"Of course not," replied General French, with a rather provoking genial
smile. "Now I will trouble you to take your ships into the harbour. I
will put a guard on each as she passes; meanwhile, your men will pile
arms and get ready to disembark. We cannot offer you much of a welcome,
I'm afraid, for those airships of yours have almost reduced Portsmouth
to ruins, to say nothing of sending ten of our battleships and cruisers
to the bottom. I can assure you, General, that the losses are not all on
your side."

"No, General," replied the Frenchman, "but for the present, at least,
the victory is on yours."

Then transport after transport filed into the harbour, and General
Hamilton and his staff took charge of the disembarkation. Six of the
British lame ducks had been got safely into dock, and every available
man was slaving away in deadly earnest to repair the damage done in
those terrible two hours. Repairs were also being carried out as
rapidly as possible on the cruisers and battleships lying in Spithead,
and as shipload after shipload of the disarmed French soldiers were
landed, they were set to work, first at clearing up the dockyards and
getting them into something like working order, and then clearing up the
ruins of the three towns.

The news of Admiral Beresford's magnificent coup had already reached
London, and the reply had come back terse and to the point:

"Excellently well done. Congratulate Admiral Beresford and all
concerned. We are hard pressed at Dover, and London is threatened.
Send _Ithuriel_ to Dover as soon as possible, and let her come on
here when she has given any possible help. Land and sea defence of
south and south-east at discretion of yourself, Domville and
Beresford. CONNAUGHT."

By some miracle, the Keppel's Head, perhaps the most famous naval
hostelry in the south of England, had escaped the shells from the
airships, and so General French had made it his headquarters for the
time being. Sir Compton Domville had received a rather serious injury
from a splinter in the left arm during the destruction of the Naval
Barracks, but he had had his wounds dressed and insisted, against the
advice of the doctors, in driving down to the Hard and talking matters
over with General French. They were discussing the disposition of the
French prisoners and the huge amount of war material which had been
captured, when the tel