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 a bargain, of which he had full right to reap the benefit.

The Danes did not then charge him with taking an unfair advantage.

On the contrary, Lindholm, who was closely cognizant of all that passed in relation to these negotiations, wrote to him: "Your Lordship's motives for sending a flag of truce to our Government can never be misconstrued, and your subsequent conduct has sufficiently shown that humanity is always the companion of true valour." The truce that then began was prolonged from day to day till April 9th.