tween Nelson and the Hamiltons. This is clear from
a letter (soon to be quoted) of July 22 from Nelson to
Lady Hamilton in the Morrison Collection, where he
inquires after her plans for " coming down the Mediterranean " with her husband, presumably to help him.
Thirdly, so late as the first week in August, after Nel-
son's battle had been won, Acton was still ignorant that his ships had been adequately provisioned, and was arranging further measures for the purpose; aware on
August 15 of the Sicilian provisions, he planned
more.
Let us glance at a little farce enacted with exquisite
gravity by the Governor of Syracuse.
It emerges from a document addressed by him to
General Sir John Acton. A key to this is supplied
by the fact that General Acton, days after handing the
informal " order," had expressly cautioned Hamilton that, pending the as yet unsigned articles with Austria, 206 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
all the governors of all Sicilian ports had been specially directed to make an " ostensible opposition," lest the French might be incensed into attack by any open
breach of the stipulated Neapolitan neutrality. Above
all, it should be noted that this Governor's letter at
Naples seems to distinguish between a royal despatch
signed by Acton, and a royal letter in Nelson's pos-
session. On the other hand, the other construction is
open. When the " Vice-Admiral " declared that the letter entitled the whole fleet to be watered, he may
only have been making the best of the despatch.
The whole scene rises vividly before us. On the
morning of Thursday the igth " several ships " were seen sailing in slow procession from the east. Gradually fourteen emerged from " the distance." As they became more distinct in the freshening east wind, the
Governor ordered the castle flag to be hoisted, and the
British flag was instantly flown in reply.
The Governor next sent out his boat with the
"Captain of the Port" and the "Adjutant of the Town," civilians charged with compliments and offers.
Nelson, however, regardless of these ceremonies,
profited by the wind to steer " straight into the harbour." The pompous Governor, shocked at such haste, forwarded a second boat with two military functionaries to repeat his compliments, and to acquaint the
Admiral with what he had known and resented for
weeks the impediment of " not more than four ships
of war at a time." But Nelson had anticipated these formal courtesies. A shore-boat promptly met the
Governor's with " a royal letter " purporting to contain royal instructions for the admission of the whole
squadron. This I take to have been the Queen's pri-
vate letter, forwarded in pursuance of her promise to
Emma, and holding the Governor harmless in disobey-
ing the strict letter of the law. While, therefore, in
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 207
pursuance of certainty, the entire squadron advanced
to cross the bar, the British " Vice- Admiral " proceeded with the officers, and was received by the Governor
at his house. There he delivered a further (and sep-
arate?) missive, "a royal despatch" written in the King's name, and signed by Acton in fact, the irregular " order " obtained on that memorable morning of June 17, and by no means expressly empowering the
reception of the whole fleet. The Governor, conform-
ing to the prescribed comedy, feigned hesitation ; thereupon a letter from Nelson himself was shown " dif-
ficult to read," and justifying the entire squadron's entrance. Hereupon the Governor, " struck " by what he must have known, and also by other rejections [The
Queen's private order?], reminds one of Byron's " and whispering I will ne'er consent, consented." He affected to raise " friendly protests," while he enforced the King's directions to save appearances by spreading
the ships over different regions and at various distances.
He even hinted in confidence the " propriety " of quitting the port as soon as possible, and of landing none
but unarmed sailors, and even these under a promise to
return so soon as the city gates were closed at sunset.
On the following afternoon Nelson and his " staff "
paid their respects. The Governor grasped him
warmly by the hand, but still maintained his outward
show of resistance. There were, he said, royal orders,
under present circumstances, forbidding him to return
the call on shipboard. And the last sentence of his
record perhaps best illustrates the whole comedy by
solemnly informing Sir John that the recital was only
addressed to him for the official purpose of being
shown to his Sicilian Majesty. Ferdinand was to be
kept in the dark. He was ignorant of anything that
the Queen might have dared through Emma's request.
He was to believe that the stretch of international ci-
208 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
vility had been empowered by Acton's document alone,
the document signed in his name.
So much for outward semblance. Nelson's inner
feelings at this most critical juncture supplement the
story.
We have reached July the 2ist. The fleet was not
completely stocked and watered till the 23rd. Before
that date the whole town rejoiced and fraternised with
the British sailors: of sympathy at least there was no
concealment, and a real Sicilian trait all the country-
folk immediately raised the price of their provisions.
On July 22nd Nelson forwarded two private let-
ters, one to Sir William, the other to Lady Hamilton.
They are both indignant and irritable at delay ag-
gravated by intense disappointment. It was not only
that he was still without news of the French. He had
counted on the instant virtue of Acton's order, without
the need of recourse to a secret charm. For Hamil-
ton had been told only three weeks before by the Gen-
eral that, in pursuance of it, " every proper order " for the British squadron " had been already given in
Sicily," and " in the way mentioned here with the brave Captain Troubridge." Nelson had therefore good
reason to hope for prepared co-operation. He had
been met by farcical routine; and red-tape, even when
most expected, always repelled and ruffled him. Nor
so far had the Queen's letter of indemnity to the Gov-
ernors been followed by the actual " open sesame "
which she had promised as a last resort. For disap-
pointment concerning Acton's order he was prepared,
but not for the failure of his hidden talisman. So far
the charm had not worked; a fresh letter from the
Queen might still be required.
" I have heard so much said," runs Nelson's first outburst which he entrusted to the Governor himself for
transit " about the King of Naples' orders only to
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 209
admit three or four of the ships . . . that I am aston-
ished. I understood that private orders at least would
have been given for our free admission. . . . Our
treatment is scandalous for a great nation to put up
with and the King's flag is insulted at every friendly
port we look at."
The second to Lady Hamilton is almost cool in
ironical displeasure, a coolness betokening how unex-
&nb
sp; pectedly his cherished hopes had been belied:
" MY DEAR MADAM, I am so hurt at the treatment
we received from the power we came to assist and
fight for, that I am hardly in a situation to write a
letter to an elegant body: therefore you must on this
occasion forgive my want of those attentions which I
am ever anxious to shew you. / wish to know your
and Sir William's plans for coming down the Medi-
terranean, for if we are to be kicked at every port of
the Sicilian dominions, the sooner we are. gone, the
better. Good God ! how sensibly I feel our treatment.
I have only to pray that I may find the French and
throw all my vengeance on them."
The omission in these lines of any specific mention
either of the Queen or her letter, so far from being
singular, is exactly what was to be expected. She al-
ways stipulated in such matters that her name should
never be breathed, nor her position jeopardised with
the King, and in this instance Acton also had to be kept in the dark. It will be remembered also that Emma's
letter inclosing the Queen's promise to Nelson ex-
pressly stated that she was " bound not to give any of her letters," and, indeed, claimed its instant return.
But meanwhile, on this very 22nd of July, a sudden
change came over Nelson's tone; still more so, on the
following day before he weighed anchor. Melancholy
210 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
and annoyance gave way to delight. Something must
have intervened to alter the face of affairs, something
with which Nelson's temper accorded, and that some-
thing was certainly not any sight of the French fleet.
Delay had been removed.
Shortly after these two epistles to the Hamiltons
Nelson further penned his short but memorable
" Arethusa " letter to them. Both Sir Harris Nicolas, and Professor Laughton following him, have denied
the authenticity of this letter on the internal evidence of its style. They say that Nelson could never have used
such a classical or poetical phrase as " surely watering by the fountain of Arethusa." But in the first place it is not, in Syracuse, poetical or classical, as every
traveller is aware. Each Syracusan street-boy to this
day calls the spring by the sea, with its rim of Egyptian cotton-plants, " the fountain of Arethusa." And in the second, if it were, it would be in accordance with
many of Nelson's phrases caught from the Hamiltons.
Professor Laughton has, I believe, gone so far as even
to doubt that Hamilton about this period could address
his friend as " My dear Nelson." He is mistaken.
.Writing to Nelson a month previously, Sir William
ends with " All our present dependance is in you, my dear Nelson, and I am convinced that what is in the
power of mortal man, you will do."
The " Arethusa " letter springs, it is true, from the suspected source of the Life of Nelson by the hireling
Harrison that same Harrison who, perhaps, was one
of those to embitter the darkening days and fortunes of
Lady Hamilton, his benefactress. But it is sanctioned
by Pettigrew, who, as a collector par excellence of Nel-
son autographs, was, on questions of style, an expert
of tried judgment; and it will be noticed with interest
that "the laurel or cypress" passage (itself both poetical and classical) forms a feature also of his in-EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 211
disputable " private " letter to Hamilton already noticed, and following immediately on his authentic an-
swer to Lady Hamilton's newly found note of June
17:
" MY DEAR FRIENDS, Thanks to your exertions, we
have victualled and watered: and surely watering at
the Fountain of Arethusa we must have victory. We
shall sail with the first breeze and be assured I will return either crowned with laurel, or covered with
cypress."
The " first breeze " did not apparently rise until the day following; and even if the "Arethusa" letter were a fabrication, which I can see no valid reason for
supposing, we are able to dispense with its witness to
Nelson's sudden relief of mood. He was now enabled
to start about two days earlier than he had hoped, and
on the 23rd, before departing, he wrote yet again to
his dear friends in joyful gratitude, and in phrases im-
plying that the long-deferred " private orders " had arrived, though the evidently guarded wording provides, as so often, against its being shown to General
Acton. This letter's authenticity can hardly be
doubted.
" The fleet is unmoored, and the moment the wind
comes off the land shall go out of this delightful har-
bour, where our present wants have been amply sup-
plied, and where every attention has been paid to us;
but I have been tormented by no private orders being
given to the Governor for our admission. I have only
to hope that I shall still find the French fleet, and be able to get at them. . . . No frigates! " Even a fortnight later Acton still excuses himself to Hamilton.
Assuredly throughout these quick transitions the un-
dertone of Emma and the Queen is audible. Nelson
212 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
knew what had really happened ; his commentators are
left to guess the truth from disputed shreds of cor-
respondence.
Refitted and reheartened, Nelson, who, as ever, had
long been rehearsing his plans to his officers, hastened with his fleet to Aboukir Bay. There is no need to recount that memorable struggle of the ist of August,
which lasted over . twenty-four hours the daring
strategy of a master-pilot, the giant L' Orient blazing
with colours already struck, and exploded under a sul-
len sky torn with livid lightning, the terrific thunder-
storm interrupting the death-throes of the battle, the
complete triumph of an encounter which delivered
England from France, and nerved a revived Europe
against her. Villeneuve had been outwitted; Brueys
was dead ; so was Ducheyla. Even Napoleon's papers
had been captured. Nelson stands out after the tur-
moil, once more battered, once again far more zealous
for the fame of his officers than his own, yet furious
at the escape of the only two French frigates that
avoided practical annihilation. Never was there a
supreme naval encounter that exercised such a moral
effect, and so defeated both the foe and anticipation.
He was acclaimed the " saviour " both of Britain and the Continent.
And his trust in the Hamiltons, his unshakable be-
lief in Emma, were at once evinced by his giving them
the earliest intelligence of what set all Europe tingling.
Emma's ears and her husband's were the very first to
hear it.
The French had vaunted that Buonaparte would
erase Britain from the map. In their desperation they
still vowed to burn her fleet. Their insolence on
Carat's lips had resounded in the streets and on the
very house-tops of Naples. It was not long before that
same Carat was to be curtly dismissed, before not a
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 213
" French dog " dared " show his face," before at the opera " not a French cockade was to be seen " ; before
the Queen, half-mad for joy, addressed an English
letter to the British sailors, doubtless with her Emma's aid, sent them casks of wine incognita, and presented
Hoste with a diamond ring, before Britain and Naples
had struck up a close alliance against the common foe.
The world was a changed world from that of a
week before. History had been made and was making.
On Nelson's life, to quote Lord St. Vincent's words,
hung the fate of the remaining Governments in Europe,
" whose system has not been deranged by these devils."
But for him Britain might have been France, and the
Mediterranean a French lake. To the end of time the
Nile would rank with Marathon, with Actium, with
Blenheim. Nelson had entered the Pantheon of fame,
he had embodied his country, he was Great Britain.
He belonged to Time no longer. Emma's heart
leaped, as she flew exulting with the first breath of victory to the Queen. So early as September the ist
she had heard the triumph of which ministers and
potentates were ignorant; she, the poor Cheshire girl,
the " Lancashire Witch," whose dawn of life had been smirched and sullied; she, the eleve of lecturing and
hectoring Greville, the wife of an ambassador whose
lethargy she had stirred to purpose; she, the admired
of artists, the Queen's comrade. Was anything im-
possible to youth and beauty, and energy and charm?
It had proved the same of old with those classical
freed women Epicharis, staunch amid false knights
and senators; and Panthea, perhaps Emma's own pro-
totype, whose giftedness and " chiselled " beauty Lucian has extolled. Had she not from the first fed her
inordinate fancy with grandiose reveries of achieve-
ment ? Had she not burst her leading-strings ? More
than all, had not Nelson, already in August, asked her
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
to welcome " the remains of Horatio " ? And now, in this universal moment, she had both part and lot. Was
it wonderful that, throbbing in every vein, she swooned
to the ground and bruised her side with Nelson's letter
in her hand? We have only to read the series of her
correspondence at this date with Nelson, to realise her
intoxication of rapture.
But there was more than this. It often happens that
when glowing and inflammable natures, such as hers
and Nelson's, have dreamed united visions, the mere
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