e Trekroner
forts that had hammered Riou now turned their guns on the _Monarch_ and
_Defiance_, making the battle in that part of the line as hot as before;
while some Danes so lost their heads as to begin firing again from ships
that had surrendered to the British. This was more than Nelson could
stand. So he wrote to the Danish Crown Prince: "Lord Nelson has been
commanded to spare Denmark when she no longer resists. The line of
defence which covers her shores has struck to the British flag. Let
firing cease, then, that he may take possession of his prizes, or he will
blow them into the air along with the crews who have so nobly defended
them. The brave Danes are the brothers, and should never be the enemies,
of the English."

Nelson refused the wafer offered him to close up the letter, saying,
"this is no time to look hurried"; and, sending to his cabin for a
candle, wax, and his biggest seal, he folded and sealed the letter as
coolly as if writing in his house at home instead of in a storm of shot
and shell. After arranging terms the Danes gave in; and the whole Armed
Neutrality of the North came to nothing. For the second time Nelson had
beaten Napoleon.

This defeat did not really harm the Northern Powers; for, though they
liked their own shipping to do all the oversea trading it could, they
were much better off with the British, who _could_ take their goods to
market, than with Napoleon, who could _not_. Besides, the British let
them use their own shipping so long as they did not let Napoleon use it;
while Napoleon had to stop it altogether, lest the British, with their
stronger navy, should turn it to their advantage instead of his. In a
word: it was better to use the sea under the British navy than to lose it
under Napoleon's army.

Both sides now needed rest. So the Peace of Amiens was signed in March
1802. With this peace ended Napoleon's last pretence that he was trying
to save the peoples of the world from their wicked rulers. Some of them
did need saving; and many of the French Revolutionists were generous
souls, eager to spread their own kind of liberty all over Europe. But
British liberty had been growing steadily for a good many hundreds of
years, and the British people did not want a foreign sort thrust upon
them, though many of them felt very kindly toward the French. So this,
with the memory of former wars, had brought the two countries into strife
once more. All might then have end