Page:Decisive Battles Since Waterloo.djvu/103

Rh fright, and after a few skirmishes, in which their wonderful ability on horseback was admirably displayed, they made an attack (June 24th) on the French lines. Twenty thousand men, most of them mounted, advanced to the assault with loud shouts and riding close up to the French position. The divisions of Berthezene and Lovedo moved out to meet them in the same order as on the 19th, and with the same result. The artillery moved between the columns of infantry, and as the battle opened, the cannon mowed down the Arabs with fearful effect by means of grape and canister. The assailants were repulsed with heavy loss, and pursued about six miles from the scene of the battle. The French loss was trifling, but the killed included Amadie de Bourmont, son of the commander-in-chief, who fell while leading his company of grenadiers. The way to Algiers was now open to the French, though their advance was considerably impeded by the light troops of the enemy, who disputed every point where a stand could be made, and hovered so close on the flanks of the column, that every straggler was instantly cut off and slaughtered. The French advanced leisurely, and on the 30th of June took their position before, or rather behind, the city, in front of the Emperor's Fort, a quadrangular structure which occupied the ground where the Emperor Charles V., three centuries earlier, made a disastrous attack upon Algiers. It stands on the plateau above the city, and commands every part of it; the dey thought it would be able to resist the invaders, and even when they sat down before it his courage did not desert him. The French brought up their heavy guns and began the attack, in which they were joined by the light artillery. The batteries were completed on the 3d of July, and fire was opened on the following day. Not since the bombardment by Lord Exmouth in 1816 had such a contest