opened the first night. At seven o'clock in the evening the last fascine was removed, and joy was universal. The water rushed in with a fall of six feet, and the pride and peculiar care of Egypt, the consolidation of ages, was in a few hours destroyed by the devastating hand of man. Two more cuts were finished the next day, and three more marked out; but the force of the water was so great, aided by the removal of a few banking stones worked out by the foot of an officer (who justly thought that these partial measures would not complete the inundation for months) as soon to break one into the other; and now an immense body of water rushed in, which continued entering for a month with considerable force; it then found nearly its level, but from the sand absorbing the water, there was always the fall of nine or twelve inches at the entrance. The first boat which floated on this sea was one belonging to Lord Cavan, whose efforts had contributed so much to its formation. On the 13th, in consequence of this inundation, the 18th, 90th, 79th, and detachment of 11th light dragoons, marched to support Colonel Spencer; on the 17th instant, the 30th and 89th followed; on the 18th Generals Craddock and Doyle were appointed to commands in the division of the army at Rosetta.

Colonel Spencer had continued in his position at El Hamed without any movement, except sending patroles forward as far as Déroute to reconnoitre the enemy's position at El Aft; and in the Delta, Sir Sydney, with some dragoons, and Captain Marley, advanced to Scindioun, from whence they could distinctly view the enemy's position.

It was on one of these patroles the erroneous statement of General Menou was ascertained respecting the canal of Birimbal, which he described to Bonaparte as being now, during the whole year, navigable from Lake Bourlos to the Nile, and descanted on the advantages to be derived from this great work;

whereas

whereas there has not been a single improvement made by the French: except at high Nile, it is dry as all the other canals are, and four miles from Lake Bourlos it terminates, then running under an arch-way like a drain. But Bonaparte himself began these tales of wonder, and General Menou copied the story of Birimbal from his romance of the canal of Alexandria.

Sir Sydney, with an armed flotilla, proceeded also several times up the Nile nearly as far as El Aft, cavalry patroles protecting his flanks. It was discovered in these reconnoitrings that the French had sunk dgeims across the exterior passage of the Nile, formed by an island on the right of their position, and that their batteries completely commanded the inner channel, it not being more than sixty yards across, which prepara

tions seemed to indicate resistance.

The difficulty of bringing up the heavy artillery from the depôt, which was necessarily formed on the beach of the sea, three miles distant, delayed the operations against the castle of St. Julien* until the 16th, when the two batteries which had been erected in the wood of date trees, within three hundred yards of the work, first opened their fire against the southwest angle; at the same time the Turkish gun-boats, which had passed over the Boccage, and anchored within cannon shot of the English batteries, commenced a brisk cannonade; and the Captain Pacha, having erected a battery with an 18 pounder in the Delta, against the north-east front, directed and fired it always himself.

Anxious to give an example of his courage and zeal, he night and day remained by this battery, animating by his

* When Lord Dalhousie invested it, the Turks found in the wood near it two Frenchmen, who had inadvertently straggled out of the fort, and whose heads, after severely mangling them whilst living, they cut off, and paraded through the streets of Rosetta.

presence

presence the crews of the Turkish vessels, who kept up the cannonade with the greatest intrepidity, conforming themselves to the orders of Captain Stevenson and Captain Corry of the

navy.

The castle of St. Julien was defended by fifteen pieces of cannon, and four armed dgerms were anchored under the walls. One of these on the first day was set on fire, and drifted to the eastern bank: instantly Captain Corry in his boat, notwithstanding a heavy discharge of grape, forced by the castle, with the view of saving from the Arabs any men which might have been on board. Entering the dgerm, he found four Arabs with their knives drawn, anxiously searching for some concealed victim! He had scarce quitted her again, towing off also these people, before she blew up. When Captain Corry presented the pennant he had taken from her to the Captain Pacha, his highness gave the crew forty sequins, and expressed the strongest admiration of their conduct.

The English batteries fired but slowly from the want of ammunition, and made no impression the first day on the fort, since they were obliged by shot to open an avenue through the trees ; the embrasures were also not correctly formed, and therefore during the night they were altered. As the object was so small, and the vessels and English batteries were within each other's shot, and in the line of fire, it would have been impossible, at any rate, to continue the bombardment during the night; but several gun-boats took that opportunity to pass the castle.

On the morning of the 17th the cannonade began again. The Captain Pacha resuming his station, fired with the greatest correctness and velocity. The French had, from the retinue about the spot, discovered that some distinguished person was stationed there, and suspecting him to be the Captain Pacha, turned against this work a 24 pounder and a mortar; but he answered shot for shot with the same undauntedness.

On the 18th, the wall of the salient angle exposed to the battery began to fall, and open the enemy's guns; but they still worked them, although the Turks, creeping within fifty yards of the works, covering themselves by the felled date trees which formed the glacis, maintained a constant fire of musquetry. Another French gun-boat had been sunk, and now one was set on fire by a shell from the Turks, which blew up with a considerable explosion, sinking with her falling yards the fourth and last. In the evening Sir Sydney Smith, who had been actively employed in fitting out four captured dgerms at Rosetta, sent them to attack the castle at the south-east front; after firing several rounds, the wood-work of the carronades broke from the recoil, and they were obliged to retire. Towards night a mortar battery, which had been erected considerably to the right, within three hundred yards of the Nile, and nine hundred of the castle, under the direction of Captains Lemoine and Duncan, fired some shells with extraordinary accuracy; one of them pitched on the centre of the roof, and tore away the flag staff and colours, which the French never dared to erect again.

On the morning of the 19th, at eight o'clock, a white flag was cautiously elevated above the parapet of the castle, when all firing from the English ceased, though not so immediately on the part of the Turkish gun-boats and Captain Pacha, who did not see it for some time. An officer then came out with a letter from the commandant, who requested six hours armistice, in order to settle the terms of the capitulation. Lord Dalhousie returned for answer, that the garrison must surrender prisoners of war at discretion, but that he would give them private property, and six hours to pack up their effects; which was agreed to; and fortunate was their surrender; as in a few hours the Turks, eager for the assault, would have stormed the place. The defence of the garrison had been very good, and did the commandant much credit.

An

An event now took place, which nearly destroyed the harmony and co-operation subsisting between the English and the Captain Pacha. The capitulation had been granted without consulting him, and he felt indignant at a treatment which he imagined might proceed from wilful neglect. Sir Sydney Smith, who, as soon as he was informed that the terms were settled without the Captain Pacha's being previously acquainted with them, foresaw what would happen, went in person to remedy the mischief; but could only induce him by his representations to sign, not accept the flag of the fort, or view the transaction in its real light: he complained that a former flag of truce had come out of the fort, with the nature of which he had been left unacquainted; but was pacified as to this, when he was told that the communication had only related to the restoration of an Arab child, which had been driven in a boat under the castle walls; and on Lord Dalhousie going himself, and representing that no neglect was intended, the memory of the transaction was obliterated, and this meritorious officer was always afterwards a great favourite.* Notwithstanding the good sense of the Captain Pacha, he was jealous of these attentions, being then unacquainted with the character and frank integrity of his new allies.

At three o'clock the garrison marched out, and laid down their arms on the glacis. The old respectable commandant, who had been thirty years in the service, was visibly affected when he ordered his people to ground their arms, and covered his face with his hands.

The number of men taken was 268, of which 160 were well clothed and able soldiers, having recently come from France;

* Lord Dalhousie had been appointed commandant of the siege, with full powers, by Colonel Spencer. The Captain Pacha never announced his intention of being present, nor could it be supposed that he intended to take the command.