rth, detached the 31st
regiment and the Chasseurs Britanniques, accompanied by some field
artillery under Major-General Wauchope and Brigadier-General Meade, on
this service; and these troops entered Rosetta without encountering any
opposition; but as soon as they had dispersed among the narrow streets,
the garrison opened a deadly fire on them from the latticed windows and
the roofs of the houses. They effected a retreat on Aboukir and
Alexandria, after a very heavy loss of 185 killed and 281 wounded,
General Wauchope and three officers being among the former, and General
Meade and nineteen officers among the latter. The heads of the slain
were fixed on stakes on each side of the road crossing the Ezbekia in
Cairo.

Mehemet Ali, meanwhile, was conducting an expedition against the beys in
Upper Egypt, and he had defeated them near Assiut, when he heard of the
arrival of the British. In great alarm lest the beys should join them,
especially as they were far north of his position, he immediately sent
messengers to his rivals, promising to comply with all their demands if
they should join in expelling the invaders; and this proposal being
agreed to, both armies marched towards Cairo on opposite sides of the
river.

To return to the unfortunate British expedition. The possession of
Rosetta being deemed indispensable, Brigadier-Generals Sir William
Stewart and Oswald were despatched thither with 2500 men. For thirteen
days a cannonade of the town was continued without effect; and on the
20th of April, news having come in from the advanced guard at Hamad of
large reinforcements to the besieged, General Stewart was compelled to
retreat; and a dragoon was despatched to Lieutenant-colonel Macleod,
commanding at Hamad, with orders to fall back. The messenger, however,
was unable to penetrate to the spot; and the advanced guard, consisting
of a detachment of the 31st, two companies of the 78th, one of the 35th,
and De Roll's regiment, with a picquet of dragoons, the whole mustering
733 men, was surrounded, and, after a gallant resistance, the survivors,
who had expended all their ammunition, became prisoners of war. General
Stewart regained Alexandria with the remainder of his force, having
lost, in killed, wounded and missing, nearly 900 men. Some hundreds of
British heads were now exposed on stakes in Cairo, and the prisoners
were marched between these mutilated remains of their countrymen.

Final massacre of the Mameluke