STATE PAPERS. 



231 



poniard, while he was walking with 

 citizen Protain the architect, on 

 the terrace whiclr looks from the 

 garden of the head-quarters into 

 the square of Esbekier. Citizen 

 Protain, in endeavouring to defend 

 the general, received himself six 

 wounds. The first wound which 

 KJeber received was mortal. He 

 fell — Protain still lives. The ge- 

 neral, who was giving orders for 

 repairing the head-quarters and 

 the garden,* had no aide-de-camp 

 with him, nor any individual of the . 

 corps of guards : he had desired to 

 be alone : he was found expiring. 

 The assassin, who was discovered 

 in the midst of a heap of ruins, 

 being brought to the head-quarters, 

 confessed that he was solicited to 

 commit this crime by the aga of the 

 Janissaries of the Ottoman army, 

 commanded bj^ the grand vizier in 

 person. This vizier, unable to van- 

 quish the French in open warfare, 

 has sought to avenge himself by the 

 dagger, a weapon which belongs 

 only to cowards. The assassin is 

 named Soleyman-el-Alepi. Pie 

 came from Aleppo and had arrived 

 at Cairo, after crossing the desert 

 on a dromedary. He took up his 

 lodging at the grand mosque Eleaser, 

 whence he proceeded every day to 

 watch a favourable opportunity for 

 committing his ^rime. He had 

 intrusted his secret to four petty 

 cheiks of the law, who wished to 

 dissuade him from his project ; but 

 who, not having denounced him, 

 have been arrested, in consequence 

 of the deposition.v of the as.-assin, 

 condemned to death, and executed 

 on the 28th of last niontli( June 17), 

 I appointed to conduct the trial, a 

 commission ad/ioc. The commission. 



after conducting the trial with the 

 utmost solemnity, thought it proper 

 to follow the customs of Egypt in 

 the application of the punishment. 

 They condemned the assassin to be 

 impaled, after having his right 

 hand burnt ; and three of the 

 guilty cheiks to be beheaded, and 

 their bodies burnt. The fourth, 

 not having been arrested, was out- 

 lawed. I annex, citizen consul, the 

 different papers relative to the trial. 

 At present, citizen consul, it 

 would be proper to make you 

 acquainted with the events, almost 

 incredible, that have occurred in 

 Egypt ; but I must first have the 

 honour of informing you, that ge- 

 neral Kleber's papers not being yet 

 in order, I can only inform you of 

 those events by a simple reference 

 to the date of the transactions. — - 

 When circumstances are more fa- 

 vourable, I shall send you the 

 details ; but it is so necessary that 

 you should know our situation, 

 that I am determined to address to 

 you the following simple journal: 



Date of the Events which have 

 occurred in Egypt from the 

 Treaty of El-Arisch, inclusive. 



1st. Treaty concluded at El- 

 Arisch, on the 5th Pluviose, and 

 ratified bv the "cneral-in-chief on 

 the 8 th of the same month, at the 

 camp of Salaliich. 



2d. Conferences of Sebille Hal- 

 lem, near Matharich. They con- 

 tinued from the '22d of Ventose to 

 the 27th of the same month. 



3d. The letter to lord Keith, 

 printed and announced to the army 

 on the 27th, with the proclamation 

 of the general-in-chief, Kleber. 



The hcad-iiuartcrs had been damaged by cannon-shot, during the siege. 



