The Angel of the Revolution: A Tale of the Coming Terror
Page 34
CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE BREAKING OF THE CHARM.
The first news of the Russian attack on Aberdeen was received inLondon soon after five o'clock on the afternoon of the 30th, andproduced an effect which it is quite beyond the power of language todescribe. The first telegram containing the bare announcement of thefact fell like a bolt from the blue on the great Metropolis. It ranas follows:--
Aberdeen, 4.30 P.M.
A large fleet, supposed to be the Russian fleet which broke the blockade of the Baltic on the morning of the 28th, has appeared off the town. About forty large vessels can be made out. Our defences are quite inadequate to cope with such an immense force, but we shall do our best till help comes.
After that the wires were kept hot with messages until well into thenight. The newspapers rushed out edition after edition to keep pacewith them, and in all the office windows of the various journalscopies of the telegrams were posted up as soon as they arrived.
As the messages multiplied in number they brought worse and worsetidings, until excitement grew to frenzy and frenzy degenerated intopanic. The thousand tongues of rumour wagged faster and faster aseach hour went by. The raid upon a single town was magnified into ageneral invasion of the whole country.
Very few people slept in London that night, and the streets werealive with anxious crowds till daybreak, waiting for theconfidently-expected news of the landing of the Russian troops, inspite of the fact that the avowed and real object of the raid hadbeen made public early in the evening. The following are the mostimportant of the telegrams which were received, and will suffice toinform the reader of the course of events after the departure of thefour air-ships from the scene of action--
5 P.M.
A message has been received from the Commander of the Russian fleet demanding the surrender of the town for twelve hours to allow six of his ships to fill up with coal. The captain of the _Ascalon_, in command of the port, has refused this demand, and declares that he will fight while he has a ship that will float or a gun that can be fired. The Russians are accompanied by the air-ship which assisted them to break the blockade of the Sound. She is now floating over the town. The utmost terror prevails among the inhabitants, and crowds are flying into the country to escape the bombardment. Aid has been telegraphed for to Edinburgh and Dundee; but if the North Sea Squadron is still in the Firth of Forth, it cannot get here under nearly twelve hours' steaming.
5.30 P.M.
The bombardment has commenced, and fearful damage has been done already. With three or four shells the air-ship has blown up and utterly destroyed the fort on Girdleness, which mounted twenty-four heavy guns. But for the ships, this leaves the town almost unprotected. News has just come from the North Shore that the batteries there have met with the same fate. The Russians are pouring a perfect storm of shot and shell into the mouth of the river where our ships are lying, but the town has so far been spared.
5.45 P.M.
We have just received news from Edinburgh that the North Sea Squadron left at daybreak this morning under orders to proceed to the mouth of the Elbe to assist in protecting Hamburg from an anticipated attack by the same fleet which has attacked us. There is now no hope that the town can be successfully defended, and the Provost has called a towns-meeting to consider the advisability of surrender, though it is feared that the Russians may now make larger demands. The whole country side is in a state of the utmost panic.
7 P.M.
The towns-meeting empowered the Provost to call upon Captain Marchmont, of the _Ascalon_, to make terms with the Russians in order to save the town from destruction. He refused point blank, although one of the coast-defence ships, the _Thunderer_, has been disabled by shells from the air-ship, and all his other vessels have been terribly knocked about by the incessant cannonade from the fleet, which has now advanced to within two miles of the shore, having nothing more to fear from the land batteries. A terrific thunderstorm is raging, and no words can describe the horror of the scene. The air-ship ceased firing nearly an hour ago.
10 P.M.
Five of our eleven ships--two battleships and three cruisers--have been sunk; the rest are little better than mere wrecks, and seven torpedo-boats have been destroyed in attempting to torpedo some of the enemy's ships. Heavy firing has been heard to the southward, and we have learnt from Dundee that four battleships and six cruisers have been sent to our relief. A portion of the Russian fleet has been detached to meet them. We cannot hope anything from them. Captain Marchmont has now only four ships capable of fighting, but refuses to strike his flag. The storm has ceased, and a strong land breeze has blown the clouds and smoke to seaward. The air-ship has disappeared. Six large Russian ironclads are heading at full speed towards the mouth of the river--
The telegram broke off short here, and no more news was received fromAberdeen for several hours. Of this there was only one possibleexplanation. The town was in the hands of the Russians, and they hadcut the wires. The long charm was broken, and the Isle Inviolate wasinviolate no more. The next telegram from the North came from Findon,and was published in London just before ten o'clock on the followingmorning. It ran thus--
Findon, N.B., 9.15.
About ten o'clock last night the attack on Aberdeen ended in a rush of six ironclads into the river mouth. They charged down upon the four half-crippled British ships that were left, and in less than five minutes rammed and sank them. The Russians then demanded the unconditional surrender of the town, under pain of bombardment and destruction. There was no other course but to yield, and until eight o'clock this morning the town has been in the hands of the enemy.
The Russians at once landed a large force of sailors and marines, cut the telegraph wires and the railway lines, and fired without warning upon every one who attempted to leave the town. The stores of coal and ammunition were seized, and six large cruisers were taking in coal all night. The banks were also entered, and the specie taken possession of, as indemnity for the town. At eight o'clock the cruisers and battleships steamed out of the river without doing further damage. The squadron from the Tay was compelled to retire by the overwhelming force that the Russians brought to bear upon it after Aberdeen surrendered.
Half an hour ago the Russian fleet was lost sight of proceeding at full speed to the north-eastward. Our loss has been terribly heavy. The fort and batteries have been destroyed, all the ships have been sunk or disabled, and of the whole defending force scarcely three hundred men remain. Captain Marchmont went down on the _Ascalon_ with his flag flying, and fighting to the last moment.
While the excitement caused by the news of the raid upon Aberdeen wasat its height, that is to say, on the morning of the 2nd of July,intelligence was received in London of a tremendous disaster to theAnglo-Teutonic Alliance. It was nothing less, in short, than the fallof Berlin, the collapse of the German Empire, and the surrender ofthe Kaiser and the Crown Prince to the Tsar. After nearly sixty hoursof almost continuous fighting, during which the fortifications hadbeen wrecked by the war-balloons, the German ammunition-trains burntand blown up by the fire-shells rained from the air, and the heroicdefenders of the city disorganised by the aerial bombardment ofmelinite shells and cyanogen poison-bombs, and crushed by anoverwhelming force of not less than four million assailants. So felllike a house of cards the stately fabric built up by the genius ofBismarck and Moltke; and so, after bearing his part gallantly in thedeath-struggle of his empire, had the grandson of the conqueror ofSedan yielded up his sword to the victorious Autocrat of the Russias.
The terrible news fell upon London like the premonitory echo of anapproaching storm. The path of the triumphant Muscovites was nowcompletely open to the forts of the Belgian Quadrilateral, under thewalls
of which they would form a junction, which nothing could nowprevent, with the beleaguering forces of France. Would the Belgianstrongholds be able to resist any more effectually than thefortifications of Berlin had done the assaults of the terriblewar-balloons of the Tsar?