The attacks upon the 10th of May, were the last vigorous essays of the French to carry St. Acre. Hitherto, lavish of blood, Buonaparte saw its ineffectual waste, and the Soldiery perceiving themselves offered up as daily sacrifices to his insatiable ambition, lost all their ardour. Unrestrained by the principles of honour, he resorted to the blackest treachery, and the unexampled refuge of a Soldier—that of poisoning his opponent, and demanding a cessation of arms, in order to break it. His vain attempt to subdue a brave garrison during this sacred interval, in one day withered all his laurels, most impressively delineated his genuine character, and will one day be numbered amongst his crimes, by the historian of that country which he now rules with tyrannic despotism.
Precluded from every hope of success, Buonaparte retreated in disorder from before the walls of Acre, during the night of the 20th of May, Sir Sidney and his brave associates did not fail to pursue him, and to annoy his flying columns along the sea beach, while the Arabs, assembled by his counsels, harassed their rear.
Thus ended this memorable siege, during which, 53 British Seamen and Marines were killed, 13 drowned, 113 wounded, and 32 taken prisoners. It has immortalized every gallant fellow who bore a part in it.
The services of Sir Sidney Smith and Colonel Douglas did not terminate here. Although in many instances they were unfortunate, through Turkish indiscipline, they were still splendid in their nature, and momentous in their consequences.
Sir Sidney, returning to Cyprus, by his zeal and the general esteem in which he was held, raised an army of 13,000 men, which, being united to the Turkish fleet, and some English Seamen and Marines, proceeded to Aboukir, were landed, and headed by Colonel Douglas, who volunteered to lead them against Buonaparte in person. The Turks taking flight, were all either killed or taken, and their Chief, with Colonel Bromley, a French Emigrant Officer, owed their preservation from the sabres of the republican cavalry by riding into the sea, where they were picked up by Sir Sidney, who bravely rowed in shore, and kept their pursuers in awe, with a field-piece in the bow of his boat.
A second army, collected from Rhodes and other islands, attacked the French at Damietta, under Sir Sidney and Colonel Douglas, destroyed their magazines there, and had erected cannon against the French redoubt; but Turkish disobedience and insubordination subjected this mass to a disaster similar to that of Aboukir. Sensible of Colonel Douglas's professional talents, the Grand Vizier entreated Sir Sidney to permit his repairing to Jaffa, in order to organize his army there; he accordingly went thither.
Colonel Douglas, during four months, shared in the scanty allowances of the Ottoman army, subsisting upon two ounces of rice daily, sent from the Vizier's table, at which no Christian can sit; drinking brackish water, and constantly sleeping in the open air of the desert. Under all these pressures and privations, the energies of that Officer were, however, so great, that he gained possession of the wells of El-Arisch; seized a supply of provisions there, of which the troops were in utter need, carried the place, and by that means kept together the Ottoman army, on the eve of self-dissolution.
Monsieur Cazel, the French Commandant, who delivered up his sword to the Colonel, avowed that its conquest was almost solely achieved by the gallant British detachment which he led.
This important key to the Syrian desert, again restored to its proper owners, facilitated the convention of El-Arisch, by which the whole French army was to evacuate Egypt, and return home. This having been subsequently cancelled, afforded a fresh field for the valour of my Corps upon its shores.
The following letter from the Grand Vizier to Sir Sidney Smith, fully identifies his grateful sense of the merits of Colonel, now Sir John Douglas, of Marines.