one of the assailants, on which the other retired. “The French cavalry charged _en masse_, and overwhelmed the Forty-second; yet, though broken, this gallant corps was not defeated; individually it resisted, and the conduct of each man exalted still more the high character of the regiment.” Towards the close of the battle the Highlanders, having expended their last cartridge, were on the point of being annihilated—although still resolutely resisting with the bayonet—when the French, repulsed everywhere, relaxed their efforts, and gradually retired. The loss of the regiment, in killed and wounded, exceeded 300 men; but the most grievous loss of all, felt by every rank, was the fall and subsequent death of Sir Ralph Abercromby. It is unnecessary here further to detail the various events which marked the progress of the British arms in Egypt—crowned in the conquest of its two capitals, Cairo and Alexandria, accomplishing the extinction of the French dominion in the land, and for ever dissipating the dream of Napoleon, which had promised an Eastern Empire—an idea early and fondly nurtured, but, like the toy of a child, as quickly cast away when it failed to please, and, by that despot, abandoned when circumstances presented an easier path and more glorious results to his ambition in the crown of France. On the return of the Royal Highlanders, every compliment was lavished upon the regiment by a grateful country. Whilst at Edinburgh in 1802, Lieutenant-General Vyse, in presenting a new set of colours, thus closed his address to the regiment:—“Remember that the standards which you have this day received are not only revered by an admiring world, as the honourable monuments and trophies of your former heroism, but are likewise regarded by a grateful country as the sacred pledges of that security which, under the protection of heaven, it may expect from your future services. “May you long, very long, live to enjoy that reputation and those honours which you have so highly and so justly merited; may you long participate and share in all the blessings of that tranquillity and peace which your labours and your arms have restored to your native country; but should the restless ambition of an envious and daring enemy again call you to the field, think then that you behold the spirit of those brave comrades who so nobly, in their country’s cause, fell upon the plains of Egypt, hovering round these standards—think that you see the venerable shade of the immortal Abercromby leading you again to action, and pointing to that presumptuous band whose arrogance has been humbled, and whose vanity has been compelled, by your intrepidity and courage, to confess that _no human force has been ‘invincible’ against British valour_, when directed by wisdom, conducted by discipline, and inspired by virtue.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XXIX.