War, unfortunately, presents too many occasions on which a law, immutable in all ages, and common to all nations, requires that private interests should be sacrificed to a great general interest, and that even humanity should be forgotten.  It is for posterity to judge whether this terrible situation was that in which Bonaparte was placed.  For my own part, I have a perfect conviction that he could not do otherwise than yield to the dire necessity of the case.  It was the advice of the council, whose opinion was unanimous in favour of the execution, that governed him, Indeed I ought in truth to say, that he yielded only in the last extremity, and was one of those, perhaps, who beheld the massacre with the deepest pain.

After the siege of Jaffe the plague began to exhibit itself with a little more virulence.  We lost between seven and eight hundred, men by the contagion during the campaign of Syria’

   —­[Sir Walter Scott says, that Heaven seat this pestilence amongst
   us to avenge the massacre of Jaffa]—­

During our march on St. Jean d’Acre, which was commenced on the 14th of March, the army neither obtained the brilliant triumphs nor encountered the numerous obstacles spoken of in certain works.  Nothing of importance occurred but a rash skirmish of General Lannes who, in spite of contrary orders, from Bonaparte, obstinately pursued a troop of mountaineers into the passes of Nabloua.  On returning, he found the mountaineers placed in ambush in great numbers amongst rocks, the windings of which they were well, acquainted with, whence they fired close upon our troops; whose situation rendered them unable to defend themselves.  During the time of this foolish and useless enterprise; especially while the firing was brisk, Bonaparte, exhibited much impatience, and it must be confessed, his anger was but natural:  The Nablousians halted at the openings of the mountain defiles.  Bonaparte reproached Lannes bitterly for having uselessly exposed himself, and “sacrificed, without any object, a number of brave men.”  Lannes excused himself by saying that the mountaineers had defied him, and he wished to chastise the rabble.  “We are not in a condition to play the swaggerer,” replied Napoleon.

In four days we arrived before St. Jean d’Acre, where we learned that Djezzar had cut off the head of our envoy, Mailly-de-Chateau-Renaud, and thrown his body into the sea in a sack.  This cruel pasha was guilty of a great number of similar executions.  The waves frequently drove dead bodies towards the coast, and we came upon them whilst bathing.