o subdue an
immense city, peopled by three hundred thousand inhabitants, partly in
a state of revolt, occupied by twenty thousand Turks, and built in the
Oriental style; that is to say, having narrow streets, divided into
piles of masonry, which were real fortresses. These edifices, receiving
light from within, and exhibiting without nothing but lofty walls, had
terraces instead of roofs, from which the insurgents poured a downward
and destructive fire. Add to this that the Turks were masters of the
whole city, excepting the citadel and the square of Ezbekieh, which,
in a manner, they had blockaded by closing the streets that ran into it
with embattled walls.

In this situation, Kleber showed as much prudence as he had just
shown energy in the field. He resolved to gain time, and to let the
insurrection wear itself out. The insurgents could not fail at length
to be undeceived respecting the general state of things in Egypt, and to
learn that the French were everywhere victorious, and the vizier's army
dispersed. Nassif-Pasha's Turks, Ibrahim Bey's Mamluks, and the Arab
population of Cairo could not agree together long. For all these
reasons, Kleber thought it advisable to temporise and to negotiate.

While he was gaining time, he completed his treaty of alliance with
Murad Bey. He granted to him the province of Sai'd, under the supremacy
of France, on condition of paying a tribute equivalent to a considerable
part of the imposts of that province. Murad Bey engaged, moreover, to
fight for the French; and the French engaged, if they should ever quit
the country, to facilitate for him the occupation of Egypt. Murad Bey
faithfully adhered to the treaty which he had just signed, and began
by driving from Upper Egypt a Turkish corps which had occupied it. The
insurgents of Cairo obstinately refused to capitulate, and an attack by
main force was, therefore, indispensable for completing the reduction of
the city, during which several thousand Turks, Mamluks, and insurgents
were killed, and four thousand houses were destroyed by fire. Thus
terminated that sanguinary struggle, which had commenced with the battle
of Heliopolis on the 20th of March, and which ended on the 25th of
April with the departure of the last lieutenants of the vizier, after
thirty-five days' fighting between twenty thousand French on one side,
and, on the other, the whole force of the Ottoman empire, seconded by
the revolt of the Egyptian towns.

In the