Murad, however, got no farther than the Pyramids before he was chased
ignominiously back into the desert by Murat.
Napoleon arrived at Alexandria with 6,ooo men, fully aware that it
would take another fortnight for the other French corps, 1o,ooo strong
under Kleber, to arrive. Learning that the Turks had not yet
disembarked any cavalry or big guns, he decided to make a lightning
strike with his own thousand-strong cavalry. The manoeuvre was
perilous but plausible, since the enemy, by stationing its wings on high
ground, had left a weak spot in the centre. There were three successive
lines of Turkish entrenchments to be carried, and at first it was
Napoleon's intention simply to force the enemy back to their second line
of defence, where he could pin them with howitzers and shells from
artillery swiftly brought up to the abandoned first line.
Outnumbered two to one, the French performed miracles. Murat's
dashing cavalry attack through the centre, supported by Lannes on the
left and Destaing on the right, cut the Turkish army in two; the ill
disciplined Janissaries played into French hands by leaving their defences
in search of French heads. The Turks abandoned the first line of defence
and rushed back to the second, but Murat's cavalry got between the two
lines, forcing the Turkish right into the sea and the left into Lake
Maadieh. Meanwhile, Lannes and Destaing on the wings had taken the
high ground and came on at the double; it was estimated that thousands
of panic-stricken Turks drowned at this point.
Encouraged by this easy success, Napoleon increased the stakes and
gambled that he could take the third line of defence as well. Observing
that Lannes was likely to turn his left, the enemy commander Mustapha
Pasha sortied from the entrenchment with s,ooo men. There was a short
and ferocious struggle, during which Murat and Mustapha actually
fought each other from horseback and Murat took a wound in the cheek.
Now Napoleon showed his genius for timing by throwing in the reserve
at exactly the right moment to reinforce the struggling Lannes. The
outflanking movement was completed and Lannes was in the rear of the
redoubt. When Destaing came charging in, the despondency and terror of
the Turkish defenders was total. Most of them fled in disarray and a
further 3,000 were driven into the sea; Mustapha himself and his reserve
of 1,500 Janissaries were surrounded and taken prisoner. By 4 p.m. only
4,000 Turkish effectives remained on the field and they barricaded
themselves in the town and citadel of Aboukir which they had taken with
such difficulty just a week before. Not wishing to suffer further losses in
house-to-house fighting, Napoleon brought up his heavy artillery for a
final period of slaughter.
marcin
(Marcin)
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