ld servant, Allen, who assumed much command on these occasions, that
he should go to his cot. It was placed on the floor, but from it he
still continued to dictate. Captain Hardy returned about eleven. He
had rowed as far as the leading ship of the enemy; sounding round her,
and using a pole when he was apprehensive of being heard. He reported
the practicability of the Channel, and the depth of water up to the
ships of the enemy's line. Had we abided by this report, in lieu of
confiding in our Masters and Pilots, we should have acted better. The
Orders were completed about one o'clock, when half a dozen clerks in
the foremost cabin proceeded to transcribe them. Lord Nelson's
impatience again showed itself; for instead of sleeping undisturbedly,
as he might have done, he was every half hour calling from his cot to
these clerks to hasten their work, for that the wind was becoming
fair: he was constantly receiving a report of this during the night."
It was characteristic of the fortune of the "heaven-born" admiral,
that the wind which had been fair the day before to take him south,
changed by the hour of battle to fair to take him north; but it is
only just to notice also that he himself never trifled with a fair
wind, nor with time.

The Orders for Battle, the process of framing which Stewart narrates,
have been preserved in full;[30] but they require a little study and
analysis to detect Nelson's thought, and their tactical merit, which
in matters of detail is unique among his works. At the Nile and
Trafalgar he contented himself with general plans, to meet cases which
he could only foresee in broad outlines; the method of application he
reserved to the moment of battle, when again he signified the general
direction of the attack, and left the details to his subordinates.
Here at Copenhagen he had been able to study the hostile dispositions.
Consequently, although he could not mark with precision the situations
of the smaller floating batteries, those of the principal blockships
were known, and upon that knowledge lie based very particular
instructions for the position each ship-of-the-line was to occupy. The
smaller British vessels also had specific orders.

Taking the Trekroner as a point of reference for the Danish order,
there were north of it, on the Danish left flank, two blockships.
South of it were seven blockships, with a number of miscellaneous
floating batteries, which raised that wing of the defence to
eigh