ested it from his hand. At that instant the officer was bayoneted
by one of the 42nd.

[Illustration: Battle of ALEXANDRIA

arst. March 1801.]

While this incident was proceeding Sir Ralph received a musket-ball in
the thigh, and also a severe contusion on the breast, probably by a
splinter of stone struck by a cannon-ball. In the heat of the action he
was unconscious of the first wound, but felt much pain from the
contusion. At this moment Sir Sidney Smith rode up; he had accidentally
broken his sword, and the general discerning it, at once presented him
with the one that he had wrested from the French officer. He then took
up his station in the battery, from which he could obtain a view of the
whole scene of the battle, for by this time it was daylight. The contest
still raged. Another body of cavalry charged the foreign brigade, but
were received with so heavy a fire that they did not press the charge
home. The French infantry were now no longer in column, but spread out
everywhere in skirmishing order. The ammunition of the English on the
right was by this time totally exhausted, and but one cartridge remained
for each of the guns in the battery.

The chief point of attack was now the centre. Here a column of
grenadiers, supported by a heavy line of infantry, advanced to the
assault, but the Guards stoutly maintained themselves until General
Coote, with his brigade, came up, and the French were then driven back.
All this time the French guns kept up an incessant cannonade on the
British position. The attack on the British left, which had been but a
feint, was never seriously pursued, but was confined to a scattered fire
of musketry and a distant cannonade. General Hutchinson, who commanded
here, kept his force in hand; for, had he moved to the assistance of the
centre and right, a serious attack might have been made on him, and the
flank being thus turned, the position would have been taken in rear.

On the right the French as well as the British had exhausted their
ammunition, and the singular spectacle was presented of two hostile
forces pelting each other with stones, by which many heavy blows were
given on both sides, and some killed, among them a sergeant of the 28th.
The grenadiers and a company of the 40th presently moved out against the
assailants, and the French then fell back. General Menou, finding that
all his attacks had failed, now called off his troops. Fortunately for
them the artillery ammuniti