Reinforced by ten sail of the line, under Troubridge, Nelson now sailed in search of the French fleet. Reaching Alexandria and finding nothing known there of the French, he worked back to Syracuse, where he revictualled in cheerful disregard of the neutrality remonstrances of the Governor. Thence he returned eastward, and having received information of where the French had last been seen, eventually found them anchored in Aboukir Bay, where he attacked them on the evening of August 1st, 1798. The rival fleets were:-- BRITISH. FRENCH. 13 of 74 guns. 1 of 120 guns. 1 of 50 guns. 9 of 74 guns. -- -- 14 10, also 4 Frigates. -- -- The French, under Brueys, were drawn across the Bay in a “defensive position.” They were in no way a very efficient force, some of the ships being old and short of guns, all of them rather short-handed, and even so, manned with many new-raised raw men. On the other hand, they were so sure of the safety of their position that their inshore guns were not cleared for action. By all the naval theory of the day this idea of impregnability was justified. The battle itself was simple enough. Nelson came down with the wind on the French van, approximately putting two of his ships one on either side of each of the Frenchmen, and so on, the rear being unable to beat up to support them. The result was the practical annihilation of the French fleet. Of the thirteen ships of the line, only two escaped in company with two frigates. So complete a naval victory had never before been known. In all the battles of the previous two or three hundred years, the percentage of losses to the vanquished had been small. The battle of the Nile, therefore, received an attention perhaps beyond its intrinsic worth. As Nelson wrote to Howe:--“By attacking the enemy’s van and centre, the wind blowing directly along their line, I was enabled to throw what force I pleased on a few ships.” The real point of interest is not the result, which was foregone, but Nelson’s ability to see his opportunity and to make the utmost of it. Therein lay his superlative greatness. Of the prizes, three were found to be new and good ships. One of them, the _Franklin_, was renamed _Canopus_, and as late as 1850 was still on the effective list of the British Navy. The defeat of the French at the Nile had far reaching effects. Russia, Austria, Turkey, Naples and Portugal formed with England a great anti-French Alliance. A large Russian fleet appeared in the Mediterranean, but accomplished no services there. It was under suspicion of having private designs on Malta rather than of assisting the Alliance.