So the fight went on through the brief twilight and into the early moonlit darkness. Thirty-five hits upon the ill-fated _Good Hope_ were counted by the _Scharnhorst's_ gunners. One of her turrets was destroyed and a fire started, followed presently by an explosion that shook the whole air--the white flames mingling, in von Spee's own words, "with the bright green stars," like some dreadful firework. That as von Spee believed, was the end of her. But Cradock was not yet finished, though his guns were out of action. The opposing vessels were now only two miles apart and the _Good Hope_ was trying to manoeuvre to let off her torpedoes. It was but an expiring effort, however; von Spee stood away a little; the _Monmouth_, totally outgunned, had already been silenced; a {56} hurrying rain-cloud had added to the darkness; and, though the German gunners, sighting by the red reflection of the fires that they had kindled on the two British vessels, still continued to fire a round or two, their adversaries were powerless to respond. It was now nearly eight o'clock. To the watching von Spee, the fires on the horizon had died down, the _Good Hope's_ quenched by the seas that covered her, and the _Monmouth's_ put out by the efforts of her crew. Though both vessels must, he knew, have been badly crippled, von Spee was unaware, of course, of their real condition, and had ordered his light cruisers to chase and attack them, himself crossing the British line, and turning his course northward. Meanwhile the _Monmouth_, staggering along in the darkness, and slowly sinking by the head, was in touch with the _Glasgow_--the neighbourhood of the enemy and the state of the sea rendering any assistance from the latter impossible. The _Glasgow_ herself had had an almost miraculous escape, not only from destruction, but even from serious damage. "I cannot understand," wrote one of her officers, "the miracle of our deliverance; none will ever. We were struck at the water-line by, in all, five shells out of about 600 directed at us, but strangely not in vulnerable places, our coal saving us on three occasions--as we are not armoured and should not be in battle line against armoured vessels. We had only two guns that would pierce their armour--the _Good Hope's_ old two 9.2's, one of which was out of action ten minutes after the start. A shell entered the captain's pantry and continued on, bursting in a {57} passage, the fragments going through the steel wall of the captain's cabin, wrecking it completely. Again no fire resulted."