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bey, or beys, being in fact it’s precarious sovereigns, obeying or
despising the mandates of their nominal liege, as it suited their
own purposes, and- tyrannising over an oppressed and abject people
without fear, and without control.
Such was the state of Egypt, when that revolution burst out
in France, which spread the flames of war far and wide. The
events of this war, however, are foreign to O u r purpose, till the
conquest of Egypt was meditated by a man, who has shown himself
equal to the most daring enterprises; and proved by his successes
how much resolute impetuosity may achieve, when guided
by keen and comprehensive intellect.
After an empty parade of a threatened invasion of the British
isles, one of the wings of the army of England, as it had been
ostentatiously called, embarked at Toulon. On the 10th of may,
1798, a hundred and ninety-four vessels sailed from that port,
carrying nineteen thousand soldiers, beside two thousand artificers,
artists, and men of letters. These steered their course
up the Mediterranean, and captured Malta in their way. On the
1st of july they entered the road of Alexandria, and the same
evening disembarked, being at this time thirty thousand strong.
In the night they reached the city; and at daybreak commenced
the attack, without waiting for the landing of artillery. General
Kleber was to scale the wall on the side of Pompey’s pillar; general
Bon, to force the Rosetta g ate; and general Menou, to blockade
the triangular castle with a part of his division, while with the
rest he went against another part of the enclosure, and forced it.
He was the first that entered the town. General Kleber was at