ted by its fortifications, became the seat of luxury for this last
of the monastic military orders whose occupation was gone. Bonaparte had
confiscated their property in Italy; and he had sent a skilful agent to
the island to sow dissensions among the Knights, and thus to prepare the
way for the fall of the community. There were many French knights among
them, to whom the principal military commands had been intrusted by the
grand master, a weak German.

Bonaparte, on June 9th, sent a demand to the grand master, that his
whole fleet should be permitted to enter the great harbor for the
purpose of taking in water. The reply was that, according to the rules
of the Order, only two ships, or at most four, could be allowed to enter
the port at one time. The answer was interpreted as equivalent to a
declaration of hostility; and Bonaparte issued orders that the army
should disembark the next morning on the coasts of the island wherever a
landing could be effected. The island was taken almost without
opposition; the French Knights declaring that they would not fight
against their countrymen. On June 13th, the French were put in
possession of La Valletta and the surrounding forts. Bonaparte made all
sorts of promises of compensation to the recreant Knights, which the
Directory were not very careful to keep. He landed to examine his prize,
when General Caffarelli, who accompanied him, said, "We are very lucky
that there was somebody in the place to open the doors for us."

Leaving a garrison to occupy the new possession, the French sailed away
on the 20th, with all the gold and silver of the treasury, and all the
plate of the churches and religious houses. "The essential point now,"
says Thiers, "was not to encounter the English fleet"; nevertheless, he
adds, "nobody was afraid of the encounter." Nelson was at Naples on the
day when Bonaparte quitted Malta. He immediately sailed. On the 22d, at
night, the two fleets crossed each other's track unperceived, between
Cape Mesurado and the mouth of the Adriatic. The frigates of the British
fleet had been separated from the main body, and thus Nelson had no
certain intelligence. His sagacity made him conjecture that the
destination of the armament was Egypt. He made the most direct course to
Alexandria, which he reached on the 28th. No enemy was there, and no
tidings could be obtained of them. On the morning of July 1st, Admiral
Brueys was off the same port, and learned that Nelson ha