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

I flatter myself WE SPUR them, for I am allways with the Queen, and I hold out your energick language to her. Mack is writing. He does not go to visit the frontiers, but is now working night and day, and then goes for good. And I tell her Majesty, for God's sake, for the

LADY HAMILTON AS "CASSANDRA'

GEORGE ROMNEY

Country's sake, and for your own sake, send him of as soon as possible, no time to be lost, and I believe he goes after to-morrow. ... I translate from our papers for her to inspire her, or them, I should say, with some of our spirit and energy. How delighted we Booth were to sit and speak of you. She loves, respects, and admires you. For myself, I will leave you to guess my feilings. Poor dear Trowbridge staid that night to comfort us. What a good, dear soul he is!" She hopes his doctor is satisfied with his health, she begs him to write and come soon, adding—as if he were wanted only there!—iwith all the emphasis of underscoring, "you are wanted at Caserta. All their noddles are not worth your's."

In her next letter, four days later, she informs him of what is coming for him from Constantinople :—

" A pelicia of Gibelini with a feather for your hat of Dymonds, large, most magnificent, and 2 thousand Zechins for the wounded men, and a letter to you from the Grand Signer, God bless him! There is a frigate sent of[f] on purpose. We expect it here. I must see the present. How I shall look at it, smel it, taste it, to[u]ch it, put the pelice over my own shoulders, look in the glas, and say Viva il Turk! . . . God bless, or Mahomet bless, the old Turk; I say, no longer Turk, but good Christian."

In another letter she bursts out into the

somewhat childish extravagance, "If I were King of England I wou'd make you the most noble present, Duke Nelson, Marquis Nile, Earl Aboukir, Viscount Pyramid, Baron Crocodile, and Prince Victory, that posterity might have you in all forms." To Emma neither beauty nor greatness unadorned were adorned the most— she failed to realize that the simple name of Nelson was nobler than any superb or fantastic titles which might be tacked on to it.

Her letters from Caserta, written in the diary style she was fond of, and which was so convenient in view of the thick-thronging events, give Nelson all the news. On the 24th of October she says, "We have been 2 days desperate on account of the weak and cool acting of the Cabinet of Viena." The Emperor of Austria is " a poor sop;" the Queen of Naples is " in a rage." Two couriers have arrived, one from London with " the lovely news of a fleet to remain in the Mediterranean ; a treaty made of the most flattering kind for Naples. In short, everything amicable, friendly, and most truly honnerable." But this was offset by the conduct of the Austrian Court, the letters brought by the second courier being " cold, unfriendly, mistrustful, frenchified, and saying plainly, help yourselves. How the dear Maria Carolina cried for joy at the one, and rage at the other." But at last the Austrian general, Mack, had gone to

prepare the army to march immediately. " And I flatter myself," says Emma, " I did much. For whilst the passions of the Queen [were] up and agitated, I got up, put out my left arm like you, spoke the language of truth to her, painted the drooping situation of this fine country, her friends sacrificed, her husband, children, and herself led to the Block; and eternal dishonour to her memory, after for once having been active, doing her duty in fighting bravely to the last, to save her Country, her Religion, from the hands of the rapacious murderers of her sister, and the Royal Family in France, that she was sure of being lost, if they were inactive, and their was a chance of being saved if they made use now of the day, and struck now while all minds are imprest with the Horrers their neighbours are suffering from these Robbers. In short, their was a Council, and it was determined to march out and help themselves; and, sure, their poor fool of a son" [Emma means the Emperor of Austria, who was son-in-law to the King and Queen of Naples] "will not, cannot, but come out. He must bring a hundred and fifty thousand men in the Venetian State. The French cou'd be shut in between the two armys, italy cleared, and peace restored."

Thus the ardent Emma. To see her " painting the drooping situation," with her left arm extended in imitation of Nelson, is surely a very triumph of the " Attitudes " ! Certain it is that

174 NELSON'S LADY HAMILTON

Nelson would be struck with the picture presented to his imagination, he would admire her spirit, and be grateful for her advocacy of his views. Nearly all the rest of this letter is a paean of praise of the two most glorious beings then existing in the estimation of Emma Hamilton— Nelson and Maria Carolina. She becomes intoxicated with admiration as she thinks of them. She tells Nelson, " But how every body loves and esteems you. 'Tis universal from the high to the low; and, do you know, I sing now nothing but the Conquering Hero. . . . God bless you, prosper and assist you in all you undertake ; and may you live Long, Long, Long, for the sake of your country,