[Illustration:  130.jpg A MODERN FANATIC]

The gallant Cazals indignantly refused, and a struggle with the Turks ensued.  During this contest, the recreants, who insisted on surrendering, threw ropes to the Turks; these ferocious enemies, once hoisted up into the fort, rushed, sword in hand, upon those who had given them admission into the fort, and slaughtered a great number of them.  The others, brought back to reason, joined the rest of the garrison, and, defending themselves with desperate courage, were most of them killed.  A small number obtained quarter, thanks to that humane and distinguished officer, Colonel Douglas.

It was now the 30th of December:  the letter written by Sir Sidney Smith to the grand vizier, to propose to him a suspension of arms, had not reached him in time to prevent the melancholy catastrophe at El Arish.  Sir Sidney Smith was a man of generous feelings:  this barbarous massacre of a French garrison horrified him, and, above all, it made him fearful of the rupture of the negotiations.  He lost no time in sending explanations to Kleber, both in his own name and that of the grand vizier, and he added the formal assurance that all hostility should cease during the negotiations.

Kleber, when informed of the massacre of El Arish, did not manifest as much indignation as he ought to have done; he was aware that, if he was too warm upon that subject, all the negotiations might be broken off.  He was more urgent than ever for a suspension of arms; and, at the same time, by way of precaution, and to be nearer to the theatre of the conferences, he left Cairo, and transferred his headquarters to Salahieh, on the very border of the desert, two days’ march from El Arish.

In the meantime, Desaix and Poussielgue, detained by contrary winds, had not been able to land at Gaza till the 11th, and to reach El Arish before the 13th.

The evacuation and its conditions soon became the sole subject of negotiation.  After long discussions it was agreed that all hostility should cease for three months; that those three months should be employed by the vizier in collecting, in the ports of Rosetta, Abukir, and Alexandria, the vessels requisite for the conveyance of the French army; by General Kleber, in evacuating the Upper Nile, Cairo, and the contiguous provinces, and in concentrating his troops about the point of embarkation; that the French should depart with the honours of war; that they should cease to impose contributions; but that, in return, the French army should receive three thousand purses, equivalent at that time to three million francs, and representing the sum necessary for its subsistence during the evacuation and the passage.  The forts of Katieh, Salahieh, and the Belbeys, forming the frontier of Egypt towards the desert of Syria, were to be given up ten days after the ratification; Cairo forty days after.