Napoleon's Egypt: Invading The Middle East - Reenactor.ru

208 NAPOLEON’S EGYPTwere threatening to enter Cairo. He was with his aides-de-camp. He orderedSulkowski to mount up, to take with him fifteen guides, and to proceed to thepoint where the threat was greatest, that is, Bab al-Nasr or the Gate of Victory.His comrade, Croisier, remarked to the commander in chief that Sulkowski hadbarely recovered from the numerous wounds received at Salahiya. He offeredto take his place. He had his reasons. Bonaparte was easily convinced.Sulkowski had already departed. 10Doguereau, from his perch in the hills, saw the aftermath with his own eyes.“Soon, we saw in the distance many cavalrymen—a cloud of Bedouin and peasantson horseback were upon us in the blink of an eye.” He said that the Frenchwere not afraid, inasmuch as they had mounted their artillery on the hills aboveso as to defend the entrance to the quarter. They tried marching out against theBedouin with the cavalry, “but their superiority in numbers forced us back. Wefired our cannon, but, hidden in the tombs, the Bedouin had a refuge from ourcannonballs.” Then, having returned to the high ground, he saw Sulkowski andthe fifteen mounted guides ride out and charge the men of the desert. “TheBedouin, seeing a small number of French, went toward them and charged.Afraid of being encircled by swirl of cavalry, the guides wanted to retreat. But,meeting on their way new troops of rebels, most of them perished. Sulkowskiwas cut to pieces in front of a mosque.” Bonaparte, in his typical braggart way,invented a mythical death for Sulkowski, having him leave with “two hundredhorsemen” and having him pursue the Bedouin “for several leagues” and “cleaningout the environs of the city” before having his horse shot out from underhim and being pierced by ten lances. Bourrienne gave a better sense of the scaleof events when he said that only an hour after they set out, one of the fifteenguides returned, soaked in blood, to announce that the party had been cut topieces. He remarked, “This was speedy work, for we were still at table when thesad news arrived.” 11 Desvernois suggested deliberate desecration of the Frenchdead: “The inhabitants fed to the dogs the brave Pole Sulkowski, the aide-decampof the commander in chief.”The Cairo crowds could see, on that Monday morning, that the Frenchwere bringing up artillery to use against them, and they determined not to remainvulnerable to attack. The inhabitants of the rebellious Utuf quarter lookedfor three cannon that had been left, forgotten, in the house of the Ottoman-Egyptian notable Qayed Aga. They found them and set them up on the city wallof their quarter, facing the French. Then they fired them. “The French met thisaction with successive volleys of fire from muskets, rifles, and cannons.” That