E G 
The French,’thin'king to have drawn every attention 
• to the left, had liaftilv advanced with their whole body, 
after having driven in tlae picquets. Their objeCt, as it 
afterward appeared, was firii by a fudden and fpirited at¬ 
tack to turn, and overthrow the refcrve, which by its ad¬ 
vanced politionwas feparatcd a little from the reft of the 
.army. This accomplifbed, their next aim was to force 
the center with their united troops ; and, while the atten¬ 
tion of the left was fully occupied by the falfe attack, 
the whole force of their cavalry, in which they were 
very’ftrong, was to avail itfelf of a favourable opportu¬ 
nity, and, by an impetuous charge, drive all before them 
into lake Aboukir, thus at one blow deciding the conteft. 
For this purpofe, general Lanuffe’s divifion, forming their 
left wing, advanced boldly againft the right of the Bri- 
tilh line; general Sylly’s brigade marched ftrtight upon 
the redoubt; while another, under general Valentin, pro¬ 
ceeded along the fea-fide, to penetrate between it and the 
old ruins. General Sylly’s brigade.took polfellion of a 
fma.ll redan, in which there was a gun; but daggered 
by the heavy fire from the redoubt, was obliged to fall 
back. The brigade moving along the fea was flopped 
in its progrefs by the fire from the old ruins, which were 
defended bv the twenty-third and fifty-eighth regiments, 
and the flank companies of the fortieth. Still attempting 
to force its way between them and the redoubt, the fixty- 
liinth French demi-brigade was taken in flank by one of 
the twenty-four-pounders loaded with grape, and nearly 
exterminated. On this the remainder of the corps re- 
fufed to advance; when general Lanulfe, tiling his utmoll 
efforts -to rally them, and bring them to the charge, 
had his thigh carried off by a cannon (hot. Complete 
confufion then enfued, and a general difperfion of this 
column took place. General Sylly’s troops, not being 
able to clear the ditch of the redoubt, attempted to turn 
it, but were repulfed with great Id's by the fpirited op- 
pofition of the twenty-eighth regiment ported in it. 
While this was parting on tire right of the line, general 
Rampont’s divifion made an attack on the center, extend¬ 
ing as far towards the left as the ninety-fecond. It at¬ 
tempted to turn the left of the brigade of guards, which 
was a little advanced; but was received with fo warm 
.and fteady a fire from the third regiment of guards, whofe 
left was thrown back, and from the royals, as to be forced,, 
.after a (harp conteft, to .retreat with great lofs. General 
Deftin, with his divifion, penetrated through the hollow, 
leaving the redoubt on his left, and endeavoured to reach 
the old ruins. He was there warmly received by the 
-forty-fecond, and attempted to withdraw his troops ; but 
a battalion of the twenty-firft demi-brigade having ad¬ 
vanced too far, was furrounded, and obliged to lay down 
its arms, and furrender to the forty-fecond and fifty-eighth 
regiments. Repulfed in every quarter with the fame ob- 
ftinate refolutiqn, and finding it importable to penetrate 
through any part of the Britilh line, the French infantry 
at length gave way, anddifperfed in all directions behind 
the land-hills. 
At this junClure the French general in chief, Menou, 
• foiled in all his attempts, determined to make one lart def- 
perate effort at carrying the Englilli camp. For this pur¬ 
pofe he ordered the main body of the cavalry, under bri¬ 
gadier-general Roize, to charge; and general Regnier, 
at the head of the divifions of Lunufte, Rampont, Friant, 
and the eighty-fifth demi-brigade, to fupport it. Gene¬ 
ral Roize, convinced at once of the inutility and hazard 
of the attempt, twice remonftrated ; and it was only at 
the third peremptory order that lie obeyed. Accord¬ 
ingly the third and fourteenth French dragoons, under 
.general Bouflart, came up with all the impetuous fury 
,of men certain of being facrificed, and charged through 
the forty-fecond regiment, reaching quite up to the tents. 
.Here, however, they were effectually flopped; the liorfes, 
entangled in the cords, were, for the mo ft part, killed, 
and many of the men were obliged to feelc their fafety on 
foot. A circumftance, too, as fortunate as.it was unex- 
Vol. VI. No. 354. 
Y P T. 337 
pefted, contributed alfo very materially to the overthrow 
of the French cavalry. The ground in the rear of the 
forty-fecond was full of holes, between three and four 
feet deep. Thefe excavations had been made by the 
twenty-eighth regiment, as conveniencies to fleep in, pre¬ 
vious to the landing of the camp equipage. The ene¬ 
my’s cavalry, charging over thefe, was completely broken 
and routed. At this juncture the Minorca regiment 
came to fupport the forty-fecond, and drew up in the 
vacant J’pace between the redoubt and the guards. The 
fecond line of French pavalry, compofed of the fifteenth, 
eighteenth, and twentieth, dragoons, with general Roize 
at their head, made another delperate charge upon thefe 
regiments. As it would have been importable to witli- 
ftand the fliock, they opened a line with the mod delibe¬ 
rate compofure to let them pals ; then, facing about, 
they poured upon them fucli volleys, as brought num¬ 
bers, both of men and horfes, to the ground. The ca¬ 
valry now endeavoured to force its way .back, but this 
they were unable to effect; and the greater part were 
killed or wounded in tire attempt, general Roize himfelf 
falling on the fpot. A flag, called the invincible ftund- 
ard, covered with the military exploits of the corps to 
which it belonged, fell into the hands of the Minorca or 
Queen's German regiment. It was taken by a private, 
named Antony Lutz, for which he received a certificate 
from tlte adjuthnt-general, and the film of twenty dol¬ 
lars. This man, never having learned to write or read,- 
was incapable of being made a fergeant, to which port: 
he would otherwife have been advanced. In the early 
part of the aCtion, this ftandard had been wrefted from 
the French by the forty-fecond regiment ; it was, how¬ 
ever, unfortunately retaken from them, at the moment 
of the impetuous charge of the enemy’s cavalry ; which 
Lutz perceiving, cut his way to the officer who was car¬ 
rying it off, thot him dead, and bore it back in triumph ! 
The French infantry, unable to give any aflirtance, re¬ 
tired, after lofing a great number of men. General Beau- 
dot was mortally wounded; and, when the broken re¬ 
mains of the cavalry formed again in the rear of their in¬ 
fantry, not one-fourth of thole who had charged could 
be collected. 
It muft have been at this period that the gallant fir 
Raipli Abercrombie received the wound, which deprived 
Great Britain of that diftinguifhed and mo ft able com¬ 
mander. It is impofiible to afeertain the exaCt moment, 
becaufe lie never complained, or revealed the circum¬ 
ftance of his being wounded to any one, till it was per¬ 
ceived by thofe about him. No entreaty could even 
then prevail on him to leave the field, till convinced by 
his own eyes of the enemy’s retreat, and of the vic¬ 
tory gained by tire troops he commanded. The lofs of 
the Englifh amounted to 1,464 in killed, wounded, and 
milling ; which, though very conliderable, was flight 
when compared with that of the enemy, which, at a mo¬ 
derate calculation, muft have amounted to four thoufand 
men, for no lefs than 1,160 were counted by the p.ro- 
voft-marfhal left dead upon the field of battle, exclulive 
of thole within the French vedettes, which of courfe he 
could not reckon, and of which there were certainly many; 
generals Lanuffe, Roize, and Beaudot, were killed ; and 
generals Deftin, Sylly, Eppler, and feveral other officers of 
rank, wounded. I11 the pocket-book of general Roize were 
found lotne interefting papers, which proved that nearly 
the whole of the French army in Egypt was brought to¬ 
gether by forced marches, to fupport this battle, under a 
confident expectation of fliaring the fpoils of the Britifli 
camp. The whole force of the Englilli in the field this 
memorable day, amounted to no more than 11,739 rank 
and file, whilft the concentrated forces of the French 
amounted to upwards of twenty thoufand, as afterwards 
appeared by the returns of the capitulations of Cairo and 
Alexaadria. I11 this engagement the Englilli took 250 
prifoners, two pieces of cannon, and one ftandard. On 
the fide of the Englilh the commander in chief was raor- 
4 R tally 
