and a former
school-mate of Napoleon, contributed all the skill of an accomplished
French engineer in arming the fortifications and conducting the defense.
Achmet immediately sent intelligence of the approaching attack to Sir
Sydney Smith, who was cruising in the Levant with an English fleet. He
immediately sailed for Acre, with two ships of the line and several
smaller vessels, and proudly entered the harbor two days before the French
made their appearance, strengthening Achmet with an abundant supply of
engineers, artillerymen, and ammunition. Most unfortunately for Napoleon,
Sir Sydney, just before he entered the harbor, captured the flotilla,
dispatched from Alexandria with the siege equipage, as it was cautiously
creeping around the headlands of Carmel. The whole battering train,
amounting to forty-four heavy guns, he immediately mounted upon the
ramparts, and manned them with English soldiers. This was an irreparable
loss to Napoleon, but with undiminished zeal the besiegers, with very
slender means, advanced their works. Napoleon now sent an officer with a
letter to Achmet, offering to treat for peace "Why," said he, in this,
"should I deprive an old man, whom I do not know, of a few years of life?
What signify a few leagues more, added to the countries I have conquered?
Since God has given victory into my hands, I will, like him, be forgiving
and merciful, not only toward the people, but toward their rulers also."
The barbarian Turk, regardless of the flag of truce, cut off the head of
this messenger, though Napoleon had taken the precaution to send a Turkish
prisoner with the flag, and raised the ghastly trophy upon a pole, over
his battlements, in savage defiance. The decapitated body he sewed up in a
sack, and threw it into the sea. Napoleon then issued a proclamation to
the people of Syria: "I am come into Syria," said he, "to drive out the
Mamelukes and the army of the Pacha. What right had Achmet to send his
troops to attack me in Egypt? He has provoked me to war. I have brought it
to him. But it is not on you, inhabitants, that I intend to inflict its
horrors. Remain quiet in your homes. Let those who have abandoned them
through fear return again. I will grant to every one the property which he
possesses. It is my wish that the Cadis continue their functions as usual,
and dispense justice; that religion, in particular, be protected and
revered, and that the mosques should continue to be frequented by all
fa