Buonaparte had now ascertained that the Pacha of Syria, Achmet-Djezzar,[27] was at St. Jean d’Acre, (so renowned in the history of the crusades,) and determined to defend that place to extremity, with the forces which had already been assembled for the invasion of Egypt.  He in vain endeavoured to seduce this ferocious chief from his allegiance to the Porte, by holding out the hope of a separate independent government, under the protection of France.  The first of Napoleon’s messengers returned without an answer; the second was put to death; and the army moved on Acre in all the zeal of revenge, while the necessary apparatus of a siege was ordered to be sent round by sea from Alexandria.

Sir Sydney Smith was then cruising in the Levant with two British ships of the line, the Tigre and the Theseus; and, being informed by the Pacha of the approaching storm, hastened to support him in the defence of Acre.  Napoleon’s vessels, conveying guns and stores from Egypt, fell into his hands, and he appeared off the town two days before the French army came in view of it.  He had on board his ship Colonel Philippeaux, a French royalist of great talents (formerly Buonaparte’s school-fellow at Brienne);[28] and the Pacha willingly permitted the English commodore and this skilful ally, to regulate for him, as far as was possible, the plan of his defence.

The loss of his own heavy artillery and the presence of two English ships, were inauspicious omens; yet Buonaparte doubted not that the Turkish garrison would shrink before his onset, and he instantly commenced the siege.  He opened his trenches on the 18th of March.  “On that little town,” said he to one of his generals, as they were standing together on an eminence, which still bears the name of Richard Coeur-de-lion—­“on yonder little town depends the fate of the East.  Behold the key of Constantinople, or of India.”—­“The moment Acre falls,” said he about the same time to De Bourienne, “all the Druses will join me; the Syrians, weary of Djezzar’s oppressions, will crowd to my standard.  I shall march upon Constantinople with an army to which the Turk can offer no effectual resistance—­and it seems not unlikely that I may return to France by the route of Adrianople and Vienna—­destroying the house of Austria on my way!”

From the 18th to the 28th of March, the French laboured hard in their trenches, being exposed to the fire of extensive batteries, arranged by Philippeaux so as to command their approach, and formed chiefly of Buonaparte’s own artillery, captured on the voyage from Alexandria.  The Turks also were constantly sallying out, and their Pacha personally set the example of the most heroic resolution.  Nevertheless, on the 28th, a breach was at last effected, and the French mounted with such fiery zeal that the garrison gave way, until Djezzar appeared on the battlements, and flinging his own pistols at the heads of the flying men, urged and compelled them to renew the defence.  In the end the French retreated with great loss, and—­the Turks, headed by the English seamen, pursuing them to their lines—­a great mine, designed to blow up the chief tower of Acre, was explored, and means taken for countermining it.