By mid-morning Troubridge was back with the fleet and reporting to Nelson on the Vanguard. The results of his meeting were by no means as satisfactory as Sir William Hamilton imagined. The promises of assistance were too vague, the frigates were not forthcoming, and the information about the French expedition was not helpful. Sir William had been able to report that Napoleon had taken Malta but he had failed to pass on vital information from the French ambassador that Napoleon planned to land in Egypt and establish a French colony there. Presumably Sir William thought that the idea was too far-fetched and was intended to mislead the British, but if Nelson had received this information the eventual outcome might have been very different.
The British squadron hurried onwards, hoping now to catch Napoleon at Malta. With fresh breezes and fine weather they passed close to the island of Stromboli, and headed for the Straits of Messina between the southern tip of Italy and Sicily. The straits were famous for the rocky outcrops, fluky winds and dangerous currents which had given rise to the ancient Greek legend of Scylla and Charybdis but on this occasion they failed to live up to their reputation. The squadron took on board local pilots to guide them through and hoisted out the boats in case they should be needed to tow the ships out of danger but, although the waves echoed alarmingly in the confined space between the cliffs, they passed through without incident.
It was during the course of 22 June that the French and British fleets passed within a few miles of each other. At first light on that day the lookouts in the Defence sighted four ships to the south-east and Nelson despatched the Leander to investigate. Shortly afterwards Captain Hardy in the Mutine intercepted a merchant vessel whose master informed him that the French had already left Malta. Nelson ordered the fleet to shorten sail and summoned Troubridge, Saumarez, Ball and Darby to join him and his flag captain Berry in the great cabin of his flagship. They were the captains whose opinions he valued most highly and he wanted their views on the information they had received. Nelson had come to the conclusion that Napoleon must be headed for Egypt. They all thought he was probably right and Troubridge pointed out that the capture of Alexandria would seriously threaten British interests in India. This was enough for Nelson to act on. At 9 am he gave the signal for the fleet to make sail and head east.
By the time that the captains had returned to their ships the Leander had confirmed that the four ships on the horizon were frigates, but Nelson was now impatient to get to Alexandria. He did not wish to risk weakening his squadron by detaching ships to go chasing after a few frigates. It did not occur to Nelson or his captains that the frigates might be part of the vast and extended French armada which had sailed from Malta only two days before. As so often happened in his life, luck was on Napoleon's side. If Nelson's squadron had attacked the French armada at sea they would have inflicted crippling damage. The experienced British crews led by the most ruthless fighting admiral of his time would have caused mayhem among the lumbering transport vessels and the accompanying convoy of warships. It would have been the end of Napoleon's career, if not his life, because L'Orient would have been a prime target. Europe might have been spared nearly two decades of warfare.
Making good use of the favourable north-westerly winds, the British squadron drew rapidly away from the French armada and within a week they were nearing Alexandria. As the towers of the city came in sight Nelson ordered the squadron to prepare for battle but it soon became clear that there was no sign of the French invasion force. The only vessels in the harbour were a few Turkish warships and some fifty merchant vessels. Captain Hardy was sent ashore to speak to the British Consul but he found that he had been away on leave for three months. His deputy proved to be stupid and useless. However Hardy did manage to speak to the Egyptian military commandant of the city who was incredulous at the idea of an imminent French attack. 'It is impossible that the French should come to our country. They have no business here and we are not at war with them.' He went on to assure Hardy, 'If the French really think of invading our country as you pretend, we shall thwart their undertaking.'
Hardy sailed back to the squadron, which was lying hove to, several miles offshore. Nelson was bitterly disappointed when he heard Hardy's news. Reason should have persuaded him to wait for a few days in case the French did arrive but such was his impatience to find the enemy that he had to be on the move again. The day following their arrival off Alexandria he ordered the squadron to set sail and head north towards Turkey. Once again luck was on Napoleon's side. At 11 am on 1 July, less than twenty-four hours after Nelson's ships had disappeared over the horizon, the first ships of the French armada arrived off Alexandria and began making preparations for an assault on the city.
The progress of the French expedition after leaving Malta had been slow and the more experienced naval officers in the warships were aware how vulnerable they were to a British attack. Their crews were lacking in seatime and had little or no experience of action, and all the ships were encumbered with troops, their baggage and equipment. They knew that enemy ships were in the Mediterranean because a French frigate had reported sighting sixteen British ships sailing down the coast of Italy. Napoleon seems to have been blithely unaware of the dangers they faced at sea, preoccupied as he was with the details of his historic venture to the Orient. During the voyage to Malta he had spent much of his time reading the Koran and books about the history of Egypt. In the great cabin of L'Orient he had frequent and sometimes heated discussions with the scientists and philosophers on board the flagship. Now he concentrated on the disposition of the ships and troops during the landing operation on the Egyptian coast. On 22 June, the day that the outlying frigates of his armada were spotted by the Leander, he issued a stirring proclamation to his troops:
Soldiers! You are about to undertake a conquest whose effects upon the civilization and commerce of the world are incalculable. You are going to strike a blow against England more effective and more deeply felt than any other; a preliminary to her death-blow. We shall have tiring marches to make and plenty of fighting: but we shall succeed in every enterprise, for fate is on our side.
He urged them to treat the local people with respect and warned them that rape and pillage would create enemies and destroy their resources. He concluded, 'The first city we shall see was built by Alexander. We shall find at every step of our march memories fit to move Frenchmen to imitate his exploits.'
Napoleon decided against a frontal attack on Alexandria. Instead he planned to land his army in the Bay of Marabout which lay 7 miles to the east of the town. This had a curving sandy beach with off-lying sandbanks which prevented the ships coming close in to the shore. The landing was a chaotic operation and Napoleon was fortunate that there was no opposition on the beach or from the sea. The merchant ships carrying the bulk of the troops anchored about a mile from the beach, and the warships anchored in deeper water to seaward of them. A brisk wind had stirred up a rough sea which made it difficult to transfer soldiers and their equipment from the ships into the boats in which they would be rowed ashore. Admiral Brueys advised Napoleon to delay the landing but Napoleon was determined to press on. The landing began around midday on 1 July and continued until well after dark. Napoleon himself did not get ashore until 11 pm. Many of the troops were seasick and abandoned their ration packs, and several boats were overturned in the surf. At least twenty men were drowned or lost during the landing but by midnight nearly 5,000 soldiers were safely ashore and the rest landed at daylight the next day.