was necessary to preserve the place for a short time till their arrival.

"I accordingly landed the boats at the mole, and took the crews up to the breach armed with pikes. The enthusiastic gratitude of the Turks, men, women, and children, at sight of such a reinforcement, at such a time, is not to be described. Many fugitives returned with us to the breach, which we found defended by a few brave Turks, whose most destructive missile weapons were heavy stones, which, striking the assailants on the head, overthrew the foremost down the slope, and impelled the progress of the rest. A succession, however, ascended to the assault, the heap of ruins between the two parties serving as a breast work for both, the muzzles of their muskets touching, and the spear heads of the standards locked. Jezza Pacha hearing the English were on the breach, quitted his station, where, according to the ancient Turkish custom, he was sitting to reward such as should bring him the heads of the enemy, and distributing musket cartridges with his own hands. The energetic old man coming behind us, pulled us down with violence, saying "If any harm happened to his English friends, all was lost." The amicable contest, as to who should defend the breach, occasioned a rush of Turks to the spot, and thus time was gained for the arrival of the first body of Hassen Bey's troops. The Chifflick regiment of 1000 men, armed with bayonets, and disciplined after the European method, immediately made a sortie, and took the enemy in flank, while those that remained in the lodgment were either killed or dispersed.'

"The enemy began a new breach by an incessant fire directed to the southward of the lodgment, every shot knocking down whole sheets of a wall much less solid than that of the tower on which they had expended so much time and ammunition. The group of generals and aids-de-camp which the shells from the sixty-eight pounders had frequently dispersed, was now re-assembled on Richard Coeur de Lion's Mount. Bonaparte was distinguishable in the centre of a semicircle;

his gesticulations indicated a renewal of attack, and his dispatching an aid-de-camp to the camp shewed that he waited only for a reinforcement. A little before sun-set, a massive column appeared advancing to the breach with a solemn step. The Pacha's idea was not to defend the breach this time, but rather to let a certain number of the enemy in, and then close with them, according to the Turkish mode of war. The column thus mounted the breach unmolested, and descended from the rampart into the Pacha's garden, where, in a very few minutes, the bravest and most advanced among them lay headless corpses, the sabre, with the addition of a dagger in the other hand, proving more than a match for the bayonet; the rest retreated precipitately; and the commanding officer, who was seen manfully encouraging his men to mount the breach, and who we have since learnt to be General Lasne, was carried off, wounded by a musket shot. General Rombeaud was killed. Much confusion arose in the town from the actual entry of the enemy, it having been impossible, nay impolitic, to give previous information to every body of the mode of defence adopted, lest the enemy should come to s knowledge of it by means of their numerous emissaries. The English uniform which had hitherto served as a rallying point for the old garrison, wherever it appeared, was now in the dusk mistaken for French, the newly arrived Turks not distinguishing between one hat and another in the crowd, and thus many a severe blow of a sabre was parried by our officers, among which Colonel Douglas, Mr. Ives, and Mr. Jones, had nearly lost their lives, as they were forcing their way through a torrent of fugitives. Calm was restored by the Pacha's exertions, aided by Mr. Trotter, who had just arrived with Hassan Bey, and thus the contest of twenty-five hours ended, when both parties being so fatigued as to be unable to move. Bonaparte will no doubt, renew the attack, the breach being, as above described, perfectly practicable for fifty men abreast; indeed the town is not, nor ever has been defensible according to the rules of art, but, according to every other rule, it

must and shall be defended, not that it is in itself worth de fending, but we feel that it is by this breach Bonaparte means to march to farther conquests. It is on the issue of this conflict that depends the opinion of the multitude of spectators on the surrounding hills, who wait only to see how it ends to join the victor, and with such a reinforcement for the execution of his known projects, Constantinople and even Vienna must feel the shock.'

So hopeless had the attempts of the French now become, that the persevering efforts of Bonaparte were rather the effects of frantic disappointment than rational zeal. But at length discontentment was visible in his army; the best troops refused to march into certain destruction, and after a siege of sixty days, he was forced to abandon his views upon St. John d'Acre.

He now began to make secret preparations for withdrawing his army and returning to Grand Cairo. The more effectually to conceal his intention of departing, Bonaparte continued to fire incessantly upon the town, and took precautions in the night time to prepare the way for a safe escape. Having previously removed the sick and wounded, the whole army secretly retired, at nine o'clock in the evening of May the 29th, and it was not till the morning that Jezzar was made acquainted with their departure. Upon the fourth day of their march they arrived at Jaffa, and having burnt the carriages, and sunk in the sea, or buried in the sand, twentythree pieces of heavy artillery, they put the howitzers and small cannon on board some small vessels at Jaffa, and ordered them to be conveyed to Egypt, along with 2,000 wounded soldiers, who were unfit to travel by land.

The battering cannon, which Bonaparte had attempted to conceal, were recovered, and easily made fit for use; and the vessels with the sick and wounded were taken at sea, and sent to Damietta; but the advantage of this capture was to the sick and wounded themselves. Embarked in vessels which scarcely had sailors sufficient to navigate them, and in want

of every comfort and convenience, they were cast upon British compassion, and every humane assistance was granted. As the French army marched along the coast of Syria, they were exposed to the fire of several ships which were ordered to annoy them. Troops of cavalry were sent to harass their rear, and bands of Arabs frequently attacked them. The weak and the slightly wounded, who had been ordered to march with the army, were overpowered by the fugitives of the journey, and the desert was strewed with bodies of the dead. From Acre to Jaffa they destroyed the produce of the fields, burnt the villages, and marked their route by desolation. If these ravages had been confined to the districts which bordered upon Acre and Jaffa, the violence might have been ascribed, partly to a temporary frenzy of disappointment, and partly to a severe exercise of precaution, that, by destroying the means of comfort and support, the enemy might be prevented from pursuing them in the retreat. But how shall we frame an apology for those cruelties which Bonaparte committed towards Gaza, and the confines of Egypt, when the flames and the smoke proclaimed at a distance their approach?

Upon the 2d of June the army halted at El-Arisch, and having strengthened the defence of the frontier towns, they recruited their forces as they marched through Egypt; and, upon the 14th of the same month, arrived at Grand Cairo. Although the forces which returned from Syria made a better appearance than could have been expected, yet their ranks were thinned, and they had suffered much from climate and fatigue. Sensible of their situation, Bonaparte endeavoured to recruit their strength, and prepare them for new and perilous engagements.

An anecdote, after what has been said against, should, however, be related, as a proof of the commanding genius of Bonaparte, and will be told as repeated by a Frenchman of high consideration. Bonaparte, notwithstanding his successes and fame, was considered by those who knew him best,

as not in himself possessing the great qualities ascribed to him. We regarded him as indebted more to an extraordinary peculiar good fortune, forcing irresistible circumstances. to his advantage, than to his own abilities and exertions. After his disasters and repulse at Acre, our opinion was confirmed, and we expected to see him return dejected, conscious of disgrace, his shame aggravated by the recollection of his having sent a messenger with a dispatch, and which was read in the Institute, in which he expressed himself, "In three days I shall be in Acre; when you open this, be assured that Jezzar Pacha is no more.' The day before he entered Cairo, we received orders, to our astonishment, to prepare illuminations, triumphal arches, &c. for honour to the conquerors of Syria and of Jezzar Pacha. The troops, who had despondingly anticipated a different reception, whose murmurs against the man who had planned their expedition amounted to mutiny, whose expressions even menaced death to him as an atonement for their seven thousand comrades who had perished, saw with surprise the honours paid to them; heard their chief and themselves stiled conquerors; and, in the delirium of vanity, forgot their injuries and defeats. The next morning Bonaparte, assured of the intoxication still continuing, assembled his army on parade, distributed rewards, then moved forwards a battalion of grenadiers, whom he upbraided with having refused to make another assault on Acre, and sentenced them to carry their arms slung behind till their character was retrieved. It was then,' says the narrator, 'we pronounced Bonaparte really a great man. We confessed his knowledge of human nature, who in a few hours could so improve his situation, and resume his influence, as to disgrace those very men, who the day before would, with the applause of their comrades (now approving of their dishonour) had he uttered a word of censure, have instantly assassinated him.'

In reviewing the siege of St. John d'Acre, we are led back to scenes of ancient military glory, where many princes of Europe fought in the battles and cause of the crusades. The

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