The Crown Prince at once sent back his principal aid-de-camp, with a
verbal message, which the latter reduced to writing, as follows:--

"His Royal Highness, the Prince Royal of Denmark, has sent me,
General Adjutant Lindholm, on board to his Britannic Majesty's
Vice-Admiral, the Right Honourable Lord Nelson, to ask the
particular object of sending the flag of truce."

To this Nelson replied in writing:--

"Lord Nelson's object in sending on shore a flag of truce is
humanity; he, therefore, consents that hostilities shall cease
till Lord Nelson can take his prisoners out of the prizes, and
he consents to land all the wounded Danes, and to burn or remove
his prizes."

This message concluded with a complimentary expression of hope that
good relations would be restored between the two nations, whom Nelson
always carefully spoke of as natural friends. It will be observed that
he again alludes only to the flag of truce sent by the boat, and, as
at first he demanded, so now he consents to a cessation of
hostilities, until he can secure his prisoners and remove his prizes.
If he could rightly remove his prizes, which he avowed as part of his
demand, then still more he could his own ships. This part of the
negotiation he took upon himself to settle; for discussion of any
further matters he referred Lindholm to Sir Hyde Parker, and the
Danish officer started for the "London" at the same time that the
English officer pushed off to carry Nelson's second message to the
Crown Prince. The latter had already sent orders to the batteries to
cease firing. The battle then ended, and both sides hoisted flags of
truce.

Nelson at once began to remove his ships, which had sufered more than
in any other battle he had ever fought. That he was fully aware of the
imminent necessity for some of them to withdraw, and of the advantage
the Danes had yielded him by accepting his terms, is indisputable, and
his own opinion was confirmed by that of two of his leading captains,
whom he consulted. This he never denied; but he did deny that he had
used a _ruse de guerre_, or taken unfair advantage of a truce. On the
score of humanity he had consented to a cessation of hostilities,
conditional upon his freedom to take out of the surrendered ships the
unwounded prisoners, and to remove the prizes. If the bargain was more
to his advantage than to that of the Danes--which is a matter of
opinion--it was none the less