re detained three days by head winds
and calms. In this interval, Nelson's general plan of operations
having been adopted, he shifted his flag to a lighter ship, the
"Elephant," seventy-four, commanded by Captain Foley, the same who had
led the fleet inside the French line in Aboukir Bay. On the 30th, the
wind coming fair from northwest, the ships weighed and passed
Cronenburg Castle. It had been expected that the Swedish batteries
would open upon them, but, finding they remained silent, the column
inclined to that side, thus going clear of the Danish guns. "More
powder and shot, I believe, never were thrown away," wrote Nelson,
"for not one shot struck a single ship of the British fleet. Some of
our ships fired; but the Elephant did not return a single shot. I hope
to reserve them for a better occasion."

That afternoon they anchored again, about five miles below Copenhagen.
Parker and Nelson, accompanied by several senior officers, went at
once in a schooner to view the defences of the town. "We soon
perceived," wrote Stewart, "that our delay had been of important
advantage to the enemy, who had lined the northern edge of the shoals
near the Crown batteries, and the front of the harbour and arsenal,
with a formidable flotilla. The Trekroner (Three Crowns) Battery"--a
strong work established on piles, whose position will be
given--"appeared, in particular, to have been strengthened, and all
the buoys of the Northern, and of the King's Channels had been
removed." Nelson, however, was, or feigned to be, less impressed. "I
have just been reconnoitring the Danish line of defence," he wrote to
Lady Hamilton. "It looks formidable to those who are children at war,
but to my judgment, with ten sail-of-the-line I think I can annihilate
them; at all events, I hope to be allowed to try." This is again the
same spirit of the seaman "determined to attack" at Aboukir; the same
resolution as before Bastia, where he kept shut in his own breast the
knowledge of the odds, feeling that to do nothing was as bad as
failure--and worse. A like eagerness does not seem to have prevailed
on board the flagship. Parker had allowed himself to be stiffened to
the fighting-point by the junior he had before disregarded, but that
he looked to the issue with more than doubt may be inferred from the
words of his private secretary, the Rev. Mr. Scott, who afterwards
held the same relation to Nelson. "I fear," he wrote on the day of
the council, "there i