en knots, and got between the two French battleships;
then her big guns began to vomit destruction again, and in five minutes
the two French battleships, caught in the triangular fire and terribly
mauled, hauled their flags down, and so Lord Beresford's scheme was
accomplished. The _Dominion_ and _Edward VII._ had got between their
ships at the expense of a severe handling, and were giving a very good
account of them, and the _Canada_ had sunk the _Suffren_ with a lucky
shell which exploded in her forward torpedo room and blew her side out.

It was broad daylight by this time, and it was perfectly plain, both to
friend and foe, that the French centre could no longer be counted upon
as a fighting force. One of the circumstances which came home hardest
afterwards to the survivors of the French force was the fact that, as
far as they knew, not a single British battleship or cruiser had been
struck by a French destroyer or torpedo boat. The reason for this was
the very simple fact that Erskine had taken these craft under his
charge, and, while the big ships had been thundering away at each other,
he had devoted himself to the congenial sport of smashing up the smaller
fry. He sent the _Ithuriel_ flying hither and thither at full speed,
tearing them into scrap-iron and sending them to the bottom, as if they
had been so many penny steamers. He could have sent the battleships to
the bottom with equal ease, but orders were orders, and he respected
them until his chance came.

The _Verite_ was now the least injured of the French battleships. To
look at she was merely a floating mass of ruins, but her engines were
intact, and her primary battery as good as ever. Her captain, like the
hero that he was, determined to risk his ship and everything in her in
the hope of destroying the monster which had wrought such frightful
havoc along the line. She carried two twelve-inch guns ahead, a 6.4 on
each side of the barbette, and four pairs of 6.4 guns behind these, and
the fire of all of them was concentrated ahead.

As the _Britain_ came round for the third time every one of the guns was
laid upon her. He called to the engine-room for the utmost speed he
could have, and at nineteen knots he bore down upon the leviathan. The
huge guns on the _Britain_ swung round, and a tempest of shells swept
the _Verite_ from end to end. Her armour was gashed and torn as though
it had been cardboard instead of six-and eleven-inch steel; but still
she