_FRENCH FLEET--Conflicting Statements of Buonaparte and Admiral
Gantheaume--BATTLE OF ABOUKIR on 1st August, 1798--The French
Admiral, Brueyes, killed, and his Ship, L'Orient, blown up--The
Victory complete--Effects of this disaster--Means by which
Napoleon proposed to establish himself in Egypt--His
Administration, in many respects, praiseworthy--in others, his
Conduct absurd--He aspires to be regarded an Envoy of the
Deity--His endeavours to propitiate the Porte--The Fort of El
Arish falls into his hands--Massacre of Jaffa--Admitted by
Buonaparte himself--His Arguments in its defence--Replies to
them--General Conclusions--Plague in the French Army--Napoleon's
Humanity and Courage upon this occasion--Proceeds against Acre
to attack Djezzar Pacha--Sir Sidney Smith--His
Character--Captures a French Convoy, and throws himself into
Acre--French arrive before Acre on 17th March, 1799, and effect
a breach on the 28th, but are driven back--Assaulted by an Army
of Moslems assembled without the Walls of Acre, whom they defeat
and disperse--Personal Misunderstanding and Hostility betwixt
Napoleon and Sir Sidney Smith--Explained--Buonaparte is finally
compelled to raise the Siege._
[Sidenote: FRENCH FLEET.]
When Buonaparte and his army were safely landed in Egypt, policy seemed
to demand that the naval squadron, by which they had been escorted,
should have been sent back to France as soon as possible. The French
leader accordingly repeatedly asserts, that he had positively commanded
Admiral Brueyes, an excellent officer, for whom he himself entertained
particular respect,[385] either to carry his squadron of men-of-war into
the harbour of Alexandria, or, that being found impossible, instantly to
set sail for Corfu. The harbour, by report of the Turkish pilots, was
greatly too shallow to admit without danger vessels of such a deep
draught of water; and it scarce can be questioned that Admiral Brueyes
would have embraced the alternative of setting sail for Corfu, had such
been in reality permitted by his orders. But the assertion of Buonaparte
is pointedly contradicted by the report of Vice-Admiral Gantheaume, who
was himself in the battle of Aboukir, escaped from the slaughter with
difficulty, and was intrusted by Buonaparte with drawing up the account
of the disaster, which he transmitted to the minister of war. "Perhaps
it may be said," so the despatch bears, "that it would have been
advisable to have quitted the coast as soon as the disembarkation had
taken place. But, _considering the orders of the commander-in-chief_,
and the incalculable force afforded to the land-army by the presence of
the squadron, the admiral thought it was his duty not to quit these
seas."[386]
Looking at the matter more closely--considering the probability of
Nelson's return, and the consequent danger of the fleet--considering,
too, the especial interest which naval and military officers attach each
to their peculiar service, and the relative disregard with which they
contemplate the other, we can see several reasons why Buonaparte might
have wished, even at some risk, to detain the fleet on the coast of
Egypt, but not one which could induce Brueyes to continue there, not
only without the consent of the commander-in-chief, but, as Napoleon
afterwards alleged, against his express orders. It is one of the cases
in which no degree of liberality can enable us to receive the testimony
of Buonaparte, contradicted at once by circumstances, and by the
positive testimony of Gantheaume.
We now approach one of the most brilliant actions of the English navy,
achieved by the admiral whose exploits so indisputably asserted the
right of Britain to the dominion of the ocean. Our limits require that
we should state but briefly a tale, at which every heart in our islands
will long glow; and we are the more willingly concise that our readers
possess it at length in one of the best written popular histories in the
English language.[387]
[Sidenote: BATTLE OF ABOUKIR.]
Although unable to enter the harbour of Alexandria, the French admiral
believed his squadron safely moored in the celebrated bay of Aboukir.
They formed a compact line of battle, of a semicircular form, anchored
so close to the shoal-water and surf, that it was thought impossible to
get between them and the land; and they concluded, therefore, that they
could be brought to action on the starboard side only. On the 1st
August, the British fleet appeared; and Nelson had no sooner
reconnoitred the French position, than he resolved to force it at every
risk. Where the French ships could ride, he argued with instantaneous
decision, there must be room for English vessels to anchor between them
and the shore. He made signal for the attack accordingly. As the vessels
approached the French anchorage, they received a heavy and raking fire,
to which they could make no return; but they kept their bows to the
enemy, and continued to near their line. The squadrons were nearly of
the same numerical strength. The French had thirteen ships of the line,
and four frigates. The English, thirteen ships of the line, and one
fifty-gun ship. But the French had three eighty-gun ships, and L'Orient,
a superb vessel of one hundred and twenty guns. All the British were
seventy-fours. The van of the English fleet, six in number, rounded
successively the French line, and dropping anchor betwixt them and the
shore, opened a tremendous fire. Nelson himself, and his other vessels,
ranged along the same French ships on the outer side, and thus placed
them betwixt two fires; while the rest of the French line remained for a
time unable to take a share in the combat. The battle commenced with the
utmost fury, and lasted till, the sun having set and the night fallen,
there was no light by which the combat could be continued, save the
flashes of the continuous broadsides. Already, however, some of the
French vessels were taken, and the victors, advancing onwards, assailed
those which had not yet been engaged.
Meantime, a broad and dreadful light was thrown on the scene of action,
by the breaking out of a conflagration on board the French admiral's
flag-ship, L'Orient. Brueyes himself had by this time fallen by a
cannon-shot.[388] The flames soon mastered the immense vessel, where
the carnage was so terrible as to prevent all attempts to extinguish
them; and the L'Orient remained blazing like a volcano in the middle of
the combat, rendering for a time the dreadful spectacle visible.
At length, and while the battle continued as furious as ever, the
burning vessel blew up with so tremendous an explosion, that for a while
it silenced the fire on both sides, and made an awful pause in the midst
of what had been but lately so horrible a tumult.[389] The cannonade was
at first slowly and partially resumed, but ere midnight it raged with
all its original fury. In the morning, the only two French ships who had
their colours flying, cut their cables and put to sea, accompanied by
two frigates; being all that remained undestroyed and uncaptured, of the
gallant navy that so lately escorted Buonaparte and his fortunes in
triumph across the Mediterranean.
Such was the Victory of Aboukir, for which he who achieved it felt that
word was inadequate. He called it a conquest. The advantages of the day,
great as they were, might have been pushed much farther, if Nelson had
been possessed of frigates and small craft. The store-ships and
transports in the harbour of Alexandria would then have been infallibly
destroyed. As it was, the results were of the utmost importance, and the
destinies of the French army were altered in proportion. They had no
longer any means of communicating with the mother-country, but became
the inhabitants of an insulated province, obliged to rely exclusively on
the resources which they had brought with them, joined to those which
Egypt might afford.
Buonaparte, however surprised by this reverse, exhibited great
equanimity. Three thousand French seamen, the remainder of nearly six
thousand engaged in that dreadful battle, were sent ashore by cartel,
and formed a valuable addition to his forces. Nelson, more grieved
almost at being frustrated of his complete purpose, than rejoiced at his
victory, left the coast after establishing a blockade on the port of
Alexandria.
We are now to trace the means by which Napoleon proposed to establish
and consolidate his government in Egypt; and in these we can recognise
much that was good and excellent, mixed with such irregularity of
imagination, as vindicates the term of Jupiter Scapin, by which the Abbé
de Pradt distinguished this extraordinary man.[390]
[Sidenote: ADMINISTRATION IN EGYPT.]
His first care was to gather up the reins of government, such as they
were, which had dropt from the hands of the defeated beys. With two
classes of the Egyptian nation it was easy to establish his authority.
The Fellahs, or peasantry, sure to be squeezed to the last penny by one
party or other, willingly submitted to the invaders as the strongest,
and the most able to protect them. The Cophts, or men of business, were
equally ready to serve the party which was in possession of the country.
So that the French became the masters of both, as a natural consequence
of the power which they had obtained.
But the Turks were to be attached to the conqueror by other means, since
their haughty national character, and the intolerance of the Mahometan
religion rendered them alike inaccessible to profit, the hope of which
swayed the Cophts, and to fear, which was the prevailing argument with
the Fellahs. To gratify their vanity, and soothe their prejudices,
seemed the only mode by which Napoleon could insinuate himself into the
favour of this part of the population. With this view, Buonaparte was
far from assuming a title of conquest in Egypt, though he left few of
its rights unexercised. On the contrary, he wisely continued to admit
the pacha to that ostensible share of authority which was yielded to him
by the beys, and spoke with as much seeming respect of the Sublime
Porte, as if it had been his intention ever again to permit their having
any effective power in Egypt. Their imaums, or priests; their ulemats,
or men of law; their cadis, or judges; their sheiks, or chiefs; their
Janissaries, or privileged soldiers, were all treated by Napoleon with a
certain degree of attention, and the Sultan Kebir, as they called him,
affected to govern, like the Grand Signior, by the intervention of a
divan.
This general council consisted of about forty sheiks, or Moslems of
distinction by birth or office, who held their regular meetings at
Cairo, and from which body emanated the authority of provincial divans,
established in the various departments of Egypt. Napoleon affected to
consult the superior council, and act in many cases according to their
report of the law of the Prophet. On one occasion, he gave them a moral
lesson which it would be great injustice to suppress. A tribe of roving
Arabs had slain a peasant, and Buonaparte had given directions to search
out and punish the murderers. One of his Oriental counsellors laughed at
the zeal which the general manifested on so slight a cause.
"What have you to do with the death of this Fellah, Sultan Kebir?" said
he, ironically; "was he your kinsman?"
"He was more," said Napoleon; "he was one for whose safety I am
accountable to God, who placed him under my government."
"He speaks like an inspired person!" exclaimed the sheiks; who can
admire the beauty of a just sentiment, though incapable, from the scope
they allow their passions, to act up to the precepts of moral rectitude.
Thus far the conduct of Buonaparte was admirable. He protected the
people who were placed under his power, he respected their religious
opinions, he administered justice to them according to their own laws,
until they should be supplied with a better system of legislation.
Unquestionably, his good administration did not amend the radical
deficiency of his title; it was still chargeable against him, that he
had invaded the dominions of the most ancient ally of France, at a time
when there was the most profound peace between the countries. Yet in
delivering Egypt from the tyrannical sway of the Mamelukes, and
administering the government of the country with wisdom and comparative
humanity, the mode in which he used the power which he had acquired,
might be admitted in some measure to atone for his usurpation. Not
contented with directing his soldiers to hold in respect the religious
observances of the country, he showed equal justice and policy in
collecting and protecting the scattered remains of the great caravan of
the Mecca pilgrimage, which had been plundered by the Mamelukes on their
retreat. So satisfactory was his conduct to the Moslem divines, that he
contrived to obtain from the clergy of the Mosque an opinion, declaring
that it was lawful to pay tribute to the French, though such a doctrine
is diametrically inconsistent with the Koran. Thus far Napoleon's
measures had proved rational and successful. But with this laudable
course of conduct was mixed a species of artifice, which, while we are
compelled to term it impious, has in it, at the same time, something
ludicrous, and almost childish.
Buonaparte entertained the strange idea of persuading the Moslems that
he himself pertained in some sort to their religion, being an envoy of
the Deity, sent on earth, not to take away, but to confirm and complete,
the doctrines of the Koran, and the mission of Mahomet.[391] He used, in
executing this purpose, the inflated language of the East, the more
easily that it corresponded, in its allegorical and amplified style,
with his own natural tone of composition; and he hesitated not to join
in the external ceremonial of the Mahometan religion, that his actions
might seem to confirm his words. The French general celebrated the feast
of the prophet as it recurred, with some sheik of eminence, and joined
in the litanies and worship enjoined by the Koran. He affected, too, the
language of an inspired follower of the faith of Mecca, of which the
following is a curious example.
On entering the sepulchral chamber in the pyramid of Cheops, "Glory be
to Allah," said Buonaparte, "There is no God but God, and Mahomet is his
prophet." A confession of faith which is in itself a declaration of
Islamism.
"Thou hast spoken like the most learned of the prophets," said the
mufti, who accompanied him.
"I can command a car of fire to descend from heaven," continued the
French general, "and I can guide and direct its course upon earth."
"Thou art the great chief to whom Mahomet gives power and victory," said
the mufti.
Napoleon closed the conversation with this not very pertinent Oriental
proverb, "The bread which the wicked seizes upon by force, shall be
turned to dust in his mouth."[392]
Though the mufti played his part in the above scene with becoming
gravity, Buonaparte over-estimated his own theatrical powers, and did
too little justice to the shrewdness of the Turks, if he supposed them
really edified by his pretended proselytism. With them as with us, a
renegade from the religious faith in which he was brought up, is like a
deserter from the standard of his country; and though the services of
either may be accepted and used, they remain objects of disregard and
contempt, as well with those to whose service they have deserted, as
with the party whom they have abandoned.
[Sidenote: INSURRECTION IN CAIRO.]
The Turks and Arabs of Cairo soon afterwards showed Buonaparte, by a
general and unexpected insurrection, [October 22,] in which many
Frenchmen were slain, how little they were moved by his pretended
attachment to their faith, and how cordially they considered him as
their enemy. Yet, when the insurgents had been quelled by force, and the
blood of five thousand Moslems had atoned for that of three hundred
Frenchmen, Napoleon, in an address to the inhabitants of Cairo,
new-modelling the general council or divan, held still the same language
as before of himself and his destinies. "Sheriffs," he said, "Ulemats,
Orators of the Mosque, teach the people that those who become my enemies
shall have no refuge in this world or the next. Is there any one not
blind enough to see, that I am the agent of Destiny, or incredulous
enough to call in question the power of Destiny over human affairs? Make
the people understand, that since the world was a world, it was
ordained, that having destroyed the enemies of Islamism, and broken down
the Cross,[393] I should come from the West to accomplish the task
designed for me--show them, that in more than twenty passages of the
Koran my coming is foretold. I could demand a reckoning from each of you
for the most secret thoughts of his soul, since to me everything is
known; but the day will come when all shall know from whom I have my
commission, and that human efforts cannot prevail against me."
It is plain from this strange proclamation, that Buonaparte was willing
to be worshipped as a superior being, as soon as altars could be built,
and worshippers collected together. But the Turks and Arabs were wiser
than the Persians in the case of young Ammon. The Sheik of Alexandria,
who affected much devotion to Buonaparte's person, came roundly to the
point with him. He remarked the French observed no religious worship.
"Why not, therefore," he said, "declare yourself Moslem at once, and
remove the only obstacle betwixt you and the throne of the East?"
Buonaparte objected the prohibition of wine, and the external rite which
Mahomet adopted from the Jewish religion. The officious sheik proposed
to call a council of the Moslem sages, and procure for the new
proselytes some relaxation of these fundamental laws of the Prophet's
faith. According to this hopeful plan, the Moslems must have ceased to
be such in two principal articles of their ritual, in order to induce
the French to become a kind of imperfect renegades, rejecting, in the
prohibition of wine, the only peculiar guard which Mahomet assigned to
the moral virtue of his follower's, while they embraced the degrading
doctrine of fatality, the licentious practice of polygamy, and the
absurd chimeras of the Koran.
Napoleon appears to have believed the sheik serious, which is very
doubtful, and to have contemplated with eager ambition the extent of
views which his conversion to Islamism appeared to open. His own belief
in predestination recommended the creed of Mahomet, and for the Prophet
of Mecca himself he had a high respect, as one of those who had wrought
a great and enduring change on the face of the world.[394] Perhaps he
envied the power which Mahomet possessed, of ruling over men's souls as
well as their bodies, and might thence have been led into the idea of
playing a part, to which time and circumstances, the character of his
army and his own, were alike opposed. No man ever succeeded in imposing
himself on the public as a supernatural personage, who was not, to a
certain degree, the dupe of his own imposture; and Napoleon's
calculating and reflecting mind was totally devoid of the enthusiasm
which enables a man to cheat himself into at least a partial belief of
the deceit which he would impose on others. The French soldiers, on the
other hand, bred in scorn of religion of every description, would have
seen nothing but ridicule in the pretensions of their leader to a
supernatural mission; and in playing the character which Alexander
ventured to personate, Buonaparte would have found in his own army many
a Clitus, who would have considered his pretensions as being only
ludicrous. He himself, indeed, expressed himself satisfied that his
authority over his soldiers was so absolute, that it would have cost but
giving it out in the order of the day to have made them all become
Mahometans; but, at the same time, he has acquainted us, that the French
troops were at times so much discontented with their condition in Egypt,
that they formed schemes of seizing on their standards, and returning to
France by force. What reply, it may be reasonably asked, were they
likely to make to a proposal, which would have deprived them of their
European and French character, and levelled them with Africans and
Asiatics, whose persons they despised, and whose country they desired to
leave? It is likely, that reflections on the probable consequences
prevented his going farther than the vague pretensions which he
announced in his proclamations, and in his language to the sheiks. He
had gone far enough, however, to show, that the considerations of
conscience would have been no hinderance; and that, notwithstanding the
strength of his understanding, common sense had less influence than
might have been expected, in checking his assertion of claims so
ludicrous as well as so profane. Indeed, his disputes with the Ottoman
Porte speedily assumed a character, which his taking the turban and
professing himself a Moslem in all the forms, could not have altered to
his advantage.
[Sidenote: OTTOMAN PORTE.]
It had been promised to Buonaparte, that the abilities of Talleyrand, as
minister of foreign affairs, should be employed to reconcile the Grand
Signior and his counsellors to the occupation of Egypt.[395] But the
efforts of that able negotiator had totally failed in a case so
evidently hopeless; and if Talleyrand had even proceeded to
Constantinople, as Napoleon alleged the Directory had promised, it could
only have been to be confined in the Seven Towers. The Porte had long
since declared, that any attack upon Egypt, the road to the holy cities
of Mecca and Medina, would be considered as a declaration of war,
whatever pretexts might be alleged. They regarded, therefore,
Buonaparte's invasion as an injury equally unprovoked and unjustifiable.
They declared war against France, called upon every follower of the
Prophet to take the part of his vicegerent upon earth, collected forces,
and threatened an immediate expedition, for the purpose of expelling the
infidels from Egypt. The success of the British at Aboukir increased
their confidence. Nelson was loaded with every mark of honour which the
Sultan could bestow, and the most active preparations were made to act
against Buonaparte, equally considered as enemy to the Porte, whether he
professed himself Christian, infidel, or renegade.
Meantime, that adventurous and active chief was busied in augmenting his
means of defence or conquest, and in acquiring the information necessary
to protect what he had gained, and to extend his dominions. For the
former purpose, corps were raised from among the Egyptians, and some
were mounted upon dromedaries, the better to encounter the perils of the
desert. For the latter, Buonaparte undertook a journey to the Isthmus of
Suez, the well-known interval which connects Asia with Africa. He
subscribed the charter, or protection, granted to the Maronite Monks of
Sinai, with the greater pleasure, that the signature of Mahomet had
already sanctioned that ancient document. He visited the celebrated
fountains of Moses, and, misled by a guide, had nearly been drowned in
the advancing tides of the Red Sea.[396] This, he observes, would have
furnished a splendid text to all the preachers in Europe.[397] But the
same Deity, who had rendered the gulf fatal to Pharaoh, had reserved for
one, who equally defied and disowned his power, the rocks of an island
in the midst of the Atlantic.
[Sidenote: Feb. 17.]
When Napoleon was engaged in this expedition, or speedily on his return,
he learned that two Turkish armies had assembled, one at Rhodes, and the
other in Syria, with the purpose of recovering Egypt. The daring genius,
which always desired to anticipate the attempts of the enemy, determined
him to march with a strong force for the occupation of Syria, and thus
at once to alarm the Turks by the progress which he expected to make in
that province, and to avoid being attacked in Egypt by two Turkish
armies at the same time. His commencement was as successful as his
enterprise was daring. A body of Mamelukes was dispersed by a night
attack. The fort of El Arish, considered as one of the keys of Egypt,
fell easily into his hands. Finally, at the head of about ten thousand
men, he traversed the desert, so famous in biblical history, which
separates Africa from Asia, and entered Palestine without much loss, but
not without experiencing the privations to which the wanderers in those
sandy wastes have been uniformly subjected. While the soldiers looked
with fear on the howling wilderness which they saw around,[398] there
was something in the extent and loneliness of the scene that
corresponded with the swelling soul of Napoleon, and accommodated itself
to his ideas of immense and boundless space. He was pleased with the
flattery, which derived his Christian name from two Greek words,
signifying the Lion of the Desert.
[Sidenote: MASSACRE OF JAFFA.]
Upon his entering the Holy Land, Buonaparte again drove before him a
body of the Mamelukes, belonging to those who, after the battles of the
Pyramids and of Salahieh, had retreated into Syria; and his army
occupied without resistance Gaza, anciently a city of the Philistines,
in which they found supplies of provisions. Jaffa, a celebrated city
during the time of the Crusades, was the next object of attack. It was
bravely assaulted, and fiercely defended. But the French valour and
discipline prevailed--the place was carried by storm--three thousand
Turks were put to the sword, and the town was abandoned to the license
of the soldiery, which, by Buonaparte's own admission, never assumed a
shape more frightful.[399] Such, it may be said, is the stern rule of
war; and if so, most of our readers will acquiesce in the natural
exclamation of the Maréchal de Montluc, "Certes, we soldiers stand in
more need of the Divine mercy than other men, seeing that our profession
compels us to command and to witness deeds of such cruelty." It was not,
however, to the ordinary horrors attending the storm of a town, that the
charge against Buonaparte is on this occasion limited. He is accused of
having been guilty of an action of great injustice, as well as of
especial barbarity. Concerning this we shall endeavour to state,
stripped of colouring and exaggeration, first the charge, and then the
reply, of Napoleon himself.
After the breach had been stormed, a large part of the garrison,
estimated by Buonaparte himself at twelve hundred men, which Miot[400]
raises to betwixt two and three thousand, and others exaggerate still
more, remained on the defensive, and held out in the mosques, and a sort
of citadel to which they had retreated, till, at length, despairing of
succour, they surrendered their arms, and were in appearance admitted to
quarter. Of this body, the Egyptians were carefully separated from the
Turks, Maugrabins, and Arnaouts; and while the first were restored to
liberty, and sent back to their country, these last were placed under a
strong guard. Provisions were distributed to them, and they were
permitted to go by detachments in quest of water. According to all
appearance they were considered and treated as prisoners of war. This
was on the 7th of March. On the 9th, two days afterwards, this body of
prisoners were marched out of Jaffa, in the centre of a large square
battalion, commanded by General Bon. Miot assures us, that he himself
mounted his horse, accompanied the melancholy column, and witnessed the
event. The Turks foresaw their fate, but used neither entreaties nor
complaints to avert it. They marched on, silent and composed. Some of
them, of higher rank, seemed to exhort the others to submit, like
servants of the Prophet, to the decree, which, according to their
belief, was written on their forehead. They were escorted to the
sand-hills to the south east of Jaffa, divided there into small bodies,
and put to death by musketry. The execution lasted a considerable time,
and the wounded, as in the _fusillades_ of the Revolution, were
despatched with the bayonet. Their bodies were heaped together, and
formed a pyramid which is still visible, consisting now of human bones
as originally of bloody corpses.
The cruelty of this execution occasioned the fact itself to be doubted,
though coming with strong evidence, and never denied by the French
themselves. Napoleon, however, frankly admitted the truth of the
statement both to Lord Ebrington and to Dr. O'Meara.[401] Well might the
author of this cruelty write to the Directory, that the storming of
Jaffa was marked by horrors which he had never elsewhere witnessed.
Buonaparte's defence was, that the massacre was justified by the laws of
war--that the head of his messenger had been cut off by the governor of
Jaffa, when sent to summon him to surrender--that these Turks were a
part of the garrison of El Arish, who had engaged not to serve against
the French, and were found immediately afterwards defending Jaffa, in
breach of the terms of their capitulation. They had incurred the doom of
death, therefore, by the rules of war--Wellington, he said, would have,
in his place, acted in the same manner.
To this plea the following obvious answers apply. If the Turkish
governor had behaved like a barbarian, for which his country, and the
religion which Napoleon meditated to embrace, might be some excuse, the
French general had avenged himself by the storm and plunder of the town,
with which his revenge ought, in all reason, to have been satisfied. If
some of these unhappy Turks had broken their faith to Buonaparte, and
were found again in the ranks which they had sworn to abandon, it could
not, according to the most severe construction of the rules of war,
authorise the dreadful retaliation of indiscriminate massacre upon a
multitude of prisoners, without inquiring whether they had been all
equally guilty. Lastly, and admitting them all to stand in the same
degree of criminality, although their breach of faith might have
entitled Buonaparte to refuse these men quarter while they had arms in
their hands, that right was ended when the French general received their
submission, and when they had given up the mean of defence, on condition
of safety for life at least.[402]
This bloody deed must always remain a deep stain on the character of
Napoleon. Yet we do not view it as the indulgence of an innate love of
cruelty; for nothing in Buonaparte's history shows the existence of that
vice, and there are many things which intimate his disposition to have
been naturally humane. But he was ambitious, aimed at immense and
gigantic undertakings, and easily learned to overlook the waste of human
life, which the execution of his projects necessarily involved. He seems
to have argued, not on the character of the action, but solely on the
effect which it was to produce upon his own combinations. His army was
small; it was his business to strike terror into his numerous enemies,
and the measure to be adopted seemed capable of making a deep
impression on all who should hear of it. Besides, these men, if
dismissed, would immediately rejoin his enemies. He had experienced
their courage, and to disarm them would have been almost an unavailing
precaution, where their national weapon, the sabre, was so easily
attained. To detain them prisoners would have required a stronger force
than Napoleon could afford, would have added difficulty and delay to the
movement of his troops, and tended to exhaust his supplies. That sort of
necessity, therefore, which men fancy to themselves when they are
unwilling to forego a favourite object for the sake of obeying a moral
precept--that necessity which might be more properly termed a temptation
difficult to be resisted--that necessity which has been called the
tyrant's plea, was the cause of the massacre at Jaffa, and must remain
its sole apology.
It might almost seem that Heaven set its vindictive brand upon this deed
of butchery; for about the time it was committed the plague broke out in
the army. Buonaparte, with a moral courage deserving as much praise as
his late cruelty deserved reprobation, went into the hospitals in
person, and while exposing himself, without hesitation, to the
infection, diminished the terror of the disease in the opinion of the
soldiers generally, and even of the patients themselves, who were thus
enabled to keep up their spirits, and gained by doing so the fairest
chance of recovery.[403]
[Sidenote: SAINT JEAN D'ACRE]
Meanwhile, determined to prosecute the conquest of Syria, Buonaparte
resolved to advance to Saint Jean d'Acre so celebrated in the wars of
Palestine. The Turkish Pacha, or governor of Syria, who, like others in
his situation, accounted himself almost an independent sovereign, was
Achmet; who, by his unrelenting cruelties and executions, had procured
the terrible distinction of Djezzar, or the Butcher. Buonaparte
addressed this formidable chief in two letters, offering his alliance,
and threatening him with his vengeance if it should be rejected.[404] To
neither did the pacha return any answer; in the second instance he put
to death the messenger. The French general advanced against Acre, vowing
revenge. There were, however, obstacles to the success of his
enterprise, on which he had not calculated.
The pacha had communicated the approach of Napoleon to Sir Sidney Smith,
to whom had been committed the charge of assisting the Turks in their
proposed expedition to Egypt, and who, for that purpose, was cruising in
the Levant. He hastened to sail for Acre with the Tigre and Theseus,
ships of the line; and arriving there two days ere the French made their
appearance, contributed greatly to place the town, the fortifications of
which were on the old Gothic plan, in a respectable state of defence.
Sir Sidney Smith, who so highly distinguished himself on this occasion,
had been long celebrated for the most intrepid courage, and spirit of
enterprise. His character was, besides, marked by those traits of
enthusiasm at which cold and vulgar minds are apt to sneer, because
incapable of understanding them; yet without which great and honourable
actions have rarely been achieved. He had also a talent, uncommon among
the English, that of acting easily with foreign, and especially with
barbarous troops, and understanding how to make their efforts availing
for the service of the common cause, though exerted in a manner
different from those of civilized nations. This brave officer having
been frequently intrusted with the charge of alarming the French coast,
had been taken on one occasion, and, contrary to the laws of nations,
and out of a mean spirit of revenge, was imprisoned in the Temple, from
which he was delivered by a daring stratagem, effected by the French
Royalist party. He had not been many hours at Acre, when Providence
afforded him a distinguished mark of favour. The Theseus, which had been
detached to intercept any French vessels that might be attending on
Buonaparte's march, detected a small flotilla stealing under Mount
Carmel, and had the good fortune to make prize of seven out of nine of
them. They were a convoy from Damietta, bound for Acre, having on board
heavy cannon, platforms, ammunition, and other necessary articles. These
cannon and military stores, destined to form the siege of Acre, became
eminently useful in its defence, and the consequence of their capture
was eventually decisive of the struggle. General Philippeaux, a French
royalist, and officer of engineers, immediately applied himself to place
the cannon thus acquired, to the amount of betwixt thirty and forty,
upon the walls which they had been intended to destroy. This officer,
who had been Buonaparte's school-fellow, and the principal agent in
delivering Sir Sidney Smith from prison, possessed rare talents in his
profession. Thus strangely met under the walls of Acre, an English
officer, late a prisoner in the Temple of Paris, and a French colonel of
engineers, with the late general of the army of Italy, the ancient
companion of Philippeaux,[405] and about to become almost the personal
enemy of Smith.
[Sidenote: SIEGE OF ACRE.]
On the 17th March, the French came in sight of Acre, which is built on a
peninsula advancing into the sea, and so conveniently situated that
vessels can lie near the shore, and annoy with their fire whatever
advances to assault the fortification. Notwithstanding the presence of
two British ships of war, and the disappointment concerning his
battering cannon, which were now pointed against him from the ramparts,
Buonaparte, with a characteristic perseverance, which, on such an
occasion, was pushed into obstinacy, refused to abandon his purpose, and
proceeded to open trenches, although the guns which he had to place in
them were only twelve pounders. The point of attack was a large tower
which predominated over the rest of the fortifications. A mine at the
same time was run under the extreme defences.
By the 28th March a breach was effected, the mine was sprung, and the
French proceeded to the assault upon that day. They advanced at the
charging step, under a murderous fire from the walls, but had the
mortification to find a deep ditch betwixt them and the tower. They
crossed it, nevertheless, by help of the scaling-ladders which they
carried with them, and forced their way as far as the tower, from which
it is said that the defenders, impressed by the fate of Jaffa, were
beginning to fly. They were checked by the example of Djezzar himself,
who fired his own pistols at the French, and upbraided the Moslems who
were retreating from the walls. The defences were again manned; the
French, unable to support the renewed fire, were checked and forced
back; and the Turks falling upon them in their retreat with sabre in
hand, killed a number of their best men, and Mailly, who commanded the
party. Sorties were made from the place to destroy the French works; and
although the cries with which the Turks carry on their military
manœuvres gave the alarm to the enemy, yet, assisted by a detachment
of British seamen, they did the French considerable damage, reconnoitred
the mine which they were forming anew, and obtained the knowledge of its
direction necessary to prepare a counter-mine.
While the strife was thus fiercely maintained on both sides, with mutual
loss and increased animosity, the besiegers were threatened with other
dangers. An army of Moslem troops of various nations, but all actuated
by the same religious zeal, had formed themselves in the mountains of
Samaria, and uniting with them the warlike inhabitants of that country,
now called Naplous, formed the plan of attacking the French army lying
before Acre on one side, while Djezzar and his allies should assail them
upon the other. Kleber, with his division, was despatched by Buonaparte
to disperse this assemblage. But though he obtained considerable
advantages over detached parties of the Syrian army, their strength was
so disproportioned, that at last, while he held a position near Mount
Tabor, with two or three thousand men, he was surrounded by about ten
times his own number. But his general-in-chief was hastening to his
assistance. Buonaparte left two divisions to keep the trenches before
Acre, and penetrated into the country in three columns. Murat, at the
head of a fourth, occupied the pass called Jacob's Bridge. The attack,
made on various points, was every where successful. The camp of the
Syrian army was taken; their defeat, almost their dispersion, was
accomplished, while their scattered remains fled to Damascus. Buonaparte
returned, crowned with laurels, to the siege of Acre.
Here, too, the arrival of thirty heavy pieces of cannon from Jaffa
seemed to promise that success, which the French had as yet been unable
to attain. It was about this time that, walking on the Mount which still
retains the name of Richard Cœur de Lion, Buonaparte expressed
himself to Murat in these terms, as he pointed to Saint Jean
D'Acre:--"The fate of the East depends upon yonder petty town. Its
conquest will ensure the main object of my expedition, and Damascus will
be the first fruit of it."[406] Thus it would seem, that, while engaged
in the enterprise, Buonaparte held the same language, which he did many
years after its failure when at St. Helena.
Repeated and desperate assaults proved, that the consequence which he
attached to taking Acre was as great as his words expressed. The
assailants suffered severely on these occasions, for they were exposed
to the fire of two ravelins, or external fortifications, which had been
constructed under Philippeaux's directions, and at the same time
enfiladed by the fire of the British shipping. At length, employing to
the uttermost the heavy artillery now in his possession, Buonaparte, in
spite of a bloody and obstinate opposition, forced his way to the
disputed tower, and made a lodgment on the second story. It afforded,
however, no access to the town; and the troops remained there as in a
_cul-de-sac_, the lodgment being covered from the English and Turkish
fire by a work constructed partly of packs of cotton, partly of the dead
bodies of the slain, built up along with them.
At this critical moment, a fleet, bearing reinforcements long hoped for
and much needed, appeared in view of the garrison. They contained
Turkish troops under the command of Hassan Bey. Yet near as they were,
the danger was imminent that Acre might be taken ere they could land. To
prevent such a misfortune, Sir Sidney Smith in person proceeded to the
disputed tower, at the head of a body of British seamen, armed with
pikes. They united themselves to a corps of brave Turks, who defended
the breach rather with heavy stones than with other weapons. The heap of
ruins which divided the contending parties served as a breast-work to
both. The muzzles of the muskets touched each other, and the spear-heads
of the standards were locked together. At this moment one of the Turkish
regiments of Hassan's army, which had by this time landed, made a sortie
upon the French; and though they were driven back, yet the diversion
occasioned the besiegers to be forced from their lodgment.
Abandoning the ill-omened tower, which had cost the besiegers so many
men, Buonaparte now turned his efforts towards a considerable breach
that had been effected in the curtain, and which promised a more easy
entrance. It proved, indeed, but too easy; for Djezzar Pacha opposed to
the assault on this occasion a new mode of tactics. Confiding in his
superior numbers, he suffered the French, who were commanded by the
intrepid General Lannes, to surmount the breach without opposition, by
which they penetrated into the body of the place. They had no sooner
entered, than a numerous body of Turks mingled among them with loud
shouts; and ere they had time or room to avail themselves of their
discipline, brought them into that state of close fighting, where
strength and agility are superior to every other acquirement. The Turks,
wielding the sabre in one hand, and the poniard in the other, cut to
pieces almost all the French who had entered. General Rambaud lay a
headless corpse in the breach--Lannes was with difficulty brought off
severely wounded. The Turks gave no quarter; and instantly cutting the
heads off of those whom they slew, carried them to the pacha, who sat in
public distributing money to those who brought him these bloody
trophies, which now lay piled in heaps around him. This was the sixth
assault upon these tottering and blood-stained ramparts. "Victory," said
Napoleon, "is to the most persevering;"[407] and contrary to the advice
of Kleber, he resolved upon another and yet more desperate attack.
On the 21st May the final effort was made. The attack of the morning
failed, and Colonel Veneux renewed it at mid-day. "Be assured," said he
to Buonaparte, "Acre shall be yours to-night, or Veneux will die on the
breach."[408] He kept his word at the cost of his life. Bon was also
slain, whose division had been the executioners of the garrison of
Jaffa. The French now retreated, dispirited and despairing of success.
The contest had been carried on at half a musket shot distance; and the
bodies of the dead lying around, putrified under the burning sun, spread
disease among the survivors. An attempt was made to establish a
suspension of arms for removing this horrible annoyance. Miot says that
the pacha returned no answer to the proposal of the French. According to
Sir Sidney Smith's official reports, the armistice for this humane
purpose was actually agreed on, but broken off by the French firing upon
those who were engaged in the melancholy office, and then rushing on to
make their last unsuccessful charge and assault upon the breach. This
would have been a crime so useless, and would have tended so much to the
inconvenience of the French themselves, that we cannot help suspecting
some misunderstanding had occurred, and that the interruption was under
a wrong conception of the purpose of the working party.
This is the more probable, as Sir Sidney Smith, who reports the
circumstance, was not at this time disposed to put the best construction
on any action of Buonaparte's, who, on the other hand, regarded the
British seamen with peculiar dislike, and even malignity. The cause of
personal quarrel betwixt them was rather singular.
Buonaparte had addressed the subjects of Achmet Djezzar's pachalik, in
terms inviting them to revolt, and join the French; yet was much
offended when, imitating his own policy, the pacha and Sir Sidney Smith
caused letters to be sent into his camp before Acre, urging his soldiers
to mutiny and desertion. Sir Sidney also published a proclamation to the
Druses, and other inhabitants of the country, calling on them to trust
the faith of a Christian knight, rather than that of an unprincipled
renegado. Nettled at these insults, Buonaparte declared that the English
commodore was mad; and, according to his account, Sir Sidney replied by
sending him a challenge. The French general scornfully refused this
invitation, unless the challenger would bring Marlborough to meet him,
but offered to send one of his grenadiers to indulge the Englishman's
desire of single combat. The good taste of the challenge may be doubted,
if indeed such was ever sent; but the scorn of the reply ought to have
been mitigated, considering it was addressed to one, in consequence of
whose dauntless and determined opposition Buonaparte's favourite object
had failed, and who was presently to compel him, for the first time, to
an inglorious retreat.
Another calumny, circulated by Buonaparte against the English commodore,
was, that Sir Sidney Smith had endeavoured to expose his French
prisoners to the infection of the plague, by placing them in vessels
where that dreadful contagion prevailed. This charge had no other
foundation, than in Buonaparte's wish, by spreading such a scandal, to
break off all communication between the commodore and the discontented
of his own army. After the heat excited by their angry collision had
long subsided, it is amusing to find Napoleon, when in the island of
Saint Helena, declaring, that his opinion of Sir Sidney Smith was
altered for the better, since he had become acquainted with the rest of
his countrymen, and that he now considered him as a worthy sort of
man--for an Englishman.
[Sidenote: THE SIEGE OF ACRE RAISED.]
The siege of Acre had now continued sixty days since the opening of the
trenches. The besiegers had marched no less than eight times to the
assault, while eleven desperate sallies were evidence of the obstinacy
of the defence. Several of the best French generals were killed; among
the rest Caffarelli,[409] for whom Buonaparte had particular esteem;
and the army was greatly reduced by the sword and the plague, which
raged at once among their devoted bands. Retreat became inevitable. Yet
Buonaparte endeavoured to give it such a colouring as might make the
measure seem voluntary. Sometimes he announced that his purpose of going
to Acre was sufficiently accomplished when he had battered down the
palace of the pacha; at other times he affirmed he had left the whole
town a heap of ruins; and finally, he informed the Directory that he
could easily have taken the place, but the plague being raging within
its walls, and it being impossible to prevent the troops from seizing on
infected clothes for part of their booty, he had rather declined the
capture of Acre, than run the risk of introducing this horrid malady
among his soldiers. What his real feelings must have been, while
covering his chagrin with such flimsy pretexts, may be conjectured from
the following frank avowal to his attendants in Saint Helena. Speaking
of the dependence of the most important affairs on the most trivial, he
remarks, that the mistake of the captain of a frigate, who bore away,
instead of forcing his passage to the place of his destination, had
prevented the face of the world from being totally changed. "Acre," he
said, "would otherwise have been taken--the French army would have flown
to Damascus and Aleppo--in a twinkling of an eye they would have been on
the Euphrates--the Syrian Christians would have joined us--the Druses,
the Armenians would have united with us."--Some one replied, "We might
have been reinforced to the number of a hundred thousand men."--"Say six
hundred thousand," said the Emperor; "who can calculate the amount? I
would have reached Constantinople and the Indies--I would have changed
the face of the world."[410]
FOOTNOTES:
[385] In a letter published in the _Moniteur_, No. 90, December 20,
1797, Buonaparte expresses the highest sense of Admiral Brueyes'
firmness and talent, as well as of the high order in which he kept the
squadron under his command; and concludes by saying, he had bestowed on
him, in the name of the directory, a spy-glass of the best construction
which Italy afforded.--S.
[386] Intercepted Letters, part i., p. 219.
[387] Mr. Southey's "Life of Admiral Nelson;" in which one of the most
distinguished men of genius and learning whom our age has produced, has
recorded the actions of the greatest naval hero that ever existed.--S.
[388] Buonaparte, on the 19th of August, addressed, from Cairo, the
following letter to the widow of the unfortunate admiral:
"Your husband has been killed by a cannon-shot, while fighting on his
deck. He died without pain, and by the best death, and that which is
thought by soldiers most enviable. I am keenly sensible to your grief.
The moment which severs us from the object we love is terrible; it
insulates us from all the earth; it inflicts on the body the agonies of
death; the faculties of the soul are annihilated, and its relations with
the universe subsist only through the medium of a horrible dream, which
alters every thing. Mankind appear colder and more selfish than they
really are. In this situation we feel that, if nothing obliged us to
live, it would be much best to die; but when, after this first thought,
we press our children to our hearts, tears and tender feelings revive
the sentiments of our nature, and we live for our offspring; yes, madam,
see in this very moment, how they open your heart to melancholy: you
will weep with them, you will bring them up from infancy--you will talk
to them of their father, of your sorrow, of the loss which you and the
Republic have sustained. After having once more attached your mind to
the world by filial and maternal love, set some value on the friendship
and lively regard which I shall always feel for the wife of my friend.
Believe that there are a few men who deserve to be the hope of the
afflicted, because they understand the poignancy of mental sufferings."
[389] "At ten o'clock a vessel which was burning, blew up with a
tremendous noise, which was heard as plainly at Rosetta as the explosion
of Grenelle at Paris. This accident was succeeded by a pitchy darkness,
and a most profound silence, which continued for about ten
minutes."--POUSSIELQUE _to his Wife; Intercepted Letters_, part i., p.
208.
"L'Orient blew up about eleven in the evening. The whole horizon seemed
on fire, the earth shook, and the smoke which proceeded from the vessel
ascended heavily in a mass, like an immense black balloon. It then
brightened up, and exhibited the objects of all descriptions, which had
been precipitated on the scene of conflict. What a terrible moment of
fear and desolation for the French, who witnessed this awful
catastrophe!"--LOUIS BUONAPARTE.
[390] "I know not whether the Archbishop of Malines did or did not apply
the term _Jupiter Scapin_ to Napoleon; but to me it appears
incontestable, that the name of Scapin would be much more aptly bestowed
on the writer, a bishop and an ambassador, who could be capable of such
impertinence towards the sovereign he represented."--LOUIS BUONAPARTE,
p. 32.
[391] "It is not true that in Egypt Napoleon showed himself almost
persuaded of the truth of the mission of Mahomet. Doubtless, deceit and
falsehood should be banished from the language of true policy, since as
government ought to be, as much as is in the power of men, the image of
God upon earth, its language ought to be that of truth and justice.
This, however, does not preclude the right of respecting the religious
worship and opinions of a conquered nation, and it was in this sense
that the proclamations addressed by my brother to the Mussulmen should
be regarded. They would not have been understood by these people, if
they had not spoken their language. Whilst I was in Holland, I rejected
at first the title of Emperor given to the King of Holland by the
Sublime Porte; but upon expressing my astonishment I was assured that
the Porte gave this title to the sovereigns of other countries, and that
that of king would not be understood."--LOUIS BUONAPARTE, p. 34.
[392] This conversation appeared officially in the _Moniteur_.
Bourrienne, notwithstanding, asserts that Buonaparte never set foot in
the pyramid. He acknowledges, indeed, that "with the heads of the
Mahometan priesthood he held frequent conversations on these subjects;"
but adds, "in all this there was nothing serious; it was rather an
amusement. If he ever spoke as a Mussulman, he did so in the capacity of
a military and political chief in a Mahometan country. On this depended
his success, the safety of the army, and consequently his glory. It is
true, he had a Turkish dress made for him, but only as a joke. One
morning he desired me to begin breakfast without waiting; a quarter of
an hour after, he entered in his new costume. Scarcely was he
recognised, when we received him with bursts of laughter. He took his
place with a gravity which heightened the effect, but found himself so
ill at ease as an Oriental, that he soon went to undress, and never gave
a second exhibition of this masquerade."--BOURRIENNE, tom. ii., p. 164.
[393] Alluding to the capture of the island of Malta, and subjection of
the Pope, on which he was wont to found as services rendered to the
religion of Mahomet.--S.
[394] Gourgaud, tom. ii., p. 261.
[395] Gourgaud, tom. ii., p. 363.
[396] "The night overtook us, the waters began to rise around us, when
the horsemen ahead cried out that their horses were swimming. General
Buonaparte rescued the whole party by one of those simple expedients
which occur to an imperturbable mind. Placing himself in the centre, he
bade all the rest form a circle round him, and then ride out each man in
a separate direction, and each to halt as soon as he found his horse
swimming. The man whose horse continued to march the last, was sure, he
said, to be in the right direction; him, accordingly we all followed,
and reached Suez, at midnight in safety; though so rapidly had the tide
advanced, that the horses were more than breast-high in the
water."--_Memoirs of Savary_, vol. i., p. 97.
[397] Las Cases, tom. i., p. 211.
[398] "While the army was passing through Syria, there was scarcely a
soldier but was heard to repeat these lines from Zaire:--
'Les Français sont las de chercher désormais
Des climats que pour eux le destin n'a point faits,
Ils n'abandonnent point leur fertile patrie
Pour languir aux deserts de l'aride Arabie.'
When the men found themselves in the midst of the Desert, surrounded by
the boundless ocean of sand, they began to question the generosity of
their general; they thought he had observed singular moderation in
having promised each of them only seven acres--'The rogue,' said they,
'might with safety give us as much as he pleases; we should not abuse
his good-nature.'"--LAS CASES, tom. i., p. 210.
[399] See his despatch to the Directory, on the Syrian
campaign.--GOURGAUD, tom. ii., p. 374.
[400] Expédition en Egypte et Syrie, p. 148.
[401] "I asked him about the massacre of the Turks at Jaffa: he
answered, 'C'est vrai; J'en fis fusiller à peu près deux
mille.'"--Memorandum of Two Conversations between the Emperor Napoleon
and Viscount Ebrington at Porto-Ferraio, p. 12.
"I observed, that Miot asserted that he (Napoleon) had caused between
three and four thousand Turks to be shot, some days after the capture of
Jaffa. He answered, 'It is not true that there were so many; I ordered
about a thousand or twelve hundred to be shot, which was
done.'"--O'MEARA vol. i., p. 328.
[402] See Jomini, tom. xi., p. 403; Thibaudeau, tom. ii., p. 172;
Savary, tom. i., p. 100; Bourrienne, tom. ii., p. 226; Martin, Hist. de
l'Expédition d'Egypte, tom. i., p. 289.
[403] O'Meara, vol. ii., p. 128.
[404] See Gourgaud, tom. ii., p. 372.
[405] Philippeaux died during the siege, of a fever brought on by
fatigue. Buonaparte spoke of him with more respect than he usually
showed to those who had been successful in opposing him. One reason
might be, that the merit given to Philippeaux was in some degree
subtracted from Sir Sidney Smith. The former was a Frenchman, and
dead--the latter alive, and an Englishman.--S.--"Sir Sidney Smith
behaved very bravely, and was well seconded by Philippeaux, a Frenchman
of talent, who had studied with me as an engineer."--NAPOLEON, _Voice_,
&c., vol. i., p. 210.
[406] Related by Miot as communicated to him by Murat.--S.--"Le sort de
l'Orient est dans cette bicoque; la chute de cette ville est le but de
mon expédition; Damas doit en être le fruit."--MIOT, p. 184.
[407] "La victoire est au plus opiniâtre."--MIOT, p. 199.
[408] Miot, p. 199.
[409] Caffarelli was shot in the elbow, and died of the amputation of
the limb. He had before lost a leg, which induced the French soldiers,
who disliked him as one of the principal contrivers of the Egyptian
expedition, to say, when they saw him hobble past, "He, at least, need
care little about the matter--he is sure to have _one_ foot in France."
He had some days' delirium before he died; but Count Las Cases reports,
(vol. i., p. 220,) that whenever Buonaparte was announced, his
presence--nay, his name alone--seemed to cure the wanderings of the
patient's spirit, and that this phenomenon was renewed so often as the
general made him a visit.--S.
[410] Las Cases, tom. i., partie seconde, p. 384. The extravagance of
Napoleon's plan unavoidably reminds us of the vanity of human wishes.
The cause to which he ascribes it is the _mistake_ of a captain of a
frigate, who, instead of forcing his way to Acre, against the opposition
of two ships of the line, was unfortunately taken by them. This is a
mode of reasoning which Napoleon was very ready to adopt. The
miscarriage of his plans was seldom imputed by him to the successful
wisdom or valour of an enemy, but to some accidental circumstance, or
blunder, which deranged the scheme which must otherwise have been
infallible. Some of his best generals were of a different opinion, and
considered the rashness of the attack upon Acre, as involving the
certainty of failure. Kleber is reported to have said, that the Turks
defended themselves with the skill of Christians, and that the French
attacked like Turks.--S.