on board _Le Tigre_, while floating at the pleasure of the winds off the
coasts of Syria and Egypt: the parties had said all they had to say, and
the negotiations could not be continued to any useful purpose without
the concurrence of the grand vizier. Sir Sidney, availing himself of a
favourable moment, pushed off in a boat which landed him on the coast,
after incurring some danger, and ordered the captain of _Le Tigre_ to
meet him in the port of Jaffa, where Poussielgue and Desaix were to be
put ashore, if the conferences were to be transferred to the camp of the
grand vizier.

At the moment when the English commodore reached the camp, a horrible
event had occurred at El Arish. The grand vizier had collected around
him an army of seventy or eighty thousand fanatic Mussulmans. The
Turks were joined by the Mamluks. Ibrahim Bey, who had some time before
retired to Syria, and Murad Bey, who had descended by a long circuit
from the cataracts to the environs of Suez, had become the auxiliaries
of their former adversaries. The English had made for this army a sort
of field-artillery, drawn by mules. The fort of El Arish, before which
the Turks were at this moment, was, according to the declaration of
General Bonaparte, one of the two keys of Egypt; Alexandria was the
other.

The Turkish advanced-guard having reached El Arish, Colonel Douglas,
an English officer in the service of Turkey, summoned Cazals, the
commandant, to surrender. The culpable sentiments which the officers had
too much encouraged in the army then burst forth. The soldiers in the
garrison at El Arish, vehemently longing, like their comrades, to leave
Egypt, declared to the commandant that they would not fight, and that he
must make up his mind to surrender the fort.

[Illustration: 130.jpg A MODERN FANATIC]

The gallant Cazals indignantly refused, and a struggle with the
Turks ensued. During this contest, the recreants, who insisted on
surrendering, threw ropes to the Turks; these ferocious enemies, once
hoisted up into the fort, rushed, sword in hand, upon those who had
given them admission into the fort, and slaughtered a great number
of them. The others, brought back to reason, joined the rest of the
garrison, and, defending themselves with desperate courage, were most of
them killed. A small number obtained quarter, thanks to that humane and
distinguished officer, Colonel Douglas.

It was now the 30th of December: the letter written by Sir Sidney