le there was annihilated in Aboukir Bay. In the month of February he
quitted Cairo, with the intention of dispersing the Turkish forces that
were collecting near the Syrian frontier, and then of conquering all
Syria. Gaza and Jaffa were stormed; the man of destiny, as Napoleon
styled himself in Egypt, swept everything before him until he came to
the walls of Acre. This place, which is the key of Syria, was defended
by the Pasha Djezzar; by Colonel Philippeaux, an emigrant royalist; and
by Sir Sidney Smith, with some of his sailors and marines. It was in
vain that Napoleon attempted to breakthrough the crumbling walls of this
ancient place: sixty days were spent before them, and seven or eight
assaults made; but he was every time repulsed, and after losing three
thousand men, he was compelled to raise the siege and return to Cairo.
During his absence General Desaix had ascended the Nile, and had driven
the remnant of the Mamelukes from Upper Egypt and beyond the cataracts
of Assonau; and soon after his return he was called down to the coast,
where Nelson had annihilated the French fleet, by the arrival of a
Turkish army, amounting to 18,000 men. A terrible battle was fought on
the 25th of July; but the French were victorious--10,000 Turks perished.
Napoleon now began to make secret preparations for returning to France;
and on the 23rd of August he embarked secretly in a frigate, leaving his
army, which was reduced to 20,000 men, behind him.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONSULAR GOVERNMENT IN FRANCE.

The return of Napoleon agitated all France and all Europe. The character
of this bold soldier was, indeed, now well known, and none could tell
what game fraught with blood he next might play. Suspicion was well
founded: Napoleon had designs in view when he returned from Egypt which
time alone could unfold. The fact is, when in Egypt, letters from his
brothers Joseph and Lucien, and from some of his admiring friends,
informed him that Italy was lost; that the French armies were everywhere
defeated; that the directory were quarrelling among themselves; and that
the people, sick of the present state of affairs, were ripe for another
revolution. Here then was another field for the ambitious to play their
part; and Napoleon resolved to return to it. He had arrived in Paris two
days before the directory knew anything about it; and in the meantime he
had been consulting with chiefs of parties and officers of the army as
to what step