. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill https://archive.org/details/exposornapoleoneOOcoxe * I THE I . I EXPOSE; * OR* i 1 NAPOLEONE BUONAPARTE Onmagftcti. ' 1 THE EXPOSE; OR, NAPOLEONE BUONAPARTE UnmagfecO, IN A CONDENSED STATEMENT OF HIS Carter ano atrocities*. ACCOMPANIED WITH NOTES, &c. “ I would not be the villain.. " For the whole space that's in the Tyrant's grasp. And the rich East to boot!" Shakspeare's Macbeth . LONDON: PRINTED FOR W. MILLER, ALBEMARLE STREET BY JAMES MOYES, SHOE LANE. 1809. * f V , % * K ~ G >Z r J l 4 DEDICATION. TlIIS Production is respectfully dedicated to the Inhabitants of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, from the full persuasion, that the contents, by contrast, will not only shed the highest brilliancy on their revered Sovereign, who fills his exalted station with so much dignity and honour: but present, at the same time, an incontestable proof of the blessings which they enjoy, under the continued influence of their free and undisturbed constitution. London, 30th Jan. 1809. * % fi Prose allows of painting in a moderate degree : for, “ without lively descriptions, it is impossible to warm a the hearer’s fancy, or to stir the passions. A plain u narrative does not move people : we must not only “ inform them of facts ; but strike their senses, by a “ lively, moving representation of the manner and cir- ff cumstances of the facts which we relate.” Fenei.on. * . t ADVERTISEMENT. This little performance was drawn up with the view, that at this important and auspicious period the public mind might be usefully called to a retrospect of the past. But, in sending it from the press, no improper claim is preferred for originality. It presents itself simply as a compilation, new with respect to form, but not with regard to the principal matter; most of the events having been already described in the productions of different writers, and are now brought together, for greater conve¬ nience; accompanied by such remarks as natu¬ rally flowed from contemplating the subject. The introductory lines, which are by no means at¬ tempted to be raised inta the consequence of verse, were, in the first instance, written at the n 10 ADVERTISEMENT. \ • \ s u gg es ti°n of the instant, though afterwards in some degree altered: the accompanying statement resulted from those lines having been written; and the whole was unpremeditated. The statement, it will be observed, is not ac¬ complished in exact chronological order; and the recorded facts are but a part only—a promi¬ nent one, indeed—of those atrocities which have been committed by the boasted hero of the time. They will exhibit, it is presumed, the temper of Buonaparte in its true light; and display, in a small compass* what have been the effects to individuals, as well as to nations* of his un¬ feeling conduct and unprincipled ambition. The chief aim in the composition has been, to render the narrative concise, to occupy the mind but for a short time in the reading, yet to endeavour to leave an impression which might come home to the bosom of every one. The Annual Register; state papers; the leading journals of the day; Buonaparte’s pro- ADVERTISEMENT. 11 clamations; the intercepted letters from Egypt; the History of France, from the year 1790 to the peace concluded at Amiens in 1802, by Adolphus, (a sensible, nervous, and ingenious author, whose pen has invariably pursued the path of unimpeachable veracity); Burdon’s im¬ partial Life of Buonaparte, second edition; Don Pedro de Cevallos’ recent Manifesto; as well as other documents from Spain and Portugal; have been consulted. Among the memoirs of Buonaparte’s career, there are several strongly tinctured with a pe¬ culiar bias* which has led their authors to com¬ municate a variety of extraordinary occurrences regarding him, as well as every branch of his family and connexions, of so singular a nature, that, from that circumstance, and from the man¬ ner also in which these performances have ap¬ peared, no particular reference could be well made to them; and, indeed, where their state¬ ments have not been confirmed by more acknow- b 2 12 ADVERTISEMENT. lodged authorities, (without meaning to question their authenticity), no assistance has been de¬ rived. The private intrigues of Buonaparte’s court, and the petty history of individual profli¬ gacy, were never meant to form part of this more broad and general representation, which was not composed to amuse the mind, but to court the attention of the more serious reader. From the nature of this work, it were in a manner impossible not to advert to the fluctuat¬ ing state of France, and her unsettled plans, i ' during the period of her revolution, prior to the elevation of Buonaparte; nor to withhold such reflections as were the natural result. These have been kept separate, under the form of notes, to prevent the thread of the main discourse from being broken in upon, and interrupting the rapidity with which it was meant to be pursued. The reader has the power of turning to these notes either before or after his perusal of the ADVERTISEMENT. 13 main body of tbe performance, as suits his incli¬ nation or judgment. Should the writer have erred in any point, it has not been from design. His first resource, indeed, was in his own recollection. The events * were too deeply engraven on his memory, to have been easily obliterated ; for, if he had any feeling for the happiness of his own country, or for the welfare of mankind, they could not have passed by him “ Like a summer’s cloud, “ Without his special wonder!” It now only remains for him to add, that he has delivered his sentiments from a desire of doing good, not from any vain motive : and he offers them with that becoming respect, which is as far removed from presumption as from too great humility . \ . » . V ( . jRapoleone Buonaparte (Unmasftea: PREFACED BY THESE INTRODUCTORY LINES ON JOSEPH BUONAPARTE’S PRINCELY VISIT TO SPAIN ! Which were written at the impulse of the moment, on his having quitted Naples , by the direction of his great and invincible brother , in order that he might be crowned king of Spain and the Indies , and subse¬ quently flying from Madrid with the regalia and other purloined articles ! “ A vice of kings, A cut-purse of the empire and the rule, That from a shelf the precious diadem Stole, and put it in his pocket.” Shakspeare. Joseph ! why left you Naples ? turn’d to Spain ? Was it to tell th’ Iberians you would reign Their mild and gracious monarch? Gen’rous soul! How must they triumph ’neath thy kind controul! 16 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. How must the people you resign’d, deplore Those royal virtues they must see no more! But, base-born cut-purse of th’ imperial rule ! 1 The Spaniard ne’er will croucli before thy stool! Commit a crime not ages could alone, And servile bow to an usurper’s throne. No !—vagrant upstart of a blood-stain’d hour,— Not all the weight of all Napoleone’s pow’r, His conquests, triumphs, murders, bribes, nor art, Can ever sway the proud Castilian heart! Make it forget itself, and own in thee Aught but the sov’reign chief of perfidy ! Back to your haunts, marauders! die and rot! Your race extinct, the age’s scourge and blot! France! rise like Spain! like her, be justly brave! Show who should wear your crown .your country save ! Your ancient banners—fleur-de-lis—unfurl’d! DEngiiien revenge! and free the suff’ring world! BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 17 COURTEOUS READER l TO estimate rightly the character of Joseph Buonaparte, the amiable king of Naples, and projected king of Spain, it should be remembered, that he was the French ambassador at Rome, who in the pontificate of Pius VI. carried into execution the planned disturbance, un- * der the cloak of the feast of liberty, which was to pave the way for the banishment of the pope, and the con¬ quest, or rather subjugation, of Rome. -The death of General Du phot, brought about by his means, did effect it; and the mistress of the ancient world was again exposed to all the horrors which had attended the irruption of a Brennus or an Attila.—From this impression, and 18 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. with the intent to express a marked detes¬ tation of the continuance of an unwar¬ rantable conduct extended to Spain, the writer was led to give publicity to this condensed statement of the life of Na- poleone Buonaparte, the prime mover of all the mischief, specifying the prin¬ cipal acts which have outraged humanity from the commencement of his career to the present hour. The account he has preceded with what he hopes may be deemed an allow¬ able anecdote; and he candidly requests, that his prefatory lines may be merely considered as the passport of introduc¬ tion to the main subject. A lecturer, who had taken for his theme the concise and energetic ques¬ tion, “ What is man ?” addressed liis audience in this eccentric style of com¬ mencement, “ I will tell you what man is !—man is a devil! But as I see,” con¬ tinued the speaker, “ that the expression BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 19 does not please ye, it shall be softened,— he is a devil incarnate.” So, from a desire to satisfy those who may think that some of the expressions are too highly seasoned, they shall be attempted to be softened by this plain recitement of facts, drawn from the authentic records of the time. Napoleone Buonaparte; or, (ashis own modest proclamations, and the procla¬ mations of his diplomatic agents and ge¬ nerals, have announced him, in language such as they consider due to his extra¬ ordinary qualifications and manifold ac¬ complishments), Napoleone, the hero ! the conqueror !—the terrible ! the dreadful! the invincible !—the magnificent!—the sacred ! the august ! the glorious !—the great pacificator !—the mild ! the loving! the noble-minded !—the merciful !—the amiable! the generous! the gracious ! the humane ! the accomplished !—the ex¬ cellent ! the beneficent!—the omnipotent!,. 520 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. —renowned for taste, science, learning, and judgment! Duke! Prince ! Protector! King! and Emperor! the wonder of the present age, a reflection on the past, and the example for the future! the chosen instrument of heaven, sent to ameliorate the condition of mankind ! born only for its use, and who lives but to oblige it! this phenomenon, this phoenix risen from the ashes of the French revolution and republic! this Napoleone Buonaparte, who once styled himself Brutus Buona¬ parte, citoyen sans calotte !—breathed his first innocent air in Corsica ! # * In reverting to the first mode in which Napoleone Buonaparte spelt his name, it is mentioned, that that orthography has been adhered to from motives of propriety. Though Buonaparte, when in Egypt, chose to drop the final letter in Napoleone, and discard the second letter of his surname, to familiarize the sounds, and render them more closely analogous to the French idiom, he cannot, despotic as he may be, force every person to write them after the same way ; BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 21 Brought up from his infancy to the profession of arms, he received his early education at a military academy at Brienne, in France, (having been first sent to Autun); and from Brienne he was removed to the Royal Military Aca¬ demy at Paris, supported by the bounty of that king, whom, if he did not assist to decapitate, he rejoiced in his downfal. The dawn of this great mans stern and inflexible disposition first displayed itself at Toulon, where he had the appointment of chef de brigade, when so much mis¬ chief was done to the inhabitants of and the names, which were first given to him, shall be prevented, as far as this publication can prevent them, from sinking wholly into oblivion. The ostrich, it is said, hides his head in the reeds, and then thinks his body will not be discovered; and surely it will not be lost sight of by France, for her own honour, that Napoleone Buonaparte was a native of Corsica, although he now styles himself Napoleon Bona¬ parte. 22 BUONAPARTE UNMASKEt). that city, after the British had retreated; and where, under a deceitful proclama¬ tion, those who were deemed disaf¬ fected, or suspected only, were assem¬ bled on the Champ de Mars, to the amount of fifteen hundred, and there butchered. This exploit he authenticated by his memorable letter to the deputies who were sent to the different armies by the convention, when, under the assumed name of Brutus Buonaparte, he stated, that “ upon the field of glory, his feet inun¬ dated with the blood of traitors, he announced, with a heart beating with joy, that their orders were executed, and France revenged; that neither sex nor age had been spared; and that those who escaped, or were only mutilated by the discharge of the republican cannon, were dispatched by the swords of liber¬ ty, and the bayonets of equality !”* At * The reader, in following the narrative, it is ima¬ gined, will observe, that from this massacre at Toulon, BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. Paris, in the affair of the Sections, where lie had afterwards the command, he led the troops to still greater slaughter: there, too, with his artillery, to support the arbitrary proceedings of the convention, he swept the streets in every direction; and an undistinguishing and more ex¬ tensive carnage, equally without respect either to age or sex, sealed that ferocious triumph.* and through the long and frightful round of enormi¬ ties committed by Buonaparte, or by his command, extending to the massacre at Madrid, one ferocious principle only has actuated his conduct; and thus accustomed to the shedding of human blood, it may, without exaggeration, be said of him, that “ Direness, familiar to his slaught’rous thoughts, Cannot once start him !” * The sentiments which the people of Paris enter¬ tained of this transaction, was long since made con¬ spicuous, in a caracature print, which marked their opinion of the conduct and disposition of the different generals in the service of the then French republic. 24 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. Having: in this manner commenced his career, his sun thus rising in blood, he acquired further distinction by dif¬ ferent means. He became the promoter of his own fortune, by allying himself in marriage with Josephine la Pagerie, born at Martinique, the widow of Alexander, Count de Beauharnois, the present con¬ descending and august empress, who was the particular acquaintance and It represented the interior of a scowerer’s shop, where various regimentals were under the process of being cleaned. Each coat had a ticket mentioning*to whom it belonged; and the delineated figures had each a label issuing from its mouth, containing some expression correspondent to the character of the owner. The figure which was represented exerting itself to get rid of the spots which w ere on the coat of Buonaparte, of which it was full, is made to exclaim, as attempting to clear away one larger than the rest, on which was written “ Sections of Paris,’—“ The devil’s in this spot, it will never come out !”* * “ Que le diable emporte ce taclie, il ne s’en ira jamais!” BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 25 I friend of Barras; with whom, since the murder of her husband, as it has been de¬ licately remarked, she had “ exchanged complaisance for protection;” and, by % that virtuous match of matrimonial digni¬ ty and affection, the interest of Barras was secured, which obtained for him the ap¬ pointment of commander in chief of the French forces in Italy.—In Italy, justice must acknowledge that he performed al¬ most improbabilities. lie created a large army from one that was nearly disorga¬ nized; moulded it into discipline: fertile in invention and resources, raised sup¬ plies for it, careless of the means, and gave it confidence : and with that army he rapidly and successfully overran Italy; but not more by the means of numbers, and his great military abilities, and active enterprises, than from the effects of terror, bribery, fraud, threats, dupli¬ city, and falsehood. Fraternity, liberty, and equality, were his watch-words: c 26 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. equality! which can never be accom¬ plished, the deceitful cant of the day, which he then artfully continued, and has since so completely exploded, while every act throughout his whole progress belied his expressions.* Medea, it will * The cant term of equality, that insidious catch¬ word, had been made use of, even in the time of the Romans,—the younger Pliny remarks, and the passage may be referred to, by the English reader, in Melmoth’s Translation of Pliny’s Letters; in one of which was addressed by him to Tiro, that “ to level and confound the different orders of mankind, is far from producing an equality among them; it is, in truth, the most unequal thing imaginable/’ Even the severe republican Milton says, “ If not equal all, yet free. Equally free; for order and degrees Jar not with liberty, but well consist and the only perfect equality that can be obtained in any state, are laws equally binding and protective to every individual in the community.—Those words, too, “ war with palaces, and peace to the cottage," were another imposing phrase, which produced for the I BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 27 \ be remembered, did not prepare her cauldron to renovate iEthon, but to destroy him ; and the proclamations of moment an electric effect on the continent: but those words, the very authors of them knew, were meant only to mislead the common mind. It was a fire-brand ignited for their own advantage; aware, that to destroy property, and to confound ranks, were the safest and surest plans to attain their ends; and the pen, with Buonaparte, ever preceded his sword. But the stroke of the sabre immediately fol¬ lowed the fatal seduction of the pen, and nations be¬ came overwhelmed by a false blandishment, giving faith to his w ords, and then w rithing under his ac¬ tions ! The Romans have been the great boasted authority for French imitation: and what were the Romans, if we will dispassionately consider their actions?—a great people, a victorious people, a haughty people, not a humane people!—and what were their republican rulers?—men who made and maintained themselves free in the senate and the forum, to give nominal liberty to the lower order, “ to keep the word of promise to their hope, and break it to their faith”—men who held other nations in slavery, tore them from their country, their wives, their families, their children, C 2 28 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. Buonaparte were issued only to deceive. He did not aim at restoring states and kingdoms from decrepitancy to health, for the benefit of the people ; he went forth to oppress and overwhelm them, their friends—compelled them to till their farms, perform their household drudgery, and then sold them when they were too old for labour. This picture is correct; for the conduct and advice of the elder Cato prove it. And what were the splendid Roman triumphs, but the procession of robbers'?— and what is the Louvre, but a store-house of rich *T plunder?—We may gloss over the triumphs of the Romans, and their ovations ! and speak of the Louvre in more gentle language, but the facts will not be altered. In England, “ that land of avariciousness, that nation of contemptible shop-keepers,” as Buonaparte is pleased to call her, but which the Spaniards de¬ nominate “ the shield of humanity,” a slave no sooner sets foot on her sacred soil, than he is free! Buonaparte does not bring slaves home to France, he has enough there already,—but he binds his foreign slaves in an extended chain, which reaches over Italy and the continent. i BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 29 inducing them to become the subjugators of their own governments. # Wherever atrocities could be committed, wherever • Before any new government can be formed, suit- s able to the manners and habits of an ancient people, it should be considered, whether the people them¬ selves are calculated for the new proposed establish¬ ment. To tear to pieces an ancient monarchy, under the vain expectation, that every idle schemer can as¬ sist in raising an envied political superstructure, which would astonish mankind, and exhibit itself as the most stupendous effort of human wisdom, may be the warm and honest hope of a philanthropic heart : but it is a hope dissonant to all experience, contrary to all recorded statements in the history of human society. France, instead of improving her govern¬ ment by mild means; instead of submitting her an¬ cient fabric to a wise and cool investigation on the rational principles of a cautious improvement, knew no bounds to her innovating disposition ; and she now pays the severe penalty of her rash and fluctu¬ ating schemes. The constitution of nations, like the rising strength and improvement of the constitution of the human body, to be permanently advantageous, “ must grow with its strength, and widen with its bark;” for the same treatment which is required for infancy, 30 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. devastation could take place, like the daemon of evil, he was ready to direct the storm. In his route to Pavia, he set the mild and salutary restraint, is no barrier to controul the passions in adolescence, nor to curb man’s strength in the matured and full perfection of his nature. Man, by nature a lawless animal, is softened by re¬ ligion, education, and laws ; but his original bias is apt to recur, and he uses his strength frequently to his own ruin, as well as the ruin of others. He prides himself on his consequence, without proving his virtues ; and imagines himself wise, without contem¬ plating the weakness of his reason. France conceived that she could perform for herself, in a short time, what ages cannot bring to perfection—a government which would satisfy her great population, and make it wise and happy. In nearly fifteen years, since the fall of Louis the Sixteenth, numerous ephemeral con¬ stitutions have arisen, which came like shadows, and departed : she has seen the reign of her convention, the reign of Robespierre, the reign of the directory, the reign of her consuls, and t he reign of Buonaparte. During the reign of the convention, instead of exhibit¬ ing the regenerated nation as a pure republic of un¬ exampled perfection ; instead of simplifying the laws, encouraging religion, promoting piety, and assisting BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 31 fire to the village of Benasco, which he owned himself was a horrid sight, and gave orders to set even the city of Pavia the moral virtues, she let every species of immorality loose; and contemned the Christian dispensation, a re¬ ligion which even the Romans wondered at, admired, and dreaded; wondered at for its pure principles, and dreaded for its humble pretensions, so opposite to their ostensible display of proud worldly authority: and erected, instead, a religion, if it could be so denomi¬ nated, or rather a device emanating from reason only, when all man's reason testifies his imperfections. In the reign of that convention too, when France tri¬ umphantly proclaimed the rights of man, and mag¬ nified his consequence, she proved his weakness, and declared his propensities; and, with her, the rights of man were the wrongs of nations. In the short time of thirty-seven months, but a long reign of absurdity and wickedness, abrogating .her old statutes, she enacted twelve thousand laws instead; so preposter¬ ous a proportion, that it sets all reason at defiance, and exposed the fallacy of her acquired liberty. She has recovered her religion as the gift of her present ruler, but given to her as a state engine for his advan¬ tage ; the pure precepts of the gospel, restored to her through his polluted and muddy source, and for a 32 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. in flames; but the timely appearance of the French garrison, which had been shut up in the castle, prevented that dreadful catastrophe from taking place; profane purpose. Too wise to follow such a baneful example, and imitate the conduct of France in her distracted pursuit; Great Britain has abhorred her proceedings. Firm and immutable amid the revolution¬ ary tumult that overspread Europe, she knew, that even to correct the errors, which, through time, had crept into her admired constitution, required the calmest temper of the most deliberate wisdom; and that to subvert the fabric, would be to imbibe the poison of destruction; and her strong tower of free¬ dom remains a firm, unshaken monument of the wisdom of our ancestors, transmitted uninjured to their descendants; and which they, for their own safety and welfare, are blessed with too much sense to overturn. England knows the value of what she possesses, and may exultingly exclaim of her situation, that “ Since no human systems e’er Were planned so perfect, or so fair, But some wise heads would mend them ; Let’s each Utopian wish repress, And prize the blessings w'e possess, Determin’d to defend them. BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 33 for had the blood of a single Frenchman been spilled, he would have erected, he declared, a column, on which should have been inscribed, “ Here Pavia stood.” He demanded of the city tw r o hundred hostages, to be sent to France, and then calmly ordered the whole muni¬ cipality to be shot, as a salutary example, as his dispatches mentioned, for the ob¬ servation of Italy at large. After the bat¬ tle of Salo, on the lake da Guarda,—hu¬ man nature shudders at the bare recital of the deed,—he commanded all who, from severe wounds, were deemed unfit for ser¬ vice, to be mingled with the dead, which were to be conveyed away in waggons, and to be there strangled, or suffocated If forms are best, we all agree, Where man’s most happy and most free, No matter what we style ’em ; Britain may boldly stand the test, Sole refuge of a world oppress’d, And virtue’s safe asvlum.” \ And these, surely, are sentiments to which no true Englishman can refuse to subscribe. 3 4 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. under them, and then thrown into an ex¬ tensive pit, prepared for the purpose, and covered with quick-lime! Several of these unhappy people, not having had life quite extinguished in them, the lime coming in contact with their green wounds, they were suddenly roused into an excruciating sense of their situation ; and the dreadful screams which were uttered, till the ground was finally closed on their sufferings, so affected the hu¬ mane rector of Salo, that he died from the horror which had seized him on hearing their cries.* * Buonaparte, in this instance, had an example set him, which took place at Guadaloupe in the West Indies, when general Graham commanded the British troops at Berville; who w^s obliged, after a brave defence, to accept terms of capitulation from the French, and vainly endeavoured to include the royalists in the treaty; but his humanity could only save twenty-five of them, whom he got away by stealth. Fifty fell by the guillotine; and the remainder, coupled together, were placed on the brink of the trenches they had valiantly defended, and fired up- BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. Legitimate war must be respected, with all its horrors, if tempered with huma¬ nity, when the sword is drawn to pro- on. The falling of the killed and wounded dragged those who were tied to them into the ditch; and by the throwing in of the earth, terrible to relate! the living and the dead shared one common grave! This hideous deed was committed against an enemy; Buonaparte carried away the palm of atrocity, for his act had the crime of ingratitude added to cruelty : those whom he ordered to be strangled, were his own soldiers, his friends,—men who were suffering under the wounds they had received in raising their com¬ mander’s military glory. It were impossible not to turn with satisfaction to the pleasing contrast in the recollection of British conduct, at the memorable siege of Gibraltar, when near four hundred Spaniards were saved from the destruction which would otherwise have attended them, from the conflagration of their battering ships; •and they were saved at the hazard of the lives of those who rescued them. The wounded were in¬ stantly sent to the hospital, where every care was taken of them that liberality could dictate. At the battle of the Nile too, and during the very heat of action, boats were ordered out by Lord Nelson, lo 36 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. tect the freedom of a nation, preserve its rights, and assist its independence; “ When in the public cause, With justice and benevolence employed l for those nations are most worthy to be free, who have the courage to maintain that proud and envied allotment. But the vice of war deserves the most decided reprobation. To overrun states and em¬ pires, from ambitious or avaricious i motives; to sully the bright star of national honour, by crushing the weak, and endeavouring to reduce the strong from thirst of dominion and the desire save the people who had escaped from the French admiral’s flag-ship, then in flames, and upwards of sixty Frenchmen were received into the British men of war. These were the acts of British tars to a foe at that moment not completely conquered. British soldiers are equally humane; the instant the action is over, all animosity subsides; and innumerable instances might be brought forward to record atten¬ tive and honourable feelings exhibited by them, as resplendent as their valour. BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 37 of lawless and unbounded sway, betrays the basest disposition. It is not the aim of this sketch, to recount the battles which were fought by Buonaparte, to recite the names of those nations whom he subdued, nor the causes which occasioned hostilities. The list of the countries which he overran, would fill uo small space in a circumscribed work; and to follow him with minute attention to the different towns and cities he occupied, with all the ramifications of so extended an irruption, would not only spread this work, intended as a general reminiscence, into a bulky vo¬ lume, but would require other abilities to execute, in animating and appropriate language. It will be sufficient in this limited performance to state, that to those who consider war without reflecting upon its distresses, the forcing of the bridge at Lodi, and the battle of Areola, independ- 38 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. ent of the treaty of Campo Formio, were alone sufficient to establish the fame of any general with unfading glory, and were acts of that dazzling descrip¬ tion, to call forth all the praise which an infatuated people could bestow on so successful a commander. It was natural, / # too, that the directory, who, as the exe¬ cutive branch of government, had ap¬ pointed Buonaparte to head their armies, should wish to sound their own praise, while they applauded the hero who had so undauntedly fought for them.—On Buonaparte’s return from his campaign, his public introduction to the directory was made a gratifying scene of national exultation and enthusiasm. The palace of the Luxembourg had been sump¬ tuously prepared for the occasion with all that imposing art which the French —fond of magnificence and parade— could so well put in practice. An im¬ mense awning covered the great court: BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 39 the walls were hung round with the per¬ forated and torn standards, which had been taken in the different actions, and which Buonaparte had sent to the direc¬ tory, no less as an homage to them, than as a proud proof of the advantages he had gained, and were judiciously blended with the national colours: bands were selected of the first singers and mu¬ sicians, to play and chaunt the national airs ; and altars to liberty, reason, equality, and peace, were erected ; for all religion had been abandoned; seats were built up to hold an immense concourse of specta¬ tors; and the streets and windows were lined and crowded through which the di¬ rectorial procession was to pass. The ce¬ remony took place; Buonaparte was re¬ ceived with bursts of applause; at his ap¬ pearance every eye was fixed on him, and for a length of time the roof resounded with re-echoing notes of unceasing appro¬ bation. Speeches were made by the French I 40 . BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. rulers, and answered by the general; and the fraternal embrace was given and re- . ceived. But nations, to be generous, should be just; and, when they thank their commanders, they should remember, that the truly brave are merciful, and that the brightest quality in the soldier, next to courage and the proper discharge of his duty in action, is humanity. Under Moreau,* when victory caused him to pass through an enemy’s country, he made the French arms respected; and by what means? war, under his direction, * When Moreau captured the town of Nieuport, which was partly garrisoned by Hanoverians, he had the virtue to risk his life, by disobeying his orders, and giving quarter to those whom he deemed lawful enemies: at the same time, it must be more than lamented, that he thought it his duty to leave the emigrants to their fate. This was in the early period of the revolution, and under the immediate direction of the convention: when left more at large afterwards, and to his own feelings, his conduct was the reverse of that of Buonaparte. BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 41 was no where a scourge but upon the field of battle; and the states which were subdued by him gave ample testimony in his favour. The conqueror was not sullied by the assassin. The successes of a warrior should never screen the ab¬ horrent cruelties of the man; and that nation degrades itself, which raises its commanders on a pedestal which crushes the mild virtues. # * In mentioning the mild virtues, (the reappear¬ ance of which has been so long delayed), an oppor¬ tunity is afforded of recurring to past scenes of misery, as well as present unhappiness: and here it may be observed, that the restless spirit of political fashion, to use, perhaps, not an unsuitable phrase, which took place at the commencement of the French revolution, and inclined mankind to promote innovations in governments, under the humane plea of ameliora¬ ting the condition of the oppressed subject, ran counter to every reasonable principle of sober discre¬ tion, in the imposing pursuit; and it is not to be won¬ dered that the world should now submit to many privations, even under bad governments, rather than D 42 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. i % , "The minutest circumstances will often develope the ruling passion of the mind beyond greater occurrences; and Buo- run the risk of publick tranquillity being disturbed, though in a just cause, and for a national advantage; since no one can foresee, from the late examples, to what terrific excesses the desire of a reasonable change may lead, nor to what height those excesses « may be carried. When once the appeal is made from government to public interference, men may rush on dangers, because they presume on light, and imagine good, without conceiving the evils which may arise. In that nervous performance, by Mr. Shee, Royal Academician, entitled “ Rhymes on Art,” (a work which, notwithstanding “ the poverty of its titular pretensions,” embraces a wide field of just and animated investigation of men, so¬ ciety, and manners, as well as the arts), there is an expressive passage, which so forcibly illus¬ trates what the writer meant to remark, that he cannot, avoid introducing it to the readers notice. The ingenious author says, “ Nor yet in private life alone display’d, A solemn farce in fashion’s masquerade ! BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 43 naparte’s conduct in the Luxembourg evinced that an insatiable ambition had habitually a predominant sway. When To higher spheres th’ ambitious rage resorts, Pollutes e’en politics, and catches courts: Professors there, in pride of power elate, Would try experiments on every state 1 Reorganize the globe on reasoji's plan, New temper nature, and new model man ! No more her ancient settled system priz’d, Lo ! Europe like a compound analyz’d ! Her laws, modes, morals, melted down, to try What forms the fighting elements supply; What shapes of social order rise refin’d, From speculation’s crucible combin’d ! While cool state chymists watch the boiling brim. And life’s low dregs upon the surface swim. What ! though ’midst passion’s fiery tumults toss’d, A generation’s in the process lost, Regardless of his raw material, man, The calm philosopher pursues his plan ; Looks on the ruin of a race with scorn. And works the weal of ages yet unborn,” Now the dreadful consequences which have arisen from the various events which took place in France, and which rapidly followed each change of political D 2 44 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. % Buonaparte approached the spot, or ele¬ vated platform, upon which the directors ✓ - 4 — , opinion and regeneration, make an aggregate of mischief and cruel vengeance, which might be almost said to beggar arithmetic, in endeavouring to sum up the amount: “ and yet would calm philosophers pursue their plan ?” If “ les Brigands Demasques,” by Danigan, “ Prud- liomme,” (vol. vi.), and “ le Tableau General,” are to be relied on, the destruction of lives by slaughter, and the devastation of houses and property, independent of the violence offered to the sex, and other dreadful occurrences—by suicide, madness, fear, and famine— present a story so afflicting and so extensive, that the mind recoils at the very thought; and this in France only, without adverting to Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, St. Domingo, or Egypt. The mass of affliction is most horrible, as the sad events have proved. The guillo¬ tine alone has sacrificed upwards of eighteen thousand people; and this is a small item in the long list of human misery and slaughter; for, without exaggerat¬ ing, the calculation of the whole of the lives which have fallen may be estimated at full tivo millions of souls, when embracing all the extended effects of .BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 45 were seated, he was observed to ascend the first step calmly; and then, in a hur- tlie abhorrent and overwhelming revolution, which the world hailed with joy at the commencement, and has been compelled to weep at the recollection. It is mentioned in Adolphus’s History of France, that so early as the year 1 794, the number of French who fell by various means of dest ruction—on the scaf¬ fold, i>i the waves, and in the field, by the hands of their countrymen—is estimated at nine hundred thousand; of whom fifteen thousand were women, twenty-two thousand children ; and that more than twenty thousand dwellings were destroyed. The num¬ ber of women seems to bear so small a proportion, that it may be rather supposed a cipher had been dropt, and that they amounted to a much higher rate, as the French had lost that respect for the sex for which they had been long celebrated.—The cruel manner in which the greater part of the mur¬ ders were committed, was most detestable; com¬ mitted, not like the massacre of St. Bartholomew, infamous as that act was, in a short space of time; but they were the continued atrocities of several years. 46 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED, riecl manner, accompanied by an agitated look, placed his foot suddenly upon the i *» Since that period, and during Buonaparte’s career, the destruction of the human species, in battles, sieges, naval combats, executions, military vengeance, mas¬ sacres, pestilence, and other attendant consequences of twelve additional years of war and devastation in and out of the kingdom, and including the war of extermination in La Vendee, and at St. Domingo— the calculation of two millions of lives must be deemed very far within the compass of a fair statement, than an overcharge. The individual who sacrifices his life for the benefit of the many, is a character above all praise; but to allow for a single moment, that the many are to be sacrificed for the benefit of the few; that is, that the good which may be done in future, and which can never compensate for the mischief of the past, will justify the means of so attaining that good, is a species of philosophical calculation far beyond the conception of the writer’s reasoning fa¬ culties. Two centuries of the severest despotism, under the most despotic monarchs France ever knew, would not have produced a hundredth part of the mis¬ chief which republican despotism accomplished from / BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 47 second, and as hastily withdrew it; and by that reserved action seemed to the commencement of the French revolution, even to the year 1794, “ covering the world with blood, with tears, and with calamities.”—When the bastile was destroyed, there were not three persons confined within its walls; but France became afterwards, by her own act, one continued bastile; the Place de Greve was extended over the surface of her soil; and the whole nation became in a manner execu¬ tioners against one another. That the bastile, under the old regime, in the reign of Louis the Sixteenth, was more terrible in the sound than it was terrific in the interior management, with respect to its conduct to prisoners when under confinement, or in its subsequent consequences, may be made evident from some letters which the writer has in his possession. They were transmitted by a friend, who, from the malicious conduct of a consul of one of the northern powers, who had falsely re¬ presented him to the minister of police as a spy, was arrested at' one of the sea-ports, where he was settled as a merchant in business, conveyed to Paris, and sent to the bastile. This was in the year 17S .1, at the time of the American war, when France was courting the northern confederacy, which were associated under 48 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. say, “ This throne I shall mount, hut the time is not yet come; pause my aspiring the title of the armed neutrality; and his liberation, therefore, was the more honourable to the French government. His papers were examined; he was interrogated; and, after live weeks, was liberated, and introduced to the Count de Vergennes on his restora¬ tion to society. He states, that although his confine¬ ment was solitary, he had soon the use of a library, might choose what books he pleased; and having never read Moliere, was so entertained with him, that the fits of laughter which seized him, w ould have made any unfortunate neighbouring prisoner, had there been any, think him mad, and envied him the loss of reason, which had deprived him of the appa¬ rent sense of his captivity. He was allow ed wine, had three meals each day, and he described the cook as being an excellent one. These circumstances are mentioned, though minute; because, from the nature of the fact, they are interesting. His room was an octagon of twenty feet square, with double doors, a fire place, and a glazed window, strongly barrica- doed, of course, in all directions ; and furnished w ith a bed, two chairs, and tw o tables. He spent his time, he remarked, cheerfully, as he was conscious of his rectitude, and that his character would be cleared. BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 49 thoughts for a time —With such a marked disposition, and decided propen- To such men, neither the bastile, nor any other prison, could have alarms. How different were the prisons under the republican reign of terror! and how op¬ posite are they under the new dynasty! Few men under the republican rule were incarcerated, however innocent, who did not endure every indignity and privation, while confined; and when restored to light, it was only to see the guillotine, and bow their necks under its keen stroke; to be submerged, or undergo some equally fatal catastrophe. Under the new dy¬ nasty, the prisoners are said to die by their own hands ! are deported; or, in other words, doomed to breathe the pestilential and infectious air of the swamps of Cayenne; condemned, by that measure, to a lingering and almost certain death; or they are made to descend into the oubliettes of the prisons, and all further knowledge of them ceases; ihey are only remembered to have once lived. Such were the blessings of French republican government, while it lasted; and such are the present advantages of imperial benevolence and humanity ! The fashionable pursuit spoken of with so much con¬ cern in this note, that epidemic disease of novelty, dis- 50 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. si ties, it is not to be wondered, that, peace being made with Austria, and the moment not being propitious to i played itself also in a thousand absurd as well as cruel shapes, extending itself even to the well-known i alteration of the calendar, engendered by the thirst France had for dominion over the language and minds, as well as persons of mankind. She foolishly gave, in the plenitude of her vanity, ridiculous names to the months, unsuitable even to the meridian of Paris, as nature is not constant in her operations, though de¬ cisive in her laws : and doubly absurd, when applied to the whole globe, as the seasons vary in different - _ V latitudes; and that which might be relevant to Europe, would be incompatible in Asia or Africa. Happy would it have been for France and man¬ kind, had she confined herself to such silly and harmless innovations. * The account of Buonaparte’s conduct at the Luxembourg was received through the means of an eye-witness, whose whole attention, during the cere¬ mony, was unalterably fixed upon him ; and who ob¬ served every motion, look, and attitude, from his entrance to his departure. BUONAPAUTE UNMASKED. 51 establish himself where bis lofty am¬ bition inclined, he could not bring his mind to submit to an inferior situation. Though he did not dare look England in the face, with whom France was still at war, he sought new employment, and new scope for his exertions, and he turned his attention to a different hemi¬ sphere, and to a spot where he was not afraid to encounter the enervated people who were to oppose him. The weak pip¬ ing time of inactivity could have had no charms with him, who could not bear to see his shadow in the sun with satisfac¬ tion, unless he saw it surrounded with honours which had not yet been heaped \ upon him; for, notwithstanding the plain¬ ness of dress which he affected, when he appeared in public, that simplicity was 'evidently a cloak to his deceit, as he had higher views before him; and must have then robed himself, in imagi¬ nation, in more gorgeous attire. It might 52 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. have been expected, therefore, that he would chalk out a new career for further exploits, and where he could rule again without controul. He was soon seen at the head of a large armament, which had been prepared at no little charge, steer¬ ing for Egypt, to invade it, in defiance of all justice, at a time when the grand seignior continued in perfect amity with France, and he seized Malta in his passage. Fortunately for him, he escaped the Eng¬ lish fleet, which he anxiously avoided, and reached Egypt. There he did not lose his nature, for his propensities con¬ tinued, and his duplicity remained the same. He told the Egyptians that he had arrived among them from the most friendly motives, that they might be delivered from the tyranny of their beys, when he landed on their shores purposely to enslave them, renouncing his religion, if he had any, and turning Mahometan, that they might be the more deceived ; BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 53 afflicting Egypt, by his presence, with a worse plague than ever its inhabitants had experienced, even from the wrath of the Almighty.* His various proclama- * Tiie opinion of Buonaparte’s conduct and dispo¬ sition, expressed in this work, was not taken up in con¬ sequence of the recent events in Spain and Portugal; the atrocity of which are only a continuance of his ambitious proceedings, more outrageously exemplified, if possible, than heretofore; pursued with a more barefaced defiance of every sentiment of honour and justice ; and more destructive, in their conse¬ quences, to the safety and dignity of the continent, as well as the security of England. Every step of his career has been marked with turpitude. He is the enemy of every country. The plan for invading Egypt has been deemed to have been of his own suggesting, not but that the birth of the idea took place during the time of the monarchy. When the account arrived of his landing in Egypt, such, indeed, was the then confirmed opinion which the writer entertained of his destructive influence and power, that it gave rise to the following lines. They were written on reading his proclamation, that he had ar¬ rived in Egypt with the French army, from the sole 54 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. I * _ tions, which remain a state record, were a tissue in which falsehood and bias- phemy were profusely interwoven. He de¬ view to deliver the inhabitants from the tyranny of the beys: and they are brought forward at the present moment, only as they lead to a conclusion, which arose from considering them since they were written. O’er Egypt’s clime, so sacred scriptures tell, Hailstones and fire, mingling, in torrents fell ! Darkness prevail’d ; with vermin teem’d the soil; And man’s parch’d frame endur’d the painful boil; The murrain rag’d, the waters turn’d to blood, For Pharaoh’s pride the wrath of God withstood. Unhappy land ! doom’d greater plagues to prove, The wrath of God , exchang’d—for Frenchmen’s love! A In confounding the whole French nation with the acts of Buonaparte and the other commanders, in the sarcasm contained in the last line, could not be avoid¬ ed. While the nation remained the yielding in¬ strument in their ruler’s hands, supplied their armies with men, and applauded and approved the acts of their generals, they became amalgamated in one mass. It appears an invidious task, notwithstanding, to con- i BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 55 dared, that there was only one God, and that Mahomet was his prophet; that the Egyptians need not fear for their religion, as he loved their prophet • that himself and his army were true mussulmans, and ought to be esteemed so, as they had destroyed the pope, and rescued Malta from the influence of Russia, the invete¬ rate enemy of mussulmans ; that he came to restore their rights, to punish usurpers, ■> found millions of people in one indiscriminate weight of general reprobation ; for it must be supposed, by every ingenuous mind, and cannot be doubted, that the great majority of the people of France, if they could show themselves, are blessed with different sentiments, and other feelings: all sense of propriety would be out¬ raged in thinking or writing otherwise. The bright¬ est examples have been displayed in former times, in innumerable instances, which have embraced all the virtues; and when the immoral tempest shall have subsided, which has not only shook France herself to her very centre, but desolated the surrounding regions, those virtues will reappear. The Upas is no growth of France ; but, planted and taking root in her soil, will send forth all its baneful qualities. 56 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. and not to disturb their religion; that he respected more than the Mamelukes, God, his prophet, and the Koran; and that he hoped the time was not far off, when he should be able to make all the world wise and enlightened ; and establish one uni¬ form system, founded on the principles of the Alcoran, which expressed the truths, and the only truths, which could render mankind happy. # He wrote to the grand vizier, that he had invariably declared that it was the aim of the French to subdue the Mamelukes only, and not * It were impossible, on reading these proclamations, not to remember the words which Milton puts into the mouth of Satan, and to assimilate them with Buona¬ parte, as equally spoken by him in blasphemous arro¬ gance : “ Evil be thou my good ; by thee at least Divided empire with heav'n's King I hold, By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign; As man ere long, and this new world, shall know : «r ‘ * I for it is by crimes that Buonaparte has succeeded, and through evil that he now rules ! BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 57 to make war against the sublime porte; it was to shut out Great Britain from j Egypt, not their great and faithful ally, the emperor Selim. He wrote to gene¬ ral Kleber privately, and in direct contra¬ diction to what he had thus written to the vizier, that the possession of Egypt was of importance to France; that he had heard that the Turkish empire threatened des¬ truction on all sides to the French forces, and that the evacuation of Egypt would be one of the greatest misfortunes. But, above all, he had the indecent and au¬ dacious presumption profanely and un- blushingly to declare, that those who were not his friends, would neither have happiness in this world nor the next; that he possessed the attributes of the Almighty, and knew the secret thoughts of the heart, even before they were di¬ vulged ; that he was God’s immediate messenger, for he had commanded him to be mild and merciful; that it was E 58 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. written in the second book of the Koran, in twenty places, that after lie had de¬ stroyed the enemies of Islamism and overturned the cross, he should come from the West to fulfil the task which was imposed upon him; and that all the world would know, by evidence too strong to be denied, that he was con- ' ducted by orders from above, and that no human efforts could prevail against him. The porte answered his proclama¬ tions with great good sense and dignity. Some of the emissaries of Buonaparte had pretended, it is said, to persuade the people of Egypt, that they had been sent by Mahomet to give them perfect liberty and happiness, and render their religion the sovereign religion on earth. But the people answered, that they could have no faith in such promises from those who had denied their God and renounced their own prophet: and they could not but be right, for in what way was his BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 59 mildness and mercy shown to them, and after what manner did he perform his t / divine mission? He took Alexandria by storm, which was then an almost de¬ fenceless city; and, with the intent to strike terror, murdered all who came in the way, even those who fled to the mosques for safety, and unrelentingly gave up the city, for four hours, to mas¬ sacre and pillage. Having thus cruelly established himself at Alexandria, he set out to dispossess still further the Turkish sultan of his dominions; and after pass¬ ing the Desert, reaching the Nile, and attacking the Mamelukes, who opposed him in various battles, obtained posses¬ sion of Cairo, generously establishing a government for the happiness of the people; or, in other words, appointed, as usual, his army to be his tax-gatherers, in order that that very people might be plundered, to enable him to pay his own troops for the blessings which they e £ 60 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. brought with them, and the freedom thev thus bestowed. From Cairo he sallied forth to subju¬ gate the remainder of Egypt; reached El Arish, which soon fell to him ; marched to Gaza, which he got posses¬ sion of with considerable stores, and then prosecuted his route to Jaffa; put most of the garrison to the sword; but the rest flying to their mosques, the French soldiers in this instance showed a generosity of sentiment, as new in their conduct, as it was liberal. In de¬ fiance of the wishes and orders of Buo¬ naparte, they refused to pursue an enemy which did not resist them, and spared those who implored their mercy. This libe¬ ral act Buonaparte remembered, and soon put their discipline to a strong trial, to wipe off this stain of disgraceful huma¬ nity, so unbecoming an army which was to act under him. He had taken a con¬ siderable number of Turkish troops in BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 6 } bis different engagements; these he in¬ spected in person, and deliberately con¬ signed over to massacre. He ordered them, near three thousand eight hundred in number, to be marched in regular files and defenceless, to an eminence; and when they had been drawn up in line, surrounded them with his forces, and fusiladed them. Not satisfied with having given the orders, he looked through a glass from a distance, and gratified his heart by witnessing the obedience of his troops in performing this detestable deed.* Their bodies were * When the English and Turks proceeded towards El Aft, “ which the French, after some slight skir¬ mishing, abandoned, few were killed; but those who fell, were beheaded by the Turks. The British general remonstrated against this act of inhumanity, and even engaged the Captain Pacha in the cause; but the soldiery answered by indignant exclamations of Jaffa! Jaffa !”— Adolphus. It would be au endless task to substantiate every act 62 BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. left unburied, to whiten the plains with their bones; and the stench which arose engendered a disease, which proved fatal to his own soldiers. The sick and , ■» wounded in his army had now increased in his hospitals ; and remembering what he had successfully put in practice at Salo, to save himself the trouble and ex¬ pense of curing or removing them, he poisoned those who were incapable of returning to their ranks, by having opium administered to them in their food ; and though he prevented their out¬ cries, five hundred and eighty French • soldiers fell victims to his unparalleled barbarity. In retiring in the night from / before the walls of St. Jean d’Acre, where he had commanded in person, and where of atrocity, by bringing forward collateral passages from other works to support the narrative. Enough, it is imagined, has been already done, to prove that no statements are made without a proper foundation. BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 63 he had been disgracefully repulsed, after a siege of sixty days, he wantonly set fire to several villages in his retreat; and, as if in impotent revenge for his late defeat, put the wretched inha¬ bitants to the sword. At d’Acre, his conduct, if possible, had been more than usually atrocious; he had endeavoured to betray the garrison into a surrender, by an act, which, if he had then been, or should hereafter be, taken by the Turks or the English, would subject him to the extreme of military punishment: an act no less unlawful, in a military point of view, than the very excess of baseness. He sent a dervise, protected by the sacred security of a flag of truce, to request a suspension of arms, for the humane purpose, as he stated, to bury his dead; and, under the cover of that flag, concealed a preconcerted plan to take the troops by surprise, and gain possession of the town by storm. While BUONAPARTE UNMASKED.. the flag was waiting for an answer, to his eternal disgrace, both as a soldier and a man, he directed an immediate assault; but the garrison knowing their enemy, were upon their guard, and the villany was defeated. It was with the utmost difficulty that the dervise could be saved from the fury of the soldiers, who thought him a voluntary instrument in the treason; and he was rescued, to be sent back with a letter of remonstrance, which covered the French army with shame. Buonaparte now returned to Cairo; and his conduct on that occasion, it must be admitted, was the perfection of cunning and ingenious artifice. His troops felt themselves lowered in their own esteem; had been unsuccessful, and were nearly approaching to mutiny. Angry with their commander for the un¬ necessary sacrifice of lives, seven thou¬ sand of their companions having inglori- ously fallen; and wearied out with the fa- BUONAPARTE UNMASKED. 6.5 tigue and disappointment of an unprofit¬ able campaign, they were ready to sacrifice him to their revenge. To rescue him¬ self alike from odium and danger, he deceived the people at Cairo, and re¬ gained the good-will of his troops, by leading them, unexpectedly, through tri¬ umphal arches, which he had ordered to be erected for the purpose; (cheering their drooping spirits by thus making them return as if they were conquerors); com¬ manded illuminations; and, to give fur¬ ther effect to this imposing scene, marched forward a small detachment of grenadiers, whom he accused of cowardice, in having: refused to make another assault against the walls of d’Acre; ordered them for a time to wear their arms slung behind them, as a symbol of disgrace; and thus complimented and flattered the rest of his army by this artful sacrifice of the honour of a few ;