he strength of the enemy, the British cruisers now
turned their searchlights on and swept the horizon.

A very few moments sufficed to show that an overwhelming force was
closing in on them from three sides. They were completely caught in a
trap, from which there was no escape save by running the gauntlet.
Whichever way they headed they would have to pass through the
converging fire of the enemy.

The weakest point, so far as they could see, was the one cruiser and
two torpedo-boats to the northward, and so towards them they headed.
At the speed at which they were travelling it needed but a few
minutes to bring them within range, and the British commanders
rightly decided to concentrate their fire for the present on the
single cruiser and her two attendants, in the hope of sinking them
before the others could get into action.

At three thousand yards the heavy guns came into play, and a storm of
shell was hurled upon the advancing foe, who lost no time in replying
in the same terms. As the vessels approached each other the shooting
became closer and terribly effective.

The searchlights of the British cruisers were kept full ahead, and
every attempt of the torpedo-boats to get round on the flank was
foiled by a hail of shot from the quick-firing guns. Within fifteen
minutes of opening fire one of these was sunk and the other disabled.
The French cruiser, too, suffered fearfully from the tempest of shot
and shell that was rained upon her.

Had the British got within range of her half an hour sooner the plan
would have been completely foiled. As it was, her fate was sealed,
but it was too late. The three British warships rushed at her
together, vomiting flame and smoke and iron across the
rapidly-decreasing distance, until within five hundred yards of her.
Then the fire from the two on either flank suddenly stopped.

The centre one, still blazing away, put on her forced draught,
swerved sharply round, and then darted in on her with the ram. There
was a terrific shock, a heavy, grinding crunch, and then the mighty
mass of the charging vessel, hurled at nearly thirty miles an hour
upon her victim, bored and ground her resistless way into her side.

Then she suddenly reversed her engines and backed out. In less than
thirty seconds it was all over. The Frenchman, almost cut in half by
the frightful blow, reeled once, and once only, and then went down
like a stone.

But by this time the other two divisions of the ene