BOOK III. viceroy at Capua, was steering towards Palermo, in order to take refuge in the palace usually alCHAP. IX. lotted for the residence of his viceroys, the French were marching with hasty steps towards the me1799. tropolis.

Notwithstanding this monarch had abandoned his subjects, a large portion of them were still hostile to the French, and not only attacked and cut off their convoys, but also seized upon their baggage, and massacred the stragglers. However, the republican troops still continued to advance in three columns, under the Generals Duhesme, Le Roy, and Macdonald.

Championnet, the commander-in-chief, was entirely ignorant of the state of the centre and left wing of his army under General Duhesme, who was equally so with the destiny of the right wing; he had forced his way through a country intersected by rivers and defended by the troops of the enemy. With all its successes the French army was attacked by an armed peasantry and people, and was in great distress, when a deputation of Neapolitan officers, authorized by the viceroy, waited upon General Championnet, proposing to deliver up Capua on being granted an armistice as the basis of a permanent treaty. The Neapolitan army was evidently discontented at being governed by a foreigner and forsaken by the royal family.

General Championnet, who had haughtily refused a similar proposal before, now cheerfully agreed to an armistice, which was accordingly concluded, on the 10th of January, between the republican general, the Prince of Milliano, and the Duke of Gesso, by which Capua was to be delivered to the French, with all its artillery and stores. The army of Championnet was to have the country from Acerra before Naples; Benevente, and along the Adriatic, was to form a line of demarkation; the ports of Naples were to be evacuated by the ships belonging to those at war with the republic; and the Neapolitans were to pay to France 10,000,000 of livres. Hostilities were not to commence till three days' notice should be given by either of the parties.

General Championnet, in a secret note to the directory, which went with the capitulation of Capua, declared that he was surrounded on all sides, destitute of provisions, ammunition, and articles of every kind; that the loss of a battle would have ruined his whole army, and a victory, even before Capua, would have availed him nothing. He looked on the possession of this place as of the utmost importance, since there was in it a supply for the army of all its wants, and it greatly hastened the conquest of Naples. An armistice, granted to a people so full of perfidy, was no more than a stratagem of war, and the one now concluded could be broken by the Neapolitans whenever they thought proper; and that he had

no doubt of the conquest of Naples about the time when the news of the surrender of Capua could reach the directory, as he corresponded with the disaffected party, which was very numerous. The directory passed the severest censures on General Championnet for agreeing to any armistice till he had subdued the whole kingdom.

The king was truly dissatified with this armistice, as appears by his letter to General Pignatelli, commander-in-chief at Naples during the absence of his majesty:

Palermo, Jan. 15, 1799. "At the time when, from the urgency of cir cumstances, and the good dispositions manifested by the people, to which in your former letters you have done justice, I expected a general rising in defence of the capital of my kingdom, I receive your's of the 12th instant, which informs me of the disgraceful treaty which has been concluded, in consequence of the most absurd instructions given by you to persons directed to negociate with the enemy, and by which I see the greatest part of my realm, though uncon quered, given up with a view of sparing the capital, when it is obvious that these concessions must lead to the irretrievable loss of my whole kingdom. I have been more surprised that you have acted in this unwarrantable manner, as you had no powers from me for such negociations. The instructions which I left with you were of a tendency very different. In concluding such a treaty, you may either have forgotten you have a master, or remembered it only for the purpose of imposing the most scandalous and disgraceful terms on him.

"You may suppose how much I am incensed at finding the trust I had imposed in you be trayed in such a manner, and how indignant I feel against your unworthy advisers. F.R."

A proclamation was soon after published, formally disavowing the late armistice, and calling on all the inhabitants of the different provinces to rise in defence of their country, their families, their property, and their religion. They were told "that cowardice and treachery alone had rendered the invasion formidable;" and "that the bravery and attachment of the people to their sovereign must speedily render their enemies contemptible."

The imperial General Mack having been deserted by his soldiers, and looked upon by the royalists as a traitor, sent an officer before him to crave protection from General Championnet. So closely was he pursued, that he reached the French camp almost as soon as the officer, and was received with kindness and affability. He obtained a passport, and was escorted to Milar. This enraged the Lazzaroni, who collected their

forces in a body, and poured their vengeance on the republicans at Ponte Rotto, defeating the advanced guard, and pushing forward to the line of the French army, where multitudes were put to death, and the rest took refuge in flight.

The Prince of Molliterno had the address to be chosen their general; but, when they learned that he wished to negociate with the French, they not only deserted his standard, but aimed at his life. The Duke Della Torre, and his brother, Clement Filomavino, were first murdered, and then burnt to ashes, although inimical to monarchy. As the Lazzaroni had attacked the van-guard of the republican army, Championnet sent them a proclamation by the chief of the squadron; but the messenger was received by a volley of musketry; and, after attempting to explain, forced to return.

The insurgents, by this time, had chosen two leaders, Paggio and Michel; the former kept a chandler's shop, and the latter was a porter. Several avowed partisans of France, joined by a number of the chief inhabitants, for the sake of preserving their lives and fortunes, found means to seize on the castle of St. Elmo. The French general, hoping that the appearance of his army would reduce the Lazzaroni to submission, deferred the assault till the following day; but the fire they kept up convinced him they were to be subdued only by force. Those at St. Elmo acquainted the general in the night that they only waited his commands to open a dreadful fire upon the city. The two battalions on Capo di Monte had orders to march at night, and form a junction with the garrison of St. Elmo, and discharge upon the city the whole of their artillery. This was the signal for General Eble to commence firing upon it, and the whole army were to rush impetuously forward, and bear down all be

fore it.

Although night overtook them, the firing continued, when the republicans formed into two divisions, and, exhausted with fatigue, one of them charged on the gallant enemy, while the other sought some repose amidst a dismal heap of carnage and ruins. At the dawn of day, January 23, the battle raged with fury, and it was doubtful who would be the conquerors. To end the conflict, General Championnet gave orders to force the passages to the Castello Novo and the Fort del Camine, at the point of the bayonet. A division was to seize on the palace, and another to form a junction with the garrison of St. Elmo, already in possession of part of the city. At this critical period Championnet thought he might meet the superstitious ideas of those savage people, and therefore published an account of his regard for their great St. Januarius! This had the desired effect; his conversion flew like lightning through the city, and did more in his

画

favor than his artillery. One of their chiefs de- BOOK III. livered an oration to his soldiers, ordered them to stop their firing, and to lay down their arms. CHAP. IX. He was listened to with reverence, and obeyed with alacrity. The horrors of war were followed by acclamations of joy, and the French general's hand was kissed in token of submission.

Thus suddenly the Lazzaroni became the advocates of republicanism. They plundered the royal palace, which but a short time before they would have defended to the last; and General Championnet thought proper to hinder them from committing other extravagant excesses. He left the command of the place to General Duhesme, and encamped his army on the heights around the city of Naples. Having disarmed the inhabitants, the French general, in person, proclaimed to his troops, that henceforth they should be styled "The Army of Naples;" which decree was accompanied by the shouts of the multitude and the tremendous thunder of cannon.

The clergy, and many of the nobles, celebrated the entry of the French. Even the cardinal archbishop condescended to pay his court to the invaders, and actually practised fraud to reconcile the people to the new government. In consequence of long and earnest prayers, the phial, which contained a precious portion of the patron saint, so much respected by the inhabitants, exhibited undoubted marks of miraculous interposition, an event immediately communicated to the credulous multitude. After this, a day was appointed for a solemn Te Deum, when the citizens were to return thanks for the glorious entry of the French troops, who had come to regenerate the nation, and consolidate its happiness. At the same time the venerable prelate intimated, that St. Januarius had greeted their arrival in the kindest manner, kindest manner, “his blood having miraculously liquified on the very evening of that day on whichthe republican forces had taken up their abode in the capital."

With affected piety Championnet assisted on this occasion, and then addressed the following seductive proclamation to the deluded inhabi

tants:

"You are at length free; your love is the only price which France desires to obtain from you for your liberty, and the only clause of a treaty of peace, which the army of the republic comes to ratify, by a solemn oath with you, within the walls of the capital, and on the subverted throne of your last monarch. Misery be to the wretch who shall refuse to sign with us this honorable compact, in which the fruit of victory is given to the vanquished, and which only leaves to the conqueror the glory of having consolidated your happiness: he shall be treated as a public enemy, against whom we remain in arms!

"If there be still among you hearts so ungrate

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1799.

BOOK III. ful as to reject that liberty which we have gained for you at the expence of our blood; or any CHAP. IX. men so insane as to regret a king deprived of the right of commanding, in consequence of his violating the oath which he had sworn to defend them, let them fly for protection to standards which are disgraced by perjury! War shall be prosecuted against such to extermination. Republicans, the cause in which you have so generously suffered is ultimately victorious. What the brilliant victories of the army of Italy had not been able to accomplish, has been happily effected by the blindness of your last king.

"Let him blame, then, his own mad pride and his audacious aggressions, for the happiness of your fate, and the disgrace which he has experienced: but let him be justly punished for having attacked, against the faith of oaths, a nation in alliance with him, and for having attempted to deprive a neighboring people of their liberty; let him be punished by the loss of a crown which he has dishonored, and by the chagrin of having been the principal instrument of making you free: let no apprehension embitter the sentiment of an happiness so unexpected.

"The army which I command remain in the midst of you for your defence-it will lose its best men-it will shed its last drop of blood, before it will allow your last tyrant to entertain even the hope of renewing the proscriptions of your families, and of opening again the dungeons in which he has caused them so long to pine.

"Neapolitans, if the French army now assumes the title of the army of Naples, it is in consequence of the solemn engagement into which it has entered, to die for your cause, and to make no other use of its power than to maintain your independence, and to preserve your rights, which it has vindicated. Let the people, therefore, be assured of the full enjoyment of their religion, and cease to be alarmed with respect to the rights of property. The force of interest has assisted the tyrants in the exertions they have made to calumniate, in the eyes of the world, the integrity, generosity, and good faith of the French nation; but, to a nation so generous, a few days are sufficient to divest credulous men of the odious prejudices to which tyranny has recourse to incite them to deplorable excesses.

"The organization of plunder and assassination projected by your last king, and excited by his corrupt agents, as a mean of defence, has produced the most dreadful and horrible consequences; but in removing the cause of the evil, it will be easy to check its effects, and to repair even the fatal mischief which it has produced..

"Let the republican authorities, which are about to be established, restore order and tranquillity, on the basis of a paternal administration; let them dissipate the idle alarms of ignorance, and oppose the fury of fanaticism, with a zeal equal to that which has been employed by perfidy to increase them; and, in a short time, the severity of discipline, which re-establishes order with so much facility among the troops of a free people, will not fail to put a period to the crimes produced by hatred and revenge."

a

Immediately after this, Naples was proclaimed commonwealth, under the designation of " The Parthenopean Republic," and the provisional government confided to twenty-one citizens, chosen by the French general. These were enjoined to draw up a plan for a new constitution, and while money was levied for the payment of the army, the estates of the clergy and the domains of the crown were declared to appertain to the conquerors.

Charles Laubert, a man accused of jacobinical principles, was placed at the head of the new administration; and none of the rest possessed the confidence of the nation, except Dominico Cirillo, a celebrated physician, and Flavio Pirelli, formerly a president of the royal chamber.

The national guard, indeed, boasted of the first grandees, particularly the princes Della Torella and Rocca, both knights of St. Januarius, and the richest individuals in the kingdom. The Prince of Molliterno, before mentioned, was appointed commander-in-chief, and the Duke de Roccaromana offered to levy a regiment at his own expence.

An assembly, or kind of parliament, was soon after convoked, and care was taken to admit two representatives on the part of the Lazzaroni, who still continued to possess considerable sway in Naples, while their former leaders were gratified with offices and pensions.

In order to keep his word, Championnet restrained, as much as possible, the spoliations of the agents of the directory, and not only suspended them from the exercise of their functions, but obliged them to return home. Soon after, the French general and all his principal officers were cashiered by the directory; and General Serrurier, in consequence of having seized the little republic of Lucca, January 15, received the command of the army of Naples. All titles and exclusive privileges were abolished in Lucea; the sovereignty of the people was proclaimed, a directory established, and the sum of two millions of livres levied on the estates of the ex-nobles alone, which was immediately presented to General Serrurier.

1

THE reduction of Egypt proved a more difficult task than Bonaparte at first supposed. The Mamelukes, though unacquainted with the modern system of war, were not so ignorant as he suspected. The number of his enemies was also about to be increased, in consequence of the declaration of war by the Ottoman Porte; but his greatest enemy proved to be the plague, called by the French physician an inflammatory fever, in order to conceal the malady; but its contageous effects soon led to a discovery of the real cause. ¿ The first care of the general was to provide for the support of his troops, and the preservation of their health. The Egyptians, by nature a soft and timid race, were naturally struck, after the arrival of the French, with terror. They shut themselves up in their own houses, and concealed whatever they had fit for being used as food; so that for several days the French were forced to subsist on their own naval stores. But when the apprehensions of the natives were removed, the markets of Alexandria were supplied with all sorts of provisions in the greatest abundance. The Delta was fully sufficient to supply all necessaries, which could be conveyed to the French magazines by the Nile, or by canals. The old canal that conveyed the waters of the Nile to Alexandria, with other canals, were cleared and repaired. Wind-mills were constructed for the grinding of corn, the only mills known to the natives being hand-mills, and here and there mills wrought by oxen. The want of wine was found capable of being supplied by a spirit extracted from dates.

The divan which had been appointed, (as mentioned in the sixth chapter) had it in charge, from the commander-in-chief, to inquire whether Egypt did not furnish a substitute for hops for the making of beer. At Alexandria and Grand Cairo, boards were instituted for inquiring into the best means for the prevention of contagious distempers, and in general for preserving the health of the seamen and soldiers:among the first fruits of which was the cleansing of these and other cities from many impurities, and a recommendation of the bath, with directions for using it, to the French soldiers.

1798.

At Cairo, a theatre was established for the BOOK III. antusement of the French; and music was introduced on all occasions. Here also the anniver- CHAP. X. sary of the republic was celebrated with uncommon splendor. On the setting of the sun, September 22, the feast was announced by three salutes of artillery. The commencement of the feast was proclaimed at sun-rising the next morning, by three discharges from the whole of the ar tillery; that of all the different divisions of the army; that of the park; and that of the marine, or flotilla, on the Nile. Immediately the generale was beaten through the whole city, and all the troops, in the highest order, appeared under arms, in the place of Elbecquier. In this place a circle had been traced of two hundred fathoms diameter, of which the circumference was formed by one hundred and five columns, decorated with three-colored flags, bearing the names of all the departments. These pillars were united by a double row of garlands, emblematical of the unity and indivisibility of all the parts of the French republic.

One of the entries into the circle was decorated by a triumphal arch, on which was pourtrayed the battle of the pyramids; the other by a portico, above which were placed several Arabie inscriptions. Of these there was one as follows: "There is no God but one God, and Mahomet is his prophet."

In the middle of the circle, there was raised an obelisk of granite, of the height of seventy feet. On one of its faces was engraven, in letters of gold, "To the French republic, ann. 7;" on that opposite to it," To the expulsion of the Mamelukes, ann. 6." On the collaterial sides, these two inscriptions were translated into Arabic. The pedestal of the obelisk was embellished with bas reliefs; on the adjoining ground, seven altars in the ancient style, intermixed with candlesticks, supported trophies of arms, surmounted with threecolored flags, and civic crowns. In the centre of each of these trophies, there was a list of those men, of each division, who fell in the act of delivering Egypt from the yoke of the Mamelukes.

As soon as all the troops had assembled, and were drawn up on the place of Elbecquier, the

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BOOK III. commander-in-chief, accompanied by his staffofficers, the generals of divisions, the commissaryCHAP. X. general, the commissaries of war, and of civil administrations, artists and men of science, the kiaya, or Turkish officer, next in authority to the bashaw, the emir Hadji, and the members of the divan, both of Cairo and the provinces. The commander-in-chief, with his suite, seated themselves on the platform that ran round the obelisk. Superb carpets covered the mount on which it stood. The music of the different demigrades struck up warlike marches, and patriotic airs, and songs of victory.

The troops, after going through their exercises with great readiness and precision, came and arranged themselves around the obelisk; when a proclamation, by the commander-in-chief, for the discipline of the army, and the good government and well-being of Egypt, was read aloud, by the adjutant-general. It was listened to with the most profound silence, and followed by repeated cries of vive la republique. A hymn was performed at the orchestra, and the troops filed off, in perfect order, before the general-in-chief, who returned with his company to his quarters. The whole of this company, with several Turkish offi cers and Arabian chiefs, who had come up during the exhibition, were invited to dinner at the general's house, where a sumptuous table was provided, of one hundred and fifty covers. The French colors were united with the Turkish, the cap of liberty was placed by the side of the crescent, and the rights of man by the koran. The gaiety of the French was tempered with the gravity of the Turks. The mussulmen were left to their own choice of meats and drinks, and expressed great satisfaction with the attentions that were shewn them. After dinner, several toasts were drank. The commander-in-chief gave, for a toast, "To the three hundredth year of the French republic;" one of his aides-de-camps, "To the legislative bodies, and the executive directory;" Monge, president of the Egyptian in stitute, "To the perfection of the human understanding, and the advancement of knowledge;" General Berthier, " To the expulsion of the Mamelukes, and the prosperity of the people of Egypt." Other toasts were given, and each was received with unanimous plaudits, and suitable airs of music. Patriotic couplets, sung by the soldiery, concluded this civic feast.

At four o'clock, foot and horse-races began, and the prizes were adjudged to the victors, who were borne in triumph around the circus. At the close of the day, the whole of the circumference of this was illuminated in the most brilliant manner. The pillars, the intermediate garlands, and the triumphal arches, were hung with chrystal lamps, which produced the happiest effect. At eight o'clock, there was a beautiful display of fire

works, accompanied, at different intervals, by discharges of musquetry and artillery. A considerable number of Turkish ladies enjoyed the spectacle from the windows and tops of the houses that surrounded the place of Elbecquier. The intent of this entertainment was, to impress the minds of the Egyptians with a sense of the power, art, and magnificence of the French nation, and of their respect for musselmen, and good-will towards all the Egyptians. Nor was it by professions alone that Bonaparte studied to gain the attachment and confidence of the people; for, in order to please them, and dispel their apprehensions of some unknown impending calamities, the annual ceremony of the opening of the Nile was this year accompanied by even greater ceremony and pomp than usual. On this occasion the general distributed considerable sums, in alms, among the poor, and gave an entertainment to the notables of Cairo. In like manner he gave à considerable sum for defraying the expence of a magnificent feast, in honor of the birth-day of the prophet. Having, on that occasion, declared himself the protector of all religions, he received, from the mussulmen, the name of Ali Bona parte.

The French general not only declared himself a disciple and friend to Mahomet, but, by means of his emissaries, as well as no obscure hints in messages and letters to different parties of mus selmen, insinuated that he was acquainted with their inward thoughts and designs, and endea vored to propagate a persuasion that he had been actually and expressly commissioned, by the prophet, to resist, repel, and overthrow the tyranny of the beys, to reform certain errors and abuses, and to promote justice, mercy, and piety, the great ends of the Mahometan and only religion.

The predominant passions of the people of Egypt were religious bigotry and superstition, and a jealousy and indignation against any degree of familiarity, with their women; and the French general endeavored to win their favor by making his officers and soldiers attend the great festivals and ceremonies in honor of the prophet, and by forbidding plunder. He improved the condition of the women by giving them a certain portion of their husbands' goods at their decease; and he encouraged marriages between them and his soldiers, but he prohibited polygamy.

The French general, accompanied by his staff and the members of the national institute, with a powerful guard, and conducted by several muftis and imans, proceeded to see the pyramids, where, after hastily surveying the five inferior ones, his attention was directed to that called "Cheops." After examining the different apartments, he seated himself in a flattened vault, on a chest of granite, eight feet long and four feet deep, amongst his attendants, and invited the muftis,