that chivalrous person ever after with the venom
of a personal hatred. Sir Sydney, in requital of Buonaparte's
proclamation--inviting (as was his usual fashion) the subjects of the
Pacha to avoid his yoke, and ally themselves with the invaders--put
forth a counter address to the Druses and other Christian inhabitants of
Syria, invoking their assistance in the name of their religion, against
the blasphemous general of a nation which had renounced Christianity.
Napoleon upon this said that Sir Sydney was a madman; and if his story
be true, Sir Sydney challenged him to single combat; to which he made
answer, that he would not come forth to a duel unless the English could
fetch Marlborough from his grave, but that, in the meantime, any one of
his grenadiers would willingly give the challenger such satisfaction as
he was entitled to demand. Whatever inaccuracy there may be in some of
these circumstances, there is no doubt of the fact that Buonaparte and
the brave commodore strove together at Acre, under the highest influence
of personal resentment, as well as martial skill and determination.

[_21st May._] The siege had now lasted sixty days. Once more Napoleon
commanded an assault, and his officers and soldiery once more obeyed him
with devoted and fruitless gallantry. The loss his army had by this time
undergone was very great. Caffarelli and many other officers of the
highest importance were no more. The plague had some time before this
appeared in the camp; every day the ranks of his legions were thinned by
this pestilence, as well as by the weapons of the defenders of Acre. The
hearts of all men were quickly sinking. The Turkish fleet was at hand to
reinforce Djezzar; and upon the utter failure of the attack of the 21st
of May, Napoleon yielded to stern necessity, and began his retreat upon
Jaffa.

The plague now raged in the army. The very name of this horrible scourge
shook the nerves of the Europeans; its symptoms filled them with
indescribable horror. The sick despaired utterly; the healthy trembled
to minister to them in their misery. Napoleon went through the
hospitals, and at once breathed hope into the sufferers, and rebuked the
cowardice of their attendants, by squeezing and relieving with his own
hand the foul ulcers which no one had dared to touch. Pity that this act
of true heroism must ever be recorded on the same page that tells the
story of the sand-hills!

The name of Jaffa was already sufficiently sta