the carnage
bonaparte was walking in front of his tent with bourrienne, impatiently awaiting news, and having no other of his intimates at hand, when he saw two troops of armed men leaving the town by different gates. one of them was led by croisier, and the other by eugene de beauharnais. their young faces shone with joy.
croisier, who had not smiled since he had had the misfortune to displease the commander-in-chief, was smiling now, for he hoped that this fine prize would conciliate the master. bonaparte understood the whole thing. he grew pale, and said sorrowfully: "what do you suppose i am going to do with those men? have i food to give them? have i ships to send the wretched creatures to france or egypt?"
the two young men halted ten feet from him. they saw by the rigid expression of his face that they had made a mistake.
"what have you there?" he asked.
croisier dared not reply, but eugene spoke for both.
"as you see, general, prisoners."
"did i tell you to take any prisoners?"
"you told us to stop the carnage," replied eugene, timidly.
"yes," replied the general, "of women, children, and old men i did; but not of armed soldiers. do you know that you have forced me to commit a crime?"
the young men understood and retired in dismay. croisier was weeping. eugene tried to console him; but he shook his head and said: "it is all over with me; the first opportunity that offers i shall let myself be shot."
[pg 584]
before deciding upon the fate of the unfortunate prisoners, bonaparte decided to call a council of the generals. but soldiers and generals had bivouacked outside the town. the soldiers did not stop until they were weary. besides the four thousand prisoners, they left nearly five thousand dead. the pillage of the houses lasted all night. from time to time shots echoed through the night. dull cries of anguish resounded incessantly in the streets, the houses, and the mosques.
they came from soldiers who were dragged from their places of concealment and slaughtered; by inhabitants who were trying to defend their treasures; by husbands and fathers who were striving to defend their wives and daughters from the brutality of the soldiers.
but the vengeance of heaven was hidden beneath all this cruelty. the plague was in jaffa, and the army carried the germs of it away with them.
the prisoners were, in the first place, ordered to sit down together in front of the tents. their hands were tied behind their backs. their faces were downcast, more from dread of what was in store for them than from anger. they had seen bonaparte's face darken when he perceived them; and they had heard, although they had not understood it, the reprimand which he had bestowed upon the young soldiers. but what they had not understood they had divined.
some of them ventured to say, "i am hungry"; others, "i am thirsty."
they brought them all water and gave each of them a piece of bread, taken from the soldiers' rations. this reassured them a trifle.
as fast as the generals returned they were bidden to repair at once to the general-in-chief's tent. they deliberated a long time without arriving at any decision. on the following day the diurnal reports of the generals of division came in. all complained of insufficient rations. the only ones who had eaten and drunk their fill were[pg 585] those who had entered the town during the fight and were therefore entitled to take part in the pillage. but they constituted merely a fourth of the army. all the rest complained at having to share their bread with the enemy, who had been rescued from legitimate vengeance; since, according to the laws of war, jaffa having been taken by storm, all the soldiers who were within its walls should have perished by the sword.
the council assembled once more. five questions were proposed for its deliberation.
"should the men be sent to egypt?"
but this would require a large escort, and the army was already over-weak to defend itself against the deadly hostility of the country. besides that, how could they and their escort be fed until they reached cairo, when they would be obliged to travel through the enemy's country, previously laid waste by the army which had just passed through it and which had no food to give the prisoners to start with.
"should they put them on shipboard?"
where were the ships? where could they be found? the sea was like a desert, or at least it was dotted by no friendly sails.
"should they be restored to liberty?"
in that case they would go straight to saint-jean-d'acre, to reinforce the pasha, or else into the mountains of nablos. then in every ravine they would be assailed by an invisible army of sharpshooters.
"should they incorporate them, disarmed as they were, in the republican army?"
but the provisions, already scanty for ten thousand men, would be still more inadequate for fourteen thousand. then they ran great danger from such comrades in a hostile country. at the first opportunity they would deal out death for the life which had been left them. what is a dog of a christian to a turk? is it not a pious and meritorious act in the eyes of the prophet to deal death to the infidel?
[pg 586]
bonaparte rose as they were about to propose the fifth condition.
"let us wait until to-morrow," he said.
he himself could not have told what he expected to gain by waiting. it was for one of those strange chances, which sometimes prevent a great crime, and which, when they intervene, are called the interposition of providence.
he waited in vain. on the fourth day, the question, which they had not dared to ask had to be confronted:
"should the prisoners be shot?"
the murmurs were increasing, and the evil was growing. the soldiers might at any moment throw themselves upon the prisoners, and thus lend an appearance of revolt and assassination to that which was in reality an outcome of the necessities of the case.
the sentence was unanimous, with the exception of a single vote. one of those present did not vote at all. the unfortunates were to be shot.
bonaparte hastened from his tent and gazed searchingly out to sea. a tempest of human emotions was surging in his breast. he had not at that period acquired the stoicism born of numerous battlefields. the man who later looked upon austerlitz, eylau, and moscow without moving a muscle, was not sufficiently familiarized with death to throw such prey to him at one fell swoop without a tremor of remorse. on the vessel which had conveyed him to egypt his pity and compassion had astonished everybody. during such a journey it was impossible to avoid occasional accidents, or that some men should not fall overboard. this accident occurred several times during the crossing on board the "orient." at such times only was it possible to compass all the human feeling in bonaparte's heart.
as soon as he heard the cry, "man overboard!" he would dart up on deck if he were not already there and order a boat to be lowered. from that moment he would not rest until the man was found and saved. bourrienne had orders to reward with great liberality the men who had[pg 587] undertaken the task of rescue, and if there were among them a sailor who deserved punishment for neglect of duty, he pardoned him and rewarded him with money besides.
one dark night the splash of a body falling into the water was heard. bonaparte as usual rushed from his cabin to the deck, and ordered a boat to be lowered. the sailors, who knew that not only were they doing a good deed, but that they would be rewarded for it afterward, threw themselves into the boat with their customary activity and zeal. after five minutes of ceaseless questioning on bonaparte's part, "has the man been saved?" he was rewarded with a shout of laughter.
the man who had fallen into the water was a quarter of beef from the store-room.
"double the reward, bourrienne," said bonaparte; "it might have been a man, and the next time they might think it was merely a quarter of beef."
the order for this execution must emanate from him. he delayed giving it, and the time was passing. finally he called for his horse, leaped into his saddle, took an escort of twenty men, and rode away, crying: "do it!"
he dared not say, "fire!"
a scene like that which ensued cannot be described.
those great massacres which occurred during the course of antiquity have no place in modern history. out of the four thousand a few escaped, because, having thrown themselves into the water, they were able to swim out to some reefs where they were beyond the range of the musketry.
neither eugene de beauharnais nor croisier dared show themselves before bonaparte until they reached saint-jean-d'acre and were compelled to take their orders from him.
the french were encamped before saint-jean-d'acre on the 18th. in spite of the english frigates lying in the harbor, some of the young officers, among them the sheik of aher, roland and the comte de mailly, asked permission to go and bathe in the roadstead. the permission was accorded.
[pg 588]
when they were diving de mailly found a leather sack, which was floating under water. the bathers were curious to know what it contained and swam with it to the bank. it was tied up with a cord, and apparently concealed a human body.
the cord was untied, the sack opened, and mailly recognized the head and body of his brother, who had been sent a month before with a flag of truce to djezzar pasha, who had beheaded him when he perceived the dust made by the advance-guard of the french.
