358 
eonfternation the chaftifement which they 
fuppofed the conqueror would inflié.— 
Indeed cireumftances were {oe favourable, 
that the General was determined to avail 
Kimifelf of them. He therefore impofed 
a contribution of twelve millions, payable 
portly in kind and par‘ly in {pecie, on the 
commercia! part of thefe two cities, and 
on the rich inhabitants who had taken 
part in the infurreétion. This refource 
enabled him to pay off the arrears in 
every department of the fervice, and af 
fured the regular pay of the army. His 
political and military fituation grew daily 
more fatisfaétery. Of two powerful ene- 
mies who had been oppoftd to him, one 
was completely deltroyed, and be had tuf- 
ficient force to keep the other in check.— 
He hed entered mto an alliance with the 
Bey Mourad, which was fo much the 
more folid, as it was at once ufeful, from 
the moral effec it produced on the people, 
and neceflary to the Bey, as it fecured 
him the tranquil poffeffion of bis tertitory. 
Such was the fituation in which he had 
re-eftablifhed his army, when he was car- 
fied off by a Stroke as dreadful as it was 
unexpected. 
The Grand Vizir, after his defrat on the 
plains of Matharich and Heliopoiis, fled 
fhamefully acrofs the defert. The cries 
of rage, revenge, and defpair, refounded 
throughout hisranks. General Kleber, 
however, was the chief object of his hatred 
and vengeance ; nor did “he neglect any 
means that might forward the execution 
of a projeét which he had jong been medi- 
tating. The inftrument which he em- 
ployed for his purpole was a difgraced 
Aga, to whom; if fuccefsful, he promifed 
his unlimited favour, and the pretervation 
of his life, which had” been already con- 
demned. This Aga, whofe name was 
Ahmed, had been imprifoned at Gaza 
fince the capture of El Arifch: from this 
place he was difpatched by the Vizir to 
Jerufalem, in order to put every thing in 
readinefs for the performance of the bar- 
bzrous act which he had confented to un- 
dertake. On the. very day of his arrival 
a young man of Aleppo, named Solyman, 
prefented himfelf to the Aga, and be- 
jought his protection, in order to fecure 
his father, a merchant of Aleppo, from 
t':e periodical extortions of Ibrahim, the 
Pacha of that city. From the informa- 
tion he gained as to this young man, he 
learnt that he was on the point of being 
received, as reader of the Koran, in one 
of the mofques—that he was on a pilgrim- 
age at Jerufalem, after having been twice 
at Mecca and Medinam-and that he was, 
Biographical Account of General Kleber. 
[ Nov. 15 
to the Jaft degree, an enthufiaft in matters 
of religion. Ahmed immediately faw 
that this was the perfon he wanted. He 
fpoke to him, therefore, of the miflion 
with which he wifhed to intruft him— 
promifed him prote&tion and reward—and 
then fent him to the Aga, who command- 
eda detachment of the Vizir’s army at 
Giza, to receive proper inftruétions, and 
a fufficient fum for the undertaking. 
Solyman immediately began his jour- 
ney ; but he did not reach Gaza till after 
the expiration of twenty days, having been 
obliged to wait at a village in Paleft-ne 
for a c_ravan to take him acrofs the Des» | 
fert. On his arrival the Aga gave him a 
neceflary directions ; and atier furnifhing 
him with money, fent him with a caravan 
to Egypt, which country he reached at 
the end of fix days. Having provided 
himfelf with a dagger, Solyman arrived 
at Cairo in the middle of the month of 
Floreal ; he took up his refidence, accord- 
ing to his inftructions, in the great 
mofque, where he prepared himfelf for 
the commitifion of the crime with which 
he was intrufted. He was well received 
amongft the readers of the Koran: he 
informed them of the motives of his jour- . 
ney, and was prevented from the imme- 
diate execution of his project only by the 
dificulty of the enterprize, and the dan- 
gers that attended it as affairs then flood. 
After remaining thirty-one days at Cairo, 
in expeCtaticn of his victim, he refolved to 
fet out for Gizeh, where General Kleber 
then was.. The day after his arrivak 
the General returned to Cairo, whither 
Solyman again followed him. On the 
25th of Prairial he got admiffion into the 
General’s garden, and foon obtaining a 
ficht of him, approached as if with an m- 
tention to kifs his hand. Kleber was. 
affected with his dejected and diftreff-d 
appearance, and went forward to meet 
him, when the aflaffin, availing himfelf of 
this unguarded moment, ftruck him four 
times with his dagger. In vain did Citi- 
zen Protain, one of the Members of the 
Inftitute, generoufly throw himfelf between 
them: his courage was ufelefs: he him- 
felf received fix wounds, which complete- 
ly difabled him. 
Thus fell Kleber, by the hand ef an 
affaffin; after having, in the glorious and 
dangerous career cf a foldier, efcaped all 
the chances of war—after having been 
the firft to pafs the Rhine at the head of 
the Republican forces—and after a fecond 
conquelt of Egypt, invaded as it was by 
an immenfe army of Ottomans, — 
Kleber was one of the Randfomeft men i 
, 1S 
