ers.

The army now approached Cairo, where the decisive battle was to be
fought. Murad Bey had collected here the greater part of his Mamluks,
nearly ten thousand in number, and they were attended by double the
number of fellahs, to whom arms were given, and who were obliged to
fight behind the intrenchments. He had also assembled some thousands
of janizaries, or spahis, dependent on the pasha, who, notwithstanding
Bonaparte's letter of conciliation, had suffered himself to be persuaded
to join his oppressors. Murad Bey had made preparations for defence
on the banks of the Nile. The great capital, Cairo, is situated on the
right bank of the river, and on the opposite bank Murad Bey had pitched
his tent, in a long plain extending from the river to the pyramids of
Gizeh.

On the 21st of July, the French army set itself in motion before
daybreak. As they approached, they saw the minarets of Cairo shooting
up; they saw the pyramids increase in height; they saw the swarming
multitude which guarded Embabeh; they saw the glistening arms of ten
thousand horsemen resplendent with gold and steel, and forming an
immense line.

[Illustration: GATHERING DATES]

The face of Bonaparte beamed with enthusiasm. He began to gallop before
the ranks of the soldiers, and, pointing to the pyramids, he exclaimed,
"Consider, that from the summit of those pyramids forty centuries have
their eyes fixed upon you."

In the battle of the Pyramids, as it was called, the enemy's force
of sixty thousand men was almost completely annihilated. The Mamluks,
bewildered by European tactics, impaled themselves upon the bayonets
of the French squares. Fifteen thousand men of all arms fell upon the
field. The battle had cost the French scarcely a hundred killed and
wounded; for, if defeat is terrible for broken squares, the loss is
insignificant for victorious squares. The Mamluks had lost their
best horsemen by fire or water: their forces were dispersed, and the
possession of Cairo secured. The capital was in extraordinary agitation.
It contained more than three hundred thousand inhabitants, many of whom
were indulging in all sorts of excesses, and intending to profit by the
tumult to pillage the rich palaces of the beys.

The French flotilla, however, had not yet ascended the Nile, and there
was no means of crossing to take possession of Cairo. Some French
traders who happened to be there were sent to Bonaparte by the sheikhs
to arrange concerning th