patches, every friendly though foreign crew, was wel-
comed at the table over which Emma presided. No
veriest trifle that could assist them ever escaped her.
Indeed, her lavish hospitality and the noisy heartiness
of the coming and going guests oppressed the Ambas-
sador, who sighed on the eve of superannuation for
home and quiet, for the excitements of Christie's, and
the fisherman's tranquil diplomacy. It was not the
toils of the huntress that ensnared Nelson. It was
Britain that demanded his vigilance and enchained him
here ; while for him, more and more, Britain's " guardian angel " was becoming Emma.
Imploring Sir Alexander Ball in February to return
from Malta, she had avowed a foreboding that " Fate "
might " carry " her " down."
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 267
A great shock had been followed by a great fear.
The main body of the French army had gone, but the
Neapolitan rebellion, if the French fleet managed to
reach and rally it, might still engulf them all. Gallo was again playing the King off against the Queen. Who
knew what might happen in this conspiracy of gods and
men ? And when she presaged some fatality, may she
not also have pondered whither she herself was now
drifting ? The doom of Paolo and Francesca may well
have been within the range of her Italian reading. To
the complexity of her feelings I shall revert when I
come to the events of a month afterwards. Only two
years later she and Nelson were thus to poeticise the
affection that was now ripening :
LORD NELSON TO His GUARDIAN ANGEL.
"From my best cable tho" I'm forced to part,
I leave my anchor in my Angel's heart.
Love, like a pilot, shall the pledge defend,
And for a prong his happiest quiver lend."
ANSWER OF LORD NELSON'S GUARDIAN ANGEL.
" Go where you list, each thought of Emma's soul
Shall follow you from Indus to the Pole :
East, West, North, South, our minds shall never part;
Your Angel's loadstone shall be Nelson's heart.
Farewell! and o'er the wide, wide sea
Bright glory's course pursue,
And adverse winds to love and me
Prove fair to fame and you.
And when the dreaded hour of battle's nigh,
Your Angel's heart, which trembles at a sigh,
By your superior danger bolder grown,
Shall dauntless place itself before your own.
Happy, thrice happy, should her fond heart prove
A shield to Valour, Constancy, and Love."
But a fresh influence was also, may be, about to steal
into her being. To the pinch of adversity and her
misgivings for the Queen she loved, was now being
268
added the stress of a passion half realised but hard to
resist. She would not have been the emotional woman
that she was, if in some shape, however dimly, religion
as consoler had not whispered in the recesses of her
heart. Hitherto among her immediate surroundings
only Nelson could have been called really religious. He
was a strong Protestant. But as she beheld the Queen
comforted by an older ritual and a communion less
severe, it may have crossed her mind that the cere-
monies which she had mocked as superstitions held in
them some rare power of healing. Southern religion
thrives on its adopted and hybrid forms, as to this day
is attested by Sicilian peasants hugging the image of
their swarthy saint; Sicilian reapers chanting their
weird litany to the sinking sun ; Sicilian farmers meting out their harvested grain by their image of the rosaried Madonna. There was at this time at Palermo an
Abbe Campbell, who had followed the fugitives thither-
ward. Twelve years before, he had been chaplain to
the Neapolitan Embassy in London, and is said to have
been the priest who secretly united the future George
IV. to Mrs. Fitzherbert. He was a genial soul, in the
world but not wholly of it, musical and romantic. He
remained constant to Emma throughout her chequered
fortunes, and in future years he often crosses her path
again and Nelson's. One may guess that through him
first arose those promptings that eventually made
Emma a proselyte to the faith that, perhaps above
others, openly welcomes the strayed and the fallen.
Troubridge girded to his work as Jacobin-killer in
grim earnest. The Governor of Procida, its peasants
and Ischia's, were loyal to the core. The English
sailor was acclaimed by the people as a deliverer from
a faction; and he was not over-squeamish in his task of
quelling what Lord Bristol termed to Hamilton " that EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 269
gang of thieves, pickpockets, highwaymen, cut-throats
and cut-purses called the French Republic." "Oh!"
wrote Troubridge to Nelson, " how I long to have a
dash at the thieves." And again, " The villainy we must combat is great indeed. I have just flogged a
rascal for loading bread with sand. The loaf was
hung round his neck in sight of the people." The
" trials " of rebels he admits to be " curious," as the culprits were frequently " not present." He actually apologised to Nelson, on the score of hot weather, for
not sending him a Jacobin's head ; with charming pleas-
antry he calls the donor " a jolly fellow." The " rascally nobles, tired of standing as common sentinels,"
confessed that sheer discomfort had loyalised them.
Even here Lady Hamilton's energy was conspicuous.
She exerted herself for the Queen in communicating
with the island, while Troubridge in his turn for-
warded documents to her. She had got conveyed to
him a letter from the Queen intended for Pignatelli.
The bearer, Troubridge's servant, was loaded by the
noble with irons. " I trust before long," Troubridge exclaimed, " I shall have a pull at his nose for it. I have two or three to settle with if we get in." He was
" mad " at the infamous conduct of the officers despatched to him by the King. They had violated
discipline, and a promise was given that they should be
court-martialled. But the most important statement
of his despatches to Nelson relates to Caracciolo, who
must have been trusted, or he would not have been suf-
fered to return home whether his errand was his own
or his master's. " I am now satisfied," declares Troubridge, " that he is a Jacobin. He came in the gun-
boat to Castellamare himself and spirited up the
Jacobins." By April 7 Troubridge had reduced the
Neapolitan islands.
Prospects at last looked brighter. Ruffo had nearly
270 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
subdued the provinces, and the Austrians at length, in
formal alliance with Naples, Russia, and the Porte, had
rejoiced the Queen by their victory at Padua. It was
commemorated by a salute from the British fleet. The
Bishop of Derry now at Augsburg communicated
the news to Emma in an amusing letter, which opens
with her own favourite " Hip, hip, hip, huzza, huzza, huzza ! " Ball was now pushing forward the Maltese
operations, while Duckworth had been a
ctive near the
Balearic islands. On every point of the Mediter-
ranean compass Nelson kept his watchful eye. But
for him the Mediterranean was mainly a theatre for
the as yet invisible French frigates. The spectre of
that squadron haunted him by night and day ; he han-
kered after the moment when he could re-attack it. It
was for him what Godolphin was for Charles the Sec-
ond never in and never out of the way.
Early in May, the brig L'Espoir brought Nelson the
glad tidings that the French fleet had quitted Brest,
and had been seen off Oporto. He at once concerted
plans with Lord St. Vincent, Troubridge, and Duck-
worth. It was said to consist at most of nineteen
ships and ten frigates or sloops. Its destination was
unknown. By May its junction with the ships of
Spain had been notified.
Nelson made sure that the Two Sicilies were in-
tended, and that France still hoped by one decisive
stroke to end at once monarchy and independence. He
pressed Lord St. Vincent on no account to remove him
from the impending action, wherever it might take
place. He feared that St. Vincent's failing health,
which necessitated his resignation, might help the
French to elude the commander's vigilance. In the
end, elude it they did.
He resolved to cruise off Maritimo as the likeliest
point of sight, and on May 13 he was on board the
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 271
Vanguard. But contrary winds intervened, and kept
him waiting for Duckworth's vessels till the 2Oth, to his keen vexation. His absence heightened the attachment with which he had inspired the Hamiltons. " I
can assure you," wrote Hamilton amid the festivities that even at such a moment celebrated the birth of a
son to the Imperial House of Austria, " I can assure you that neither Emma nor I knew how much we loved
you until this separation, and we are convinced your
Lordship feels the same as we do." And on other oc-
casions Sir William writes to Nelson most intimately
and admiringly, dating one of his letters " near winding-up-watch hour." Two of his three remaining
letters to Emma, before he started, open a little win-
dow both on to the interior of the Hamiltons' menage
and of his own heart. On the I2th he writes :
" MY DEAR LADY HAMILTON, Accept my sincere
thanks for your kind letter. Nobody writes so well:
therefore pray say not you write ill; for if you do, I
will say what your goodness sometimes told me ' You
lie ! ' I can read and perfectly understand every word
you write. We drank your and Sir William's health.
Troubridge, Louis, Hallowell and the new Portuguese
captain dined here. I shall soon be at Palermo, for
this business must very soon be settled. ... I am
pleased with little Mary: kiss her for me. I thank
all the house for their regard. God bless you all! I
shall send on shore if fine to-morrow; for the feluccas
are going to leave us, and I am sea-sick. I have got
the piece of wood for the tea-chest: it shall soon be
sent. Pray, present my humble duty and gratitude to
the Queen."
On the iQth
" To tell you how dreary and uncomfortable the
Vanguard appears, is only telling you what it is to go
272 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
from the pleasantest society to a solitary cell, or from the dearest friends to no friends. I am now perfectly
the, great man not a creature near me. From my
heart I wish myself the little man again! You and
good Sir William have spoiled me for any place but
with you. I love Mrs. Cadogan. You cannot con-
ceive what I feel when I call you all to my remem-
brance, even to Mira, do not forget your faithful and
affectionate, Nelson."
Indeed, all these days he was in constant corre-
spondence with the Hamiltons. On May 25, so great
was his admiration for them, that he drew up his
first codicil a precursor of many to come in their
favour. To Emma he bequeathed " the nearly round
box " set with diamonds, the gift of the Sultan's
mother; to her husband fifty guineas for a memorial
ring. For his risks were now great; he carried his
life in his hands. The French contingent should still
be found : his efforts were bent on more ships, that
success might be assured when the clash of arms must
recur.
Up to May 28, when he again landed at Palermo, he
was still without sight, without result, though not
wholly without effect. He resolved to withdraw some
ships from Malta and concentrate his whole forces.
On June 8, as Rear-Admiral of the Red, he had shifted
from the Vanguard to the Foudroyant. By June 12
he heard of Lord St. Vincent's intention to return
home, and his replacement by Lord Keith, with
genuine distress. " If you are sick," he wrote to him,
" I will fag for you, and our dear Lady Hamilton will nurse you with the most affectionate attention. Good
Sir William will make you laugh with his wit and in-
exhaustible pleasantry. . . . Come then to your sin-
cere friends."
Still not a glimpse of the French fleet. But large
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 273
issues were pending. The very day before the date
of this invitation to his commander, the Queen herself
addressed to him a pleading letter. The state of
Naples, the uncertainty as to the enemy's movements,
had decided her on a definite plan. An expedition,
forestalling the arrival of the Gallic squadron, might
strike a bloodless blow. The bloodshed even of her
enemies was far, she urged, from her thoughts. The
heir-apparent, as representative of his family, would
accompany him and chafe the embers of Neapolitan
loyalty into a blaze. " Other duties " obliged her to remain at Palermo. He would earn the " sincere and
profound gratitude " of his " devoted friend." At the same time and this is the key to after events Ferdinand himself conferred on him the fullest powers.
In every sense of the word he was to be his pleni-
potentiary. Already a month before, Nelson had
despatched Foote with a commission to reduce the
mainland, as Troubridge had reduced the islands.
Foote, Thurn, and Governor Curtis had already issued
their proclamation of a Neapolitan blockade, and had
bidden the insurgents take advantage of clemency
while there was yet time. Had they only complied, a
chapter of misery would have been avoided; but, di-
vided as they were, they still trusted to the invisible
French fleet. Short shrift was to be granted to rebels
and traitors. Only the misguided and the innocent
were to be spared. Already Foote reported that thir-
teen Jacobins had been hung. The Queen poured out
her renewed hopes and prayers to Lady Hamilton.
Emma was all devotion and excitement, yet misgiv-
ings blent with her hopes. Who could foretell the
issues? After all, the moment must decide. And
who could foresee her own part in this great struggle
?
Out of a narrow room she had been lifted into the
spheres. Even as she pondered, Greville Greville
274 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
of the suburban " retreat " was writing to her husband that the eyes of Europe were now fixed on Italy.
He had already been trumpeting her own achievements
to the Prince of Wales : " Many and all " admired her much; she had been " instrumental in good."
" Tell Lady Hamilton," was his message, " with my kindest remembrances, that all her friends love her
more than ever, and those who did not know her ad-
mire her." Greville, then, had at length learned to know her worth. His " crystals " would hardly have weighed in the scale if, thirteen years ago, his appraisement had been one of insight.
Nelson responded to the Queen with all his heart.
His zeal quickened with uncertainty. Lady Hamil-
ton was the Queen's friend, and Lady Hamilton's
friends were his. Maria Carolina was " a great
woman," and greatness was his affinity. He thought
in dominants the predominance of his country; and
Naples loyalised would signify France quelled. Ruffo
was fast advancing from the provinces against the for-
sworn city. The Neapolitan Jacobins were on tenter-
hooks for even an inkling of the French squadron,
their deliverer. What Nelson dreaded was that the
Franco-Hispanian force might be joined by ships from
Toulon. In that event he would be fighting against
heavy odds; and his "principle," as he afterwards assured Lord Spencer, " was to assist in driving the
French to the devil, and in restoring peace and happi-
ness to mankind."
And still of that veiled flotilla not a token.
It was reported as bearing on the Italian coast. Nel-
son had been eager to set off within about a week of
the Queen's appeal. That appeal decided him to wait
one week longer. Maria Carolina was impatient for a
second Aboukir, and for such a stroke reinforcements
were needed. On June 12 he and Sir William were
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 275
still concerting their plans. The Queen now used the
Hamiltons for her purposes and urged them to fasten
her champion's resolve by accompanying him. Emma
was ill, worn with inward struggle and suspense; her
patroness was perpetually and anxiously inquiring
after her health, Sir William was almost prostrate with
indisposition. He wrote that Emma " was unwell and
low-spirited with phantoms in her fertile brain that
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