1829. ‘De Bourrienne’s Memoirs. 515 
Massacre of the Prisoners at Jaffa:— 
“On the arrival of the prisoners, Beauharnois and Croisier received the 
most severe reprimands. But the mischief was done, and it now became 
necessary to decide the fate of about four thousand men. The two aides-de- 
camp alleged in their defence that they had been surrounded by a host of 
enemies, and that Bonaparte himself had recommended them to use their exer- 
tions to assuage the carnage. 
« A council was held in the tent of the General-in-chief, to deliberate on the 
measures proper to be adopted in this emergency. The members remained 
long in consultation without agreeing upon any final decision. 
“The third day arrived, and no feasible measure, how ardently soever 
desired, could be suggested for the preservation of the unfortunate prisoners. 
Insubordination and mutiny were making rapid progress throughout the 
camp ;—the evil was hourly increasing—the remedy seemed impossible ;—the 
‘danger was imminent. The fatal sentence of death was pronounced and exe- 
cuted on the 10th of March. The assertion that the Egyptians were separated 
from the other prisoners is incorrect ; there were no other prisoners. 
“ Many of the wretched prisoners composing one of the columns that were 
‘marched for execution to the sea-side, succeeded in swimming to some rocks 
whose distance from the shore protected them from the musquetry of the 
troops. The soldiers grounded their arms upon the sand, and to induce their 
victims to return, employed the signals of peace and reconciliation in use 
among the Egyptians. The latter swam towards the shore, which they were 
destined never to reach with life. 
“ T confine myself to these details of the dreadful sacrifice which necessity 
imperiously required, and of which I had the misfortune to be an eye witness. 
Other pens than mine have done more ample justice to the fearful narrative, 
‘and have spared me the anguish of portraying a scene, the recollection of 
which, vivid, as when I first beheld it, even at this distant period, paralyzes 
_ my faculties. Would to God that a total eblivion of that day of blood ren- 
dered me inadequate to trace even this faint sketch of its horrors! All that 
the imagination can conceive of misery—of despair—and death—must fall 
ineffably short of the appalling reality. 
“ On this painful subject 1 have advanced the truth—the whole truth. I 
was present at all the discussions—at all the conferences—at all the delibera- 
tions. It is needless to state that I had no voice on the occasion. But I owe 
it to truth to declare, that the result of the debates—the position in which the 
army was placed—the scarcity of provisions—the exhausted state of our forces 
in the midst of a country where each individual was a desperate foe—these 
considerations would have extorted my consent to the general decision, had I 
possessed a vote on the question. None but those who witnessed that dread- 
ful day, can form a just conception of the horrible necessity in which we were 
laced. 
Pe In the catalogue of the miseries of war, it ought not to be reckoned one 
of the least, that it gives birth to circumstances of too frequent occurrence, in 
which a law, that from age to age has existed amongst the nations of the 
earth, decides that private interests must be sacrificed to the general good, 
and that humanity itself must sometimes be forgotten. Whether such was 
the dreadful position in which Bonaparte was placed, posterity must judge. 
For myself, my opinion, or rather my firm conviction, on this point, has long 
been formed beyond the possibility of change. Nor could the sanction of 
Napoleon be obtained till the committee on this question had pronounced their 
decision without a dissentient voice. It is, moreover, but justice to declare, 
that a reluctant consent was not wrung from Napoleon till matters were at 
the last extremity ; and that of the spectators who witnessed the massacre, 
none perhaps felt a pang that for bitterness could be compared with his. 
“ It was after the siege of Jaffa that the plague began to manifest itself 
with the most intense violence. In the country about Syria, we lost by the 
contagion from seven to eight hundred men. Sir Walter Scott says that 
3U 2 
