The power of Mehemet Ali was beginning to be more firmly established, and the almost simultaneous deaths of Osman-Bardisi and Muhammed el-Elfi (November, 1806, and January, 1807) seemed to promise a peaceful future, when, on March 17th, the English, displeased at his reconciliation with the Porte, arrived in Egypt.  Their forces numbered some seven or eight thousand men, and it was the intention to stir up the Mamluks and render them every assistance.  A detachment of the English forces, led by General Fraser, took possession of Alexandria, which the English occupied for six months without being able to attempt any other enterprise.  The remainder of the troops were cut to pieces at Rosetta by a small contingent of Albanians:  thus ended the expedition.  The viceroy, who at the beginning of the campaign had displayed really Oriental cruelty, and sent more than a thousand heads of English soldiers to Cairo to decorate Rumlieh, finished his operations by an act of European generosity, and delivered up his prisoners without demanding ransom.  The plan of defence adopted by the pasha was the work of Drovetti, to whom, consequently, is due some of the glory of this rapid triumph.

Mehemet Ali, having nothing further to fear from the English, who evacuated Egypt in September, 1807, began to give scope to his ambitious schemes, when the easily disturbed policy of the Porte saw fit to send the wily pasha against the Wahabis, who threatened to invade the Holy Places.  Before obeying these injunctions, the viceroy deemed it wise, previous to engaging in a campaign so perilous, to ensure Egypt against the dangers with which, in the absence of the forces, she would be menaced.

[Illustration:  151.jpg MOSQUE OF MEHEMIT ALI]

But Egypt had no more powerful enemies than the Mamluks, who, since 1808, had kept the country in a constant state of agitation.  Mehemet Ali therefore determined to put an end to this civil war, root and branch, and to exterminate completely this formidable adversary.  He did not hesitate in the choice of means.  War would not have succeeded; murder, therefore, was the only alternative, and the viceroy adopted this horrible means of accomplishing his designs.  He invited the entire Mam-luk corps to a banquet, which he proposed to give in the Citadel Palace in honour of the departure of Tussun Pasha for Mecca.  This palace is built upon a rock, and is reached by perpendicular paths.  On May 1st, the day fixed upon for the festivity, Mehemet Ali received his guests in great splendour and with a cordiality calculated to dispel any suspicions the Mamluks might have entertained.  At the conclusion of the banquet, as they were returning home, they were fired upon in the narrow pass, where retreat and resistance were perfectly impossible.  Thus, after having defeated the bravest troops in the world, they died obscurely, ingloriously, and unable to defend themselves.  Hassan Bey, brother of the celebrated Elfi, spurred his horse to a gallop, rode over the parapets, and fell, bruised and bleeding, at the foot of the walls, where some Arabs saved him from certain death by aiding his flight.  The few who escaped massacre took refuge in Syria or Dongola.