Before he could reach them he met the terror-stricken mob of men flying from them, and almost immediately afterwards saw the top-masts of the _Laird_ and the _Strong Arm_ appearing behind the harbour entrance.
These frightened fugitives, scared out of their very lives, had splashed hurriedly past the destroyers lying huddled inshore, and spread the panic among their crews, who, not even waiting till the _Laird_ appeared inside the harbour, took to their boats or jumped overboard and made for the shore.
Schmidt knew well enough that there was nothing now to stop Helston's squadron, knew that the greater part of his blue-jackets were already on top of the hill--many of them dead--knew that one of his partners had been blown to pieces on the opposite side of the harbour, and that the other lay dying; but with a gambler's trust in the last throw of the dice, he jumped into a dinghy, pulled himself across to the _Hong Lu_, and tried to rally his cowed and dispirited men.
It was from the sides of the _Hong Lu_ that suddenly, as the _Laird_ and the _Strong Arm_ steered into the harbour, flames shot out and shells came wildly past them. The two remaining cruisers joined in, and for perhaps five minutes the water round the two ships was lashed into foam, and the cliffs behind them were struck time after time by the Chinese shells.
But every gun that could bear upon the unhappy cruisers crowded under the land poured in a fire so concentrated, so coolly aimed, and so accurate, that their already demoralized crews could not stand to their guns, and running their ships ashore, swarmed over the bows and left them to their fate.
The _Hong Lu_ did indeed make one desperate and gallant attempt. Extricating herself from the other ships, she commenced steaming towards the _Laird_ and the _Strong Arm_, and came down at great speed with the intention of either ramming one or other of them, or of forcing her way past and escaping to sea.
The _Laird_ and the _Strong Arm_, opening out a little in the broader part of the harbour, poured in a very hail of 6-inch shells. The _Hong Lu's_ thin, low plates were rent open in a dozen places, water poured in, and she began visibly to sink by the head. An 8-inch shell burst at the foot of her foremast under the bridge, her bows were smothered in flame and smoke, she fell off to port, and then she too ran with a crash up the shore, and her crew began jumping overboard.