wds of
workmen. The temptation was too strong for him, and he yielded to it.

When the _Prince George_ had gone down he rose into the air, and ran
over the Isle of Wight, signalling to the _See Adler_. The signals were
answered, and the two airships met about two miles south-west of the
Needles, and Castellan informed Captain Frenkel of his intention to
destroy Portsmouth and Gosport. The German demurred strongly. He had no
personal hatred to satisfy, and he suggested that it would be much
better to go out to sea and discover the whereabouts of the Channel
Fleet; but Castellan was Commander-in-Chief of the Aerial Squadrons of
the Allies, and so his word was law, and within the next two hours one
of the greatest crimes in the history of civilised warfare was
committed.

The two airships circled slowly over Gosport and Portsmouth, dropping
their torpedoes wherever a worthy mark presented itself. The first one
discharged from the _Flying Fish_ fell on the deck of the old _Victory_.
The deck burst up, as though all the powder she had carried at
Trafalgar had exploded beneath it, and the next moment she broke out in
inextinguishable flames. The old _Resolution_ met the same fate from the
_See Adler_, and then the pitiless hail of destruction fell on the docks
and jetties. In a few minutes the harbour was ringed with flame.
Portsmouth Station, built almost entirely of wood, blazed up like
matchwood; then came the turn of the dockyards at Portsea, which were
soon ablaze from end to end.

Then the two airships spread their wings like destroying angels over
Portsmouth town. Half a dozen torpedoes wrecked the Town Hall and set
the ruins on fire. This was the work of the _See Adler_. The _Flying
Fish_ devoted her attention to the naval and military barracks, the
Naval College and the Gunnery School on Whale Island. As soon as these
were reduced to burning ruins, the two airships scattered their
torpedoes indiscriminately over churches, shops and houses, and in the
streets crowded by terrified mobs of soldiers, sailors and civilians.

The effect of the torpedoes in the streets was too appalling for
description. Everyone within ten or a dozen yards of the focus of the
explosion was literally blown to atoms, and for fifty yards round every
living creature dropped dead, killed either by the force of the
concussion or the poisonous gases which were liberated by the explosion.
Hundreds fell thus without the mark of a wound, and when