were battered down and set on fire, and
the wretched inmates perished miserably. The calm yet terrible energy with
which Napoleon annihilated "the murderers of the French," sent a thrill of
dismay through Egypt. A large body of Turks, who had surprised and
assassinated a party of the French, intrenched themselves in a small
village. Their doom was sealed. The next day a long line of asses, heavily
laden with sacks, was seen entering the gates of Cairo. The mysterious
procession proceeded to the public square. The sacks were opened, and the
ghastly, gory heads of the assassins were rolled upon the pavements. The
city gazed upon the spectacle with horror. "Such," said Napoleon, sternly,
"is the doom of murderers." This language of energetic action was awfully
eloquent. It was heard and heeded. It accomplished the purpose for which
it was uttered. Neither Turk nor Arab ventured again to raise the dagger
against Napoleon. Egypt felt the spell of the mighty conqueror, and stood
still, while he gathered his strength to encounter England, and Russia,
and Turkey in their combined power. What comment shall be made upon this
horrible transaction. It was the stern necessity of diabolical war. "My
soldiers," said Napoleon, "are my children." The lives of thirty thousand
Frenchmen were in his keeping. Mercy to the barbaric and insurgent Turks
would have been counted weakness, and the bones of Napoleon and of his
army would soon have whitened the sands of the desert. War is a wholesale
system of brutality and carnage. The most revolting, execrable details are
essential to its vigorous execution. Bomb-shells can not be thrown
affectionately. Charges of cavalry can not be made with a meek and lowly
spirit. Red-hot shot, falling into the beleagured city, will not turn from
the cradle of the infant, or from the couch of the dying maiden. These
horrible scenes must continue to be enacted till the nations of the earth
shall learn war no more.

Early in January, Napoleon received intelligence that the vanguard of the
Syrian army, with a formidable artillery train, and vast military stores,
which had been furnished from the English ships, had invaded Egypt, on the
borders of the great Syrian desert, and had captured El Arish. He
immediately resolved to anticipate the movement of his enemies, to cross
the desert with the rapidity of the wind, to fall upon the enemy unawares,
and thus to cut up this formidable army before it could be strengthene