Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/42

 had been excavated into pit-holes about three feet deep for the men to sleep in, before the arrival of their camp equipage. Over these holes they had to make their charge, and in consequence were completely routed, more than three hundred of them being left dead on the spot. Finding all his movements frustrated, Menou at length ordered a retreat, which he was able to effect in good order; the British having too few cavalry to pursue. His loss was supposed to be between three and four thousand men, including many officers, among whom were general Raize, commander of the cavalry, who fell in the field, and two generals who died of their wounds. The loss of the British was also heavy, upwards of seventy officers being killed, wounded, and missing. Among these was the lamented commander-in-chief. Having hastened, on the first alarm, towards the cannonading, Sir Ralph must have ridden straight among the enemy, who had already broken the front line and got into its rear. It was not yet day, and, being unable to distinguish friend from foe, he must have been embarrassed among the assailants, but he was extricated by the valour of his troops. To the first soldier that came up to him, he said, "Soldier, if you know me, don't name me." A French dragoon, at the moment, conjecturing the prize he had lost, rode up to Sir Ralph, and made a cut at him, but not being near enough, only cut through the clothes, and grazed the skin with the point of his sabre. The dragoon's horse wheeling about, brought him again to the charge, and he made a second attempt by a lounge, but the sabre passed between Sir Ralph's side and his right arm. The dragoon being at the instant shot dead, the sabre remained with the general. About the same time it was discovered that he had been wounded in the thigh, and was entreated to have the wound examined; but he treated it as a trifle, and would not for a moment leave the field. No sooner, however, had the enemy begun to retreat, and the excitement of feeling under which he had been acting to subside, than he fainted from pain and the loss of blood. His wound was now examined, and a large incision made in order to extract the ball, but it could not be found. He was then put upon a litter, and carried aboard the Foudroyant, where he languished till the 28th, when he died. His body was interred in the burial ground of the commandery of the Grand Master, under the walls of the castle of St Elan, near the town of Valetta in Malta.

Of the character of Sir Ralph Abercromby there can be but one opinion Bred to arms almost from his infancy, he appeared to be formed for command. His dispositions were always masterly, and his success certain. He had served in America, in the West Indies, in Ireland, in the Netherlands, in Holland, and in Egypt, and had in all of these countries gained himself great distinction. In the two latter countries, especially, he performed services that were of incalculable advantage to his country. The battle of the 21st of March, or of Alexandria, while it decided the fate of Egypt, left an impression of British skill and of British valour upon the minds of both her friends and her enemies, that materially contributed to the splendid results of a contest longer in continuance, and involving interests of greater magnitude, than Britain had ever before been engaged in. The manner in which he repressed the licentiousness of the troops in Ireland, was at once magnanimous and effective; and he ended a life of dignified exertion by a death worthy of a hero. "We have sustained an irreparable loss," says his successor, "in the person of our never enough to be lamented commander-in-chief, Sir Ralph Abercromby; but it is some consolation to those who tenderly loved him, that, as his life was honourable, so was his death glorious. His memory