On the 6th of May, 1799, Buonaparte summoned the commandant of the garrison of Jaffa to surrender, who replied to the demand by very unceremoniously decapitating the messenger who carried the summons. The French commenced the attack on the city, and soon became masters of it; they put the garrison to the sword, and abandoned the city to pillage by the soldiers. This horrible scene lasted for six and thirty hours; and to the disgrace of the French be it said, they massacred their prisoners without mercy.

“This conduct on the part of the French,” says one of their own historians, “conquerors so generous in Egypt, no motive to vengeance could justify, but it became no less calamitous to them than it was to their victims. The plague, that terrible scourge of the East, began its ravages among the French soldiery the very day after the taking of Jaffa.”

The frightful cry, “It is the plague!” spread itself amongst the soldiers, and struck terror into the hearts of the most courageous.

On his return to Jaffa, on the 24th of May, Buonaparte repaired to the hospital, where there were many of the soldiers, some of them wounded, some afflicted with ophthalmia, uttering most pitiable cries. The painter has attempted to convey an idea of this scene, and represents Buonaparte as touching a patient under the blight of the plague.