France kept her preparations for attack secret, this time amassing her fleet and forces at distant Cadiz on the Atlantic. A joint Franco-Spanish fleet of fifty-two sail and sixty-three transports carrying 8,000 troops sailed from Cadiz on 2 July 1781, under command of the Duc de Crillon. The Marquis de Aviles landed a division at Ciudadela in the west, and a second division disembarked at Fornells in the north. The Duc himself chose the pink sands of Cala Mesquida. This landing was delayed by contrary winds, which gave Murray just time to withdraw his forces inside Fort St Philip. Crillon set up his headquarters at Cap Mola opposite the fort, at the mouth of the port.
When Murray checked his nominal rolls, he found he had 2,692 men of all categories, made up of 2,000 British and Hanoverian troops, including 400 invalids, who had been on the island for five years. He estimated that a fit garrison of 8,000 men was necessary to defend the fort, and had no illusions as to his plight.
Crillon, aware of his advantage in numbers, at first showed no inclination to join battle. In a stand-off  he offered Murray a bribe of £1,000,000 and a lucrative commission in the French or Spanish service if - to avoid bloodshed - he surrendered immediately. This was curtly refused. The waiting continued, and conditions inside the fort are described in an 'on the spot' account which appeared in the Annual Register in 1781:
 

The stores and magazines were amply furnished with every kind of salted provisions; with good bread, rice, peas, wine. . . all in such abundance as would have supported the garrison for a longer siege than actually occurred. But the single and fatal lack was fresh vegetables, which the island produced in abundance, and from which the garrison was now entirely cut off.

As a result scurvy soon broke out, with disastrous consequences. But Murray took the initiative, and sent a commando party in small boats with muffled oars from the fort to Cap Mola opposite, and not only raided Crillon's headquarters but occupied them for twenty-four hours. They returned to the fort safely the following night with 100 prisoners, including a lieutenant-colonel, three captains and four subalterns. Shortly afterwards a shell from the fort blew up a magazine on Cap Mola, killing many of the enemy. These early successes cheered the troops but could not affect the outcome. In February 1782, after a siege lasting eight months, the garrison surrendered.
In General Murray's final dispatch to Lord Hilborough he relates that his troops 'presented a pitiable sight' from scurvy and starvation, and that some sentries had died at their posts. All that were left were 600 decrepit soldiers, 200 seamen, and 120 of the artillery. As in 1756, the victors did not humiliate the vanquished. They 'marched from Fort St. Philip through the victorious Spanish and French armies who were drawn up in two lines, facing each other'. 
Overcome with emotion, the British troops declared they surrendered to God alone, and 'such was the distressing figures of our men' -wrote Lord Hilborough -'that many of the Spanish and French are said to have wept when they passed them'.
 
 
 

Next:  Chapter 7 - The Makings of Modern Minorca...  55