When The French Invaded Syria, Nazareth Was Occupied By Six Or Eight
Hundred Men, Whose Advanced Posts Were At Tabaria And Szaffad.
Two hours
from hence, General Kleber sustained with a corps not exceeding fifteen
hundred men, the attack of the whole Syrian army, amounting to at least
twenty-five thousand.
He was posted in the plain of Esdrelon, near the
village of Foule, where he formed his battalion into a square, which
continued fighting from sun-rise to mid-day, until they had expended
almost all their ammunition. Bonaparte, informed of Kleber’s perilous
situation, advanced to his support with six hundred men. No sooner had
he come in sight of the enemy and fired a shot over the plain, than the
Turks, supposing that a large force was advancing, took precipitately to
flight, during which several thousands were killed, and many drowned in
the river Daboury, which then inundated a part of the plain. Bonaparte
dined at Nazareth, the most northern point that he reached in Syria, and
returned the same day to Akka.
[p.340] After the retreat of the French from Akka, Djezzar Pasha
resolved on causing all the Christians in his Pashalik to be massacred,
and had already sent orders to that effect to Jerusalem and Nazareth;
but Sir Sidney Smith being apprized of his intentions reproached him for
his cruelty in the severest terms, and threatened that if a single
Christian head should fall, he would bombard Akka and set it on fire.
Djezzar was thus obliged to send counter orders, but Sir Sidney’s
interference is still remembered with heartfelt gratitude by all the
Christians, who look upon him as their deliverer.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 429 of 870
Words from 116126 to 116404
of 236498
