174 €X,AKKE r S' tRAttm 
J/Vv"vV • // '..-.v*. v V<‘. ‘--V ••.'.; <?;% '■•'*, ,.• . . '*• .4. • . 
aiding toward the general to aim a blow at him, and befog 
without ball, thrust his ramrod into his piece, and with it shot 
the dragoon* Soon after, Sir Ralph was seen without his horse, \ 
the animal having been shot under him; when Sir Sidney 
Smith coming up, supplied him with that whereon he was 
mounted. It was on this occasion that Sir Ralph presented to 
Sir Sidney the sabre he had wrested from the dragoon.* Soon 
after, our venerable commander received, in the hour of con¬ 
quest, the fatal shot in his thigh, of which he afterward expired. 
Victory now declared itself for the English; and it may be 
said to date from the moment when Abercrombie received his 
mortal wound. Five French generals were hilled. Menou’s 
horse was shot under him* It was reported, that he wept when 
he beheld the fate of the day, and exerted himself in vain en¬ 
deavours to rally his retreating army. Among the wounded, 
au our side, were Generals Oakes, Moore, Hope, and Sir Sid¬ 
ney Smith. The loss sustained by the French was not less than 
four thousand. Eleven hundred of their dead, as before stated, 
were buried by our own troops. After the action, both armies 
maintained the positions they had occupied before the battle.f 
After the twenty-first of March, the affairs in Egypt remained 
for a considerable time at a stand. We joined the fleet, as be¬ 
fore mentioned, upon the seventeenth of. April. The death of 
Sir Ralph Abercrombie had then thrown a gloom over every 
thing; and to its dissipation, neither the splendid talents nor the 
acknowledged popularity of his successor were in any degree 
adequate. Although General, now Lord, Hutchinson, received 
as members of his council all those persons whose advice or as¬ 
sistance was esteemed by the late commander in chief, and im¬ 
plicitly adopted every measure to which it had been his inten¬ 
tion to adhere, the regret of the army and navy in the loss of 
their beloved veteran was expressed only by murmur and dis¬ 
content. A less enviable situation could not have been sought 
than that which General Hutchinson was called upon to fill* 
There is now, indeed, both satisfaction and pleasure in dwel- 
^ Sir Sidney has since placed this sabre upon the monument of Sir Ralph Aber- 
crombie. 
| The French army upon this occasion consisted, according to their own statement, 
ef nine thousand seven hundred men, including fifteen hundred cavalry, with forty-six 
pieces of cannon. The British force, reduced by their losses in the actions of the 
eighth and thirteenth, &c. did not yield an effective strength often thousand men, in¬ 
cluding three hundred cavalry. As the battle was fought by the right of the English 
_army only, half that number resisted the concentrated attach of alt the Er each fore © 
Set Bid. of the ExgccL p. 4:v. 
