The fleet anchored in Aboukir Bay on the 2nd of March 1801. On the 8th, Abercromby effected a landing in face of a large and strongly posted French force. To Maitland fell the duty of commanding the armed launches employed to cover the landing. The enemy were driven from their positions, and retired towards Alexandria with the loss of seven guns. Abercromby at once followed them up, and advanced on the neck of sand lying between the sea and the Lake of Aboukir, leaving a distance of about four miles between the English and French camps. On the 13th he again attacked the French, and forced them back upon their lines before Alexandria. The right flank of the British force rested on the sea, the left on the Lake of Aboukir, and the flanks were covered by a naval flotilla, the boats on the sea being under Maitland's command, and those on the lake under that of Captain James Hillyar. Seven days later Sir Sidney Smith, who commanded the naval battalion serving on shore, received from a friendly Arab sheikh a letter informing him that it was General Menou's intention to attack the British camp next morning. The news was thought too good to be true, as in a few days Abercromby would have been compelled to attack the lines of Alexandria under every tactical disadvantage. It was, however, confirmed, and on the 21st of March the battle of Alexandria was fought, the fate of Egypt was decided, and Abercromby received his death-wound. Maitland again covered the British right flank from the sea. In the detailed plan of the battle given in Sir Robert Wilson's _History of the British Expedition to Egypt_, Maitland's flotilla is shown a little to the west of the ruins of Nicopolis, in a position to enfilade the French attack. For his services on the 8th, 13th, and 21st Maitland received the thanks of the naval and military commanders-in-chief, and on March 22, the day after the battle, Sir Sidney Smith wrote to Lord Keith warmly commending Maitland's conduct. Maitland's post commission was confirmed by the Admiralty on the day of the battle of Alexandria. In the ensuing month he was appointed to the _Dragon_, 74, and shortly afterwards to the _Carrere_, a French 40-gun frigate taken near Elba. He remained in command of her in the Mediterranean till the Peace of Amiens. The _Carrere_ was paid off on October 4, 1802. Eleven days afterwards Maitland was appointed by Lord St Vincent to the _Loire_, a fine 46-gun frigate. War broke out again on May 18, 1803, and the _Loire_ started on a brilliant career of captures,[1] which included the 10-gun brig _Venteux_, cut out from under the Isle of Bas by two of the _Loire's_ boats, the _Braave_ privateer, and the 30-gun frigate _Blonde_, captured in August 1804 after a pursuit of twenty hours and a desperate running fight. [Footnote 1: They are fully detailed in Marshall's _Naval Biography_, vol. ii. part 1, pp. 387 _et seq._]