Nelson's Lady Hamilton by Meynell, Esther (surface ebook reader txt) 📕

and they had aided him to this superb victory. The state of almost hysterical exultation into which she was thrown is best shown by the letter she wrote to Nelson on the 8th of September:—

"My DEAR, DEAR SIR, —How shall I begin, what shall I say to you ? 'Tis impossible I can write, for since last Monday I am delerious with joy, and assure you I have a fevour caused by agitation and pleasure. God, what a victory! Never, never has there been anything half so glorious, so compleat. I fainted when I heard the joyfull news, and fell on my side and am hurt, but [am] now well of that. I shou'd feil it a glory to die in such a cause. No, I wou'd not like to die till I see and embrace the Victor of the Nile. How shall I describe to you the transports of Maria Carolina, 'tis not possible. She fainted and kissed her husband, her children, walked about the room, cried, kissed, and embraced every person near her, exclaiming, Oh,

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brave Nelson, oh, God bless and protect our brave deliverer, oh, Nelson, Nelson, what do we not owe to you, oh Victor, Savour of Itali, oh^ that my swolen heart coud now tell him personally what we owe to him !

"You may judge, my dear Sir, of the rest, but my head will not permit me to tell you half of the rejoicing. The Neapolitans are mad with joy, and if you wos here now, you wou'd be killed with kindness. Sonets on sonets, illuminations, rejoicings; not a French dog dare shew his face. How I glory in the honner of my Country and my Countryman ! I walk and tread in air with pride, feiling I was born in the same land with the victor Nelson and his gallant band. But no more, I cannot, dare not, trust myself, for I am not well. Little dear Captain Hoste will tell you the rest. He dines with us in the day, for he will not sleep out of his ship, and we Love him dearlyo He is a fine, good lad. Sir William is delighted with him, and I say he will be a second Nelson. If he is only half a Nelson, he will be superior to all others.

" I send you two letters from my adorable queen. One was written to me the day we received the glorious news, the other yesterday. Keep them, as they are in her own handwriting. I have kept copies only, but I feil that you ought to have them. If you had seen our meeting after the battle, but I will keep it all for your arrival.

I coo'd not do justice to her felling nor to my own, with writing it; and we are preparing your appartment against you come. I hope it will not be long, for Sir William and I are so impatient to embrace you. I wish you cou'd have seen our house the 3 nights of illumination. 'Tis, 'twas covered with your glorious name. Their were 3 thousand Lamps, and their shou'd have been 3 millions if we had had time. All the English vie with each other in celebrating this most gallant and ever memorable victory. Sir William is ten years younger since the happy news, and he now only wishes to see his friend to be completely happy. How he glories in you when your name is mentioned. He cannot contain his joy. For God's sake come to Naples soon. We receive so many Sonets and Letters of congratulation. I send you some of them to shew you how your success is felt here. How I felt for poor Troubridge. He must have been so angry on the sandbank, so brave an officer! In short, I pity those who were not in the battle. I wou'd have been rather an English powder-monkey, or a swab in that great victory, than an Emperor out of it, but you will be so tired of all this. Write or come soon to Naples, and rejoin your ever sincere and obliged friend.

"EMMA HAMILTON"

There is something of the real heroic ring in

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that letter, in spite of its extravagance and lack of balance, its extraordinary demonstrativeness. But if the letter is somewhat extraordinary, so were the circumstances. Emma would have been less than English had she not carried a swelling heart in her breast and looked upon Nelson with eyes of worship. Triumphs at sea there were in the memory of men then living—• the glorious ist of June, Rodney's Battle of the Saints, and, earlier, Hawke's great victory of Quiberon Bay ; but the lustre of the Nile eclipsed them all. Moreover, to Emma the older admirals were names, and no more ; but Nelson she knew; Nelson she had seen and spoken with.

Long had Emma yearned for great events and when she found herself in the very midst of an unparalleled occasion, she missed no single moment, omitted no single sign of rejoicing. Indeed, her festivities were as exuberant as herself. The greatness of the time must be symbolized in every way. She tells the victorious admiral, " My dress from head to foot is alia Nelson. Ask Hoste. Even my shawl is in Blue with gold anchors all over. My earrings are Nelson's anchors; in short, we are be-Nelsoned all over."

In that little account is revealed one of Lady Hamilton's characteristic failings—the lack of delicacy and love of prominence which permitted her to use the names of Nelson and the Nile as toys and trimmings for her own adornment,

to consider " we are be-Nelsoned all over," a further cause of satisfaction for the great admiral. Nelson's own attitude towards the battle was