The army now approached Cairo, where the decisive battle was to be fought.  Murad Bey had collected here the greater part of his Mamluks, nearly ten thousand in number, and they were attended by double the number of fellahs, to whom arms were given, and who were obliged to fight behind the intrenchments.  He had also assembled some thousands of janizaries, or spahis, dependent on the pasha, who, notwithstanding Bonaparte’s letter of conciliation, had suffered himself to be persuaded to join his oppressors.  Murad Bey had made preparations for defence on the banks of the Nile.  The great capital, Cairo, is situated on the right bank of the river, and on the opposite bank Murad Bey had pitched his tent, in a long plain extending from the river to the pyramids of Gizeh.

On the 21st of July, the French army set itself in motion before daybreak.  As they approached, they saw the minarets of Cairo shooting up; they saw the pyramids increase in height; they saw the swarming multitude which guarded Embabeh; they saw the glistening arms of ten thousand horsemen resplendent with gold and steel, and forming an immense line.

[Illustration:  Gathering dates]

The face of Bonaparte beamed with enthusiasm.  He began to gallop before the ranks of the soldiers, and, pointing to the pyramids, he exclaimed, “Consider, that from the summit of those pyramids forty centuries have their eyes fixed upon you.”

In the battle of the Pyramids, as it was called, the enemy’s force of sixty thousand men was almost completely annihilated.  The Mamluks, bewildered by European tactics, impaled themselves upon the bayonets of the French squares.  Fifteen thousand men of all arms fell upon the field.  The battle had cost the French scarcely a hundred killed and wounded; for, if defeat is terrible for broken squares, the loss is insignificant for victorious squares.  The Mamluks had lost their best horsemen by fire or water:  their forces were dispersed, and the possession of Cairo secured.  The capital was in extraordinary agitation.  It contained more than three hundred thousand inhabitants, many of whom were indulging in all sorts of excesses, and intending to profit by the tumult to pillage the rich palaces of the beys.

The French flotilla, however, had not yet ascended the Nile, and there was no means of crossing to take possession of Cairo.  Some French traders who happened to be there were sent to Bonaparte by the sheikhs to arrange concerning the occupation of the city.  He procured a few light boats, or djerms, and sent across the river a detachment of troops, which at once restored tranquillity, and secured persons and property from the fury of the populace.