348 EGYPT. 
CHAP, aoaiiist the wind, did our brave tars strain 
IX. 
' every sinew. Several boats were sunk by the 
bursting of the shells, and about two hundred 
and seventy men were killed before they 
reached the shore. At length, M^ith all their 
prows touching the beach at the same instant, 
the boats grounded. Then a spectacle was 
presented that will be ever memorable. Two 
hundred of the French cavalry actually charged 
into the sea, and were seen for a few seconds 
hacking the men in the boats : these assailants 
were every one killed. It was now about ten 
o'clock ; and within the space of six minutes, 
from this important crisis, the contest was 
decided. The soldiers of the forty-second regi- 
ment, leaping up to their middle in water, 
formed rapidly upon the shore; and with a 
degree of impatience nothing could restrain, 
without waiting to load their muskets, broke 
from the main line before it could be formed, 
and ran gallantly up the hill, sinking deep in 
the sand at every step they took '. In this 
(1) Sir R. Wilson relates, that the twenty-third aud/ortieth ran first 
up the hill, and, charging with the bayonet the two battalions which 
crowned it, carried the two Nole hills in the rear, and took three pieces 
of cannon. " The f or tij -second," says he, " had landed, and formed as 
on a parade." Hist.of Exped. p. 14. Where " a/?nost preeecrnatural 
energy" was everywhere displayed, it is of little moment to ascertain 
the most impetuous. Sir Robert had every opportunity of ascertaining 
the truth ; but a difl'erence in his statement would not justify the 
author 
