To the considerations above given he added that, when south of the city, the British would be interposed between the other Baltic navies and Denmark.

The latter, in that case, could not receive reinforcements, unless the English squadron were first defeated.

He therefore proposed that ten ships-of-the-line, of the lighter draughts, which he offered himself to lead, should pass through the outer, or northern channel, gain the southern flank of the defence, and thence make the principal attack, while the rest of the fleet supported them by a demonstration against the northern end.

The sagacity of this scheme is best attested from the enemy himself.

"We have been deceived in the plan of attack," wrote the historian Niebuhr, then residing in the city; "and," now that the right wing of the defence is destroyed, "all is at stake." The nights of the 30th and 31st were employed in surveying the waters, laying down buoys to replace those removed by the Danes, and in further reconnoissance of the enemy's position.