The loss occasioned by the fire of the enemy appears to have amounted to only one seaman killed, and one sergeant and one private of marines wounded ; all belonging to the Tigre. This makes the loss sustained by the three ships in the different attacks, as follows : Tigre, 17 killed, 48 wounded, four drowned, and 77 prisoners ; Theseus, four killed, 15 wounded, and five prisoners ; and Alliance, one killed and three wounded ; total 22 killed, 66 wounded, four drowned, and 82 prisoners.

After their last failure, the French grenadiers refused to mount the breach any more over the putrid bodies of their unburied companions, sacrificed in former attacks by their general's impatience and precipitation, which led him to commit such palpable errors as even seamen could turn to advantage. Two attempts to assassinate Sir Sidney in the town having failed, a flag of truce was sent in by the hands of an Arab dervise, with a letter to the Pacha, proposing a cessation of arms, for the purpose of burying the dead bodies ; the stench of which had become intolerable, and threatened the existence of every person on both sides. Many, indeed, in the garrison had died delirious, within a few hours after having been seized with the first symptoms of infection. It was therefore natural that the besieged should listen to the proposal, and, be off their guard during the conference. While the answer was under consideration, a volley of shot and shells (the latter taken out of some captured Turkish vessels) announced an assault ; which, however, the garrison was ready to receive, and the assailants only contributed to increase the number of dead bodies. Sir Sidney rescued the Arab from the indignation of the Turks, by conveying him on board the Tigre ; whence he was sent back to the French general, with a message, that must have made the army ashamed of having exposed itself to so well-merited a reproof.

All hopes of success having vanished, the French army, in the night between the 20th and 21st, raised the siege, and made a precipitate retreat, leaving 23 pieces of battering cannon (except the carriages, which had been burnt) in the hands of the besieged. According to Berthier's account, the army reached Cantoura on the afternoon of the 21st, the ruins of Cæsarea on the 22d, and Jaffa on the 24th. Here it rested three days. It then moved forward, and reached Gaza on the 30th. On the 1st of June it entered the desert, and stopped on the 2d at El-Arich, where Buonaparte left a garrison. The main body then continued its march, arriving on the 4th at Cathich, and on the 14th at Cairo. Berthier omits to notice how the French had been harassed in their retreat by the Syrians : he, however, sums up the loss of the French army, during the last four months, at 700 men who had died by disease, 500 killed in the different actions, and about 1800 wounded. But, where the lives of men were so little valued, the probability is, that the returns were very deficient ; and, therefore, that the loss which the French sustained,

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