Page:Short account of Bonaparte's cruel conduct in Syria.pdf/5

 whom the diviſion belonged was abſent) even refuſed to execute the order without a written inſtruction, but Bonaparte was too cautious, and ſent Berthier to enforce obedience

When the Turks had all fallen, the French troops humanly endeavoured to put a period to the ſuſſerings of the wounded but ſome time elapſed before the bayonet could finiſh what the fire had not deſtroyed and probably many languiſhed whole days in agony. Several French officers, by whom partly theſe details are furniſhed declared that this was a ſcene, the retroſpect of which tormented their recollection, and that they could not reflect on it without horror; accuſtomed as they had been to fights of cruelty! Theſe were the priſoners, whom ſſalini, in his very able work on the plague, alluded to, when he ſays, that for three days the Turks ſhewed no ſymptoms of that diſeaſe, and it was their putrifying remains which produced the peſtilential malady which he deſcribes as afterwards making ſuch ravages in the French army. The bones ſtill lie in heaps, and are ſhewn to every traveller who arrives nor can they be confounded with thoſe who periſhed in the aſſault, ſince this field of butchery lies a mile from the town.

Such a fact ſhould not, however, he alledged without ſome peoofproof [sic], or leading circumſtance it onger [sic] than aſſertion, being produced to ſupport it; but there would be a want of generoſity in naming individuals, and branding them to the lateſt poſterity, with infamy, for obey a command, when their ſubmiſſion became an act of neceſſity; therefore to eſtabliſh further the authority of the