294 IBRAHIM PACHA'S SYRIAN CAMPAIGN. 



without provisions in the presence of the enemy, At some distance 

 from Koniah, Redschid Pacha sent forward his selector at the head of 

 a body of irregulars, with orders to advance across the mountains 

 upon the village of Lile, which was occupied by a strong detachment 

 of Arabs, while the Grand Vizier advanced on his side with the grand 

 army, by the route of the plain. The attack was to have been simul- 

 taneous, but unfortunately the selector arrived too soon on the scene 

 of action, and was totally defeated. Undaunted by this check, the 

 Grand Vizier continued his advance, and did not halt till he was in 

 presence of the enemy, whom he found strongly entrenched, and pre- 

 pared to give him a warm reception. It was the 29th of the Redgeb, 

 (21st Deer.) and from the advanced hour of the day, there was no 

 alternative but to attack, otherwise he must have passed a night 

 upon the field, without bread, exposed to the action of an intense 

 cold that would have paralyzed the ardour of the troops. Redschid 

 Pacha made therefore no dispositions for the attack, but his order of 

 battle was best ; he drew up his army in four lines, thus rendering 

 useless a great part of his troops, and when he at length resolved to 

 alter his dispositions for a more extended order of battle, he did not 

 reconnoitre the ground to ascertain if it would permit such an exten- 

 sion of front. His left wing, therefore, was unable to deploy, and 

 remained formed in columns of attack, while the enemy's artillery 

 committed dreadful havoc on their profound masses. He committed 

 also another fault, that of placing his artillery between the interval of 

 the lines, so that it did not reach the Egyptians, while theirs on the 

 the contrary, posted in their front, did great execution. Mehemet 

 Redschid's plan of battle was to attack with the mass of his forces, 

 composed chiefly of Albanians, the centre of the enemy's army, 

 whilst the cavalry should make a demonstration upon the wings. But 

 Ibrahim, who had foreseen this manoeuvre, leaving only on the point 

 attacked a sufficient force to make head for a short time, turned his 

 adversary to the gorges of the mountains. On gaining the flanks of 

 the Ottoman party, he impetuously attacked and routed their cavalry, 

 and afterwards advanced against the principal Turkish corps, which 

 thus found itself attacked on both sides. The Albanians, in spite of 

 all the efforts of the Grand Vizier, broke and fled. Redschid Pacha 

 then put himself at the head of his guard for a last effort, but he was 

 again, after performing prodigies of valour, repulsed, and fell severely 

 wounded into the hands of the Egyptians. The loss of the Turks 

 was immense ; one regiment alone, the first infantry of the line, left 

 3,000 men upon the field of battle. 



The battle was decisive, the second army of the Grand Seignior 

 was annihilated, and the road to Constantinople again open to Ibrahim, 

 and the tottering empire of Mahmoud was saved but by the interven- 

 tion of the Russian Autocrat, who felt that it was rather his own 

 property that was at stake, than that of the unfortunate Sultan. 

 Mehemet AH is now an independent sovereign, and it is to the mili- 

 tary genius of Europe that he owes this glory. While the once 

 formidable empire of Mahomet is rapidly sinking under an accumu- 

 lation of evils, the operation of which European diplomacy will in 

 vain attempt to arrest. 



