y followed by the _Pobieda_, both steaming hard in the
wake of Prince Ukhtomsky's division, which they rejoined just as the
dusk of evening was turning to darkness.

With the flight of those two ships the battle came to an end; because
for some reason, known only to himself, Togo failed to follow up his
advantage and complete the destruction of the Russian fleet. Some of us
were of opinion that he felt himself handicapped by the stringent orders
which he had received not to risk the loss of any of our precious
battleships, one or more of which might easily have been destroyed in
the darkness by mines dropped by the flying enemy, or by torpedoes
launched from the decks of daring and enterprising destroyers. And if
he was influenced by such considerations as these who shall blame him,
or say that he was wrong?

Yet people were not wanting who complained that the battle was an
indecisive one, because no Russian ships had been either captured or
sunk in the course of the fight. But although this assertion was
undeniable, the grumblers forgot a little group of very important facts,
the chief of which was that the five Russian battleships and the
protected cruiser _Pallada_ which succeeded in regaining Port Arthur
harbour were so desperately damaged that they were practically reduced
to the condition of scrap iron, inasmuch as that, despite all the
efforts of the Russians to repair them, none of them was again able to
leave Port Arthur until they fell into the hands of the Japanese when
the fortress surrendered. As for the sixth Russian battleship, the
_Tsarevich_, she took advantage of the darkness to separate from the
rest of the fleet, and made for Kiaochau, where she arrived on the
following day, and where she was of course interned. The same fate
befell the cruisers _Askold_ and _Diana_, the former of which sought
shelter at Shanghai, while the latter succeeded in escaping as far south
as Saigon. The destroyer _Reshitelny_, which separated from the Russian
fleet immediately after its departure from Port Arthur, escaped the
Japanese destroyers and duly reached Chifu, whither she had been sent
with dispatches from Admiral Vitgeft, requesting that the Vladivostock
squadron might be dispatched to assist him in his proposed passage
through the Korean Strait. Her mission accomplished, her commander
agreed to assent to the demand of Sah, the Chinese admiral on the
station, that she should disarm and surrender certain vi