He sternly refused, and landed at Marabout, three leagues to the eastward of Alexandria, about one in the morning of the 2nd July--having lost many by drowning.
Egypt, a province of the Ottoman empire, then at peace with France, was of course wholly unprepared for this invasion.

The Turks, however, mustered what force they could, and, shutting the gates of the city, held out--until a division, headed by Napoleon in person, forced their way, at three in the morning, through the old crumbling walls, and it was no longer possible to resist at once superior numbers and European discipline.

Two hundred French died in the assault; the Turkish loss was much greater: and, if we are to believe almost all who have written concerning this part of his history, Buonaparte, after taking possession, abandoned the place for three hours to the unbridled licence of military execution and rapine--an atrocity for which, if it really occurred, there could have been only one pretext; namely, the urgent necessity of striking awe and terror into the hearts of the population, and so preventing them from obeying the call of their military chieftains, to take arms in defence of the soil.

De Bourienne and Berthier, however, wholly deny this story.
If Napoleon's conduct on this occasion was as it has been commonly represented, it was strangely contrasted with the tenor of his _General Order_ to the army, issued immediately before their disembarkation.
"The people," he then said, "with whom we are about to live, are Mahometans; the first article of their faith is, _There is no God but God, and Mahomet is his Prophet._ Do not contradict them: deal with them as you have done with the Jews and the Italians.

Respect their muphtis and imans, as you have done by the rabbis and the bishops elsewhere....
The Roman legions protected all religions.