Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/695

Rh “Art. 2.—Within these four-and-twenty hours deputies shall be sent on board l’Orient to arrange a capitulation.

“Done in duplicate at Malta this 11th June, 1798.

Rh

On the following day General Bonaparte entered the town, where he established his head-quarters. As he passed through the stupendous works of the Valetta front, and saw their great strength, he exclaimed, “Well was it for us that we had friends within to open the gates for us, for had the place been empty we should have had far more difficulty in obtaining an entrance.” Bonaparte had reason to congratulate himself; his proverbial good fortune had certainly not deserted him. Had he been detained for a short time before Valetta, the British fleet, under Nelson, would have been upon him, and the battle of the Nile would have been anticipated, and fought beneath the ramparts of Malta. Bonaparte disgraced, his army destroyed, his fleet scattered, would have made a very different figure on the stage of Europe from that which he was destined to occupy as the conqueror of Egypt. Fate had befriended him. The capture of Malta and the expedition to Egypt had been contrived by his enemies as a trap to insure his downfall. The cowardice of von Hompesch had turned the scale in his favour; and when Europe learnt, with stupefied amazement, that the powerful fortress of Malta had surrendered to his arms in two days, a fresh laurel was twined into that chaplet of glory which already encircled his brow,

It may be well for a moment to glance at the events just recorded, as they were seen from a French point of view. The following narrative, written by Marmont, gives a graphic account of that part of the operations in which he was engaged:

“Directed to land in St. Paul’s bay with five battalions, I was the first Frenchman who set foot on the island. Some companies of the regiment of Malta, who were posted on the shore, retreated without fighting. We followed them, and they retired into the town. I invested the place from the sea as far as the aqueduct, in order to connect myself with General Desaix, who had landed on the south of the town. I approached the city and came across a horn work, that of Floriana, covering the