Billy Ruffian

NINE In Search of Napoleon 1797-8

Napoleon had come a long way since the recapture of Toulon in 1793. His role in the battle for the port had earned him the praise of his commanding officer and promotion to the rank of brigadier-general. The next milestone in his astonishing rise to power took place on a wet and windy day in Paris on 4 October 1795, when an armed and rebellious mob of some 30,000 royalists, anarchists and others opposed to the republican government marched on the Tuileries. Their aim was to overthrow the ruling Convention and overturn the Revolution. Napoleon, who was in Paris at the time, had been introduced the day before to Paul Barras, the newly appointed commander-in-chief. He agreed to take charge of the local forces and arranged for forty field guns to be rushed into the city. He carefully positioned them so that they commanded the approaches to the Tuileries and, when the rebels attacked, he fired round after round of grapeshot into their leading ranks. Grapeshot, or case shot, consisted of dozens of small iron balls enclosed in a canvas case which opened up when fired and scattered a murderous hail of missiles. It was particularly effective when fired into a packed crowd. The bombardment lasted only a few minutes and scattered the rebels, who fled, pursued by Government troops.

Napoleon's 'whiff of grapeshot' had proved decisive and Barras was able to announce to the Convention, 'The Republic has been saved.' Two weeks later Napoleon was made a full general and given command of the Army of the Interior. He was twenty-six years old. A few months later, in March 1796, the Directory of the French Republic, which had replaced the Convention, put him in command of the Army of Italy with orders to conquer northern Italy. This was to be achieved by attacking and defeating the armies of Austria and Piedmont and occupying the Austrian duchy of Milan. Within thirteen months Napoleon had not only achieved these objectives but had also occupied the Papal States. He had won a dozen major battles by using the tactics which later routed armies across Europe: he imposed a rigid discipline on his troops and was able to move them from place to place at a speed which astonished his enemies; he used a combination of flanking movements and clever feints with a devastating concentration of force; he made the best possible use of the terrain because, like Wellington, he knew how to read the topography of the landscape; and he used his training as an artillery officer to position and use his field guns to maximum effect.

We get a glimpse of the charisma and force of character which he demonstrated during the Italian campaign in the heroic portrait painted by the young French painter Antoine-Jean Gros around this time. Napoleon had given the artist three brief sittings and from these sessions Gros produced an iconic image of the young general advancing on the bridge at Arcole where one of the key battles of the campaign had taken place. The hawklike face, piercing glance, flowing hair and vigorous pose are in marked contrast to the later images of a stocky, plump figure with thinning hair and a glowering expression. Fanny Burney described meeting Napoleon in Paris in the summer of 1802: 'I had a view so near, though so brief of his face, as to be much struck by it. It is of a deeply impressive cast, pale even to sallowness, while not only in the eye but in every feature - care, thought, melancholy and meditation are strongly marked, with so much of character, nay, genius, and so penetrating a seriousness, or rather sadness, as powerfully to sink into an observer's mind.'

After his victories on the battlefield Napoleon revealed his diplomatic and political skills during the negotiations which followed. Having driven the Austrians out of Italy, his aim was to bring the liberties and benefits of the French Republic to the northern Italians. With the backing of the Directors in Paris he set up the Cisalpine Republic as a free and independent state with a constitution modelled on that of France. This proved so successful that the people of Genoa overthrew their feudal and aristocratic government and Napoleon set up the Ligurian Republic in its place. In May, following riots and disturbances in Verona, he marched his army from Milan and occupied Venice. And in October, after months of negotiations, he successfully concluded a peace treaty with Austria at Campo Fornio. When he returned to Paris in December he was greeted as a hero and cheered wildly in a public ceremony at the Luxembourg.

To the Directors who were now governing France, Napoleon must have seemed like a man who could achieve miracles. It was therefore not so surprising that they should give him his most challenging task to date. He was made commander of the Army of England and given the job of masterminding the invasion of the only country which was still at war with France. Accompanied by two aides, his secretary and a courier, he travelled north in a coach to inspect the ports and harbours of Normandy and Flanders. He reached the coast on 10 February 1798 and spent the next eight days visiting Boulogne, Calais, Dunkirk and Antwerp, as well as several of the smaller fishing ports like Etaples.

The weather was atrocious, with bitterly cold north-easterly gales sending flurries of snow and sleet across the heaving grey seas and breaking waves of the English Channel. Napoleon interviewed army officers and naval officers and cast a critical eye over the troops as well as the transport vessels and barges which were being built or converted to carry infantry and cavalry. He had told his aides that he wished his identity to be concealed during his visit but this did not prevent the Paris newspapers from printing details of his progress. Within twelve days of his arrival on the coast the readers of The Times in London learnt that General Napoleon had alighted from his coach at the Silver Lion Hotel in Calais and visited a coffee-house. They were informed that he intended to inspect a chain of military camps which had been established along the coast. 'It appears that the invasion of England will be a general attack, not partial ones.'

In London the threatened invasion seems to have had little effect on most people's lives. The King and Queen set the tone. During the week that Napoleon was inspecting the invasion troops, the royal family went on an excursion to Kew. The King took an airing on horseback and returned to Buckingham House to give an audience to the Duke of York. On the evening of 16 February their Majesties, accompanied by four of the princesses, went on one of their regular visits to the theatre, this time to Covent Garden to see a new comedy, He's much to blame, followed by a new production of Joan of Arc. The latter was 'a grand historical ballet of action', and was an odd choice of subject to stage in the circumstances. The Times thought that the principle of the ballet was bad and degraded British humanity. The horrific ending, in which the French heroine was burnt at the stake by the British, had been toned down by the time the royal family saw the show, and the ballet attracted a full house and was much applauded.

Although London society continued to enjoy itself there is no doubt that the invasion was regarded as a serious threat. In the City of London the Lord Mayor presided over a meeting of merchants and bankers at which it was unanimously resolved that 'in view of the enemy's purpose of utterly destroying the Constitutions of these Kingdoms' a subscription for voluntary contributions would be opened at the Bank for the defence of the country. The sum of £46,534 was raised by the end of the meeting and other patriotic funds were established and attracted considerable support. The Admiralty decided that fifteen post-captains and seventy-five masters and commanders should be employed along the coast to command the Sea Fencibles: these were a maritime version of the later home guard and consisted of volunteers drawn from those local seamen who had escaped the activities of the press gangs - mostly fishermen, smugglers and seamen engaged in the coastal trade, who were armed, organised and given protection against impressment.

In the West Country, where he had recently moved with his wife and baby son, the poet Coleridge expressed his concerns about the invasion in a long and deeply felt poem, 'Fears in Solitude'. He was living in a cottage among the Quantock Hills beside the Bristol Channel and the thought of his native land being rent by 'carnage and groans' filled him with dread:

What uproar and what strife may now be stirring

This way or that o'er these silent hills —

Invasion, and the thunder and the shout,

And all the crash of onset; fear and rage,

And undetermined conflict . . .

For Coleridge, as for most of his countrymen, it was Britain's 'fleets and perilous seas' which were seen as the country's strongest defence, and with good reason. The French and Spanish fleets were effectively penned into their respective naval bases by British ships, and the remains of the Dutch fleet, after being defeated by Admiral Duncan at the Battle of Camperdown the previous October, had retreated to the Texel. During the course of his tour of the Channel ports Napoleon rapidly came to the conclusion that it was too hazardous to send an army of 30,000 troops across the Channel. He sent a blunt report to the Directory in Paris:

Whatever efforts we make, we will not, within a period of several years, gain the superiority of the seas. To perform a descent on England without being master of the seas is a very daring operation and very difficult to put into effect. If it is possible, it would be by surprise, by escaping from the squadrons blockading Brest or the Texel, then arriving in small boats during the night and after a crossing of seven or eight hours, at daybreak on the coast of Kent or Sussex. For such an operation we would need the long nights of winter. After the month of April, it would be increasingly impossible.

He pointed out that there was a shortage of boats and of experienced seamen and he strongly recommended that the invasion should be postponed. Instead he suggested that France should mount an expedition to Egypt.

There were several reasons behind this startling proposition. Napoleon's principal argument was that an invasion of Egypt would open up a route to India and enable France to strike at England's richest possession. France had already conquered Corsica and Corfu; by occupying Egypt and turning it into a French colony she would fulfil her destiny and become the great power of the Mediterranean. And, from a practical point of view, an Egyptian expedition would be an easier and less dangerous operation than an invasion of England: the Mamelukes, the ruling caste in Egypt, were unlikely to put up much resistance and would be easily crushed by French troops; the summer weather in the tideless Mediterranean would offer fewer obstacles to an invasion fleet than the strong tides and frequent gales of the English Channel; and there was no threat from the British Navy which had withdrawn from the Mediterranean in the autumn of 1796 - this followed the Spanish declaration of war on Britain and the need to have the British Mediterranean fleet closer to home so that it could rapidly reinforce the Channel fleet at the first sign of the threatened invasion of England.

On 5 March the Directory in Paris gave the go-ahead to the Egyptian expedition. During the next three months the troops and ships were assembled at Toulon and nearby ports and harbours. On 19 May the bulk of the great armada set sail from Toulon and was joined during the next few days by convoys from Genoa and Corsica. There were thirteen ships of the line, six frigates and corvettes, and 400 transport vessels carrying 31,000 troops. The invading army included 2,810 cavalry soldiers, more than 1,000 horses, and 171 field guns. There was also a select band of 167 scientists, engineers and artists who were there at Napoleon's request to explore, observe and record the ancient civilisation of Egypt, and to bring the benefit of French knowledge to a backward and undeveloped country. Napoleon himself travelled on board the flagship of the invasion fleet, the impressive three-decker L'Orient of 120 guns.

The Admiralty in London had known since April that the French were planning some sort of amphibious operation in the Mediterranean. The British consuls at Leghorn and Naples sent home reports of ship movements and the French newspapers continued to be a valuable source of information. Lord St Vincent in the Bay of Cadiz had discovered from various sources that a fleet of thirteen ships of the line had sailed from Corfu to Toulon, and that an expedition was being assembled at Genoa, Marseilles and other ports. But where and what was the objective? Naples and Sicily were thought to be the most likely targets but other theories were that the expedition was aimed at Portugal or Ireland or was intended to drive the British fleet from Cadiz.

St Vincent decided to send a squadron into the Mediterranean to investigate the French preparations at Toulon and to find out what was going on. Both he and the Admiralty in London were agreed on the man who should lead this critical but potentially dangerous reconnaissance mission. 'The appearance of a British squadron in the Mediterranean is a condition on which the fate of Europe may at this moment be stated to depend,' wrote Lord Spencer, the First Lord of the Admiralty, to St Vincent, 'I think it almost unnecessary to suggest to you the propriety of putting it under the command of Sir H. Nelson, whose acquaintance with the part of the world, as well as his activity and disposition seem to qualify him in a peculiar manner for that service.'

The previous summer, while the Bellerophon had remained with the rest of St Vincent's fleet blockading the Spanish fleet in Cadiz, Nelson had sailed to the Canary Islands to attack the Spanish port of Santa Cruz at Tenerife. The attack was made on a blustery night and was a disaster. The British suffered heavy loss of life, and Nelson, who insisted on leading the landing parties himself, was hit by a musket ball as he scrambled ashore from his barge. He suffered a compound fracture of the right arm just above the elbow and was hastily rowed back to his flagship where the surgeon amputated the arm. In a letter to St Vincent accompanying his official report on the unsuccessful action he requested a frigate 'to convey the remains of my carcass to England.' He added a despairing postscript to his letter: 'A left-handed admiral will never again be considered as useful, therefore the sooner I get to a very humble cottage the better and make room for a better man to serve the state.' St Vincent was well aware of the difficulties posed by an amphibious operation which involved landing a force on a beach under enemy fire and was generous in his response. 'Mortals cannot command success: you and your companions have certainly deserved it by the greatest degree of heroism and perseverance that was ever exhibited . . .' and he arranged for Nelson to be sent home in the frigate Seahorse.

Nelson spent a restless six months in Norfolk and London convalescing. For his wife Fanny it was a happy time, indeed the last happy time she would have with Nelson who was now a naval hero and beginning to experience the celebrity which would soon become such a feature of his life. For the first few months after his return from Tenerife he was in considerable pain and was dependent on Fanny's love and attention. She dressed his wound, cut up his food for him at mealtimes and accompanied him to dinner parties and receptions. But, as always, Nelson was impatient to get back to sea and was greatly relieved when he received orders from the Admiralty to escort a convoy to Lisbon and then join the Mediterranean fleet off Cadiz. His flagship was the 74-gun ship Vanguard and his flag captain was Edward Berry. They set sail on 10 April and arrived off Cadiz at the end of the month. Nelson received a warm welcome from Lord St Vincent who was having to keep a tight rein on a fleet whose men continued to prove restless. 'The arrival of Admiral Nelson has given me new life,' he wrote to Lord Spencer. 'You could not have gratified me more than in sending him.'

St Vincent now had the man he wanted to lead the reconnaissance mission to Toulon. Within a matter of days Nelson was on his way to Gibraltar and on 8 May he entered the Mediterranean with his squadron - the first British warships to do so for a year and a half. His squadron at this stage consisted of only six ships: the 74-gun ships Vanguard, Orion and Alexander, two frigates and a sloop. However, shortly after Nelson had left Cadiz, St Vincent received orders from London to send a more formidable force of not fewer than ten ships of the line. This would give Nelson a fleet capable of intercepting and attacking the French expedition, rather than simply observing and reporting on the enemy's movements. St Vincent deliberately selected the best ships and captains for the task and on 25 May his chosen ships weighed anchor and set sail to meet up with Nelson. The squadron was led by Thomas Troubridge in the Culloden, and the other ships were the Bellerophon, Defence, Goliath, Zealous, Theseus, Swiftsure, Minotaur and Majestic, heroic names which would soon become famous beyond the closed world of the navy.

We can follow the progress of the squadron in a decorative map of the Mediterranean which shows the tracks taken by the British ships and by Napoleon's invasion fleet. From Cadiz they sailed almost due south until they were a few miles off Tangier on the African coast. From there they sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar with all sail set and a following wind. Off Gibraltar they were joined by the Audacious and the Leander, both ships of the line, and by the brig Mutine of 18 guns. The brig was a French vessel which had been captured during the raid on Tenerife by boats led by Lieutenant Thomas Hardy. Following the action he had been promoted and given command of the prize. He was now twenty-nine years old and would later gain immortality as Nelson's flag captain at the battle of Trafalgar. The Mutine was to prove invaluable in the coming weeks because her appearance was less threatening than a ship of the line and she could be sent into ports and harbours to gather information.

From Gibraltar they sailed north-east towards the islands of Formentor and Majorca, keeping a sharp eye out for enemy ships. Although they were now a formidable squadron they were entering a hostile sea with no British naval bases to provide reinforcements or repairs. When they sighted two small vessels they flew Spanish flags to avoid arousing suspicion. By 1 June they were 50 miles east of Minorca, their progress slowed by several days of light and variable winds. All the ships took advantage of the calm seas to carry out gunnery practice. The sailors exercised the carriage guns and the marines their muskets. A week later they were within a few miles of Toulon and there, soon after dawn on 7 June, they sighted a single warship. The log of the Bellerophon recorded the moment: 'Light airs. Strange sail NW. AM. At 6 rear Admiral Nelson in the Vanguard under a jury foremast join'd the squadron. Hove to. The Captn went on board the Admiral at 8.'

The Vanguard was still sailing under a jury rig because she and the Alexander and Orion had run into a freak storm which had hit them with the force of a typhoon. The frigates had been dispersed and returned to Gibraltar, which exasperated Nelson who needed frigates to help him locate the French. The Vanguard had been dismasted in the storm and nearly driven ashore and wrecked. She had been rescued by the Alexander and, with the help of the carpenters of all three ships, she had been re-rigged. The Alexander and Orion had then been despatched to chase some Spanish merchantmen, leaving the Vanguard to keep watch on the movements of shipping out of Toulon.

Nelson was expecting Troubridge and as soon as he had identified the strange fleet bearing down on him he ran up the signal for the approaching ships to heave to. With practised ease the sailors on each ship backed the necessary sails to bring them to a halt, and within a few minutes boats were being hoisted off the decks and lowered into the sea which was almost flat calm. Captain Darby and five other captains were rowed across to the Vanguard for a meeting with Nelson. Two days later the Alexander and Orion and the Mutine brig arrived and Nelson's squadron was now complete. They would spend the next two months searching the length and breadth of the Mediterranean for Napoleon and his armada of warships and transports.

On the same day that the Alexander and Orion joined Nelson's squadron the French armada arrived off the coast of Malta. This low rocky island was in a commanding position in the middle of the Mediterranean and had a fine natural harbour at Valetta. It would provide France with an excellent naval base and was the first target of the invasion fleet. Although the island was protected with massive fortifications, the resident garrison was poorly trained and too small in number to adequately defend the miles of defensive walls. The famous Knights of the Order of St John who ruled the island were no longer the formidable force they had once been, and in any case two-thirds of them were Frenchmen who proved reluctant to oppose their countrymen. The transport ships arrived off Malta on 6 June and the main force from Toulon arrived on 9 June. Some of the local soldiers put up a spirited resistance but were overwhelmed by the French landing parties. Within three days the Knights of St John agreed to cede Malta to the French Republic. Napoleon spent six days dismantling the existing regime and setting up a new constitution. He departed from Malta on 18 June, leaving behind a garrison of 3,000 French soldiers to guard the island. They now headed for Egypt and in doing so nearly ran into Nelson's ships.

The British squadron had sailed around the northern tip of Corsica, making for Naples. For a week they had experienced the rapidly changing and unpredictable weather which can make sailing in this part of the Mediterranean so alarming. Light airs and calms alternated with thunderstorms, heavy rain and sudden squalls. One of the squalls carried away the foretopmast of the Bellerophon and she lost the studding sail; it was still gusty and raining as they rounded the Isle of Ischia and entered the Bay of Naples. On this occasion Nelson did not go ashore but sent Troubridge in his place. While the squadron stayed several miles offshore, Troubridge boarded the Mutine brig in the early hours of the morning of 17 June and arrived in the harbour at Naples as the city was waking up at 5 am. He went ashore with Captain Hardy and the two of them were soon in a meeting with Sir William Hamilton and General Acton, the leading minister of the Kingdom of Naples. Hamilton was impressed by Troubridge's directness: 'We did more business in half an hour than should have been done in a week in the official way here. Captain Troubridge went straight to the point and put strong questions to the general, who answered them fairly and to the satisfaction of the captain.'

By mid-morning Troubridge was back with the fleet and reporting to Nelson on the Vanguard. The results of his meeting were by no means as satisfactory as Sir William Hamilton imagined. The promises of assistance were too vague, the frigates were not forthcoming, and the information about the French expedition was not helpful. Sir William had been able to report that Napoleon had taken Malta but he had failed to pass on vital information from the French ambassador that Napoleon planned to land in Egypt and establish a French colony there. Presumably Sir William thought that the idea was too far-fetched and was intended to mislead the British, but if Nelson had received this information the eventual outcome might have been very different.

The British squadron hurried onwards, hoping now to catch Napoleon at Malta. With fresh breezes and fine weather they passed close to the island of Stromboli, and headed for the Straits of Messina between the southern tip of Italy and Sicily. The straits were famous for the rocky outcrops, fluky winds and dangerous currents which had given rise to the ancient Greek legend of Scylla and Charybdis but on this occasion they failed to live up to their reputation. The squadron took on board local pilots to guide them through and hoisted out the boats in case they should be needed to tow the ships out of danger but, although the waves echoed alarmingly in the confined space between the cliffs, they passed through without incident.

It was during the course of 22 June that the French and British fleets passed within a few miles of each other. At first light on that day the lookouts in the Defence sighted four ships to the south-east and Nelson despatched the Leander to investigate. Shortly afterwards Captain Hardy in the Mutine intercepted a merchant vessel whose master informed him that the French had already left Malta. Nelson ordered the fleet to shorten sail and summoned Troubridge, Saumarez, Ball and Darby to join him and his flag captain Berry in the great cabin of his flagship. They were the captains whose opinions he valued most highly and he wanted their views on the information they had received. Nelson had come to the conclusion that Napoleon must be headed for Egypt. They all thought he was probably right and Troubridge pointed out that the capture of Alexandria would seriously threaten British interests in India. This was enough for Nelson to act on. At 9 am he gave the signal for the fleet to make sail and head east.

By the time that the captains had returned to their ships the Leander had confirmed that the four ships on the horizon were frigates, but Nelson was now impatient to get to Alexandria. He did not wish to risk weakening his squadron by detaching ships to go chasing after a few frigates. It did not occur to Nelson or his captains that the frigates might be part of the vast and extended French armada which had sailed from Malta only two days before. As so often happened in his life, luck was on Napoleon's side. If Nelson's squadron had attacked the French armada at sea they would have inflicted crippling damage. The experienced British crews led by the most ruthless fighting admiral of his time would have caused mayhem among the lumbering transport vessels and the accompanying convoy of warships. It would have been the end of Napoleon's career, if not his life, because L'Orient would have been a prime target. Europe might have been spared nearly two decades of warfare.

Making good use of the favourable north-westerly winds, the British squadron drew rapidly away from the French armada and within a week they were nearing Alexandria. As the towers of the city came in sight Nelson ordered the squadron to prepare for battle but it soon became clear that there was no sign of the French invasion force. The only vessels in the harbour were a few Turkish warships and some fifty merchant vessels. Captain Hardy was sent ashore to speak to the British Consul but he found that he had been away on leave for three months. His deputy proved to be stupid and useless. However Hardy did manage to speak to the Egyptian military commandant of the city who was incredulous at the idea of an imminent French attack. 'It is impossible that the French should come to our country. They have no business here and we are not at war with them.' He went on to assure Hardy, 'If the French really think of invading our country as you pretend, we shall thwart their undertaking.'

Hardy sailed back to the squadron, which was lying hove to, several miles offshore. Nelson was bitterly disappointed when he heard Hardy's news. Reason should have persuaded him to wait for a few days in case the French did arrive but such was his impatience to find the enemy that he had to be on the move again. The day following their arrival off Alexandria he ordered the squadron to set sail and head north towards Turkey. Once again luck was on Napoleon's side. At 11 am on 1 July, less than twenty-four hours after Nelson's ships had disappeared over the horizon, the first ships of the French armada arrived off Alexandria and began making preparations for an assault on the city.

The progress of the French expedition after leaving Malta had been slow and the more experienced naval officers in the warships were aware how vulnerable they were to a British attack. Their crews were lacking in seatime and had little or no experience of action, and all the ships were encumbered with troops, their baggage and equipment. They knew that enemy ships were in the Mediterranean because a French frigate had reported sighting sixteen British ships sailing down the coast of Italy. Napoleon seems to have been blithely unaware of the dangers they faced at sea, preoccupied as he was with the details of his historic venture to the Orient. During the voyage to Malta he had spent much of his time reading the Koran and books about the history of Egypt. In the great cabin of L'Orient he had frequent and sometimes heated discussions with the scientists and philosophers on board the flagship. Now he concentrated on the disposition of the ships and troops during the landing operation on the Egyptian coast. On 22 June, the day that the outlying frigates of his armada were spotted by the Leander, he issued a stirring proclamation to his troops:

Soldiers! You are about to undertake a conquest whose effects upon the civilization and commerce of the world are incalculable. You are going to strike a blow against England more effective and more deeply felt than any other; a preliminary to her death-blow. We shall have tiring marches to make and plenty of fighting: but we shall succeed in every enterprise, for fate is on our side.

He urged them to treat the local people with respect and warned them that rape and pillage would create enemies and destroy their resources. He concluded, 'The first city we shall see was built by Alexander. We shall find at every step of our march memories fit to move Frenchmen to imitate his exploits.'

Napoleon decided against a frontal attack on Alexandria. Instead he planned to land his army in the Bay of Marabout which lay 7 miles to the east of the town. This had a curving sandy beach with off-lying sandbanks which prevented the ships coming close in to the shore. The landing was a chaotic operation and Napoleon was fortunate that there was no opposition on the beach or from the sea. The merchant ships carrying the bulk of the troops anchored about a mile from the beach, and the warships anchored in deeper water to seaward of them. A brisk wind had stirred up a rough sea which made it difficult to transfer soldiers and their equipment from the ships into the boats in which they would be rowed ashore. Admiral Brueys advised Napoleon to delay the landing but Napoleon was determined to press on. The landing began around midday on 1 July and continued until well after dark. Napoleon himself did not get ashore until 11 pm. Many of the troops were seasick and abandoned their ration packs, and several boats were overturned in the surf. At least twenty men were drowned or lost during the landing but by midnight nearly 5,000 soldiers were safely ashore and the rest landed at daylight the next day.

Without further delay Napoleon led his wet and hungry troops along the hot, sandy track to Alexandria and at 10 am launched an assault on the walls of the town. The total population was only 6,000 and, although the small force of Egyptian soldiers put up a fight, they were overwhelmed. Within a few hours the town had fallen to the French. With his usual speed Napoleon pushed on with his invasion of the country. Two days after entering Alexandria, his troops had taken the nearby towns of Rosetta and Damanhour, and three weeks after landing at Marabout Bay he led his forces out on the plain by the Great Pyramids. There, on 21 July, his 25,000 men faced a warrior army of nearly 30,000 Bedouin and Mameluke cavalry and infantry. The charges of the Mameluke horsemen made little impression on the disciplined French troops and when the French heavy guns opened fire the Egyptian infantry fled. The next day Napoleon entered Cairo and completed the conquest of Egypt.

On the day that Napoleon won the Battle of the Pyramids the British squadron was at anchor in Syracuse harbour on the east coast of Sicily. Since leaving Alexandria they had searched the eastern Mediterranean, zig-zagging back and forth and intercepting passing merchant vessels in the hope of gaining information. After three fruitless weeks they put into Syracuse to stock up on provisions, and carry out necessary repairs. The Bellerophon's heavy wooden launch was rowed ashore with empty water butts and returned with each of the butts filled with 100 gallons of water. Fresh vegetables and beef were loaded on board and lemons were distributed to the ship's company. The local people gathered in large numbers on the quayside to gaze at the impressive squadron of foreign warships lying at anchor and to watch the activities of the sailors. On 25 July Nelson gave the order for the ships to prepare to sail and noted in his journal, 'the fleet is unmoored, and the moment the wind comes off the land shall go out of this delightful harbour where our present wants have been most amply supplied and where every attention has been paid to us . . '

The wind was so light that the ships had to be towed out of the harbour by the crews manning the ships' boats, but as soon as they were clear of the shore, they were able to hoist in the boats and take advantage of a light breeze from the north-west. Four days later they were sailing down the south-west coast of Greece. In the Gulf of Coron they shortened sail so that Troubridge could go ashore and seek information. They had learnt nothing useful during their stay at Syracuse but in the little Greek town of Coron they at last struck lucky. The Turkish governor told Troubridge that he had firm information from his government that the French were in Egypt. The Bellerophon's log for 29 July records that 'At 5 the Admiral made the signal for having gained intelligence of the enemy.' The squadron set all sail and with a favourable following breeze headed back to Alexandria.