It was a notable French victory, one of the few occasions when
Napoleon actually carried out his textbook destruction of an enemy. For a
loss of 220 killed and 750 wounded, he had defeated an army between
twice and three times as large; Turkish losses amounted to at least 5,000
dead. The 69th Regiment, publicly humiliated at Acre for its allegedly
poor showing and condemned to the task of escorting the sick on the
retreat across the Sinai desert, fought with a desperate tenacity and fully
retrieved their laurels. Sidney Smith, who had confidently selected
Mustapha's defensive positions and advised him on the choice of ground,
was lucky to escape back to his sloop.
Back in Cairo Napoleon could now make leisurely plans for the
departure which he had strongly hinted at as early as 2I June, when he
asked Admiral Ganteaume to be ready to sail for Europe in the frigates
La Muiron and La Carriere. To put pressure on the Directory to recall
him, he sent a dispatch to Paris on 29 June, acknowledging the loss of
5,344 men and asking for 6,ooo reinforcements - knowing very well that
they would not be forthcoming. Whether the political situation in France
meant that the fruit was finally ready for the picking he knew not, and
there was grave risk of interception by the Royal Navy as he travelled
virtually the entire breadth of the Mediterranean. But his own future
demanded that he get out of Egypt as soon as possible.
On I I August a fresh sheaf of newspapers arrived in Cairo, leaving no
doubt of the scale of disaster in Europe. At last the worst was widely
known: that France faced a coalition of England, Austria, Russia, Turkey
and Naples; that the Russians seemed ubiquitous in Europe; that an
Anglo-Russian army had invaded Holland and an Austro-Russian army
had gained control of Switzerland; that a Turco-Russian fleet had
captured Corfu; and that another Austro-Russian army had swept into
northern Italy and undone all Bonaparte's work there in a matter of
weeks. France was reported to be on the verge of economic collapse and
royalist sentiment was running high.
Napoleon knew all this already, but in a carefully stage-managed
histrionic outburst put on for the benefit of his generals, he rehearsed the
scale of the disaster in Europe: France facing Austria on the Rhine,
Austrians and Russians in northern Italy and Neapolitans and Sicilians in
the south; Austrian victories at Stockach on the Rhine and at Magnano
and Cassano in Italy; r8,ooo British troops and I8,ooo Russian
dominating Holland; Neapolitans entering Rome, the Russians in Turin,
the Austrians in Milan, and withal the Royal Navy still the master of the
Mediterranen. He inveighed against the Directors: 'Can it be true? ...
Poor France! ... What have they done, the idiots?' He put it to the
marcin
(Marcin)
#1