On the morning of the 21st March, the army was, as usual, in battle array at three o'clock. All remained quiet for about half an hour, and the troops were re tiring to their tents, when the report of a musket on the left awakened attention, and recalled them to their posts. Scattered sounds of musketry and cannon suc ceeded in the same quarter ; hut, from the apparent weakness of the attack upon the left. it was wisely judg ed, that this was only a feint, and that the real object of attack was the right of the British army. After a short interval of suspense, rendered doubly awful by the gloom of the atmosphere and the darkness of the night, shouts were heard from the enemy, march ing in columns to the attack of the right wing of the British ; a roar of musketry and artillery succeeded, and a general action began. This is not the proper place for detailing the events of that memorable day, on which, after a long and severe engagement, the British gained a signal triumph over an assailing ene my, much superior in numbers. The joy of victory, however, was shaded with sorrow from the irrepara ble loss which the army sustained in the fall of its brave commander, sir Ralph Abercromhy, who, blend ing the coolness of age and experience with the ardour and activity of youth, repaired on horseback to the right on the first alarm, and exposed himself to all the dangers of the field. Early in the action, he re ceived a mortal wound in the thigh hunt a mu,,ket ball ; yet he «mtinued to move about, and give orders with his characteristic promptitude and . In a formidable charge by the enemy's cavalry, he was thrown from his horse, and, in a scuffle with a French officer, whom lie disarmed, he received a contusion on the breast. Still he remained in the field, unconsci ous or regardless of his danger, till the retreat and discomfiture of the enemy gave him leisure to think of his situation. Exertion being no longer necessary, his spirit sunk beneath fatigue and loss of blood, and he was conveyed, feeble and faint, from the field of victory, amid the expressions of love and sympathy from the companions of his clangers, who were to be hold his face no more ! He was put on board a boat.
and carried to lord Keith's flag-ship. All the attempts which were made to extract the ball proving ineffec tual, he lingered for a week in great pain, aggravated by mental solicitude respecting the army. A mortifi cation at length took place, and on the evening of the 28th he expired ; and the joy which the great vic tory of the 21st had inspired, was, for a season, turned into mourning. His remains were conveyed to Alalta in the Flora frigate, attended by his aid-du-camp, and were interred in the commandery of the grand master, with the highest military honours. The same frigate conveyed to England the standard of the celebrated brigade, which Bonaparte had presumptuously named, The Invincible Legion. This flag, inscribed with the names of those battles in which the brigade had been chiefly distinguished, was valiantly, but in vain, de fended. The corps was said to have perished to a man ; and the standard remains as a trophy to the victors, and a monument of human pride. Ifaviog, by his talents and exertions, paved the way for that com plete success, which in a few months crowned the la bours of the British troops, and expelled the French from Egypt, sir Ralph Abercromby was succeeded in the chief command by his much esteemed friend gene ral Hutchinson. This gentleman, who to the qualities which form an able commander, adds the accomplish ments of a correct and elegant scholar, in the des patches which announced to the English government the death of Abercromby, pays the following zdrecting tribute to the memory of the veteran commander :— " Were it permitted for a soldier to regret any one who has fallen in the service of his country, I might he excused for lamenting him more than any other person ; but it is some consolation to those who ten derly loved him, that as his life was honourable, so was his death glorious ! His memory is ill he recorded in the annals of his country. and will be sacred to every British soldier, and embalmed in the recollection of a grateful posterity." (i)