Page:The History of San Martin (1893).djvu/64

32 the constant attacks of the enemy, and San Martin so distinguished himself that he was promoted to the rank of sub-lieutenant.

In the following May, after the death of Ricardos, the "Murcia" formed part of the garrison of Port Vendres, which, after beating off two attacks of the French, was forced to retreat to Collioure and there surrendered. San Martin gained another step by his conduct in these affairs.

In 1795 the peace of Basilea freed the young lieutenant from his parole. In the following year his father died, and the treaty of San Ildefonso brought Spain as an ally of the French republic into collision with Great Britain. On the 14th February, 1797, the "Murcia," on board the Spanish Mediterranean squadron, took part in the disastrous affair off Cape Saint Vincent. On the 15th August, 1798, San Martin was marine officer on the Santa Dorotea, when that ship was captured after a desperate defence, by the English 64-gun ship Lion, and being thus for the second time debarred from active service, he devoted his leisure to the study of mathematics and drawing.

In the year 1800 at the head of a company of his old regiment, he took part in the serio-comic war with Portugal known as the "War of the Oranges," and was present at the siege of Olivenza. After the Peace of Amiens in 1802, his regiment was employed in the blockade of Gibraltar and Ceuta, and in 1804 we find him in garrison at Cadiz, as second captain of a light infantry regiment, where his conduct during a pestilence was as honourable to him as had been his conduct in the field.

By the Treaty of Fontainebleau, in 1807, France and Spain divided Portugal and her colonies between them, and a column of 6,000 Spanish troops under Solano invaded Portugal. The regiment to which San Martin was attached, captured the town of Yelves, but took no further part in the campaign.

The émeute of the 2nd May at Madrid, gave the signal for an outbreak of popular indignation, against the