Full text of Memoirs of Emma, lady Hamilton, the friend of Lord Nelson and the court of Naples;

by Yelena Kopylova

  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