the same order of St John that had held Malta against the cream of the
Ottoman army for a whole year in the sixteenth century.
For just three attackers dead the French secured a great naval base and
a vast treasure. In five days Napoleon swept through the island like a
whirlwind. He abolished the Order of StJohn, deported the Master and
his Knights, abolished slavery and feudal privileges, reformed education
and the monasteries, and ordained equal rights with Christians for Jews
and Moslems. Most significantly, he seized the assets of the Order and
those of many of the monasteries. When he sailed on, leaving behind
General Vaubois and a garrison of 3,ooo, he took with him seven million
francs of official exactions and countless millions more as loot.
Meanwhile Nelson's search for his elusive prey continued. Reinforced
on 7 June so that he had thirteen ships of the line, he wrote to the
Admiralty on the I sth to say that the French destination must be
Alexandria if they went beyond Sicily. Three days later he heard that the
enemy was heading for Malta. Even as he prepared to catch them
unawares at Valletta, he learned on 21 June that Napoleon had sailed on
on the 16th. Figuring that since the French had a six-day lead, he should
be able to catch them at anchor off Alexandria, he made for that port with
all speed. But the French had taken a different tack, to Crete and then
south to Alexandria. On the night of 22-23 June the two fleets actually
passed each other in the dark. Five days later Nelson arrived at
Alexandria but, finding no sign of the French, went north to search for
them along the Turkish coast, leaving behind the Captain Hardy who
would feature in his dying words at Trafalgar seven years later. Hardy,
chafing impatiently off Alexandria, finally quit station just two days
before the arrival of Napoleon's vanguard.
The latter stages of the French fleet's voyage to Alexandria were
marked by high seas and food shortages, with some units reduced to
eating biscuit and drinking brackish water; additionally there was a
continuing atmosphere of tension from fear of encountering Nelson and
the Royal Navy, so at night all lamps were dowsed. It is to this voyage
that we owe Bonaparte's adage about novels: that they were fit only for
chambermaids - an observation provoked when he found Bourrienne,
Duroc and Berthier all reading romances. The fact that Berthier's choice
was Werther did not assuage his leader's derision.
On 30 June the coastline of Egypt was spotted and next day Napoleon
selected the beach at Marabout, eight miles from Alexandria, for his
landfall. Disembarking troops in high surf on this sandy beach was
hazardous, but far less so than a frontal attack on Alexandria. After
getting s,ooo men ashore, Napoleon did not wait until he had achieved
marcin
(Marcin)
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