and
he himself was detained a prisoner. In consequence of the alliance
between Mehemet Ali and al-Bardisi, the Albanians gave the citadel over
to the Mamelukes; and soon after, these allies marched against Khosrev
Pasha, who having been joined by a considerable body of Turks, and being
in possession of Damietta, was enabled to offer an obstinate resistance.
After much loss on both sides, he was taken prisoner and brought to
Cairo; but he was treated with respect. The victorious soldiery sacked
the town of Damietta, and were guilty of the barbarities usual with them
on such occasions.

The Mamelukes and Ali Pasha.

A few days later, Ali Pasha Jazairli landed at Alexandria with an
imperial firman constituting him pasha of Egypt, and threatened the
beys, who now were virtual masters of Upper Egypt, as well as of the
capital and nearly the whole of Lower Egypt. Mehemet Ali and al-Bardisi
therefore descended to Rosetta, which had fallen into the hands of a
brother of Ali Pasha, and having captured the town and its commander,
al-Bardisi purposed to proceed against Alexandria; but the troops
demanded arrears of pay which it was not in his power to give, and the
pasha had cut the dyke between the lakes of Aboukir and Mareotis, thus
rendering the approach to Alexandria more difficult. Al-Bardisi and
Mehemet Ali therefore returned to Cairo. The troubles of Egypt were now
increased by an insufficient inundation, and great scarcity prevailed,
aggravated by the taxation to which the beys were compelled to resort in
order to pay the troops; while murder and rapine prevailed in the
capital, the riotous soldiery being under little or no control.
Meanwhile, Ali Pasha, who had been behaving with violence towards the
Franks in Alexandria, received a _hatt-i-sherif_ from the sultan, which
he sent by his secretary to Cairo. It announced that the beys should
live peaceably in Egypt, with an annual pension each of fifteen purses
(a "purse" = 500 piastres) and other privileges, but that the government
should be in the hands of the pasha. To this the beys assented, but with
considerable misgivings; for they had intercepted letters from Ali to
the Albanians, endeavouring to alienate them from their side to his own.
Deceptive answers were returned to these, and Ali was induced by them to
advance towards Cairo at the head of 3000 men. The forces of the beys,
with the Albanians, encamped near him at Shalakan, and he fell back on a
place calle