On the night of March 24th the Czar Paul had been murdered, and with him fell the main motive force and support of the Armed Neutrality.

Ignorant of this fact, Nelson's one object, the most to be made of the victory, was to get at the detachment of the Russian fleet--twelve ships--lying in the harbor of Revel, before the breaking up of the ice allowed it to join the main body at Cronstadt.

The difficulty in the way lay not in Nelson's hesitation to act instantly, nor in the power of the British fleet to do so; it lay in the conflicting views and purposes of other persons, of the Crown Prince and of Parker, the representatives of Denmark and of Great Britain.

Parker was resolved, so Nelson has told us, not to leave Denmark hostile in his rear, flanking his line of communications if he proceeded up the Baltic; and Nelson admits, although with his sagacious daring he would have disregarded, that the batteries which commanded the shoal ground above Copenhagen might have seriously interrupted the passage.

He was ready to run risks again for the very adequate object mentioned.