was standing sentinel, with a meanwhile delivered a frontal attack and captured the Egyptian trenches at the point of the bayonet. At the same time the eastern division, commanded by Bon and Vial, got round between the enemy's right flank and the river, cutting them off from escape as they fell back from the central attack. The fight, or rather massacre, was over in less than an hour. Murad Bey, badly wounded, fled to his palace at Gizeh and thence to Upper Egypt, leaving many thousands dead upon the field or drowned in the Nile. very natural prejudice against all invaders. Bonaparte un doubtedly believed himself to be in for a pretty hard day's work, and thought, therefore, that the occasion demanded a dramatic utterance; but in reality he was faced by no more than a mob of overwrought children, led by a rabble of dare-devil chieftains without a rudimentary knowledge of modern warfare. 30,000 picked veterans-the army, in fact, which was to have marched on Londonwere opposed to this ill-armed crowd of no more than 12,000 natives; and the disproportion will be more readily appreciated when it is remembered that an English army 13,000 men routed the trained Egyptian army of more than twice that number with the utmost ease in 1882. of Hearing that the Mamelukes had entrenched themselves in front of the village of Embabeh and had placed forty guns in position, Bonaparte decided on a flank movement, and, at two o'clock in the afternoon, advanced in a wide crescent, each division marching in hollow square. Murad Bey, the Egyptian leader, seeing the manœuvre, ordered Ayoub Bey, one of his officers, to charge General Desaix' division which was swooping round to the west to attack his left flank. Ayoub and his reckless cavalry headed straight for the enemy, and burst their way into the open square, but were there entrapped and had to fight their way out. The French central division, under Dugua, The French soldiers, soldiers, of whom less than thirty had been killed, at once turned the battlefield into a vast market. Rich armour, gold inlaid weapons, gold and silver coins and ornaments, embroidered silks, and much else of value, fell into their hands and were bought, sold, or exchanged amongst themselves during the remainder of the afternoon. The dead were stripped of their valuables, and even the bodies of those who had been drowned in the river were fished for and similarly treated. The men were in the best of spirits, believing that their troubles were now at an end, and, in the words of Bonaparte, they were at last reconciled to Egypt. The Mamelukes, meanwhile, begged M. Bandeuf, the leader of the French colony in Cairo, whose safety they had magnanimously secured throughout this dangerous period, to treat with Bonaparte, since they had heard that he only wanted a free passage through to India; but ere these negotiations were commenced Bonaparte was bringing his army across the river to the city. A dreadful panic ensued, and Cairo became for a time a frenzied inferno. The houses of the Beys were plundered by the retreating mob, and precisely those scenes occurred which were repeated during the Egyptian retreat from Alexandria in 1882 after the bombardment. Another French proclamation was issued to the townspeople as the invaders entered the city. It stated that they had come to destroy the Mamelukes, and incidentally to protect the religion of the Prophet whom the French loved. Bonaparte was soon hailed by the bewildered Egyptians as "The Great Sultan," and within three days he had quieted the city and had begun to organise a government. But while Bonaparte, delighted with his easy victory, was indulging in dreams of vast conquest, the less imaginative Nelson was still scouring the seas in search of the French fleet, and was once again approaching the Egyptian coast. It was on August 1 that a middy at the masthead of the Zealous caught sight of the French ships lying in Aboukir Bay, and the signal was received by the whole fleet with the utmost joy. Night was drawing on when the ships came to close quarters, and it was the general opinion on the French side that the inevitable battle would be postponed till the morning. But Nelson and his men had been living at a high pitch of expectancy for the last few weeks, and in spite of the fact that the French greatly outnumbered them (20 ships and 11,200 sailors being opposed to their 12 vessels and 7400 men), they could brook no delay. They were sick of this dread of an invasion of England which had hung over them like a dark cloud for so long, and here in these remote waters they felt that they were about to fight for their English homes. Every man on board was absolutely determined to do his best to destroy Bonaparte's fleet, and the enthusiasm is said to have been most inspiring. There was the keenest rivalry on the part of Nelson's ships to be first into the bay. The French men-o'-war were anchored in two lines, but Admiral Brueys had made what proved to be the mistake of allowing between each ship sea-room for her to swing round without colliding with her neighbour. By the most daring and skilful manœuvres some of the British ships managed to slip in between the French vessels and the shore and to attack them on both sides. One of Nelson's finest vessels, the Culloden, grounded and took no part in the fight. All night long the battle raged, and at one time the sailors upon one of the British men-o'-war were so tired that they were allowed to sleep for twenty minutes beside their guns. The French admiral was cut nearly in two by a shot, dying a few minutes later upon the quarterdeck, saying with his last breath that that was the right place for an Admiral of France to die. Nelson's forehead was grazed by a bullet, and the flap of severed skin falling over his one eye half blinded him. He was dazed by the blow, and was carried below, but soon recovered sufficiently to direct the battle. L'Orient, the French flagship, blew up in the thick of the fight, and one by one the other ships were captured or put out of action. The British victory was complete, and at one blow the French schemes for the conquest of Asia were shattered. All ignorant of the disaster, Bonaparte remained in Cairo until August 7, when he hurried into the Eastern Delta to attack Ibrahim Bey, who had gathered a small army together and had done some damage to the French garrisons in that part of the country. The Mamelukes, however, were easily defeated at Salhieh on August 10, and Ibrahim Bey was chased out of Egypt. On his march back to Cairo, Bonaparte received news of the disaster at Aboukir. "Eh bien," he said, with no change in the expression of his face, "it will be necessary to remain in these countries, or to make a grand exit like the Ancients." From one point of view the destruction of the fleet fell in with his schemes, for it cut him off from France, and made the advance into the Orient appear far less startling. He was at this time firmly convinced that his destiny lay in the East, and his one desire was to lead his invincible army to India, holding them loyal to him by rich presents of loot, and ultimately to make himself Emperor of the Orient. He believed that in France there was no future for him greater than that of a successful general; but in the East he felt that his career was without limit. He perceived at once, therefore, that the loss of his ships expatriated himself and his soldiers, and converted them into a disciplined band of adventurers detached from all authority save his own. Now was his chance. Now was the opportunity for him to realise his dreams of self-aggrandisement. With these thoughts in his mind he began openly to profess that he was a Muhammedan, for he felt that since it was evidently his destiny to conquer Asia and to become the Great Sultan of the East, it was necessary for him to hold a faith that would be acceptable to a large portion of the realms over which he intended to rule. It was his idea ultimately to create a new religion himself, and to be the Prophet of an up-to-date Islamism. "I pictured myself," he said afterwards to Madame de Rémusat, "on the road to Asia, mounted on an elephant, with a turban on my head, and in my hand a new Koran, which I should compose according to my own ideas." He did his best to persuade his soldiers to adopt the faith of Islam, and was much annoyed at their refusal to do so. General Menou and several other officers, however, embraced Muhammedanism with sincerity; and Napoleon is said to have gone so far as to adopt native dress on certain occasions and to have performed the rites of Muhammedan Revolts had to be suppressed prayer. On August 26 the in the Delta, and an expedigreat caravan which goes each tion had to be despatched to year to Mecca with the holy Upper Egypt to effect the carpet set out from Cairo, and conquest of that country. In Bonaparte took the opportunity Cairo the Government had to of writing to the Sherîf of be reorganised, and Bonaparte Mecca assuring him of his spent some time in planning goodwill towards Islam. "We and founding a French Instiare friends of the Musulmans," tute for the study of the Arts he wrote, "and of the religion and Sciences. His labours of the Prophet; we desire to here, however, were rudely do everything that may be disturbed on October 21 by a favourable to the Religion." sudden revolt of the townsAt about the same time he people, who killed General sent a letter to Ahmed Pasha Dupuy, Commandant of the Djezzar, the Governor of Acre City, and several soldiers; and on the Syrian coast, with a for two days things were very view to arriving at a friendly uncomfortable for the invaders. agreement with this important Bonaparte was furious, and as neighbour, whose state acted soon as quiet was restored he something in the manner of a issued thoroughly Oriental inbuffer between Egypt and structions for the decapitation Turkey. "You must know," of large numbers of Arabs. By he wrote, "that my first care his orders their heads were on entering Malta was to set placed in sacks which were at liberty 2000 Turks, who for conveyed to the Esbekieh and many years have languished in there opened in the presence slavery. On arriving in Egypt of the crowd. All persons who I have reassured the people had escaped from jail and had and protected the Muftis, taken up arms were decapiimams, and mosques. The tated, and their headless bodies, Mecca pilgrims have never been by his special orders, were treated with more care and thrown into the Nile. A refriendliness than I have shown port was spread that the to them, and the festival of the Prophet Muhammed had apProphet has been celebrated peared to Bonaparte and had with more splendour than ever promised him his help and before. . . . The Moslems have assistance; and it was now no greater friends than the generally believed that the French." French were under some sort of divine protection. On December 21, two months after the revolt, Bonaparte was able to issue yet another of his amazing proclamations, this time addressed to the people of Cairo, forgiving them for their naughtiness and granting once more to them certain Djezzar, however, had already seen the ships of England patrolling his coast, sailing silently to and fro, day after day, like mighty sentinels; and to Bonaparte he answered never a word. Meanwhile the French had their hands full in Egypt. concessions which he had curtailed. "Sherifs, ulemas, preachers in the mosques,' " he wrote, "make it known to the people that those who light-heartedly declare themselves my enemies shall have no refuge either in this world or in the next. Is there a man so blind as not to see that Destiny itself directs all my operations? . . . Make it known to the people that since the world began, it was written that after having destroyed the enemies of Islam and beaten down the Cross, I should go to the end of the Orient to carry out the task which has been imposed upon me. Make the people see that in the sacred book of the Koran, in more than twenty passages, that which has now come to pass has been predicted, and that which shall come to pass is likewise explained. In making their prayers to heaven against us, they solicit their own condemnation let the true believers pray for the success of our arms. I might demand of each one of you an account of the most secret thoughts of your hearts: for I know everything, even that which you have told to no one. But a day will come when it will become evident to all the world that I am led by orders from on high, and that all human efforts against me are futile. Happy are those who in good faith are the first to place themselves on my side." Bonaparte was here attributing to himself divine powers, and who shall say that he did VOL. CXCI.-NO. MCLVIII. so solely to impress a foolish people? Who shall deny that he now had the intention of posing to all men as a prophet of a new era? And yet there can be no doubt that to him this attitude was assumed for purely political motives. At this stage in his career he sank to the lowest level to which at any time his ambitions brought him; for he now boasted of his contempt for our Lord, and, with his tongue in his cheek, professed his devotion to the Prophet Muhammed. To further his personal ambitions he insulted Christianity and attempted to make a fool of Islam. He made the colossal mistake of supposing that to rule the Orient he must pose as an Oriental. He was blind to the fact that the one thing for which the Orient was seeking was an upright ruler. Could he have beheld that future sequence of honest men who obtained the devotion of Hindoo and Egyptian, not by the renunciation of the Cross, but by the straightforwardness of their characters, he would have been filled with astonishment. Could he have seen the God-fearing King of England seated upon that throne of India to obtain which he, the mighty Bonaparte, had schemed and lied and blasphemed in vain: could he have beheld the peoples of India enthusiastically receiving their English Emperor, who stands as the symbol of that quality of quiet integrity which Bonaparte discarded as worthless, he might indeed have hidden his face for very shame. The Turks, probably encour2 M |