"To remain where we were after the torpedo-boats had disappeared in order to aid the steamers would have been the height of imprudence. We should have risked the most formidable part of our fleet, and as there were several steamers they were in a position to aid each other. As far as could be perceived, one of the enemy's torpedo-boats was sunk." The narrator argued that either the fishing vessels were accomplices or the Japanese took advantage of their proximity without their knowledge. He inclined to the former alternative, and asked, "Why Hull fishing boats so far from England--almost off the Danish coast?" The best commentary on this narrative was supplied by the Russian Government themselves, who, six weeks after the North Sea outrage, published the following significant admission of facts, which had, of course, been perfectly well known to them almost from the first:-- [Sidenote: Supplementary Information] "According to supplementary information from Admiral Rozhdestvensky concerning the North Sea incident of the 21st of October, after the _Kniaz Suvaroff_ had ceased firing there suddenly appeared on the left of the ironclad division the two searchlights of the cruisers _Dmitri Donskoi_ and _Aurora_, lighting up the division. The _Dmitri Donskoi_ showed her night signals, whereupon for fear lest projectiles from the hindmost ships of the division should hit our own vessels, either directly or by ricochet, a general signal to cease fire was made from the ironclad _Kniaz Suvaroff_, and was at once carried out. The whole of the firing lasted less than ten minutes. Communications by wireless telegraph stated that five projectiles had struck the cruiser _Aurora_, some ricocheting and others hitting her direct. Three were 75-millimètre and two 47-millimètre shells. The chaplain was seriously injured, and a petty officer was slightly wounded. The former subsequently succumbed at Tangier." [Illustration: FIGHT IN STREET OF LIN-SHIN-PU, BATTLE OF SHAK-KE RIVER.] This communication bears out the theory advanced in the first instance that the Russians in the panic had mistaken their own ships for hostile torpedo-boats, and had opened fire on the "two long, dark silhouettes emitting quantities of smoke" without stopping to ascertain what they belonged to. [Sidenote: The Baltic Fleet Proceeds to Madagascar]