night and day remained by this battery, animating by his 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 Curry 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 Curry 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 Curry 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,

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 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 a 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 the capitulation, 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

*During this siege, an officer of the Queen's lost his life by having, at his out-posts, given an order to the sentries to fire on any person who did not answer to the first challenge during the night. A remarkable fatality converted this precaution into his own death

warrant.

+ 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.

of

of these attentions, being then unacquainted with the charac ter 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; the remainder were invalids, but all capable of service in a garrison. About forty men had been killed and wounded during the siege. A Turk who had been taken was found in the fort; and several black ladies,* with a pretty French woman, marched out. A comely face, and a white straw hat, with a wreath of flowers, was an agreeable sight, where only she monsters had been before seen.

It was now found, that previous to the siege on the east side was an almost practicable breach, made by the former pressure of the Nile against the wall, but which the Captain Pacha's fire had considerably enlarged. Amongst the guns were several of the Cormorant's carronades, and a beautiful French 24 pounder.

The surrender of this castle was an event of moment, since the fort secured the command of the Nile, and removed much uneasiness respecting an attack to relieve it. Why such a post,

*An officer of the artillery asking how much a black woman cost, mentioned the word Espagnol (signifying Spanish dollars), which reminding the unfortunate female of that term so often made use of at her sale, she suspected a second barter, and giving a dreadful yell, ran and hid herself, but her pleasure was as great to find that her master did not mean to dispose of her. At the Alexandria camp, however, five sailors clubbed and bought a woman, brought by the Arabs to market, for seven dollars; she cried much during the auction, but when her lot was decided, quietly submitted to be led by a cord to the lake, where she was stripped naked, scrubbed well, then embarked in a boat, and carried off to their ship.

when

when abandoned to its fate, had so considerable a garrison left, is a question not to be resolved but by the enemy. General Reynier observes, that the English asked, on seeing only maimed soldiers march out, "where the garrison was?" but either this is a Gallicism, or the General has been grossly misinformed.

The facility with which Rosetta and St. Julien had been taken, inspired hope, and General Hutchinson determined to press on his operations against the interior. On the 23d therefore he sent the Quarter Master General and his staff, and on the 26th himself arrived at Rosetta, having on his way paid a visit to the Captain Pacha in Aboukir Bay, who had returned on board of his ship.

General Coote was left in the command of the army before Alexandria, a command which required extraordinary vigilance, much judgment, and arrangement, without the pleasure of active service, or the brilliancy of a successful warfare. His camp was now very bare of troops, and his lines too extensive for the force; yet he was to be more weakened,. and still expected to maintain himself. Such was the necessity.

The officers of the army who went to Rosetta, expected to find Savary's glowing description of its beauties realized, as they had found some justice in his remarks on that Desert, which separates Aboukir and Alexandria. Their mortification was extreme, to discover that the boasted delights of this city only consisted in comparison. The sight of verdure after that barren waste is a gratifying novelty, which pleases and fascinates the eye, in proportion to the previous suffering of the traveller, relieving his despondency, and charming the senses. For two or three miles immediately on the bank of the Nile, towards St. Julien, is certainly a luxuriant vegetation, but beyond that,

and