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A very young naval cadet, who had been sent down to the engine-room from the Prince-Admiral's conning-tower with an order, met Heideck on the narrow, suffocatingly hot passage. He was a slender, handsome youth with a delicate, boyish face. The blood was streaming over his eyes and cheeks from a wound in the forehead.
The skipper had already given the information which he had brought from Dover to the officer on duty who had taken Heideck's place. If they were not exactly military secrets which by that means became known to the German military authorities, some items of the various information might prove of importance as affecting the Prince-Admiral's arrangements.
When the approach of the enemy's ships was announced, the Prince-Admiral's flaghip signalled: "Weigh anchor! hoist top pennants! clear for action! follow in the Admiral's wake! cruiser division and torpedo-boats execute orders!" Keeping close under the coast of Walcheren, the German squadron, full steam up, advanced to meet the enemy.
The Prince-Admiral's headquarters had been removed to Hampton Court, whose silent, venerable, and famous palace became suddenly the centre of stirring military and diplomatic life. Any further serious military operations were hardly considered, for the supposition that the landing of large hostile armies would practically mean the end of the campaign, had proved correct.
Thus, the Prince-Admiral's squadron was enabled to approach the enemy so far unobserved that it would be able to take the British fleet in the flank, when it had reached the west point of Walcheren. At the signal: "Full steam ahead!" the German ships in the formation agreed steamed against the surprised English, and opened fire from their bow-guns.
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