The magazine had exploded! The scene on board the doomed vessel, even as witnessed from the British ships, was awful. Terrified men left their guns, and, rushing hither and thither, sought means of escape. But the boats had already been smashed by shots from the British cruisers, and all knew that death was inevitable.
The burning ship slowly foundered beneath them, and as they rushed about in despair they fell back into the roaring flames. A British torpedo boat rescued about a dozen; but presently, with a heavy list, the warship suddenly swung round, and, bow first, disappeared into the green sunlit sea, leaving only a few poor wretches, who, after struggling vainly on the surface for a few moments, also went down to the unknown.
The carnage was frightful. Hundreds of men were being launched into eternity, while upon the horizon both east and west dozens of ships of both invaders and defenders were rapidly approaching, and all would, ere long, try conclusions.
Before half an hour had passed, a fierce battle, as sanguinary as any in the world's history, had commenced. The cruisers, acting as satellites to the battleships forming the two opposing fighting lines, had quickly commenced a series of fierce skirmishes and duels, all the most destructive engines of modern warfare being brought into play.
The division of our Channel Fleet that had at last returned consisted of the powerful battleship _Royal Sovereign_, flying the Admiral's flag; the barbette-ships _Anson_, _Howe_, _Camperdown_, and _Benbow_; the turret-ships _Thunderer_ and _Conqueror_; the cruisers _Mersey_, _Terpsichore_, _Melampus_, _Tribune_, _Latona_, _Immortalité_, and _Barham_; with the torpedo gunboats _Spanker_ and _Speedwell_, and nineteen torpedo boats.
The forces of the invaders were more than double that of the British, for, in addition to the vessels already enumerated, the reinforcements consisted of the French battleships _Amiral Baudin_, _Formidable_, _Amiral Duperré_, _Brennus_, _Tréhouart_, _Jemappes_, _Terrible_, _Requin_, _Indomptable_, _Caïman_, _Courbet_, _Dévastation_, _Redoubtable_, and _Furieux_, together with nine cruisers, and thirty-eight _torpilleurs de haute mer_.
From the very commencement the fighting was at close quarters, and the storm of shot and shell caused death on every hand. With such an overwhelming force at his disposal, Admiral Maigret, the French commander, had been enabled to take up a position which boded ill for the defenders, nevertheless the British Admiral on board the _Royal Sovereign_ was determined to exert every effort to repulse the enemy.