‘Really, sir?’ Eugene smiled.‘Did you think that when you led the charge at Arcola?’
Lannes roared with laughter. ‘Ha! He has you there, sir! Go on, give the lad a chance to win his spurs.’
For a moment Napoleon was tempted to order Eugene to the rear, but there was truth in what the boy had said. An officer, above all men, must prove himself in battle if he was to win the respect and loyalty of his comrades, common soldiers and officers alike. He nodded slowly. ‘Very well, then. But promise me that you will not take any unnecessary risks. If anything happens to you, your mother will never forgive me.’
Eugene smiled. ‘I’ll be careful then, sir. For your sake.’
‘You rascal!’ Napoleon pinched his cheek. Then he turned to Lannes. ‘God bless you and good luck, my friend.’
Lannes patted the musket lying beside him. ‘Fuck that. I’d rather put my faith in a stout heart and a good weapon, sir.’
‘Then I’ll see you in hell.’ Napoleon slapped him on the shoulder and started to make his way back to the nearest battery to watch the assault as General Lannes rose up, musket in hand.
‘Soldiers of the 8th! On your feet!’ Lannes waited until they were ready, faces tense and bodies poised, and then raised his arm and punched it towards the breach. ‘Charge!’
From the battery Napoleon watched as Lannes and his men surged forward over the narrow strip of ground between the end of the trenches and the town wall. Their cheers and throaty war cries echoed back off the masonry as they reached the rubble and began to scramble up. The Turks on either side of the breach began to open fire on their attackers, and were quickly wreathed in puffs of smoke. Several soldiers had fallen by the time Lannes and the first of his men gained the breach, where the Turks surged forward to defend the town. Napoleon strained his eyes as he tried to spot Eugene but the impetus of the charge quickly carried Lannes and the others through the gap and into the streets of Jaffa.
Once the sounds of the fighting had died away Napoleon made his way down the trench and up on to the ground in front of the breach, accompanied by fifty of the guides, who watched the walls on either side closely as they guarded their general.The rubble shifted under his boots and he had some difficulty in scrambling through the breach.There were bodies in the streets, scores of them. Mostly Turks, cut down in the ferocious assault mounted by Lannes and his men. Napoleon encountered only a handful of wounded Frenchmen as he passed through the town. Near the harbour Dr Desgenettes and his men were treating a group of severely injured soldiers, stretched out in a row on the street.The doctor looked up from his work as Napoleon and the guides marched by, but quickly wiped his brow and turned back to his patients.The main street through the town gave out on to the harbour, and Napoleon stopped in surprise at the sight that met his eyes. On the beach next to the harbour were thousands of Turks, huddled tightly together as they sat under the watchful eyes of the French guards. As Napoleon approached the exhausted French troops slumped on the foul-smelling quay, another batch of prisoners was marched out of a side street to join their comrades. They wore the distinctive red and green turbans of the men who had surrendered at El Arish. Napoleon felt a cold rage seep through his veins.
He found General Lannes sitting on a divan that had been hauled out on to the quay and dragged into the shade cast by the wall of a mosque. Napoleon was greatly relieved to see Eugene sitting on a chair nearby, talking animatedly with some of the younger officers of Lannes’s division.
Napoleon thrust his arm towards the prisoners. ‘What is the meaning of this?’
Lannes rose to his feet and stood stiffly before his commander. ‘Sir?’
‘I take it that they are prisoners.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘I told you not to show the enemy any mercy.’
‘I know that, sir. But they fought hard and fair before they were forced to give up.’
‘Fine. And what do you propose to do with them now?’
‘I don’t know, sir,’ Lannes admitted. ‘I hadn’t considered that yet.We’ve only just finished mopping up the last of the resistance.’
‘We can’t have any prisoners.’ Napoleon spoke with quiet intensity. ‘We have no spare supplies to feed them with, no spare troops to guard them, and, in any case, those from El Arish have broken the terms of their parole . . .’
Lannes stared at him with a pained expression. ‘What do you want me to do, sir?’
‘I want you to dispose of the prisoners. All of them.’
Lannes glanced round at the figures packed on the beach.‘But there must be nearly three thousand of them.’
‘I’m not interested in the number, General, just the outcome. You have your orders, now carry them out.’
‘Wait!’ Eugene called out, striding towards Napoleon with an angry expression. ‘You can’t do it, sir. I took the surrender of the men from the citadel. I gave them my word that they would be well treated.’
‘On whose authority did you make such a promise? Not mine.’>
‘I . . . I gave them my word they would be spared, sir.’
‘Then you gave them what was not in your power to give. The dishonour is yours, Eugene, and you will be responsible for the consequences,’ Napoleon said coldly. ‘General Lannes, you will take the prisoners in batches to the beach on the other side of the harbour from here, and there you will dispose of them. I don’t care what method you use as long as the job is done. The execution parties will be under the command of Captain Beauharnais.’
‘Yes, sir.’
Napoleon leaned close to his stepson. ‘Let this be a lesson to you. Next time you will obey my orders to the letter.’
‘Yes, sir,’ Eugene replied through clenched teeth.
‘Good.’ Napoleon turned to Lannes. ‘Carry on then, General.’
They exchanged a salute and then Napoleon and the guides turned and marched back through the town. As they reached the street where they had earlier encountered Desgenettes, the doctor emerged from an entrance into a courtyard and hurried over to Napoleon. He looked afraid as he saluted his general.
‘Sir, I’ve found . . . something.You must come and see.’
‘What? What is it, doctor?’
Desgenettes glanced past Napoleon to the ranks of the guides behind him. ‘Please, sir, come with me, and tell these men to stay here.’
Napoleon was still furious with Lannes and Eugene and he shook his head.Whatever it was the doctor wanted to show him would have to wait. The army had to be readied for the advance to Acre. But there was an imploring look in the man’s eyes and after a moment’s hesitation Napoleon nodded irritably.
‘Very well, then, but make it quick.’
Desgenettes turned and led the way back through the arch into the courtyard beyond. To one side there was a narrow doorway leading into some kind of storage room and as they approached it Napoleon could hear groaning, and the fevered mutterings of sick men. He paused on the threshold and saw that the floor inside the storeroom was covered with crude mattresses on which men lay, covered with soiled rags. The stench of the place was overpowering and Napoleon raised a hand to cover his mouth and nose.
‘What is this place? A hospital?’
‘No, sir.’ Desgenettes leaned over the nearest man and carefully lifted the corner of the blanket that covered him. The man’s jaw was slack and hung open and his eyes gazed sightlessly at the ceiling and Napoleon realised he was dead. Then he saw the swollen lumps on the man’s neck and round his armpits. Some had burst and glistened with blood and pus.The stench hit Napoleon like a blow and he had to struggle to keep himself from vomiting.
‘Buboes,’ Desgenettes explained, and let the blanket drop back over the body. He gestured to the other men in the room, most still moving fitfully as they mumbled and cried out. ‘They’ve all got the same symptoms.’ He turned to Napoleon. ‘This isn’t a hospital, sir. It’s a plague house.’
Chapter 43
‘That delay at El Arish is about to cost us dearly,’ Napoleon said as he surveyed the new earthworks and other fortifications that had been erected around Acre. Some of Ahmad Pasha’s engineers were still toiling away digging a ditch in front of the large bastion that dominated the city’s walls. The enemy was in a strong position
