[57] TO THE BROTHERS OF ENGLISHMEN, THE DANES. Lord Nelson has directions to spare Denmark, when no longer resisting; but if the firing is continued on the part of Denmark, Lord Nelson will be obliged to set on fire all the Floating-batteries he has taken, without having the power of saving the brave Danes who have defended them. Dated on board his Britannic Majesty’s ship _Elephant_, Copenhagen Roads, _April 2nd, 1801_.
[58] Nelson afterwards found it necessary to address the Rt. Hon. Henry Addington, then Prime Minister, on the subject. In a letter written on the 8th May 1801, he refers to those who thought the sending of a flag of truce a _ruse de guerre_, to others who “attributed it to a desire to have no more fighting, and few, very few, to the cause that I felt, and which I trust in God I shall retain to the last moment, _humanity_.”
[59] The letter will be found in full in footnote 1, p. 175.
[60] See “Napoleon and the Invasion of England,” by H. F. B. Wheeler and A. M. Broadley, especially vol. i. pp. 159-194.
[61] A volunteer corps enrolled for the purpose of defending the coast.
[62] See “Annual Register,” for 1801, p. 269.
[63] The _Aigle_ had taken refuge in Cadiz harbour.
[64] The despatch is quoted in French by Professor Sir W. Knox Laughton in his edition of Sir N. Harris Nicolas’s great work (pp. 354-5).
[65] See Mahan’s “Nelson,” p. 661, and Laughton, p. 202.
[66] These were crippled ships detached by Villeneuve.
[67] Mahan accepts this, but Laughton discredits it.
[68] The total British broadside was 1000 lbs. less.
[69] Not by telegraph as we understand it, but by semaphore.
[71] Blackwood is, of course, generalising.
[73] “The Three Dorset Captains at Trafalgar.” By A. M. Broadley and R. G. Bartelot, M.A., p. 286.
[74] Eleven ships in all escaped into Cadiz.
[75] “Diary of the first Earl of Malmesbury,” vol. iv., p. 354.
[76] _Trafalgar_ in “W. V. Her Book and Various Verses.”
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