d met with less resistance, and had captured the inner
wall before the other columns succeeded in doing so. For some time the
battle had raged in the streets, but the captain of a Turkish vessel had
been sent by Napoleon to the governor, pointing out that further
resistance would bring destruction upon the town, while if he yielded,
the French troops, who came as friends to deliver them from the tyranny
of the Mamelukes, would do no harm to anyone. Koraim thereupon
capitulated. He was at once attached to the general staff, and charged
with maintaining order in the town and disarming its inhabitants.

Proclamations were at once sent out through the country, declaring that
the French had come to destroy the Mameluke domination, and that they
were friends of the Sultan of Turkey. Protection was offered to all the
villages that submitted; those that did not do so would be burnt. Seven
hundred Turkish slaves, who had been delivered at the capture of Malta,
and who had been extremely well treated, were at once sent to their
homes in Tripoli, Algiers, Morocco, Syria, Smyrna, and Constantinople,
being provided with ample sums of money to support them on their way.
These measures had an excellent effect. Koraim sent out messengers to
the Arab tribes of the neighbourhood. His influence among them was
great, and their sheiks for the most part went at once into Alexandria,
and agreed to keep the road open from Alexandria to Damanhour, and to
sell and deliver within forty-eight hours 300 horses, 500 dromedaries,
and 1000 camels. They were presented with dresses of honour and money.
By this time the transports had all entered the old port of Alexandria,
and were busy discharging their cargo and the troops they carried, and
in a short time the whole French army was on shore.

Scarce a word was spoken among Ben Ouafy's party on their homeward ride.
The sheik gave his orders on his arrival.

"We will wait for a day or two," he said to Edgar as they dismounted.
"The French have no cavalry, and would not come out here. Let us see
what the other tribes are going to do; we are but a small body."

When, two days later, a messenger arrived from Koraim, the sheik, after
reading the contents of the proclamation, indignantly tore it in pieces.

"Tell Koraim," he said to the messenger, "that hitherto I have regarded
him as an honourable man, now I spit upon him as a traitor. Whatever
others may do, I will fight against the Franks till the last