The ‘destruction of the French Collossus’ (Gillray, November 1, 1798) is a painful picture. The huge creation strides from Egypt to France; its head being a skull, with vipers crawling in and out—its hands and feet being imbrued in blood; it clutches the guillotine, and tramples the Bible, Crucifix, and scales of Justice under foot. Round its neck is the bleeding head of Louis XVI. Britannia (typified by a shield of the national flag) hurls a thunderbolt, and shatters the huge statue into pieces.
CHAPTER XII.
REVOLT AND MASSACRE AT CAIRO—CARICATURES OF THE CAPTURE OF FRENCH SHIPS—FIGHTING FOR THE DUNGHILL, ETC.—PRICE OF BREAD AND CONSOLS IN 1798.
I have omitted an episode which, to be chronologically correct, should have been introduced earlier; and here, as usual, we find a French authority for what might seem an English slander: Émile de la Bédoliére, in his ‘Tableau Chronologique de l’Histoire de Napoléon,’ gives the story of the revolt at Cairo very tersely:—
October 21.—‘During two months the Mussulmans patiently supported the yoke of the conquerors; but the establishment of a registration of landed property became the cause of a violent insurrection.
‘On the 30th Vendemaire, year VII. (October 21, 1798), a multitude ran through the streets, and massacred all the French they met. Bonaparte repaired to the scene, and took measures to cut the communications between the different quarters of the city, which were in the hands of the insurgents. Fifteen thousand of them took refuge in the great mosque, and refused to surrender. A hail of bombs, shells, and bullets, threatened to engulph them under the débris of their last asylum. Soon they uttered lamentable cries, implored the mercy of the general-in-chief, and surrendered at discretion.’
Combe thus versifies this event:—