ible shake in his voice.
"What speed did you hit her at?"

"Forty-five knots," replied Erskine, giving a quarter turn to the wheel,
and almost immediately bringing a long line of battleships, armoured
cruisers, protected cruisers and destroyers into view.

The French Channel Fleet was composed of the most powerful ships in the
navy of the Republic. The two portions from Brest and Cherbourg had now
united their forces. The French authorities had at last learned the
supreme value of homogeneity. The centre was composed of six ships of
the _Republique_ class, all identical in size, armour and armament, as
well as speed. They were the _Republique_, _Patrie_ flagship, _Justice_,
_Democratie_, _Liberte_ and _Verite_. They were all of fifteen thousand
tons and eighteen knots. To these was added the _Suffren_, also of
eighteen knots, but only twelve thousand seven hundred tons: she had
come from Brest with a flotilla of torpedo boats.

There were six armoured cruisers, _Jules Ferry_, _Leon Gambetta_,
_Victor Hugo_, _Jeanne d'Arc_, _Aube_ and _Marseillaise_. These were all
heavily armed and armoured vessels, all of them capable of manoeuvering
at a speed of over twenty knots. A dozen smaller protected and
unprotected cruisers hung on each flank, and a score of destroyers and
torpedo boats lurked in between the big ships.

The _Ithuriel_ ran quietly along the curving line of battleships and
cruisers, turned and came back again without exciting the slightest
suspicion.

Erskine would have dearly loved to sink a battleship or one or two
cruisers, just to show his lordship how it was done, but the Admiral
forbade this, as he wanted to get the Frenchmen, who still thought they
were going to easy victory, entangled in the shallows of the narrow
waters, and therefore with the exception of rolling over and sinking
three submarines which happened to get in the way, no damage was done.

The British Channel Fleet, even not counting the assistance of the
terrible _Ithuriel_, was the most powerful squadron that had ever put to
sea under a single command. The main line of battle consisted of the
flagship _Britain_, and seven ships of the _King Edward_ class, _King
Edward the Seventh_, _Dominion_, _Commonwealth_, _Hindustan_, _New
Zealand_, _Canada_ and _Newfoundland_; all over sixteen thousand tons,
and of nineteen knots speed. With the exception of the giant flagships,
of which there were five in existence--the _Britain_, _England_,
_