A Messenger from the Nile - Agreable News for the Directory - or - The runaway Admirals unexpected Arrival (caricature)

This hand-coloured print shows a distraught officer, Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, on the right, relaying a message to five French officers on the left, three of whom are sat at a table adorned with maps, including one of England and one of Ireland. From left to right, the officers are labelled Diable (Devil), Peste (Plague) and Bxxxxe (Bonaparte). Napoleon Bonaparte is recognisable by his snuff habit and holds a golden snuff box engraved with his name and ‘Rome’. The officers behind him are shocked at the state of the officer, exclaiming, ‘o by Gar a’at is not Villeneuve’ and ‘He be all singe indeed’.

Villeneuve, returned from the Battle of the Nile, recounts, ‘O by Gar Messieurs les Directeurs I have ran away as fast as possible, to tell you dat we be all loss. Dat Nelson be de Devil, dare was. Le Conquerant vas taken, Le Souverain Peuple by Gar vas Oblige to submit and Oh ma foi such a blow up in de East and if dat Diable d’Anglois had had tother Eye and tother Arm, by Gar you vas never see poor Villeneve any more. Oh I was singe from head to foot or else I would have play de devil vid dat D___d Nelson. Got dam he vas singe even my Nose’. Villenueve was commander of one of the two ships that escaped Nelson’s fleet.

Lying unopened on the table are ‘Instructions for Admiral Bruyes [sic] on his leaving Egypt’. François-Paul Brueys commanded the French fleet to Egypt aboard the ‘Orient’. He ignored Napoleon’s orders to anchor in Alexandria’s port or return to France, instead stopping at Abu Qir Bay where the British bombarded them. Brueys was fatally wounded and, shortly after his death, the ‘Orient’ exploded after gunpowder stores caught fire. Around 800 men were killed.