The Turkish outposts were assaulted early on the morning of the 24th of July, 1799, and driven in with great slaughter; but the French, as they advanced, came within range of the batteries and of the ships that lay close by the shore, and were checked. This might have ended in a rout, but for the undisciplined eagerness with which the Turks engaged in the task of despoiling those that fell before them—thus giving Murat the opportunity of charging their main body in flank with his cavalry, at the moment when the infantry, rallying under the eye of Napoleon, forced their way into the intrenchments. From that moment, the battle was a massacre. The Turks, attacked on all sides, were panic-stricken; and the sea was covered with the turbans of men who flung themselves headlong into the waves, rather than await the fury of Le Beau Sabreur, or the steady rolling fire of the Sultan Kebir. Six thousand surrendered at discretion; twelve thousand perished on the field, or in the sea.