n towards Spithead, and
the disabled ships were drifting with it, either to capture or
destruction.

The French centre had now, to all intents and purposes, ceased to exist.
Four out of six battleships were sunk, and one had surrendered, and the
_Jeanne d'Arc_ had gone down.

On the British side the _Hindustan_ had been sunk, and the _Dominion_,
_Commonwealth_ and _Newfoundland_ very badly mauled, so badly indeed
that it was a matter of dry-dock as quickly as possible for them. All
the other battleships, including even the _Britain_ herself, were
little better than wrecks to look at, so terrible had been the
firestorms through which they had passed.

But for the presence of the _Ithuriel_, the British loss would of course
have been much greater. It is not too much to say that her achievements
spread terror and panic among the French torpedo flotilla. Under
ordinary circumstances they would have taken advantage of the confusion
of the battleship action to attack the line of armoured cruisers behind,
but between the two lines there was the ever-present destroying angel,
as they came to call her, with her silent deadly guns, her unparalleled
speed, and her terrible ram. No sooner did a destroyer or torpedo boat
attempt to make for a cruiser, than a shell came hissing along the
water, and blew the middle out of her, or the ram crashed through her
sides, and sent her in two pieces to the bottom.

The result was that when the last French cruiser had hauled down her
flag, Admiral Beresford found himself in command of a fleet which was
still in being. Of the French battleships the _Justice_ and the
_Democratie_ were still serviceable, and of the cruisers, the _Jules
Ferry_, _Leon Gambetta_, _Victor Hugo_, _Aube_ and _Marseillaise_ were
still in excellent fighting trim, although of course they were in no
position to continue the struggle against the now overwhelming force of
British battleships and armoured cruisers. This was what Admiral
Beresford had fought for: to break the centre and put as many
battleships as possible out of action. His orders had been to spare the
cruisers as much as possible, because, he said, with a somewhat grim
laugh, they might be useful later on.

The idea of their escaping to sea through the double line of British
cruisers, to say nothing of the _Ithuriel_, with her speed of over fifty
miles an hour, and her ability to ram them in detail before they were
halfway across the Channel, was entirel