Alexandria was now completely shut in; and no very important event took place until August 16th, when a naval force under Sir Sidney Smith made a demonstration of attack upon the city, and the French set fire to their flotilla, lying in the harbor. A week after this the fortified castle of Marabout, which protects the entrance to the western harbor of Alexandria, surrendered to a combined naval and military attack. This fort is about eight miles west of the city, and is one of those about which we heard so much in the late bombardment by the British iron-clads. On the nearer approach of the combined forces the garrison of Alexandria sank several vessels to block up the channel, and brought their few remaining ships nearer to the town. But these were expiring efforts. On the 27th of August General Menou sent to Lieutenant-General Hutchinson, who had succeeded Abercrombie, to request a three days’ armistice. This was granted, and on September 2d, Alexandria and its garrison capitulated. Recent events have made these operations once more interesting. General Hutchinson (afterwards Lord Donoughmore) was, like Sir Garnet Wolseley, an Irishman, and their careers are, in many respects, alike. Hutchinson entered the English army in 1774, as a cornet of dragoons, and in nine years rose to the rank of colonel. A Major-General in 1796, he became second in command in Egypt in 1801, as a Lieutenant-General, and succeeded to the command on Abercrombie’s death. He advanced, like Wolseley, as far as Cairo, when a capitulation took place, and the war ended. THE CUTTING OUT OF THE CHEVRETTE. JULY, A. D. 1801. The cutting out of vessels from harbors and from under the protection of shore batteries, belongs exclusively to a past condition of naval warfare. Even under the peculiar conditions of our late civil war and blockade, cutting-out expeditions, when the object was the capture of an armed vessel, were not so numerous as might have been supposed, although most remarkable and gallant actions were performed in this way by both sides. As an example of a “cutting-out expedition,” we are tempted to give that of the French 20-gun corvette Chevrette. Such actions are decisive, on account of the discouragement and destruction of _morale_ brought upon the defeated side, and by the corresponding confidence and elation of the victors. In the summer of 1801 the French and Spanish combined fleet was lying in Brest harbor, with Admiral Cornwallis and a British fleet watching them. The more effectually to prevent the Franco-Spanish fleet from getting to sea without his knowledge, the Admiral had detailed a squadron of three frigates, under Captain Brisbane, of the Doris, to lie off Point Mathias, in full view of the combined fleet.