L' Orient.
For flight Emma had not influenced her friend : it
was Nelson's project. " If things take an unfortunate turn here," she had written to Nelson two months be-231
232 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
fore, " and the Queen dies at her post, I will remain with her. If she goes, I follow her."
The second week of December proved to the Queen
that events were inexorable, and her selfish son-in-law
cold and unmoved : he shifted with the political
barometer. She had despatched her courier, Rosen-
heim, to Vienna, but he only returned with ill tidings.
Vienna would " give no orders." In vain she supplicated her daughter, " may your dear husband be our saviour." The Emperor flatly refused his aid. His
subjects now desired peace, and the Neapolitans must
" help themselves." If Naples were assailed, the Austrian treaty, it is true, would entitle reinforcements from Vienna. But even so, the poorness of their
troops, and the grudging inclination of their ruler,
left the issue but little mended. The Queen was in
despair. The French excuse for war had been the al-
leged breach of their treaty by the watering of the
British fleet. A threatening army of invaders was al-
ready known to be on its way; yet still she hoped
against hope, and hesitated over the final plunge. She
despatched Gallo to Vienna to beseech her son-in-law
once more. She cursed the treaty of Campoformio,
to which she attributed the whole sad sequel of dis-
aster. She vowed that her own kinsfolk were leagued
together in spite against " the daughter " and the grandchildren " of the great Maria Theresa." When the news fell like a thunderbolt that Mack's case was
desperate, the French troops in occupation of Castel
St. Angelo, and her husband about to scurry out of
Rome, those children could only " weep and pray."
The fact that the Jacobins the " right-minded," as they already styled themselves welcomed each crowning blow as a help to their cause, heightened the humil-
iation. The Queen, slighted and indignant, betook
herself to Nelson and to Emma. They both pressed
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 233
anew the urgent necessity of flight; she disdained it.
It was a " fresh blow to her soul and spirit " ; h*- original plan had been to have gone with her children else-
where. Its bare possibility was difficult to realise;
and, after her husband's ashamed return, the popular
ferment seemed to bar its very execution. She dreaded
a repetition of Varennes. In the midst of brawl and
tumult the King returned, and, faltering, showed him-
self on his balcony. Lusty shouts of " You will not go ! We will deal with the Jacobins ! " burst from the surging crowd. A spy was knifed in the open streets,
and the false nobles cast the blame on the Queen. She
should be held blood-guilty. In bitter agony she ap-
prised her daughter that death was preferable to such
dishonour. She would die every inch a Queen. " I
have renounced this world," wrote Maria Theresa's
true offspring, " I have renounced my reputation as wife and mother. I am preparing to die, and making
ready for an eternity for which I long. This is all
that is left to me." Even when she had been brought to the last gasp of obeying her kind friends and her
hard fate, her letters to Vienna sound the tone of one
stepping to the scaffold. While the furious mob
growled and groaned outside, her last requests to her
daughter were for her husband and children. On the
very edge of her secret start, the advices that General
Burchardt had marched his thousand men, if not
with flying colours, at least in fighting trim, so far as Isoletta, may have once more made her rue her forced
surrender.
But meanwhile the Hamiltons, Nelson, and Acton
were in determined and close consultation, with Emma
for Nelson's interpreter. The establishment of the
Ligurian Republic had for some time boded the cer-
tainty of Buonaparte's designs against the Two Sicilies.
The General had at first written to Sir William with
234 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
some sang-froid of the " troublesome and dangerous
circumstances " of the " crisis," but within a few days he was a zealous co-operator. Nelson, above all men,
would never have counselled a base desertion. But he
knew the real circumstances, the general perfidy, the
Austrian weakness, both playing into the hands of the
French. Already, to his knowledge, the aggressor's
footfall was audible, and, after General Mack's fiasco,
no resources were left at home. His firm resolve was
to await the moment when he might deal a fresh
death-blow to Buonaparte, and meanwhile to seize the
first opportunity for crushing the Neapolitan Jacobins
and reinstating the Neapolitan King. For him the
cause symbolised not despotism against freedom, not
the progress from law to liberty, but discipline and
patriotism against license and anarchy. He had sum-
moned ships to protect the Vanguard: the Culloden
with Troubridge from the north and west coasts of
Italy, the Goliath from off Malta, the Alcmene under
Captain Hope from Egypt. After ordering the block-
ade of Genoa, he had ironically asked if the King was
at war with its flag. He had foreseen that " within six months the Neapolitan Republic would be armed,
organised, and called forth," that malingering Austria was herself in extremis.
They urged the Queen to prepare for the worst ; and
from December 17 onwards, while their measures were
being concerted, Emma superintended the gradual
transport from the palace of valuables both private and
public. The process occupied her night and day for
nearly a week, and required the strictest secrecy and
caution. Some she may have fetched, some she re-
ceived, many she stowed.
Criticism, biassed, may be, by anxiety to impugn
Emma's latest memorial, makes much of evidence in a
few isolated letters, indicating that the Queen for-
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 235
warded some of her effects by trusted messengers, and
omitting that Emma caused any herself to be carried
from the palace to the Embassy. The detail is not
very material, since her assistance is evident, even if
her memory enlarged it. The very bulk of the many
chests and boxes to be removed was to cause a danger-
ous delay in the eventual voyage. They were con-
veyed in different ways, some on shipboard (among
them the public treasure), others, including jewels and
linen, by the hands of the servant Saverio; others
again to be transported by Emma herself. The Queen,
in one of her almost hourly notes, expressly hoped that
she was not " indiscreet in sending these," thereby suggesting that various means of conveyance had been used
for some of the rest. In another, too, she excused her-
self for her " abuse of your kindnesses and that of our brave Admiral." Nelson's official account to Lord St.
Vincent stated that " Lady Hamilton " from December 14 to 21 " received the jewels, etc." Emma's own recital to Greville, less than a fortnight
after the terrors of the journey were past, included as the least of
her long fatigues that " for six nights before the embarkation " she " sat up " at her own house " receiving all the jewels, money and effects of the royal family,
and from thence conveying them on board the Van-
guard, living in fear of being torn to pieces by the
tumultuous mob, who suspected our departure," but
" Sir William and I being beloved in the Country saved us." Sir William himself informed Greville that
" Emma has had a very principal part in this delicate business, as she is, and has been for several years
the real and only confidential friend of the Queen of
Naples."
In the pathos of the Queen's letters to Emma resides
their true interest. Maria Carolina's anguish in-
creased as the plot for her preservation thickened ; she 236 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
clung piteously to the strong arms of Emma and Nel-
son, who really managed the whole business. Sobs
and tears, paroxysms of scorn and sighs of rage more
and more pervade them, as one by one the strongholds
of her country yield or are captured. She is " the
most unfortunate of Queens, mothers, women, but
Emma's sincerest friend." It is to her " habitually "
that she " opens her heart." Emma's indorsements may serve as an index : " My adorable, unfortunate
Queen. God bless and protect her and her august
family." " Dear, dear Queen " " Unfortunate Queen." More than a month earlier she had protested to Nelson her readiness, if need be, to accompany her
to the block. One of these billets tristes of the Queen
to her friend encloses a little blue-printed picture. It is an elegiac. A wreathed Amorino pipes mournfully
beside a cypress-shadowed tomb, behind which two
Cupids are carelessly dancing : on the tomb is inscribed
" Embarque je vous en prie. M. C." Emma's mel-
ancholy refrain to the would-be martyr.
Prince Belmonte, now chamberlain, acted as the
King's agent with Caracciolo in effecting a scheme full
of difficulty, owing to the great number of the refugees, the ridiculous etiquette of precedences, insisted on even at such an hour, the vast quantity of their united bag-gage, the avowed designs of the French Directory, the
covert conspiracies of false courtiers in which the War
Minister himself was implicated, the fierceness of pop-
ular tumult, and the Jacobin spies who kept a sharp
lookout on Nelson, but were foiled by Emma's and the
Queen's adroitness.
The plan originally concerted was as follows. The
escape was to happen on the night of the 2Oth. After
the last instalments of treasure and detachments of
foreigners had been safely and ceremoniously depos-
ited on board their several vessels, Count Thurn (an
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 237
Austrian admiral of the Neapolitan navy) would at-
tend outside the secret passage leading from the royal
rooms to the " Molesiglio," or little quay, to receive Nelson or his nominees. It is said that Brigadier Caracciolo had begged to convoy the royal party and
float the royal standard on his frigate, but had been
dryly denied; and this, perhaps, was the first prick to
that treacherous revenge which six months later he was
to expiate by his death.
But on a sudden, at the eleventh hour, the whole was
put off till the next evening. The chests in which some
of the treasure had been bestowed on the Alcmene
were rotten; at least this was one of the pretexts
which Nelson, who had already signed orders for safe
conduct, one possibly referring to the royalties, evi-
dently mistrusted. On this eventful day at least six
communications passed between Hamilton and Acton
(if the inclosures from the palace are included), and
Nelson, prompt and impatient, was acutely irritated.
In vain Acton expressed his acquiescence. He was " in hopes that these few hours will not exasperate more
than at present our position." Nelson remained po-
lite, but decided. The fact was that both King and
Queen waited on Providence at the last gasp. The
former dreaded to desert his people at the moment of
defeat; the latter feared a step which, if futile, might irreparably alienate her husband, and must render her
execrable to the faithful Lazzaroni.
By means of the old manuscripts the scene rises
vividly before us. Within the precincts of the palace,
flurry, dissension, wavering perplexity, confusion, a
spectral misery. In its purlieus, treason. Outside, a
seditious loyalty withholding the King from the Queen.
In the council-chamber, Belmonte, serene and punc-
tilious; Gallo, dainty in danger; Caracciolo, jealous
and sullen; Acton, slow, doubtful, and stolid. At the
238 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
English Embassy alone reigned vigilance, resolve, and
resourcefulness. Every English merchant (and there
were many both' here and at Leghorn) looked to Nel-
son and Hamilton and Emma. Among phantoms
these were realities. On them alone counted those
poor " old demoiselles of France " who had sought asylum in the Neapolitan palace. On them alone hung
the destinies of a dynasty threatened at home, forsaken
abroad, and faced with the certainty of invasion. They
stood for the British fleet, and the British fleet for
the salvation of Europe.
The ominous morning dawned of the 2ist.
All that day General Acton pelted Nelson and Ham-
ilton with contradictory announcements, of which no
fewer than seven remain. At first he agrees that the
moment has come when " no time should be lost," but the inevitable proviso follows " If the wind does not blow too hard." He next writes that, in such a case, all had best be deferred afresh. The Alcmene, too, with
the bullion on board as much as two million and a
half sterling was off Posilippo, and its signals might
alarm the angry crowds, clamouring for their King at
Santa Lucia, and on the Chiaja. Another billet prom-
ises the " King's desire " as soon forthcoming. In another, once more, grave consideration is devoted to
the usual retiring hour of the young princes, and to
the " feeding-time " of the King's grandchild, the babe in arms of the heir-apparent and Princess Clementina,
which had been so anxiously awaited in October ; " a sucking child," says Acton in a crowning instance of unconscious humour, " makes a most dreadful spectacle to the eyes of the servant women and in the
rest of the family." Nelson, pressing for expedition, must have been beside himself over the precious moments thus being squandered. What Acton remarks
in one of these letters, once more in his peculiar Eng-
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 239
lish, applies also to his own communications, " Heavings from every side . . . contradictions from every
corner."
Nelson, however, would brook no more trifling.
Everything should be settled by about seven. Count
Thurn should be at the appointed rendezvous, the
Molesiglio. His password, unless some unexpected
force intervened, was to be the English, "All goes
right and well " ; otherwise, " All is wrong, you may go back."
One can imagine the unfortunate Count rehearsi
ng
his provoking part that afternoon with an Austrian ac-
cent : " Al goes raight " " Al ees vrong."
Acton and Caracciolo drew up the order of em-
barkation. By half -past eight the royal contingent,
convoyed by Nelson and his friends through the secret
passage to the little quay, were to have been rowed on
board the Vanguard. It comprised besides the King,
Queen, the Hereditary Prince with his wife and in-
fant (whose " zafatta," or nurse, was no less a personage than the Duchess of Gravina), the little Prince
Albert, to whom Emma was devoted (with his " za-
fatta " also), Prince Leopold, the three remaining
princesses, Acton, Princes Castelcicala and Belmonte,
Thurn, and the court physician Vincenzo Ruzzi. The
second embarkation was to follow two hours later with
a great retinue, including, it is interesting for Men-
delssohn-admirers to notice, the name of " Bartoldi."
The rest were to proceed in three several detachments,
amounting to nearly four hundred souls, noble and
otherwise, among whom Joseph Acton's family are
specified. The two royal spinsters of France were
to be conducted with every precaution by land to
Portici, whence they might find their way over the
border. All friendly Ambassadors were to be notified.
Such was the routine. It should be especially noticed
240 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
that from these exact lists, detailing the names of every passenger, the Hamiltons are absent. They were under Nelson's care, and of his party a point most ma-
terial to the future narrative substantiating Lady Ham-
ilton's own subsequent story. And it must further be
emphasised that these Acton letters, as well as a refer-
ence in one of the Queen's, go far to establish the plan of the secret passage as an historical fact, instead
of as any figment or after-inlay of Emma's imagi-
nation.
As night drew on Maria Carolina sat down to indite
two letters, the one to her daughter at Vienna, the other to Emma, who would rejoin her so soon in this crisis
of her fate. She wrote them amid horrors and in
wretchedness. The army could no more be trusted.
Even the navy was in revolt. Orders had been given
that, after the royal departure, the remaining ships
were to be burned lest they should fall into French or
revolutionary hands. As she wrote, the tidings came
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