was presented that will be ever memorable.-Two hundred of the French cavalry actually charged into the sea, and were seen for a few seconds hacking the men in the boats: these assailants were every one killed. It was now about ten o'clock in the forenoon; and within the space of six minutes from this important crisis, the contest was decided. The 42d regiment, leaping up to their middle in water, formed rapidly upon the shore; and with a degree of impatience nothing could restrain, without waiting to load their muskets, broke from the main line before it could be formed, and ran gallantly up the hill, sinking deep in the sand at every step they took. In this perilous situation a body of French cavalry pushed down upon them; but instead of being thrown into any disorder they coolly received the charge upon the points of their bayonets; and, the rest of the army coming up, routed the enemy on all sides. The French fled with the greatest precipitation. Our troops had been taught to expect no quarter, and therefore none was given. The wounded and the dying neither claimed nor obtained mercy; all was blood and death. Humanity remembers some things she may wish to forget. Let us express a hope that British glory will not often be thus impaired by such unnecessary havoc on a subdued enemy. Our loss in killed and wounded amounted to five hundred and sixty.

When our troops landed, Jacques Abdallah Menou, Commanderin-Chief of the French armies in Egypt, was in Cairo. Intelligence had been repeatedly sent to him, accompanied by entreaty, that he would hasten to the relief of Alexandria. The French described him as a pompous, obstinate, corpulent man, entirely absorbed in composing or in delivering harangues to his soldiers. No persuasion could induce him to move. He considered the affair of our invasion as of little importance. Until our army had actually gained footing in the country, and twice defeated the French troops, he took no measures to interrupt their progress. According to the French statement, General Friant, with a body of cavalry, amounting to 1500 men, was the only force upon the spot to oppose the landing of the English army. Had the resistance been greater, and Menou present, it is believed that the superior advantages of the French position would have rendered a descent upon the coast impracticable.

A skirmish took place upon the 12th of March. In this affair the 12th Regiment of Dragoons, by too precipitate a charge, suffered very considerably. Colonel Archdale, who commanded it, lost an arm, receiving a shot in the very instant he was raising his sabre as a

signal for his troops to advance. This did not prevent him from leading his men gallantly through a body of the enemy, much superior in numbers. Captain Butler of the same regiment was also taken prisoner. This brave but rash action was publicly noticed by the Commander-in-Chief, and a caution added against the ill effects of such intemperate valour.

On the 13th, the following day, our army attacked and drove the enemy from the heights to which they had retreated after the action, of the 8th. This battle was desperately fought on both sides. The result, however, proved the superiority of the English bayonet. The French were found to have used on this occasion bullets and cannon-shot of copper and brass, generally deemed a dishonourable practice, as calculated only to gratify cruelty and malice. The slightest wounds so inflicted are said to be mortal. This species of ammunition was obtained from the sheathing of the ships in the port of Alexandria. Several of those balls were exhibited in the fleet, and some of them were afterwards found in the sand where the action took place. This action, it was reported, was not duly followed up. The enemy were allowed to establish themselves in a most advantageous position, upon some heights, whence it was found extremely difficult to dislodge them. To this place our army pursued them, and then retreated to an eminence near some ruins, rendered afterwards renowned, as the theatre of the most dreadful carnage during the battle of the 21st.

About the 19th (March) Menou arrived in Alexandria, pouring forth a torrent of abuse against the garrison and troops who had opposed the landing of the English army. He reproached them, in one of his turgid harangues, with "allowing to their everlasting shame, an army of heroes to be chastised by a mob of English schoolboys." The fat figure of Menou, added to his blustering and gasconading manner, rendered him a pleasant object of ridicule to the natural vivacity of the Frenchmen, who distinguished him by the name of the "Cochon General." Immediate preparations, however, were made for a general attack upon the English with his whole force, pour les anneantir, as he expressed it. The day for this great event was fixed for the 21st, when our army was to be surprised before day-light in its encampment, routed, and tumbled into the lake Aboukir.

At the hour appointed the attack was made. In the beginning of it the French conducted themselves with admirable skill. It is certain our army did not then expect them, although, for two pre

ceding nights, the soldiers had been ordered to lie down upon their arms, and to be ready at a moment's notice. They came silently on, and in good order. With amazing perseverance they crept even upon their hands and knees, through the fear of alarming our videttes. The French videttes were, however, observed to draw nearer and nearer to ours, until, at length, the English sentinel observed the French army close behind, coming slowly on in a line. This man gave the alarm, by firing his piece, and retreating with all possible expedition. The French instantly and rapidly charged up the hill, beginning a false attack upon our left, and carrying a redoubt by means of the bayonet,-intending thus to draw our attention from its right, where the main assault was intended. This project, however, was soon perceived by our commander, and failed of its effect. It was still dark. The firing ceased upon the left, and was soon heard very warm upon the right. To that point, therefore, General Abercrombie directed all his attention, although both armies discharged their artillery without discerning a single object, except during the flashes of the cannon, when, as an officer belonging to the reserve assured us, the French army was not otherwise visible, although now so near, than by the appearance of a long black line, disclosed during those momentary coruscations. As dawn appeared, the French were found to have succeeded in turning our right wing; and a party of their cavalry were actually seen advancing to the rear of the 28th regiment. The prudence and gallant conduct of this regiment gave the first favourable turn to the conflict of the day. Cavalry in the rear of the infantry, have generally the power to throw them into disorder. It was at this critical moment decisive as to the fate of Egypt, that an Adjutant of the 28th gave the word, "Rear rank, right-about, face." This was readily obeyed; and the soldiers, with astonishing firmness and presence of mind, sustained a severe attack in front and rear at the same time without a single man moving from his place. At this juncture, the 42d regiment coming up to aid the 28th, were themselves overwhelmed and broken by a body of the enemy's cavalry. Still, though dispersed, they resisted to a man; and were seen so intermingled with the enemy, that the flank companies of the 40th, stationed in the openings of the ruins upon the right, were afraid to fire for fear of destroying them. Menou had promised a Louis to every French soldier who should be concerned in establishing a position in that building; and several attempts were made for the purpose. The 58th had been stationed there in the beginning of

the action, with a part of the 23d, and had already repulsed a column of the enemy in its attack upon this place; when, during the severe conflict sustained by the 28th in front, three columns forced in behind the redoubt where that regiment was stationed, and while some of them remained to carry on the attack upon its rear, the principal part penetrated into the quadrangular area formed by the ruin. Here they were received by the 58th and 23d, and followed by a part of the 42d, who cut off their retreat, so that a most desperate conflict ensued. Our men attacked them like wolves, with less ardour than valour, displaying a degree of intrepidity nothing could resist. After expending all their ammunition, they had recourse to stones and the butt-end of their pieces, transfixing the Frenchmen with their bayonets against the walls of the building, until they had covered the sand with the blood and bodies of their enemies; where they remain heaped at this hour, a striking monument of the borror of that day. Not fewer than seven hundred Frenchmen were bayonetted or shot among those ruins.

By some unaccountable negligence, the principal part of the artillery and ammunition had not been brought to the station then occupied by our army; hence originated a saying, that the French had been beaten by an enemy destitute of artillery. Certain it is, that both the 28th and 42d regiments, towards the termination of the conquest, were reduced to the necessity of throwing stones. General Sir Ralph Abercrombie, with a view, as it is related, of rallying the 42d, hastening towards the dreadful conflict in the ruin upon the right, was nearly surrounded by a party of French cavalry. A dragoon made a thrust at him; but Sir Ralph, receiving it between his breast and his left arm, wrested the weapon from his an tagonist. At this instant, an English soldier, seeing another ride towards the General to aim a blow at him, and, being without ball, thrust his ramrod into his piece, and with it shot the dragoon. Soon after Sir Ralph was seen without his horse, the animal having been shot under him; when Sir Sidney Smith coming up supplied him with that whereon he was mounted. It was on this occasion that Sir Ralph presented to Sir Sidney the sabre he had wrested from the dragoon. Soon after our venerable Commander received in his thigh the fatal shot of which he afterwards expired.

Victory now declared itself for the English, and it may be said to date from the moment when Abercrombie received his mortal wound. Five French Generals were killed. Menou's horse was shot under him. It is said that he wept when he beheld the fate

of the day, aud exerted himself in vain endeavours to rally his retreating army. Amongst the wounded on our side were Generals Oakes, Moore, Hope, and Sir Sidney Smith. The loss sustained by the French was not less than four thousand. Eleven hundred of their dead were buried by our own troops. After the action both armies maintained the same positions they had occupied before the battle.

After the 21st of March, the affairs of the expedition remained at a stand. It was upon the 17th of April that I arrived at the army. The death of Sir Ralph Abercrombie had then thrown a gloom over eyery thing. Although General, now Lord Hutchinson, followed precisely the plan which was understood to be General Abercrombie's, the regret of the army and navy was only expressed by murmurs and discontent. No one, however, as the event has proved, could have devised a more wise scheme for the ultimate deliverance of Egypt. He directed the operations of the army successively to the different stations held by the dispersed forces of the enemy: subduing them one after another, instead of allowing them to combine their strength, he was enabled to effect what other plan of carrying on the campaign could possibly have brought to pass. If matters did not proceed as speedily as before, they proceeded safely and surely.

The first effort was to cut off all communication between the garrison of Alexandria and the rest of Egypt. This was effected by destroying the canal of Alexandria, and thereby not only preventing a supply of fresh water, but also causing the waters of the lake Aboukir to fall into the ancient bed of the lake Marcotis. We were present during this operation. The canal was cut through in two places; the torrent rushing vehemently down a steep of eight feet,.. soon carried away the intervening mound, and produced an inundation extending to such a prodigious distance over all the desart to the east and south of Alexandria, that before the middle of May the French, than whom no people shew more alertness in converting even disaster to some advantage, had a flotilla of gun-boats on this new-created sea.

About this time, Fort Julien, upon the Rosetta branch of the Nile, was taken by the English and Turks, which was followed by the evacuation of Rosetta. Rahmanie, an important fort, was then attacked and carried; by the capture of this place all communication with Alexandria was said to be interrupted. Immediately after this capture the English army began its march to Cairo. Their route