346 EGYPT. 
CHAP, rendezvous, when a false fire should be shewn 
< — ,- — ' from the Foudroyant, the ship of the Commander^ 
vktory of hi-chief. On the following morning, the eighth 
tfuirciu of March, at three o'clock a. m. the expected 
signal was made. Agreeably to the instructions 
given, every boat then repaired to take in her 
proportion of troops from the ship, or ships, to 
which they were allotted; and then proceeded 
to the appointed station, close under the hill, 
about a league from the enemy, whence they 
were to move, according to the order of battle : 
there they all remained, until the whole of the 
reserve was collected around the Mondovi. 
Never was any thing conducted with greater 
regularity. The French, to their astonishment, 
as they afterwards often related, instead of 
beholding a number of men landed pell-mell, 
saw the Hriiish troops preserving a regular line, 
as they advanced in their boats, although the 
wind was directly in their teeth; and, finally, 
landing in due order of battle, under the 
heaviest fire perhaps ever experienced. Shells, 
cannon-balls, and grape-shot, coming with the 
wind, fell like a storm of hail ' about them ; yet 
(l) The sailors upon this occasion compared t'le !l> ck shower of 
shot falling: about them to a violent storm of hail which the fleet had 
experienced in the Bay of Marmorice, when the hail-stones were said 
to have been as large as musquet -balls. *' On the eighth of February," 
says 
