The career of the French was now for the first time arrested in Switzerland, in consequence of a bloody battle, during which several thousands of them had perished; and this was soon after followed by a treaty, in which although it was agreed to accept the new constitution as a bond of general union, yet an express stipulation was entered into, that the internal government of the smaller cantons should continue as before, and they were at the same time exempted from all contribution. In this arrangement Underwalden refused to acquiesce on any conditions whatever. On this the French marched a large body of troops accompanied by artillery into that canton, and after a terrible battle, commenced on the 8th and continued with little intermission to the evening of the 9th of September, during which clubs and spears were in vain opposed to muskets and bayonets, and fragments from the rocks to a regular artillery, the gallant mountaineers were overcome; the town of Standtz taken by assault; the houses in its beautiful valley destroyed by fire, the inhabitants nearly exterminated, and neither age nor sex spared by a furious and inveterate soldiery. After this, all Switzerland subscribed to the new constitution; Lucerne was chosen as the seat of government, and an alliance offensive and defensive entered into between the French and the Helvetic republics. But even this treaty did not restrain the rapacity of the French directory, who still continued to levy contributions and impose exactions with a most unpardonable severity. Thus after enjoying the sweets of independence since the commencement of the fourteenth century, when the fortunate issue of a contest with Albert of Austria laid the foundation of the liberties, and remotely, perhaps, produced the revolutions in England, America, and France, the federate republics of Switzerland were overcome by a foreign enemy, compelled to change the form of their government, and to become in effect tributary to a neighbouring state. 66 zling theories, it was doubtless suggested that the loss of the American isles might be supplied by the acquisition of the fertile plains yearly enriched by the waters of the Nile, and that the Delta and the Said would furnish a richer and more certain harvest than colonies, the productions of which were acquired by the precarious services and cruel bondage of the sable inhabitants of Africa. But though these commercial speculations might engage the attention of Bonaparte, yet the mind of the conqueror of Italy was directed chiefly to the vast acquisitions and the immense power and revenue drawn by England from the east and he at length began to consider Egypt only as the fulcrum whence he might stretch an immense lever across the Arabian gulf to overturn the empire of Britain in Hindostan; nor would powerful allies be wanting in the native princes of the Indian peninsula, to wage an eternal war against those who had invaded their dominions, and almost annihilated their power. The directory, eager to find employment for armies which the plunder of Piedmont and Lombardy had sharpened rather than satiated; and by no means indisposed to the removal of a general in whose presence all their power seemed to be eclipsed, at length consented to this romantic enterprise; and, although this project was founded on the spoliation of an ally, the gross injustice of the expedition was overlooked in the splendid advantages which it promised to bestow. Such are the fascinations of ambition, that although the Divan had kept its faith with the French republic inviolate, an armament was fitted out for depriving the Emperor Selim III. of his precarious but acknowledged sovereignty over Egypt, which yielded an annual tribute to his treasury, and supplied his capital with corn. In the mean time, the ports of Marseilles and Toulon were busied in refitting and launching ships, the fabrication of cordage, and the preparation of military stores;. and, while all Europe, during the solemn pause that ensued, was contemplating the extent and destination of the armament, Bonaparte, accompanied by a few of his chief warriors and a multitude of artists and men of learning, hastened from Paris to the borders of the Mediterranean, where he was joined by many thousands of the army of Italy, which he now, by a bold metaphorical figure, addressed as "the right. wing of the army of England." As the subjugation of Great Britain appeared too arduous a task for the French army of England," General Bonaparte, its commander, averting his eyes from the north, directed all his attention to the east; and he who dared not to rival the exploits of William the Conqueror, appeared determined to imitate the more splendid achievements of Alexander the Great. This young general, smitten with the love of glory, and imbued with high notions from his early All the preparations being now completyouth, had formed plans of gigantic mag- ed, Bonaparte set sail from Toulon on the nitude, which, trusting to his talents and 20th of May, 1798, with a formidable vetehis good fortune, he deemed himself des- ran army, consisting of nearly forty thoutined to realize. In addition to these daz-sand men, besides an immense quantity of artillery and military stores, and leaving | country between Cairo and the MediterraSicily on the left, was joined by a squad- nean on the north and south, and Lybia and ron of Venetian men-of-war, commanded the Isthmus of Suez to the east and west, by Rear-admiral Brueys, who had proceed- bounded by sandy deserts; it contains ed from Corfu nearly at the same time. slips of land fertile and well cultivated on To this officer, who had served with no the borders of the rivers and canals, and higher rank than that of lieutenant in the between the two branches of the Nile, that royal navy, was intrusted the command of tract of land which is called Delta. It the fleet, and he now repaired on board the abounds in grain of all sorts, but particuOrient, of one hundred and twenty guns, larly in rice; and as it was formerly the where he hoisted his flag, and received a granary of Rome, so it is now the country general salute. After a passage of eighteen from which Constantinople draws its prindays, this formidable armament, now con- cipal supplies. Watered by the fertilizing sisting of about three hundred sail, inclu- streams of the Nile, the land is never falding ships of the line, frigates, and trans-low, but yields three harvests annually: ports, descried Malta, and at break of day the next morning, commenced a general landing of troops and artillery upon the coast, without encountering any formidable resistance. At the dawn of the succeeding morning, the enemy had encircled the city of Valetta, and on the 12th of June, the French entered the city, and became masters of the whole island. The Grand Master Hompesch, who had ranked as a sovereign prince, finding the people destitute of the requisite union and constancy to support their independence, quitted the island, and received at his departure the sum of one hundred thousand livres, with an engagement, on the part of the invaders, to allow him a pension of three thousand livres a year from the French treasury, no part of which was ever paid. Thus, in the course of a few days, Bonaparte contrived to obtain possession of the whole island of Malta, containing a population of sixty thousand souls, and affording one of the most advantageous stations in the Mediterranean sea; while the ancient order of St. John of Jerusalem beheld itself bereaved of its territories, after possessing them during a period of nearly three centuries. Having appointed a provisional government, Bonaparte intrusted the care of his 'new acquisition to General Vaubois, and again proceeded to sea. After a passage of a week, the armament arrived in sight of Candia, and in the evening of the 30th of June, the fleet anchored in the roads of Alexandria. It may be necessary here to pause, in order to take a view of the country and of the people against whom all this force was directed. Egypt is divided into Upper and Lower: the outlines of the former are formed by two ridges of mountains, running along each side of the Nile, from Syene to Grand Cairo; beyond these mountains, on each side, are deserts, and between them lies a long plain, the greatest preadth of which is not more than nine leagues. Lower Egypt includes all the there the traveller incessantly beholds the charming prospect of flowers, fruits, and corn; and spring, summer, and autumn at once present their appropriate treasures and delights. When the French invaded Egypt, they found the government composed of a pacha, or viceroy, sent from Constantinople, and twenty-four beys, or civil and military officers, who, being at the head of the provinces and of the armies, possessed in reality all the power of the government, and the pacha retained his office no longer than while he was subservient to their designs. The real native Egyptians are the Copts. These people, who profess a species of Christianity, and have a patriarch at Constantinople, carry on an inland trade, and are employed chiefly in hatching eggs, and in the art of raising bees, for which the inhabitants of Egypt have been for ages distinguished. The Arabs, who constitute two-thirds of the present inhabitants of Egypt, are of three classes: those who inhabit the banks of the Nile are generally marauders and pirates; but others, possessing various principalities in Upper Egypt, and governed by their shieks, are generous and incapable of disguise; while the Bedouins, a third description of Arabs, wander incessantly over the face of the country, and have no fixed residence. The Mograbians, or western Mahometans, are, next after the Copts and Arabs, the most numerous of the inhabitants of Egypt, and they devote themselves to arms and the different branches of trade. The Turks, the nominal possessors of the country, and once its acknowledged masters, constitute another race of its inhabitants: they formerly occupied the chief posts which are now enjoyed by the Mamelukes, or military slaves. The sword, the bow-string, poison, private execution, or public murder, was the fate reserved for a series of tyrants chosen by these Mamelukes in succession, and who in general were not permitted to live more than five or six years; no fewer than forty-seven having appeared during two centuries and a half. These people. city, built by Alexander the Great, three hundred and thirty-two years before the Christian era, and which, in its highest state of splendour, contained four thousand baths, and a population equal to the first cities of Europe, with a library, in whiç n successive kings had collected more than four hundred thousand manuscripts, presented to the disappointed invaders only a wretched and confused heap of huts, rather than houses; the streets unpaved, narrow, noisome, and filthy; and the inhabitants stupid, ignorant, and barbarous. to whom is intrusted the care of restraining the Arabs, superintending the collection of the tributes, and electing the beys, in consequence of a singular paradox in natural history, cannot propagate. (39) And since the revolt of Ali Bey, they have in a great measure disowned the authority of the sublime porte. These, at the period of which we are now treating, amounted to eight thousand in number, and constituted the principal military force of Egypt. Their chief weapon consists of a carabine, only thirty inches long, but of so large a calibre as to discharge ten or twelve balls Possession having been obtained of Alexat a time they are mounted on horses, andria, General Dessaix, provided with two and from the bow of their saddle hangs a field-pieces, was immediately despatched toheavy mace, at the belt are suspended two wards Cairo. In the mean time, Bonaparte pistols, and to the left thigh is attached a issued orders for the fleet to shelter itself sabre, which they use in the field of battle from the enemy in the old port of Alexanwith inimitable dexterity. Such was the dria, but, on sounding the channel, it was country, and such the people against whom found that there was not sufficient depth Bonaparte now led his veteran army. Its of water for the Orient, and the road of population amounted indeed to four mil-Aboukir was therefore chosen as the fittest lions of inhabitants, but they were un-anchorage. acquainted with the art of war as a science, insufficiently provided with artillery, and destitute of military discipline. The cannon, cavalry, and military stores, having all now been disembarked, and the chief command conferred on General Kleber, a flotilla was established in the course of a few days on the Nile; and the city of Rosetta, situated at the mouth of the western arm of that river, was subdued. On the 7th of July, the main body of the army entered the desert, and, after experi No sooner had the French admiral cast anchor on the coast of Egypt, than General Bonaparte hastened to disembark his troops, and to prepare for the attack of the once famous, but now dilapidated city of Alexandria. The summons to surrender sent by the French commander being dis-encing the most terrible privations from regarded, he commenced his attack on the 5th of July, and in a few hours carried by assault, with a loss of only one colonel and seventy soldiers, killed and wounded, a city that in the seventh century sustained a siege of fourteen months, and inflicted a loss of twenty-three thousand men upon the besiegers. In order to strike terror into the inhabitants, and to preclude all further resistance, a dreadful slaughter took place among the Mamelukes and the Arabs, after the city had surrendered; but it is urged by General Berthier, in extenuation of this enormity, "that the troops entered Alexandria in express opposition to the orders of their commanders." This once famous (39) This extraordinary assertion has probably arisen from a mistake of Mr. Volney's meaning: His expressions are these: "During five hundred and fifty years that there have been Mamelukes in Egypt, not one of them has left subsisting is sue; there does not exist one single family of them in the second generation; all their children perish in the first or second descent. Almost the same thing happens to the Turks; and it is observed that they can secure the continuance of their families only by marrying women who are natives, which the Mamelukes have always disdained."Travels in Egypt, &c. vol. i. p. 107. Volney's Egypt, t. i. c. 7. heat and thirst, arrived at Dementour. Allowing themselves only one day's rest, they advanced to Miniet Salame, where intelligence was received, that the beys were encamped in the neighbourhood, and that an armed flotilla had descended the Nile on purpose to attack the invaders. Next morning, the Mamelukes, to the number of four thousand, were discovered near the village of Chebreisse, situated on the left bank of the river. Here, two separate and distinct actions immediately took place, the one on the water and the other on the land. Bonaparte in the mean time, having advanced to the support of Kleber, formed his army into five squares, with the cavalry and baggage in the centre. Impelled by their natural impetuosity, the Mamelukes commenced. the attack, and were suffered to approach within the reach of grape-shot, when the cannon suddenly opened, and forced the main body of the assailants to retreat: but some bolder than the rest continued to advance, and met their fate either at the muzzle of the musket, or the point of the bayonet. Immediately on this defeat of the land forces, the village of Chebreisse was carried by assault, and the flo + Vide "Relation des Campagnes de Bonaparte tilla belonging to the beys retired, after a en Egypte," &c. desperate action, in which six hundred and the Koran. If Egypt be their farm, let them show the lease that God has given them of it. There were formerly among you great cities, great canals, and a great commerce. What has destroyed them all? What but the injustice and tyranny of the Mamelukes? Cadis, sheiks, imans, and the tchisbadjees, inform the people that we were killed on the side of the vanquished, | dence of the shieks and the principal famiand only seventy on that of the victors. lies, by proclamations admirably adapted The French troops, pursuing their victo- to their prejudices,* and having organized rious career, advanced through deserted a provisional government, marched against villages to Ernbabe; where, on the 20th Murad Bey, whom he forced to take reof July, they beheld towards the left those fuge in Upper Egypt, while Ibrahim Bey, famous pyramids, which had braved the taking a contrary direction, fled towards storms of three thousand years, and in Syria; but, on the return of the French front, about six thousand Mamelukes, general to the capital, the dazzling visions Arabs, and Fellahs, intrenched in the presented to his heated imagination by unplain. Bonaparte, after making the same interrupted success, were somewhat obdispositions as at Chebreisse, gave orders scured on receiving intelligence of the fate for a charge; and the Mamelukes, after that had attended the fleet of Admiral making an unsuccessful attempt to break Brueys, in the bay of Aboukir. the way through a rampart of bayonets, fell back in disorder, and left the field of battle in possession of the enemy. Gene* "You will be told," says Bonaparte in a proral Dugua, availing himself of the retreat after the surrender of Alexandria, “ that I come to clamation addressed to the inhabitants of Egypt, of the native troops, advanced against the destroy your religion. Do not believe it. Be asvillage, while two divisions under Generals sured that I come to restore your rights, to punish Rampon and Marmont were detached to- usurpers, and that I reverence more than the Mawards the rear, and carried the intrench-melukes themselves, God, his prophet Mahomet, ments in the face of a masked battery of forty pieces of artillery. A body of Mamelukes and Fellahs, amounting to fifteen hundred, perceiving their retreat cut off by this masterly movement, took post behind a ditch, where they defended themselves with great bravery, but not a single man Another proclamation, addressed to his own escaped the fury of the French soldiery, army on landing, sufficiently showed that he had being all either killed by the sword, or studied the Egyptian character, and that he was drowned in the Nile. Murad Bey, who prepared to go any length, consistent with his commanded on this occasion, being forced main object of ambition and aggrandizement, in accommodating himself to their dispositions and to retreat, left behind him four hundred institutions. The people," says he, " with whom camels, his artillery, baggage, and provi- you are going to establish an intercourse, are Masions; and the victors, who seized on many hometans. The first article of their faith is, fine Arabian horses, superbly caparisoned, There is no God but God, and Mahomet is his found all the purses of the vanquished Ma-prophet. Do not contradict them. Treat their muftis and imans with respect, as you have done melukes well stored with gold. This deci- the rabbis and bishops. The Roman legions prosive victory, obtained with the loss of ten tected all religions. You will find here usages men killed, and about thirty wounded, different from those of Europe; you will reconcile opened the gates of Cairo to the invaders; yourselves to them by custom.' the chief inhabitants, hastening to the camp of Bonaparte, solicited his protection, while the fortunate chieftain seized on this opportunity to visit the pyramids, and prophesied that his exploits would not be forgotton at the end of forty centuries; and in this he was not perhaps mistaken, but it will be rather his exploits in Europe than in Africa, that, like the stupendous erections he was now contemplating, will brave the iron tooth of time. Bonaparte, with his usual address and plausibility, having conciliated the confi "Du haut de ces pyramides, quarante siecles nous contemplent." From the top of these pyramids forty centuries look down upon us. are the friends of the Musselmans." in a visit to the pyramids of Cheops, on the 13th It is said, on somewhat doubtful authority, that of August, in the company of the principal muftis and imans of the city of Grand Cairo, Bonaparte, the beloved son of the church," hesitated not to Allah! There is no God but God; Mahomet is make use of the following expressions: "Glory to his prophet, and I am his friend....The divine Koran is the delight of my soul, and the object of my contemplation. I love the prophet, and I hope ere long to see and honour his tomb in the holy city; but my mission is first to exterminate the Mamelukes.... Adriel, the angel of death, has breathed upon them; we are come, and they have disappeared.... Be faithful to Allah, the sovereign ruler of the seven marvellous heavens, and to Mahomet his prophet, who traversed all the celestial mansions in one night. Be the friends of the Franks; and Allah, Mahomet, and the Franks will recompense you." CHAPTER V. Naval Campaign of 1798: Sir Horatio Nelson sent in pursuit of the French Fleet; touches at Malta; proceeds to Alexandria; and returns to Sicily without meeting with the Enemy-Sails again to the Coast of Egypt-Battle of the Nile: its glorious Termination-Influence of that memorable Event upon the Courts of Europe-The Porte declares War against France-The King of Naples invades the Roman Republic, suffers a signal Defeat, and is driven from his Dominions-The King of Sardinia obliged to abdicate his Throne-Expedition against Ostend, and its disastrous Result-Minorca captured by the British-St. Domingo evacuated—Ĝoza taken—Summary. 66 WHILE the French expedition to the east the fleet forming a kind of curve along the attracted the attention of all Europe, Eng-line of deep water, so as not to be turned land appeared to be pre-eminently interested on the S. W. The British admiral, who, in its destination. Positive instructions from the anxiety of his mind, had scarcely were in consequence sent out to Earl St. taken either sleep or food for many days, Vincent, then stationed at Cadiz, to select now ordered his dinner to be served, while a sufficient number of line-of-battle ships preparations were making for battle; and to defeat this armament, whatever might when his officers rose from table, and went be its destination; and the first lord of the to their separate stations, he 'exclaimedadmiralty, in his despatches to the earl, Before this time to-morrow, I shall have says, "I think it almost unnecessary to gained a peerage, or Westminster Abbey."* suggest to you the propriety of putting it The advantage of numbers, both in ships, under Sir Horatio Nelson." This appoint- guns, and men, was in favour of the French; ment the gallant earl had already antici- they had thirteen ships of the line, and four pated, and a detachment of ten sail of the frigates, carrying eleven hundred and nineline was despatched, under Captain Trow- ty guns, and ten thousand eight hundred bridge, to join the rear-admiral, who had and ten men. The English had the same previously been despatched to the Mediter- number of ships of the line, and one fiftyranean with a flying squadron. Rear-admi-gun ship, carrying in all one thousand and ral Nelson being thus invested with the command of a fleet of fourteen ships, thirteen of which carried seventy-four, and one fifty guns, determined to proceed in quest of the enemy. Steering his course towards Malta, with an intention of attacking the French fleet at Goza, he arrived off that island on the 22d of June, when, to his mortification, he found that the enemy had quitted that place five days before his arrival, taking an eastward direction. Conjecturing, with great plausibility, that Egypt must be the place of their destination, the British admiral sailed for the port of Alexandria, where he arrived on the 28th, but they had not been seen on the coast of Egypt, nor could any satisfactory information be obtained at that place. Still acting upon his favourite maxim, that "perseverance in the profession will meet its reward," the gallant admiral shaped his course northward for Caramania; thence he returned to Sicily, and after obtaining refreshments and assistance of every kind for his squadron in the bay of Syracuse, sailed once more for Alexandria in quest of the enemy. On approaching the coast of Egypt, on the first of August, he discovered thirteen sail of line-of-battle ships, moored in a strong and compact line, in the bay of Aboukir, the headmost vessel being close to the shoals on the N. W. and the rest of VOL. I. 20 twelve guns, and eight thousand and sixtyeight men. The English ships of the line were all seventy-fours; the French had three eighty gun ships, and one three-decker of one hundred and twenty guns and the enemy's squadron was, in the opinion of the French commissary of the fleet, moored in such a situation, as to bid defiance to a force more than double their own. The position occupied by the French had been already celebrated in history, as the scene of a famous combat between Augustus Cæsar and Mark Antony, nearly nineteen hundred years ago, which decided the empire of the world. On the present conflict depended the naval superiority of two rival nations, the immediate renewal of the war on the continent of Europe, and the eventual possession of Egypt-perhaps of Hindostan. The moment Admiral Nelson perceived the position of the French fleet, that intuitive genius with which he was endowed displayed itself; and it instantly struck him that where there was room for an enemy's ship to swing, there was room for one of ours to anchor. Having explained to his captains his mode of attack, and given them the general instruction, first "to gain the victory-and then to make the best pos Life of Admiral Lord Nelson, by Clarke and M'Arthur, vol. ii. page 77. |