On the evening of March 20 the fleet anchored in the Kattegat, eighteen miles from Cronenburg Castle and the town of Elsinore, at which the Sound narrows to three miles.  Both shores being hostile, Parker would not attempt to force the passage until he learned the result of the British mission to Copenhagen; meanwhile the Danes were working busily at the blockships and batteries of the city.  On the 23d Mr. Vansittart returned with the terms rejected; and he brought, also, alarming reports of the state of the batteries at Elsinore and Copenhagen, which were much stronger than the previous information of the British Cabinet had shown, proving, as Nelson urged, that each day’s delay increased the enemy’s relative power.  Sir Hyde called a council.  “Now we are sure of fighting,” wrote Nelson to Lady Hamilton.  “I am sent for.  When it was a joke I was kept in the background; to-morrow will I hope be a proud day for England—­to have it so, no exertion shall be wanting from your most attached and affectionate friend.”

He was accompanied to Parker’s flagship by Lieutenant Layman, who went in the boat to steer for him.  “On board the London,” according to Layman, “the heads appeared very gloomy.  Mr. Vansittart, who arrived at the same moment Nelson did, said that if the fleet proceeded to attack, it would be beaten, and the attempt was in danger of being relinquished.  The Captain of the Fleet said to Layman that the Danes were too strong to attack, and a torpor verging to despondency prevailed in the councils.  While others were dismayed, however, Lord Nelson questioned those just arrived from Copenhagen not only as to the force, but as to the position of the enemy.  Such interrogatories he called ‘bringing people to the post.’  Having learned that the great strength of the enemy was at the head of the line, supported by the Crown Battery, his Lordship emphatically observed that to begin the attack there would be like taking a bull by the horns, and he therefore suggested the attempt by the tail."[27] In order to avoid the formidable works at Cronenburg, and yet come up in rear of Copenhagen, according to this proposition of Nelson’s, it was proposed in the council to go by the Great Belt.  That passage is more intricate, and therefore, from the pilot’s point of view, more hazardous than the Sound.  Nelson was not much deterred by the alarming reports.  “Go by the Sound, or by the Belt, or anyhow,” he said, “only lose not an hour.”

The minutes of the council have not been transmitted, but it is evident from Nelson’s own letter of the following day, soon to be quoted in full, and also from one written to him by Mr. Vansittart, after the latter reached London, that he urged upon Parker, and prevailed with him, to throw aside the instructions of the Government, under the changed conditions, and to adopt boldly the plan which, according to his present knowledge, should seem most certain to crush Denmark at once.  After that, he would shatter the coalition