However in a second siege the Allied forces under Thomas Graham captured the city of San Sebastián in northern Basque Country from its French garrison under Louis Emmanuel Rey.

While it seems that the new authorities and aides were not held in especially high regard by the population, peace prevailed throughout the period up to 1813, and French troops were generally well accepted.

[5] To prosecute the siege, Lieut-Gen Sir Thomas Graham was given command of 9,000 troops from Maj-Gen John Oswald's 5th Division and Brig-Gen Henry Bradford's Portuguese brigade.

)[7] Javier Sada has stated that the makeup of the allied troops investing the town included an important multinational share of soldiers of fortune, whose only incentive was the booty obtained in the conquered strongholds.

To clear his rear area, and to evict the last French forces from Spain, Wellington needed to take Pamplona and San Sebastián.

Supplies of ammunition for the guns were running low, and on the same day, 25 July, Wellington learnt that Soult had launched an attack (which would become the Battle of the Pyrenees).

[15] After driving Soult back across the frontier, Wellington waited until the rest of the battering train and sufficient supplies of shot had arrived from England before he again turned his attention to San Sebastián: even with the increased resources now available to him, Wellington could only mount one formal siege at a time, whilst it was decided to plump for San Sebastian on the grounds that it was weaker, more accessible and open to resupply by sea.

By 15 August the French commander, Rey, had received some drafts from blockade running vessels but, even so, he only had 2,700 effective troops and 300 wounded in hospital.

[15] On 27 August, 200 men from Beagle, Challenger, Constant, and Surveillante rowed into the bay to the west and after a brief fight and a handful of casualties, captured a small island, Santa Clara.

Another mine was exploded, which partly took down a wall, but also created a series of craters so that when the 5th Division made the assault from the south on the main breach.

[21] After consulting with his artillery commander, Alexander Dickson, Graham chose to open fire on the coupure's inner wall, despite the risk of killing many British soldiers who lay close under the barrier.

[22] On inspection it was discovered that not a single shot had fallen short into the allied troops, even though they were fired from 600–800 yards (550–730 m) for 20 minutes and that, aided by an explosion of ready grenades and live shells stored for use on the wall, few defenders survived uninjured.

[citation needed] The French commander formally surrendered on 8 September, and, in recognition of a noble defence, the remainder of the garrison stationed in the fortress was granted the honours of war by the Anglo-Portuguese forces.

On entering the town, the victorious British and Portuguese troops quickly discovered plentiful supplies of brandy and wine in the shops and houses, with many soon becoming part of a "reeling, riotous mob".

[25] Drunken and enraged at the heavy losses they had suffered, the troops ran amok, sacking and burning the city while killing an unknown number of inhabitants,[26] but they may amount to 1,000.

[29] One of the survivors and witness Gabriel Serres claimed that, "[the attackers] committed the biggest atrocities, such as killing and injuring many inhabitants and also raping most of the women".

The rest of the city burned to the ground— 600 houses, except for 30 in Trinity street, present-day 31 August, selected by the attackers to host the British and Portuguese command.

[32] He went on to attribute the sack of the town to the French, and on 2 November while he was in Lesaka Wellington denied that British forces were involved in the burning of the city.

[34] In November a popular trial was arranged by the town council "on the atrocious behaviour shown by the British and Portuguese troops", where only two local women answered the questionnaire provided.

[citation needed] Of Rey's original garrison of 3,170 plus some later drafts, 850 were killed, 670 had been captured on 31 August and 1,860 surrendered, of whom 480 were sick and wounded.

The chief engineering officer who laid out the Lines of Torres Vedras, Sir Richard Fletcher, was shot through the heart and killed in the siege,[24] as was one of Harry Burrard's sons.