Which sentence from The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone explains why Napoleon and his men were temporarily trapped in Egypt in 1798? Napoleon’s army captured the city of Alexandria by storm on July 1, 1798, and rapidly overran the Nile Delta. On August 1 the British surprised the French fleet at anchor near Alexandria and completely destroyed it. For the next year, the army fended off [resisted] attacks by the Turks, who had formerly ruled Egypt. Then, in August 1799, Napoleon evaded [escaped] the British naval blockade and returned with a new companion to France to deal with problems there.