obstacle to those who manipulate the levers of power. I could find no
other reason for this expedition.'
Faced with outright mutiny, Napoleon had to concentrate the four
most unreliable divisions at Damanhour, where he rebuked their
commanders vociferously and unfairly. What was needed was a quick
victory, followed by some looting. On 10 July the French were the victors
at a skirmish at Damanhour. On 13 July there was a brisk river battle at
Shubrakhit between the rival Nile flotillas, which the French won. On
land the army formed into squares to receive a charge from the
Mameluke cavalry, but the Mamelukes sheered off. With his army still
teetering on the brink of outright mutiny, the hard-driving Napoleon
forced it on to Wardan (reached on 18 July).
By 21 July the French were very near Cairo. At Embabeh they could
see the Pyramids shimmering in the heat-mists fifteen miles away. It was
now clear that the Mameluke commanders Murad and Ibrahim Bey were
preparing to stand and fight. Napoleon drew up his 25,000 men in a line
of rectangular squares, then exhorted them in a pre-battle speech
containing the famous lines which may yet be almost genuine. Pointing to
the Pyramids he sa id: 'Soldiers, remember that from those monuments
yonder forty centuries look down upon you.'
The stage was set for the inaptly named Battle of the Pyramids (the
Pyramids were some way distant), more properly the Battle of Gizeh.
Facing the enemy with roughly equal numbers but with a huge
technological superiority, Napoleon felt supremely confident. He drew up
his men in a huge field of watermelons, allowing the soldiers to slake
hunger and thirst on the fruit. As soon as he felt their shattered morale
had recovered sufficiently, he ordered a general shift to the right so that
his army would be out of range of the guns in the Mamelukes'
entrenched encampment. Murad Bey, the Mameluke commander,
spotted the manoeuvre and ordered all his cavalry out to arrest it. This
was just what Napoleon had hoped for, for Desaix and Reynier on the
right had orders in such a case to get between the enemy cavalry and its
infantry.
At 3.30 that afternoon the French squares took the full force of a
Mameluke cavalry charge, but the enemy horse was unsupported. In the
six-deep squares, the French did not open fire until the Mamelukes were
just fifty yards away. The volley, when it came, was devastating; the
charge faltered, then turned into a massacre. All that valour could do was
done, but the Mamelukes charged the bristling porcupines that were the
French squares for a full hour, all in vain. The fire from the French
infantry was so intense that the bullets set fire to the Mamelukes' flowing
marcin
(Marcin)
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