On the 3rd of May 1796, Lieut.-Colonel Doyle was promoted to be Colonel of the EIGHTY-SEVENTH regiment, and proceeded in the command of a secret expedition to Holland, with the rank of Brigadier-General; but contrary winds, violent gales, and unavoidable delays, rendered the expedition fruitless, its object being to surprise and destroy the Dutch fleet in the Helder. In 1797 Colonel Doyle was appointed a Brigadier-General upon the staff, and was ordered to Gibraltar, where he remained until the expedition was determined on for Malta and Egypt, when, having volunteered his services, he was placed on the staff under General Sir Ralph Abercromby, whom he accompanied to Minorca, Malta, and Cadiz, and was selected as one of his brigadier-generals upon the expedition to Egypt, when he shared in the actions, near Alexandria, of the 8th, 13th, and 21st of March 1801, after which he was selected by Lieut.-General Hutchinson, who succeeded to the command on the death of General Sir Ralph Abercromby, to accompany him in the expedition against Grand Cairo. He was also at the affair of Rhamanie on the 9th of May, subsequently to which the army halted at the village of Algam. On the morning of the 17th of May, when the army was encamped upon the borders of the Lybian Desert, an Arab was conducted to Brigadier-General Doyle’s tent, who brought intelligence that a body of French troops, which he computed at two thousand men, was within a few miles of the camp, with a large convoy of camels. Brigadier-General Doyle immediately requested permission to pursue the enemy with such of the cavalry as might be in the camp; and Lieut.-General Hutchinson acceding to his request, he repaired thither, where he ascertained that the Turkish cavalry had been detached a day or two before, and that a squadron of the Twelfth light dragoons had, prior to his arrival, been sent to water at some distance. As success depended on promptness and expedition, the Brigadier immediately struck into the desert in search of the enemy, without waiting for the absent squadron, which he left to an officer to bring on. After a long pursuit, the cavalry came up with the French troops, when they formed a hollow square, and commenced an irregular fire of musketry. The French commander, after some parley, was obliged to surrender on the terms offered; twenty-eight officers, five hundred and sixty-nine rank and file, two hundred horses, four hundred and sixty camels, one four-pounder, besides a stand of colours, were taken on this occasion by the detachment under Brigadier-General Doyle, which consisted of two hundred and fifty dragoons.