Tested by Fate
by David Donachie
The second part of an epic trilogy that chronicles the private lives and dangerous times of England's greatest naval hero and his legendary mistress.It is 1784 and Nelson is sent to the Caribbean to enforce the hated Navigation Acts. While there, he marries Fanny Nisbet but it isn't long before he is ordered to the Mediterranean, where he engages in a string of spectacular naval battles: Cape St Vincent, Tenerife, and the Nile. The ravages of war take their physical toll on Nelson, even as he gains the fame and honour he desperately craves.At the same time, Emma, mistress of Charles Greville, sits as an artist's model, her pictures selling briskly. When Charles's uncle, Sir William Hamilton, joins them in Naples, Emma finds herself the object of Hamilton's desire, and when the mercurial Nelson pays them a visit, she is inexplicably drawn to the brash sea captain. Her eventual marriage to Hamilton seems the epitome of good fortune, opening all the doors of...