A verbal message by his principal aide-de-camp was sent back by the Crown Prince asking the particular object of sending the flag of truce, to which Nelson replied, "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." By this time the Crown Prince had sent orders to the batteries to cease firing, so the battle ended, and both sides hoisted flags of truce.
It was acknowledged by Nelson that his ships had suffered more than in any other battle he had ever fought. His success, however, was complete. Niebuhr, the Danish historian, wrote, "We cannot deny it, we are quite beaten." As to the importance of the victory, by it the great coalition of the northern powers was broken and Bonaparte once more was foiled in his great game.
Unknown to the combatants at the time, however, was the death of the chief supporter of the coalition—the Czar Paul. On the night of March 24th he had been murdered, and his young son Alexander reigned in his stead. This news did not reach Copenhagen until after the armistice was signed.
Treaty of Amiens
In October of the same year preliminaries of peace were entered into in London, and on March 27th, 1802, at Amiens, Great Britain, on the one part, and France, Spain, and Holland on the other, concluded a treaty of peace. The Marquis Cornwallis was the plenipotentiary for England and Joseph Bonaparte for France. By this treaty France agreed to evacuate Naples and the states of the church; England on her side gave up all her conquests during the war to the powers to which they had formerly belonged, excepting the islands of Trinidad and Ceylon. Egypt was restored to Turkey, the Cape of Good Hope to Holland, and it was promised that within three months the English should evacuate Malta, which was to be given back, under certain conditions, to the Knights of St. John. After the victory of Copenhagen, when the 49th returned to England, it was stationed for a time at Colchester, and in the spring of 1802 was ordered to Canada where it was destined to remain many years.
[[1]] When the signal came from Admiral Parker, Nelson said to his captain, "You know Foley I have only one eye, I have a right to be blind sometimes," and then putting the glass to his blind eye he exclaimed, "I really do not see the signal." It was therefore not repeated from his vessel and the action went on.
[[2]] "Life of Nelson," Mahan.