life, had refcued his friend fir Sidney from bondage, and 
reftored him to his liberty. After accompanying him to 
the Levant, he had been fent into Syria, and had em¬ 
ployed all his talents as an engineer in fortifying Acre, 
jo as to refill the efforts of his fchool-fellow, now become 
one of the mod renowned captains of his age. 
The commodore, who had arrived but two days before 
the French, on perceiving tlie works in fuch a formidable 
(late of defence, contributed, along with Phellippeaux, 
to foothe the fears and encourage the hopes of the pacha, 
who, perceiving the enemy victorious every where, had 
determined to abandon his palace, and carry his women 
and his treafure with him to a place of fafety. But no 
fooner did he perceive that he was fo ably fupported, than 
Djezzar determined to (land a fiege, and participate in the 
glory of ftoppi.-.g the career of the conqueror. Nor was 
he miftaken either in refpeft to the induftry or the talents 
of his new allies; for the Englifli fquadron, in the courfe 
of the next day, difeovered, in the. neighbourhood of 
mount Carmel, a corvette and nine fail of gun-boats la¬ 
den with artillery and ammunition, intended to affifl in 
the reduction of Acre. Seven veffels belonging to this 
flotilla, containing all the battering train, were captured: 
and this fortunate incident contributed greatly to fave 
the city, as well as to harafs tire invaders; for the prizes, 
being manned with Britifh failors, were anchored near 
the town, and employed in impeding the enemy’s ap¬ 
proaches, while the cannon were mounted on the ram¬ 
parts, fo as to annoy that army for which they were in¬ 
tended to enfure a certain triumph. 
In the mean time the French had encamped before 
Acre, and the generals Dommartin and Cafarelli, after 
carefully reconnoitring the works, were of opinion, that 
the front of the faliant angle on the eail fide was the pro¬ 
per point of attack. It foon became evident, however, 
notwithftanding the acknowledged talents of the com¬ 
mander in chief and the number of able engineers in the 
army, that but little pains had been taken to afeertain 
the nature of the works ; for in rufhing forward it was 
difeovered, that a ditch of fifteen feet was to be palled, 
while the counterfcarp was almoil untouched, and the 
breach, which was not large, had been effected upwards 
of fix feet above tire level of tire works. Notwithftand¬ 
ing thefe obftacles, a body of grenadiers, headed by an 
officer belonging to the ftaff, defeended into the ditch, 
and attempted to afeend ; but their leader was (hot, and 
it being difeovered that the only effeft produced by the 
late explofion was a fnvall opening in the glacis, nothing 
could be achieved. The garrifon was at firft feized with 
terror, and many of the befieged ran towards tire harbour; 
however, it was no fooner difeovered that the opening in 
the wall was feveral feet above the rubbifti, than they 
returned to the charge, and (howered down (tones, gre¬ 
nades, and combuftibles, upon the affailants, who were 
obliged to retire, after lofing two adjutants-general, and 
a great number of men. This event afforded fo much 
encouragement to tire troops of the pacha, that they tal¬ 
lied forth a few days after, April 5, and killed feveral 
of the befiegers, among whom was an officer of rank. 
Djezzar alfo difperfed his firmans among the Naploufians, 
as well as the towns in the Sa'id, and fent prefents at the 
fame time to Damafcus, and even as far as Aleppo, re¬ 
fuelling the true believers to rife on purpofe to over¬ 
whelm the infidels, who were deftitute of artillery. 
In the mean time, the Britilh fquadron was forced by 
the equino6lial gales to abandon the unlheltered anchor¬ 
age in the bay of Acre, and the French being embold¬ 
ened, and the Turks difpirited, by its abfence, the ailail- 
ants pulhed on their approaches to the counterfcarp, part 
of which they blew up, and even fucceeded in making a 
lodgement in the north-eaft angle of the town-wall, whence 
they proceeded to undermine the tower, on purpofe to 
jncreafe the breach. Notwithftanding colonel Phellip¬ 
peaux had by this time mounted all the prize-guns, and 
the befiegers were forced to flacken their fire, yet on the 
•VOL. VI. No. 353. 
return of the fquadron it was deemed proper "to make an¬ 
other fally on the 7th, in the courfe of which the B ninth 
feamen and marines' were to force, their way into the 
mine, while the Turks attacked the trenches to tire right 
and left. But although tire noife of the latter prevented 
the poffibility of furprife, aji Englifli officer, who was 
defperately wounded upon this occalion, entered the aper¬ 
ture at tlie head of a body of pikemen, after which the 
retr.eat was effected without much lofs, in confequence cf 
the fire from the Thefeus ; while the Mu (Tillmans, accord¬ 
ing to their ufual barbarous practice, were more aftive 
in collecting heads than in annoying the enemy. 
But it was not only with Acre that Bonaparte had to 
contend, for all the neighbouring diftriCls were now in 
arms ; and the Samaritan Arabs pulhed their audacity lo 
far, as to make incurfions even into his camp. On this 
he was obliged to difpatch, firft the general of brigade 
Junot, and then Kleber, againlt the enemy, whom lie was 
determined to drive acrofs the Jordan. He accordingly 
reinforced the former detachment by means of a tliou- 
fand infantry and a regiment of cavalry under Murat, 
and foon after fet out hiinfelf to afl'ume the command. 
Having repaired through Fouli, along the paffes of the 
mountains, he at length (April 16) perceived Kieber’s 
divifion, confiding of two thoufand Frenchmen, fighting 
with, and nearly encircled by, upwards of twenty thou¬ 
fand horfe. On this he immediately formed his infantry 
and cavalry into three fquares, with a defigrt to annoy the 
affailants, cut off their retreat towards Jenny, where their 
magazines were ellabliflied, and drive them before him 
in the direct on of tire river, on the banks of which they 
would be overwhelmed by Murat. He accordingly de¬ 
tached the adjutant-general Leturq with the cavalry and 
two pieces of cannon againlt the Mameluke camp, which 
he deferied at fome diltance, while general Rampon was 
ordered to take the enemy in flank, and general Vial to 
intercept them in their flight. No fooner did Kleber 
receive intimation by the difeharge of a twelve-pounder 
that he was about to be fuccoured, than he immediately 
attacked and carried the village of Fouli with the bayo¬ 
net; after this lie charged the cavalry, which had been 
already thrown into confufion by the Trench horfe under 
Rampon, and obliged them, after experiencing much 
lofs, to retire behind mount Tabor. While Bonaparte 
was burning the Naploufian villages, and killing fuch of 
the inhabitants as had appeared in arms againft him, ge¬ 
neral Murat chafed the Turks from Jacob’s Bridge, and 
furprifed the ion of the governor of Damafcus; Leturq 
at the fame time leized on the camp of the mamalukes, 
and brought away five hundred camels, with all their 
provilions; fo that the barbarians, unacquainted with the 
nature of combined movements, were aftonifhed to find 
themfelves beaien at the fame moment along a line of 
twenty-feven miles by an inferior body of the enemy. 
O11 his return to the army before Acre, the commander 
in chief pulhed on the fiege, and at length beheld the 
completion of the mine deftined to deftroy the tower, 
which had fo long withftood all his efforts; but, on 
fetting fire to it, the operation was found to be incom¬ 
plete. Although one of the angles of the wall was car¬ 
ried away, the breach proved to be as impracticable as 
before; notwithftanding the repeated efforts of the be¬ 
fiegers, a lodgement could not be effected, and fome of 
their bed officers were either killed or wounded upon this 
occafion. The garrifon, invigorated by the prefence of 
the Englifli, and defended by the (kill of Phellippeaux, 
who unfortunately periftied foon after, had by this time 
erefted cavaliers, and conftrufted two places of arms, to¬ 
gether with batteries, fo contrived as to flank the tower, 
and produce all the advantages arifing from a crofs fire ; 
a counter-attack was alfo attempted under ground, on 
purpofe to drive the befiegers from their galleries. At 
length rear-admiral Peree having reached Jaffa, difem- 
barked nine pieces of artillery, confiding of twenty-four 
and eighteen pounders; thefe having been mounted, were 
4 Q__ immediately 
