Daylight was near at hand, and when it came, grey and mournful, over the sullen sea, the tactics of the British admiral left the enemy in doubt. An elaborate feint made with certain British battleships and armoured cruisers led the Germans to suppose the intention was to drive them back into the Atlantic; and ere they realised their error, the greater number of the British ships steamed diagonally outside the enemy, enclosing them within an imaginary line drawn from the Eddystone to Lizard Point. The light cruisers were told off to harass the German auxiliaries, and seeing the probable effect of this manœuvre, the enemy opened fire, wasting powder and shell long before they were within effective range. The British guns, however, remained silent until the distance between the fleets was only four miles or less. Then the British admiral gave the signal, and straightway four battleships and eight armoured cruisers hurled shell after shell against the nearest of the German ships. The detached section of the fleet that had steamed westward along the coast, attacked with equal fury the other wing of the invaders’ line. The Germans at first replied with spirit. In every battle the winning cock must lose some feathers, and sorrow and mourning were on their way to many an English home. Presently there were signs of disaster and disablement among the enemy’s ships. Caught between two fires, and deprived of the aid of their destroyers, the position produced a demoralising effect upon their men. The German plan of campaign had miscarried, and the crews and gunners were at first disconcerted and then thrown into panic by the concentrated and mathematical precision with which the British guns riddled the leading ships of their column. Here and there, in both fleets, the bursting shells produced wholesale slaughter and mutilation. The worst disasters to the enemy’s ships, however, were caused by the repeated shocks of the terrific projectiles, which displaced the steel plates of their armour. Thus the rivets sprang, and water crept in at a hundred holes. Two of the finest German battleships, through the gaining weight of water, had their centre of gravity gradually shifted. They foundered, and all hands were lost--officers and men going bravely, calmly, to their doom. The battleship _Wilhelm II._ became unmanageable and left the line, and, at the same time it was seen that desperate attempts were being made to give protection to one in particular of the auxiliaries--a liner of great speed, that presently broke away and headed for the open sea, hotly pursued by two light cruisers and one destroyer from the British line.