tificate of his
bravery, and received one testifying that he had conducted himself
"like a true Spaniard." To Spain, of course, this was no sarcasm,
and on the strength of the document its holder soon obtained further
promotion.

That achievement, which cost only three men's lives, led to
consequences greater than could have been expected. Lord Cochrane,
after three months' waiting, received the rank of post captain. But
his desire that the services of Lieutenant Parker, his second in
command, should also be recompensed led to a correspondence with Earl
St. Vincent which turned him from a jealous superior into a bitter
enemy. In reply to Lord Cochrane's recommendation, Earl St. Vincent
alleged that "it was unusual to promote two officers for such a
service,--besides which the small number of men killed on board the
_Speedy_ did not warrant the application." Lord Cochrane answered,
with incautious honesty, that "his lordship's reasons for not
promoting Lieutenant Parker, because there were only three men killed
on board the _Speedy_, were in opposition to his lordship's own
promotion to an earldom, as well as that of his flag-captain to
knighthood, and his other officers to increased rank and honours; for
that, in the battle from which his lordship derived his title there
was only one man killed on board his own flagship." That was language
too plain to be forgiven.

In July, 1801, the _Speedy_ was captured by three French
line-of-battle ships, whose senior in command, Captain Palliere,
declined to accept the sword of an officer "who had," as he said,
"for so many hours struggled against impossibility," and asked Lord
Cochrane, though a prisoner, still to wear it. He, however, was
refused employment as commander of another ship. Thereupon, with
characteristic energy, he devoted his forced leisure from professional
pursuits to a year of student life at Edinburgh, where, in 1802, Lord
Palmerston was his class-fellow under Professor Dugald Stewart.

This occupation, however, was disturbed by the renewal of war with
France in 1803. Lord Cochrane, though with difficulty, then obtained
permission to return to active service, the _Arab_, one of the
craziest little ships in the navy, being assigned to him. On his
representing that she was too rotten for use off the French coast, he
was ordered to employ her in cruising in the North Sea and protecting
the fisheries north-east of the Orkneys, "where," as he said, "no
vessel f