[Footnote 1: Mahan, INFLUENCE OF SEA POWER UPON FRENCH REVOLUTION
AND EMPIRE, II, 52.]

When the envoy on March 23 returned to the fleet, then anchored in
the Cattegat, he brought an alarming tale of Danish preparations,
and an air of gloom pervaded the flagship when Nelson came aboard
for a council of war. Copenhagen, it will be recalled, is situated
on the eastern coast of Zealand, on the waterway called the Sound
leading southward from the Cattegat to the Baltic. Directly in
front of the city, a long shoal named the Middle Ground separates
the Sound into two navigable channels, the one nearer Copenhagen
known as the King's Deep (_Kongedyb_). The defenses of the Danish
capital, so the envoy reported, were planned against attack from
the northward. At this end of the line the formidable Trekroner
Battery (68 guns), together with two ships-of-the-line and some
smaller vessels, defended the narrow entrance to the harbor; while
protecting the city to the southward, along the flats at the edge
of the King's Deep, was drawn up an array of about 37 craft ranging
from ships-of-the-line to mere scows, mounting a total of 628 guns,
and supported at some distance by batteries on land. Filled with
patriotic ardor, half the male population of the city had volunteered
to support the forces manning these batteries afloat and ashore.

Nelson's plan for meeting these obstacles, as well as his view of
the whole situation, as presented at the council, was embodied in
a memorandum dated the following day, which well illustrates his
grasp of a general strategic problem. The Government's instructions,
as well as Parker's preference, were apparently to wait in the
Cattegat until the combined enemy forces should choose to come
out and fight. Instead, the second in command advocated immediate
action. "Not a moment," he wrote, "should be lost in attacking the
enemy; they will every day and hour be stronger." The best course,
in his opinion, would be to take the whole fleet at once into the
Baltic against Russia, as a "home stroke," which if successful
would bring down the coalition like a house of cards. If the Danes
must first be dealt with, he proposed, instead of a direct attack,
which would be "taking the bull by the horns," an attack from the
rear. In order to do so, the fleet could get beyond the city either
by passing through the Great Belt south of Zealand, or directly
through the Sound. Another resultant advantage, in case the five