290 IBRAHIM PACHA'S SYRIAN CAMPAIGN. 



more listened to than their complaints on the bad state of the 

 camp, and on the indolence and negligence of the chiefs. 



The generalissimo even never deemed it once requisite to review 

 his army. The most frightful disorders prevailed in the Turkish 

 military administrations, and which subsequently led to all their 

 reverses ; in fact it was evident to every experienced eye that an 

 army so constituted, once overtaken by defeat, would soon be totally 

 disorganized, and that the Porte ought to place no reliance upon 

 its army. But there was an arm which, in the flourishing times of 

 Islamism, was worth 100,000 janizaries. This was excommunica- 

 tion. The Sultan at last resolved to unsheath this weapon. The 

 fatal fetva was launched against the traitor Mehemet Ali, and his 

 son, the indolent Ibrahim. Those w r ho have studied the Turkish 

 history must have thought that the Viceroy of Egypt would find at 

 last his master the executioner ; but since the late victories of the 

 Russians, all national faith is extinguished among the Osmanlis. 

 Excommunication is an arm as worn out at Constantinople as at Rome, 



Whilst the Porte was fulminating her bull of communication, she 

 directed to the corps diplomatique at Constantinople, a note, in which 

 she explained her quarrel with her subjects, and in which she de- 

 mands the strictest neutrality on the part of the great powers, and 

 declares Egypt in a state of blockade. The Emperor Nicholas re- 

 recalled his consul from Alexandria, and even made an offer of a fleet, 

 and an auxiliary corps d'armee. Austria, an enemy to all revolu- 

 tions, went so far as to threaten the viceroy. England appeared to 

 preserve the strictest neutrality, while France strenuously employed 

 all her influence to bring about an accommodation ; but in vain. 

 The Divan having refused to listen to the demands of Mehemet Ali, 

 the solution of the question was referred to Field Marshal Hussein, 

 who proceeded with that calculated exertion which the Ottomans 

 take for dignity, and thus three weeks were lost before the army ad- 

 vanced upon Mount Taurus. It was only on the 1st June that 

 Mehemet Pacha arrived with the van guard and Beker's brigade at 

 Adana. A reconnaissance, pushed forward as far as Tarsons, brought 

 back the news of the fall of St. Jean d'Acre. It became, therefore, 

 an imperative necessity to occupy the passes of Syria, and to march 

 upon Antioch, in order to cover Beylau. A Tartar was despatched 

 to Hussien, who posted off in great haste to Adana, but only to halt 

 there for a fortnight. At last the movement was effected, and the 

 army reached Antioch, where the cholera broke out in its ranks, and 

 where eight days were lost, instead of profiting by Ibrahim's delay, 

 to take up a more advanced position. The latter descended into the 

 valley of the Orontes, and entered Damascus on the 15th June, after 

 a short engagement with the Turkish irregulars. But all his opera- 

 tions were marked by a want of rapidity. After securing Antioch, 

 the Turkish army should have marched upon Horns, which offered 

 an excellent position, and where they might have established a com- 

 munication with the Druses, upon whom some hopes were founded, 

 and from whence they would have commanded the road to Damascus, 

 But it was not till the 6th of July that Hussein would execute this 

 movement. Mehemet Pacha commenced his march ; but in their 



