The Turkish outposts were assaulted early on the morning of the 24th of July, 1799, and driven in with great slaughter; but the French, as they advanced, came within range of the batteries and of the ships that lay close by the shore, and were checked. This might have ended in a rout, but for the undisciplined eagerness with which the Turks engaged in the task of despoiling those that fell before them—thus giving Murat the opportunity of charging their main body in flank with his cavalry, at the moment when the infantry, rallying under the eye of Napoleon, forced their way into the intrenchments. From that moment, the battle was a massacre. The Turks, attacked on all sides, were panic-stricken; and the sea was covered with the turbans of men who flung themselves headlong into the waves, rather than await the fury of Le Beau Sabreur, or the steady rolling fire of the Sultan Kebir. Six thousand surrendered at discretion; twelve thousand perished on the field, or in the sea.
THE BATTLE OF ABOUKIR.
THE REVIEW BY THE FIRST CONSUL.
On the 17th Brumaire (November 9th, 1799), Napoleon intimated to the officers of the army, that he would review their regiments the next morning at seven o’clock; he at the same time reminded all the generals who had been with him in Egypt, that he would be glad to see them at an early hour.
On November 10th, the Council of the Ancients assembled at six o’clock in the morning; when it was proposed to remove their sitting to St. Cloud that Napoleon might be invested with the command of the 17th military division. The motion was passed as a decree, though not without a strong opposition.
An hour after, Napoleon, surrounded by a great number of generals and officers, of every grade, attended at the bar of the assembly to return thanks for the confidence they had shown in him; and then returned to the Tuileries to review the troops.
As soon as it was reported throughout the capital that Napoleon was at the Tuileries, and that the chief power was now vested in him. The people ran thither in crowds. A proclamation was addressed to the people, and another to the soldiers.
