PROMOTION AND SERVICES. 131 



he arrived the 8th Brumaire,* he found the enemy 

 already fortified. The next day but one, after having 

 been in the trenches during the morning, he joined, as a 

 private foot soldier, the troops who charged the Osman- 

 lis with the bayonet, and precipitated them into the sea. 



On the 20th Frimaire,f Malus received the command 

 of the position at Lesbieh, where he had destroyed the 

 walls when this fortress was in the hands of the Turks, 

 and which he had rebuilt since it had fallen into the 

 power of the French. On the 22d, j the plague made 

 its appearance at Lesbieh in six different quarters ; the 

 commandant, Malus, from his long experience, applied 

 means of preventing its development and propagation ; 

 nevertheless it made many victims till the 28th Plu- 

 viose. On the 29th.|| the position of Lesbieh was sur- 

 rendered to the Osmanlis in virtue of the convention of 

 El Harisch. Malus arrived at Cairo the 25th Ventose,^[ 

 and on the 28th ** learned the rupture of the capitula- 

 tion of El Harisch by Lord Keith. The same day, at 

 two o'clock in the afternoon, appeared the proclamation 

 of Kleber, which ended with these celebrated and pro- 

 phetic words : " The army will respond to this disloyal 

 proceeding, and to the demand to lay down their arms, 

 by new victories." The army was in fact on its march 

 on the next day to fight the forces of the Grand Vizier. 

 Malus, attached to the division of General Friant, per- 

 sonally took part in the immortal battle of Heliopolis- 

 when 11,000 men triumphed over more than 60,000. 



The day after the victory a particular circumstance 

 which I find related in the memoranda, had some unfor- 

 tunate consequences. " On the 30th,tt at two o'clock in 



* October 29. February 26, 1800. ** March 18. 



t December 10. || February 27. ft Murcli 20. 



| December 12. U March 15. 



