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

a month back, but as the posts were very uncertain you may not have received that letter. Lord Nelson is gone

to Leghorn with the troops of the King of Naples, and we expect him soon Back, as the King is gone to Rome with his army; and he beg'd of my Lord Nelson to be as much in and about Naples as he cou'd, not only to advise and consult with her Majesty, who is Regent for the good of the common cause, but, in case of accident, to take care of her and of her family.

" Lord Nelson is adored here, and looked on as the deliverer of this country. He was not well when first he arrived, but by nursing and asse's milk he went from Naples quite recovered.

" The King and Queen adore him, and if he had been their Brother, they cou'd not have shewn him more respect and attentions. I need not tell your Ladyship how happy Sir William and myself are at having an opertunity of seeing our dear, respectable, brave friend return here with so much honner to himself, and glory for his country. We only wanted you to be completely happy. Lord Nelson's wound is quite well. Josiah is so much improv'd in every respect, we are all delighted with him. He is an excellent officer and very steady, and one of the best hearts in the world. I Love him much, and allthough we quarrel sometimes, he loves me and does as I wou'd have him. He is in the way of being rich, for he has taken many prizes. He is indefatigable in his line, never sleeps out of his ship, and I am sure will make a very great officer. . . . The

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King is having his picture set with dymonds for his Lordship, and the Queen has ordered a fine set of china with all the battles he has been engaged in, and his picture painted on china. Josiah desired his duty to your Ladyship, and says he will write as soon as he [h]as time, but he has been very busy for some time past.

"God bless you and your's, my dear Madam, and believe me your Ladyship's very sincere friend. EMMA HAMILTON

" Sir William is in a rage with [the] ministry for not having made Lord Nelson a Viscount, for, sure, this great and glorious action—greater than any other—ought to have been recognized more. Hang them, I say."

It would be interesting to know what Lady Nelson, in her quiet refinement and propriety, thought of the somewhat underbred vehemence of that last remark! But in other respects it is a kind, generous, and friendly letter. No suspicion of the great wrong she was to do Lady Nelson had as yet crossed the mind of Emma Hamilton.

Neither Nelson nor Emma were given to considering the effect their words might have upon their correspondents; what was in their hearts came out with a rush, without thought of its incongruity or odd effect, and it is this naturalness which makes Nelson's letters so eloquent of

the man, just as we feel Emma's impulsive heart panting behind her artless, excitable, ill-spelt words. Most men would not have chosen the cynical old St. Vincent as confidant of the fact that " Lady Hamilton is an Angel;" but if Nelson had it in his mind he said it with the same beautiful directness and simplicity with which he sprang from deck to deck of the conquered Spanish ships—his " Patent Bridge " for boarding First-Rates. After that little outburst over Lady Hamilton, he goes on: " She has honoured me by being my ambassadress to the queen: therefore she has my implicit confidence and is worthy of it."

This statement reveals the beginning of his faith in Lady Hamilton's diplomatic abilities; and judging from the evidence it seems clear that it was not simply her beauty, her enthusiasm, and her womanly tenderness that drew Nelson towards her, but a belief in her qualities of head as well as heart. Quite early in their acquaintance this man, who had so daringly and constantly thought for himself and followed his own decisions in face of all the dangers that threaten defiance of authority, was beginning to share his opinions with Lady Hamilton, and to adopt her views on Sicilian matters to a considerable extent. Neither she nor the Queen of Naples, whose mouthpiece she was, were safe guides in matters of high politics. Like most women—though they were

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both clever ones—they saw things too much through a mist of passion and prejudice. But they both had the daring temper, the disregard of obstacles, which marked Nelson himself; and partly through the glamour they cast over him, partly through his own fervent hatred of the French, Nelson was committed to advice which did much to plunge the kingdom of Naples into war. That Nelson should have urged this act upon the weak and unstable kingdom was one of his rare failures in judgment, and its consequences were doubly disastrous—not merely to Naples and the misguided Court, but disastrous to Nelson himself, who was thus bound, by ties he could not sever without an appearance of desertion, to a Court he had partly led into war, and this tangle was the beginning of his connection with Lady Hamilton. Thus it was from a temporary failure of judgment, the temporary error of a brain usually as quick and keen as it was rightly inspired, came this tragedy of the heart and the single blot on the scutcheon.

The beginning of the business is shown by the letter Nelson wrote to Lady Hamilton on the 3rd of October, 1798, which in the postscript he told her to regard as a "preparative" for Sir William