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beautiful—with the exception of the lieutenant of a frigate which visited Naples when hunting for Nelson before the Battle of the Nile, and who said curtly, " I thought her a very handsome, vulgar woman."
But in spite of the rapture at Naples, the illuminations, the sonnets—Lady Hamilton tells him it would be necessary to " have taken a ship on purpose to send you all written on you "—the assurance that the Queen " shall be for ever unhappy if you do not come/' the knowledge that his apartment was prepared for him at the Palazzo Sessa, in spite of all these things Nelson was reluctant to return to Naples. Lady Hamilton's excitable account of the Queen's agitation simply moved him to say, " I only hope I shall not have to be witness to a renewal of it." In a letter written at sea to Lord St. Vincent, two days before he reached Naples, he said—
" I detest this voyage to Naples ; nothing but absolute necessity could force me to the measure. Syracuse in future, whilst my operations lie on the eastern side of Sicily, is my port, where every refreshment may be had for a fleet. . . . On the day Hoste left me I was taken with a fever, which has very near done my business: for eighteen hours my life was thought to be past hope ; I am now up but very weak, both in body and mind, from my cough and this fever."
He was little inclined for the extravagant
plaudits of Naples, and little tempted by Sir William Hamilton's invitation, though it was given in the kindest words. "Come here for God's sake, my dear friend," said the British Ambassador, warmly, "as soon as the service will permit you. A pleasant apartment is ready for you in my house, and Emma is looking out for the softest pillows to repose the few wearied limbs you have left."
But in forecast Nelson regarded the whole business with dread and a sort of shrinking—a dread that might almost be regarded as prophetic in view of later happenings.
On the 22nd of September, the battered Vanguard —the ship which had borne Nelson in his long chase of the French and been his flagship at the Nile—anchored in the Bay of Naples. A tremendous ovation was prepared for the returned and victorious admiral; flowers and music, and crowds of small boats dotting the Bay, while radiant sunshine transfigured everything and the thunder of saluting guns shook the tranquil air. The King in his yacht came out three leagues to meet and greet Nelson, while with him were the Hamiltons. Nelson described the meeting to his wife at home :—
" I must endeavour to convey to you something of what passed; but if it were so affecting to those who were only united to me by bonds of friendship, what must it be to my
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dearest wife, my friend, my everything which is most dear to me in the world ? Sir William and Lady Hamilton came out to sea, attended by numerous Boats, with emblems, etc. They, my most respectable friends, had really been laid up and seriously ill; first from anxiety, and then from joy. It was imprudently told Lady Hamilton in a moment, and the effect was like a shot; she fell apparently dead, and is not yet perfectly recovered from severe bruises. Alongside came my honoured friends: the scene in the boat was terribly affecting. Up flew her Ladyship, and exclaiming, * O God! Is it possible ?' she fell into my arm more dead than alive. Tears, however, soon set matters to rights ; when alongside came the King. The scene was in its way as interesting. He took me by the hand, calling me his ' Deliverer and Preserver,' with every other expression of kindness. In short, all Naples calls me ' Nostro Liberatore! My greetings from the lowest classes are truly affecting. I hope some day to have the pleasure of introducing you to Lady Hamilton; she is one of the very best women in this world, she is an honour to her sex. Her kindness, with Sir William's to me, is more than I can express. I am in their house, and I may tell you it required all the kindness of my friends to set me up. Lady Hamilton intends writing to you. May God Almighty bless you, and give us in due time, a happy meeting."
CP
LADY HAMILTON DANCING
FROM A OKAWINC BY LOCK
Nelson's meeting with his wife did not take place till November, 1800, and then it was far from "happy," but shadowed by reproaches, doubts, and many fears. It is a strange circumstance that he should have written to his wife in this strain of somewhat special tenderness just after he had met Lady Hamilton again.
At first Nelson was anxious not to be dependent on the generous hospitality of the Hamiltons; but his scruples were overruled, and he went to the British Embassy, where Emma cared for him with great tenderness and pride. He was much changed and worn since she had seen him five years before; at the Nile he had received a severe wound in the head, as well as losing his right eye and arm in earlier engagements. The strain of his agonizing chase after the French was still visibly upon him, and he was shaken with fever. All her essentially womanly heart went out to him in his weakness and his heroism, and she tended him with that genius for nursing and that motherly kindness which were native and natural to her. Nelson was grateful, he was all his life susceptible to the gentleness of women ; but through it all there was a certain fret and fever on his spirit, he did not like Naples, he did not like the Neapolitans. His first instincts were his true ones, and though later they were drowned under floods of flattery and his growing passion for Lady Hamilton, yet
the simple Englishman and sailor that he was at heart could at first find little satisfaction in frothy popularity and the unstable conduct of the Neapolitans. Only eight days after his arrival at Naples he was writing to his friend and Com-mander-in-Chief, St. Vincent : " I trust, my Lord, in a week we shall all be at sea. I am very unwell, and the miserable conduct of this Court is not likely to cool my irritable temper. It is a country of fiddlers and poets and scoundrels."
To his wife a day later he wrote that " between business and what is called pleasure, I am not my own master for five minutes. 1 ' But though he was already sick of Naples he began to feel much attachment to the Hamiltons ; to his wife he goes on, "The continued kind attention of Sir William and Lady Hamilton, must ever make you and I love them, and they are deserving the love and admiration of all the world. . . . My pride is being your husband, the son of my dear father, and in having Sir William and Lady Hamilton for my friends."
But it must be admitted that Lady Hamilton's "kind attentions" sometimes took an alarming form for a man weakened by wounds and fever. On Nelson's birthday, the 2Qth of September, she gave a great ball at the Palazzo Sessa, to which one thousand seven hundred and forty people came, preceded by a dinner for eighty,
and followed by a supper for eight hundred guests ! But Emma did wiser things for the Hero of the Nile than giving tremendous birthday parties, and when he left Naples to take up the blockade before Malta he was greatly restored in health. St. Vincent, who loved Nelson like his own son, wrote to her towards the end of October—
" Ten thousand most grateful thanks are due to your Ladyship, for restoring the health of our invaluable friend Nelson, on whose life the fate of the remaining governments in Europe, whose system has not been deranged by these devils, depends. Pray, do not let your fascinating Neapolitan dames approach too near him; for he is made of flesh and blood, and cannot resist their temptations. Lady St. Vincent will be transported with your attention to her. I have sent the fan mounts for Lady Nelson and her, by Sir James Saumarez. . . . Continue to love me ; and rest assured of the most unfeigned and affectionate regard of, my dear Lady Hamilton, your faithful and devoted Knight.
"ST. VINCENT "
Writing himself to Earl St. Vincent before he left Naples, Nelson says playfully—
" I am writing opposite Lady Hamilton, therefore you will not be surprised at the glorious
M
162 NELSON'S LADY HAMILTON
jumble of this letter. Were your Lordship in my place, I much doubt if you could write so well; our hearts and our hands must be all in a flutter: Naples is a dangerous place, and we must keep clear of it."
After Nelson's departure, Lady Hamilton wrote at some length to his wife. This letter is dated October 2, 1798, but
internal evidence goes to prove that this must be a slip of the pen, for November or (as Sir Harris Nicolas gives it) more probably December. Nelson did not reach Naples till the 22nd of September, and did not leave till the middle of October, so that on the second of that month Emma could not refer to his departure, nor could she have " wrote a month back" of events which were not then a fortnight old, not to speak of the still more definite dating of the letter by the references to the war with France, and to Nelson's barony, which was not officially granted till the I7th of November. The letter runs as follows :—
" I hope your Ladyship received my former letter with an account of Lord Nelson's arrival, and his reception by their Sicilian Majesties; and allso the congratulations and compliments from this amiable Queen to your Ladyship which I was charged with and wrote 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 and as "the firm and unalterable opinion of a British Admiral, anxious to approve himself a faithful Servant to his Sovereign by doing everything in his power for the happiness and
STUDY OF LADY HAMILTON
GEORGE ROMNEY
security of their Sicilian Majesties and their Kingdoms."
In passing, it may be said that it was less the business of a British admiral to push their Sicilian Majesties into a war for which they were not fitted, than to attend to his own affair of punishing the French. But already Nelson's vision was a little clouded—not so much by the flatteries as by the appeals of the Neapolitan Court, represented with so much ardour by Emma —and the tangled web in which he involved himself when serving Maria Carolina was already subtly closing round this simple-hearted British admiral, who, all unconsciously at first, was being led by the silken thread of a woman's influence.
His letter to Lady Hamilton explains the situation and his own views upon it:—
" MY DEAR MADAM, —The anxiety which you and Sir William Hamilton have always had for the happiness of their Sicilian Majesties, was also planted in me five years past, and I can truly say, that on every occasion which has offered (which have been numerous) I have never failed to manifest my sincere regard for the felicity of these Kingdoms. Under this attachment, I cannot be an indifferent spectator to what has and is passing in the Two Sicilies, nor to the misery which, (without being a politician,) I cannot but
see plainly is ready to fall on those Kingdoms, now so loyal, by the worst of all policy—that of procrastination. Since my arrival in these seas in June last, I have seen in the Sicilians the most loyal people to their Sovereign, with the utmost detestation of the French and their principles. Since my arrival at Naples I have found all ranks, from the very highest to the lowest, eager for war with the French, who, all know, are preparing an Army of robbers to plunder these Kingdoms and destroy the Monarchy. I have seen the Minister of the insolent French pass over in silence the manifest breach of the third article of the Treaty between his Sicilian Majesty and the French Republic. Ought not this extraordinary conduct to be seriously noticed ? Has not the uniform conduct of the French been
to lull Governments into a false security, and then to destroy them ? As I have before stated, is it not known to every person that Naples is the next marked object for plunder ? With this knowledge, and that his Sicilian Majesty has an Army ready (I am told) to march into a Country anxious to receive them, with the advantage of carrying the War from, instead of waiting for it at, home, I am all astonished that the Army has not marched a month ago. . . . But should, unfortunately, this miserable ruinous system of procrastination be persisted in, I would recommend that all your property and persons are ready to embark at a very short
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notice. It will be my duty to look and provide for your safety, and with it (I am sorry to think it will be necessary) that of the amiable Queen of these Kingdoms and her Family. I have read with admiration her dignified and incomparable Letter of September, 1796. May the Councils of the Kingdoms ever be guided by such sentiments of dignity, honour, and justice; and may the words of the great William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, be instilled into the Ministry of this Country—' The boldest measures are the safest!"
Such was Nelson's advice; and it is significant that he wrote this letter to Lady Hamilton, and not to the British Ambassador, trusting to her influence with Sir William to urge the case upon him and upon the Court. In pressing for war, Nelson may have considered that he was justified by his instructions from the Admiralty—part of his duty as set forth by My Lords being " The protection of the coasts of Sicily, Naples, and the Adriatic, and in the event of the war being renewed in Italy, an active co-operation with the Austrian and Neapolitan armies."
Nelson's Lady Hamilton Page 12
