For two months the army had been before Acre; it had sustained considerable losses, and it would have been imprudent to expose it to more.  The plague was in Acre, and the army had caught the contagion at Jaffa.  The season for landing troops approached, and the arrival of a Turkish army near the mouths of the Nile was expected.  By persisting longer, Bonaparte was liable to weaken himself to such a degree as not to be able to repulse new enemies.  The main point of his plan was effected, since he had rendered the enemy in that quarter incapable of acting.  He now commenced his march to recross the desert.

Bonaparte at length reached Egypt after an expedition of nearly three months.  It was high time for him to return; for the spirit of insurrection had spread throughout the whole Delta.  His presence produced everywhere submission and tranquillity.  He gave orders for magnificent festivities at Cairo to celebrate his triumphs in Syria.  He had to curb not only the inhabitants, but his own generals and the army itself.  A deep discontent pervaded it.  They had been for a whole year in Egypt.  It was now the month of June, and they were still ignorant of what was passing in Europe, and of the disasters of France.  They merely knew that the Continent was in confusion, and that a new war was inevitable.  Bonaparte impatiently waited for further particulars, that he might decide what course to pursue, and return, in case of need, to the first theatre of his exploits.  But he hoped first to destroy the second Turkish army assembled at Rhodes, the very speedy landing of which was announced.

This army, put on board numerous transports and escorted by Sir Sidney Smith’s squadron, appeared on July 11th in sight of Alexandria, and came to anchor in the road of Abukir, where the French squadron had been destroyed.  The point chosen by the English for landing was the peninsula which commands the entrance to the road, and bears the same name.  The Turks landed with great boldness, attacked the intrenchments sword in hand, carried them, and made themselves masters of the village of Abukir, putting to death the garrison.  The village being taken, it was impossible for the fort to hold out, and it was obliged to surrender.  Marmont, who commanded at Alexandria, left the city at the head of twelve hundred men to hasten to the assistance of the troops at Abukir.  But, learning that the Turks had landed in considerable numbers, he did not dare to attempt to throw them into the sea by a bold attack, and returned to Alexandria, leaving them to establish themselves quietly in the peninsula of Abukir.

[Illustration:  119.jpg Cairo from the left bank of the Nile]

The Turks amounted to nearly eighteen thousand infantry.  They had no cavalry, for they had not brought more than three hundred horses, but they expected the arrival of Murad Bey, who was to leave Upper Egypt, skirt the desert, cross the oases, and throw himself into Abukir with two or three thousand Mamluks.