murât,
Andréossy, Marmont, Berthollet, and Monge, and escorted by some of his
guides, he proceeded to a retired spot on the beach, where boats were
awaiting them. They got into them and went on board the frigates, _La
Muiron_ and _La Carrère_. They set sail immediately, that by daylight
they might be out of sight of the English cruisers. Unfortunately
it fell calm; fearful of being surprised, some were for returning to
Alexandria, but Bonaparte resolved to proceed. Be quiet, said he, we
shall pass in safety. Like Cæsar, he reckoned upon his fortune. Menou,
who alone had been initiated into the secret, made known in Alexandria
the departure of General Bonaparte, and the appointment which he had
made of General Kléber to succeed him. This intelligence caused a
painful surprise throughout the army. The most opprobrious epithets
were applied to this departure. They did not consider that irresistible
impulse of patriotism and ambition, which, on the news of the disasters
of the republic, had urged him to return to France. They perceived only
the forlorn state in which he had left the unfortunate army, which had
felt sufficient confidence in his genius to follow him.
Kléber was not fond of General Bonaparte, and endured his ascendency
with a sort of impatience, and now he was sorry that he had quitted the
banks of the Rhine for the banks of the Nile. The chief command did
not counterbalance the necessity of remaining in Egypt, for he took no
pleasure in commanding.
[Illustration: 124.jpg STATUE OF GENERAL KLEBER AT STRASBURG]
Kléber, however, was the most popular of the generals among the
soldiery. His name was hailed by them with entire confidence, and
somewhat cheered them for the loss of the illustrious commander who had
just left them. He returned to Cairo, assumed the command with a sort of
ostentation, and took possession of the fine Arabian mansion which his
predecessor had occupied in the Ezbekieh Place. But it was not long
before the solicitudes of the chief command, which were insupportable
to him, the new dangers with which the Turks and the English threatened
Egypt, and the grief of exile, which was general, filled his soul with
the most gloomy discouragement.
Kléber, together with Poussielgue, the administrator of the army, at
once prepared and addressed despatches to the Directory, placing the
condition of the troops, the finances, and the number of the enemy in
the most melancholy light. These despatches fell into the hands of the
English, and the duplicate reports found their way into the hands of
Bonaparte himself. Bonaparte had left instructions with Kléber to meet
every possible contingency during his absence, even to the necessity of
an evacuation of Egypt. I am going to France, said he, either as a
private man or as a public man; I will get reinforcement sent to you.
But if by next spring (he was writing in August, 1799) you have received
no supplies, no instructions; if the plague has carried off more than
fifteen hundred men, independently of losses by war; if a considerable
force, which you should be incapable of resisting, presses you hard,
negotiate with the vizier: consent even, if it must be so, to an
evacuation; subject to one condition, that of referring to the French
government; and meanwhile continue to occupy. You will thus have gained
time, and it is impossible that, during the interval, you should not
have received succour.
The instructions were very sound; but the case foreseen was far from
being realised at the time when Kléber determined to negotiate for the
evacuation of Egypt. Murad Bey, disheartened, was a fugitive in Upper
Egypt with a few Mamluks. Ibrahim Bey, who, under the government of
the Mamluks, shared the sovereignty with him, was then in Lower Egypt
towards the frontier of Syria.. He had four hundred horse. Djezzar
Pasha was shut up in St. Jean dAcre, and, so far from preparing a
reinforcement of men for the army of the grand vizier, he viewed, on the
contrary, with high displeasure, the approach of a fresh Turkish army,
now that his pashalik was delivered from the French. As for the grand
vizier, he was not yet across the Taurus. The English had their troops
at Mahon, and were not at this moment aggressive. At Klébers side was
General Menou, who viewed everything under the most favourable colours,
and believed the French to be invincible in Egypt, and regarded the
expedition as the commencement of a near and momentous revolution in the
commerce of the world. Kléber and Menou were both honest, upright men;
but one wanted to leave Egypt, the other to stay in it; the clearest and
most authentic returns conveyed to them totally contrary significations;
misery and ruin to one, abundance and success to the other.
In September, 1799, Desaix, having completed the conquest and
subjugation of Upper Egypt, had left two movable columns for the pursuit
of Murad Bey, to whom he had offered peace on condition of his becoming
a vassal of France. He then returned to Cairo by the order of Kléber,
who wished to make use of his name in those negotiations into which
he was about to enter. During these proceedings, the army of the grand
vizier, so long announced, was slowly advancing. Sir Sidney Smith, who
convoyed with his squadron the Turkish troops destined to be transported
by sea, had just arrived off Dami-etta with eight thousand janizaries,
and on the first of November, 1799, the landing of the first division
of four thousand janizaries was effected. At the first tidings of this
disembarkation, Kléber had despatched Desaix with a column of three
thousand men; but the latter, uselessly sent to Damietta, had found the
victory won,--the Turkish division having been completely destroyed by
General Verdier,--and the French filled with unbounded confidence.
This brilliant achievement ought to have served to encourage Kléber;
unfortunately, he was swayed at once by his own lack of confidence and
that of the army. In this disposition of mind, Kléber had sent one
of his officers to the vizier (who had entered Syria), to make new
overtures of peace. General Bonaparte, with a view to embroiling the
vizier with the English, had previously entertained the idea of setting
on foot negotiations, which, on his part, were nothing more than a
feint. His overtures had been received with great distrust and pride.
Kléber s advances met with a favourable reception, through the
influence of Sir Sidney Smith, who was preparing to play a prominent
part in the affairs of Egypt. This officer had largely contributed to
prevent the success of the siege of St. Jean dAcre; he was proud of it,
and had devised a _ruse de guerre_ by taking advantage of a momentary
weakness to wrest from the French their valuable conquest. With this
view, he had disposed the grand vizier to listen to the overtures
of Kléber. Kléber, on his part, despatched Desaix and Poussielgue as
negotiators to Sir Sidney Smith; for, since the English were masters of
the sea, he wished to induce them to take part in the negotiation,
so that the return to France might be rendered possible. Sir Sidney
manifested a disposition to enter into arrangements, acting as Minister
Plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty, and attributing to himself
a power which he had ceased to hold since the arrival of Lord Elgin
as ambassador at Constantinople. Poussielgue was an advocate for
evacuation; Desaix just the reverse. The conditions proposed by Kléber
were unreasonable: not that they were an exorbitant equivalent for what
was given up in giving up Egypt, but because they were not feasible.
Sir Sidney made Kléber sensible of this. Officers treating for a mere
suspension of arms could not include topics of vast extent in their
negotiation, such as the demand for the possession of the Venetian
Islands, and the annulment of the Triple Alliance. But it was urgently
necessary to settle two points immediately: the departure of the wounded
and of the scientific men attached to the expedition, for whom Desaix
solicited safe-conduct; and secondly, a suspension of arms, for the army
of the grand vizier, though marching slowly, would soon be in presence
of the French. It had actually arrived before the fort of El Arish,
the first French post on the frontiers of Syria, and had summoned it to
surrender. The negotiations, in fact, had been going on for a fortnight
on board _Le Tigre_, while floating at the pleasure of the winds off the
coasts of Syria and Egypt: the parties had said all they had to say, and
the negotiations could not be continued to any useful purpose without
the concurrence of the grand vizier. Sir Sidney, availing himself of a
favourable moment, pushed off in a boat which landed him on the coast,
after incurring some danger, and ordered the captain of _Le Tigre_ to
meet him in the port of Jaffa, where Poussielgue and Desaix were to be
put ashore, if the conferences were to be transferred to the camp of the
grand vizier.
At the moment when the English commodore reached the camp, a horrible
event had occurred at El Arish. The grand vizier had collected around
him an army of seventy or eighty thousand fanatic Mussulmans. The
Turks were joined by the Mamluks. Ibrahim Bey, who had some time before
retired to Syria, and Murad Bey, who had descended by a long circuit
from the cataracts to the environs of Suez, had become the auxiliaries
of their former adversaries. The English had made for this army a sort
of field-artillery, drawn by mules. The fort of El Arish, before which
the Turks were at this moment, was, according to the declaration of
General Bonaparte, one of the two keys of Egypt; Alexandria was the
other.
The Turkish advanced-guard having reached El Arish, Colonel Douglas,
an English officer in the service of Turkey, summoned Cazals, the
commandant, to surrender. The culpable sentiments which the officers had
too much encouraged in the army then burst forth. The soldiers in the
garrison at El Arish, vehemently longing, like their comrades, to leave
Egypt, declared to the commandant that they would not fight, and that he
must make up his mind to surrender the fort.
[Illustration: 130.jpg A MODERN FANATIC]
The gallant Cazals indignantly refused, and a struggle with the
Turks ensued. During this contest, the recreants, who insisted on
surrendering, threw ropes to the Turks; these ferocious enemies, once
hoisted up into the fort, rushed, sword in hand, upon those who had
given them admission into the fort, and slaughtered a great number
of them. The others, brought back to reason, joined the rest of the
garrison, and, defending themselves with desperate courage, were most of
them killed. A small number obtained quarter, thanks to that humane and
distinguished officer, Colonel Douglas.
It was now the 30th of December: the letter written by Sir Sidney Smith
to the grand vizier, to propose to him a suspension of arms, had not
reached him in time to prevent the melancholy catastrophe at El Arish.
Sir Sidney Smith was a man of generous feelings: this barbarous massacre
of a French garrison horrified him, and, above all, it made him
fearful of the rupture of the negotiations. He lost no time in sending
explanations to Kléber, both in his own name and that of the grand
vizier, and he added the formal assurance that all hostility should
cease during the negotiations.
Kléber, when informed of the massacre of El Arish, did not manifest as
much indignation as he ought to have done; he was aware that, if he was
too warm upon that subject, all the negotiations might be broken off.
He was more urgent than ever for a suspension of arms; and, at the
same time, by way of precaution, and to be nearer to the theatre of
the conferences, he left Cairo, and transferred his headquarters to
Salahieh, on the very border of the desert, two days march from El
Arish.
In the meantime, Desaix and Poussielgue, detained by contrary winds,
had not been able to land at Gaza till the 11th, and to reach El Arish
before the 13th.
The evacuation and its conditions soon became the sole subject of
negotiation. After long discussions it was agreed that all hostility
should cease for three months; that those three months should be
employed by the vizier in collecting, in the ports of Rosetta, Abukir,
and Alexandria, the vessels requisite for the conveyance of the French
army; by General Kléber, in evacuating the Upper Nile, Cairo, and the
contiguous provinces, and in concentrating his troops about the point of
embarkation; that the French should depart with the honours of war;
that they should cease to impose contributions; but that, in return,
the French army should receive three thousand purses, equivalent at that
time to three million francs, and representing the sum necessary for its
subsistence during the evacuation and the passage. The forts of Katieh,
Salahieh, and the Belbeys, forming the frontier of Egypt towards the
desert of Syria, were to be given up ten days after the ratification;
Cairo forty days after.
The terms of the convention being arranged, there was nothing more to
be done but sign it. Kléber, who had a vague feeling of his fault,
determined, in order to cover it, to assemble a council of war, to which
all the generals of the army were summoned. The council met on the 21st
of January, 1800. The minutes of it still exist. Desaix, although deeply
grieved, was swept along by the torrent of popular opinion, gave way
to it himself, and affixed his signature on the 28th of January to the
convention of El Arish.
Meanwhile preparations were being made for departure; Sir Sidney Smith
had returned to his ship. The vizier advanced and took possession,
consecutively, of the entrenched positions of Katieh, Salahieh, and
Belbeys, which Kléber, in haste to execute the convention, faithfully
delivered up to him. Kléber returned to Cairo to make his preparations
for departure, to call in the troops that were guarding Upper Egypt, to
concentrate his army, and then to direct it upon Alexandria and Rosetta
at the time stipulated for embarkation.
While these events were occurring in Egypt, the English cabinet had
received advice of the overtures made by General Kléber to the grand
vizier and to Sir Sidney Smith. Believing that the French army was
reduced to the last extremity, it lost no time in sending off an express
order not to grant any capitulation unless they surrendered themselves
prisoners of war. These orders, despatched from London on the 17th of
December, reached Admiral Keith in the island of Minorca in the first
days of January, 1800; and, on the 8th of the same month, the admiral
hastened to forward to Sir Sidney Smith the instructions which he had
just received from the government. He lost no time in writing to Kléber,
to express his mortification, to apprise him honestly of what was
passing, to advise him to suspend immediately the delivery of the
Egyptian fortresses to the grand vizier, and to conjure him to wait
for fresh orders from England before he took any definite resolutions.
Unfortunately, when these advices from Sir Sidney arrived at Cairo, the
French army had already executed in part the treaty of El Arish.
Kléber instantly countermanded all the orders previously given to the
army. He brought back from Lower Egypt to Cairo part of the troops that
had already descended the Nile; he ordered his stores to be sent up
again; he urged the division of Upper Egypt to make haste to rejoin him,
and gave notice to the grand vizier to suspend his march towards Cairo,
otherwise he should immediately commence hostilities. The grand vizier
replied that the convention of El Arish was signed; that it must be
executed; that, in consequence, he should advance towards the capital.
At the same instant, an officer sent from Minorca with a letter from
Lord Keith to Kléber, arrived at the headquarters. Kléber, fired with
indignation at the demand for surrender, caused Lord Keiths letter
to be inserted in the order of the day, adding to it these few words:
Soldiers, to such insults there is no other answer than victory.
Prepare for action.
Agents from Sir Sidney had hastened up to interpose between the French
and the Turks, and to make fresh proposals of accommodation. Letters,
they said, had just been written to London, and, when the convention of
El Arish was known there, it would be ratified to a certainty; in this
situation, it would not be right to suspend hostilities, and wait. To
this the grand vizier and Kléber consented, but on conditions that were
irreconcilable. The grand vizier insisted that Cairo should be given up
to him; Kléber, on the contrary, that the vizier should fall back to the
frontier. Under these conditions, fighting was the only resource.
On the 20th of March, 1800, in the plain of Heliopolis, ten thousand
soldiers, by superiority in discipline and courage, dispersed seventy
or eighty thousand foes. Kléber gave orders for the pursuit on the
following day. When he had ascertained with his own eyes that the
Turkish army had disappeared, he resolved to return and reduce the towns
of Lower Egypt, and Cairo in particular, to their duty.
He arrived at Cairo on the 27th of March. Important events had occurred
there since his departure. The population of that great city, which
numbered nearly three hundred thousand inhabitants, fickle, inflammable,
inclined to change, had followed the suggestions of Turkish emissaries,
and fallen upon the French the moment they heard the cannon at
Heliopolis. Pouring forth outside the walls during the battle, and
seeing Nassif-Pasha and Ibrahim Bey, with some thousand horse and
janizaries, they supposed them to be the conquerors. Taking good care
not to undeceive the inhabitants, the Turks affirmed that the grand
vizier had gained a complete victory, and that the French were
exterminated. At these tidings, fifty thousand men had risen in Cairo,
at Bulak, and at Gizeh, and Cairo became a scene of plunder, rapine, and
murder.
[Illustration: 137.jpg CITADEL OF CAIRO]
During these transactions, General Friant arrived, detached from
Belbeys, and lastly Kléber himself. Though conqueror of the grand
viziers army, Kléber had a serious difficulty to surmount to subdue an
immense city, peopled by three hundred thousand inhabitants, partly in
a state of revolt, occupied by twenty thousand Turks, and built in the
Oriental style; that is to say, having narrow streets, divided into
piles of masonry, which were real fortresses. These edifices, receiving
light from within, and exhibiting without nothing but lofty walls, had
terraces instead of roofs, from which the insurgents poured a downward
and destructive fire. Add to this that the Turks were masters of the
whole city, excepting the citadel and the square of Ezbekieh, which,
in a manner, they had blockaded by closing the streets that ran into it
with embattled walls.
In this situation, Kléber showed as much prudence as he had just
shown energy in the field. He resolved to gain time, and to let the
insurrection wear itself out. The insurgents could not fail at length
to be undeceived respecting the general state of things in Egypt, and to
learn that the French were everywhere victorious, and the viziers army
dispersed. Nassif-Pashas Turks, Ibrahim Beys Mamluks, and the Arab
population of Cairo could not agree together long. For all these
reasons, Kléber thought it advisable to temporise and to negotiate.
While he was gaining time, he completed his treaty of alliance with
Murad Bey. He granted to him the province of Said, under the supremacy
of France, on condition of paying a tribute equivalent to a considerable
part of the imposts of that province. Murad Bey engaged, moreover, to
fight for the French; and the French engaged, if they should ever quit
the country, to facilitate for him the occupation of Egypt. Murad Bey
faithfully adhered to the treaty which he had just signed, and began
by driving from Upper Egypt a Turkish corps which had occupied it. The
insurgents of Cairo obstinately refused to capitulate, and an attack by
main force was, therefore, indispensable for completing the reduction of
the city, during which several thousand Turks, Mamluks, and insurgents
were killed, and four thousand houses were destroyed by fire. Thus
terminated that sanguinary struggle, which had commenced with the battle
of Heliopolis on the 20th of March, and which ended on the 25th of
April with the departure of the last lieutenants of the vizier, after
thirty-five days fighting between twenty thousand French on one side,
and, on the other, the whole force of the Ottoman empire, seconded by
the revolt of the Egyptian towns.
In the Delta all the towns had returned to a state of complete
submission. Murad Bey had driven from Upper Egypt the Turkish detachment
of Dervish Pasha. The vanquished everywhere trembled before the
conqueror, and expected a terrible chastisement. Kléber, who was humane
and wise, took good care not to repay cruelties with cruelties. The
Egyptians were persuaded that they should be treated harshly; they
conceived that the loss of life and property would atone for the crime
of those who had risen in revolt. Kléber called them together, assumed
at first a stern look, but afterwards pardoned them, merely imposing a
contribution on the insurgent villages. Cairo paid ten million francs,
a burden far from onerous for so large a city, and the inhabitants
considered themselves as most fortunate to get off so easily. Eight
millions more were imposed upon the rebel towns of Lower Egypt. The
army, proud of its victories, confident in its strength, knowing that
General Bonaparte was at the head of the government, ceased to doubt
that it would soon receive reinforcements. Kléber had in the plain of
Heliopolis made the noblest amends for his momentary faults.
He entered upon a second conquest, showing clemency and humanity on
all sides, and everywhere he laboured hard to encourage the arts and
industries and agriculture. He assembled the administrators of the army,
the persons best acquainted with the country, and turned his attention
to the organisation of the finances of the colony. He restored the
collection of the direct contributions to the Kopts, to whom it had
formerly been entrusted, and imposed some new customs duties and taxes
on articles of consumption. He gave orders for the completion of the
forts constructing around Cairo, and set men to work at those of Lesbeh,
Damietta, Burlos, and Rosetta, situated on the sea-coast. He pressed
forward the works of Alexandria, and imparted fresh activity to the
scientific researches of the Institute of Egypt, and a valuable mass of
information was embodied in the great French work, the Description
de lEgypte. From the cataracts to the mouths of the Nile, everything
assumed the aspect of a solid and durable establishment. Two months
afterwards, the caravans of Syria, Arabia, and Darfur began to appear
again at Cairo.
But a deplorable event snatched away General Kléber in the midst of his
exploits and of his judicious government. He was assassinated in the
garden of his palace by a young man, a native of Aleppo, named Suleiman,
who was a prey to extravagant fanaticism.
With Klébers death, Egypt was lost for France. Menou, who succeeded
him, was very far beneath such a task. The English offered to make good
the convention of El Arish, but Menou refused, and England prepared for
an invasion, after attempting vainly to co-operate with the Turks.
Sir Ralph Abercrombie, who had been appointed as British commissioner,
landed with the English army alone at Abukir. After fierce skirmishing,
the French and English met on the plains of Alexandria. In the frightful
conflict which ensued, Sir Ralph Abercrombie was slain, but the battle
ended with the retreat of the French. Damietta surrendered on April
19th. The French were now divided, while Menou hesitated. General
Hutchinson took the place of the deceased British commander. A great
battle was fought at Cairo, which was won by the British, and the
capital itself now fell into their hands. General Hutchinson then
closed in upon Alexandria; and, after hard fighting, Menou at length
surrendered. The French troops were allowed to return to France with all
their belongings, except the artillery, August 27, 1801.