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

by Yelena Kopylova

  the effect of the bombs! I saw at a distance our

  despoiled house in town, and Villa Emma, that have

  been plundered. Sir William's new apartment a

  bomb burst in it ! It made me so low-spirited, I don't

  desire to go again.

  " We shall, as soon as the Government is fixed,

  EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 301

  return to Palermo, and bring back the royal family;

  for I foresee not any permanent government till that

  event takes place. Nor wou'd it be politick, after all

  the hospitality the King and Queen received at

  Palermo, to carry them off in a hurry. So you see

  there is great management required. I am quite worn

  out. For I am interpreter to Lord Nelson, the King

  and Queen; and altogether feil quite shattered; but as

  things go well, that keeps me up. We dine now every

  day with the King at 12 o'clock. Dinner is over by

  one. His Majesty goes to sleep, and we sit down to

  write in this heat; and on board you may guess what

  we suffer. My mother is at Palermo, but I have an

  English lady 1 with me, who is of use to me, in writ-

  ing, and helping to keep papers and things in order.

  We have given the King all the upper cabin, all but

  one room that we write in and receive the ladies who

  come to the King. Sir William and I have an apart-

  ment below in the ward-room, and as to Lord Nelson,

  he is here and there and everywhere. I never saw such

  zeal and activity in any one as in this wonderful man.

  My dearest Sir William, thank God, is well and of the

  greatest use now to the King. We hope Capua will

  fall in a few days, and then we will be able to return

  to Palermo. On Sunday last we had prayers on

  board. The King assisted, and was much pleased

  with the order, decency, and good behaviour of the

  men, the officers, etc."

  The self -consciousness, the strenuousness, the devo-

  tion, the enthusiasm, the egotism, and yet the sympathy

  all the old elements are here. She had thirsted for

  the blood and thunder of her girlhood's romances; she

  now beheld blood and thunder in reality. The " much-loved " King had a summary way of finishing off his enemies, and bribery as well as butchery reigned in

  'Miss Cornelia Knight.

  302 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON

  Naples. The Morrison Collection gives but three of

  the appeals to Lady Hamilton's kind heart. Of one

  the ring is tragic. A snatch of humour is welcome.

  A certain Englishman, Matthew Wade, was a loyalist

  in Naples. He it was who had begged Ruffo to grant

  him troops for the occupation of the castles.

  Troubles, in these troublous times, had fallen on his

  household, and I cannot refrain from subjoining a

  passage in a letter of his about them to Emma.

  " I beg leave to remind your Ladyship that the

  Governour's finances is become very low, and I sup-

  pose in a short time I will lose my credit, as my house

  was plundered when I was in prison, under a pretext of

  finding papers and being a Royalist; and after, by the

  Calabrace before my return here, for being a Jacobine.

  The last was a dirty business, as they robbed my

  mother-in-law of her shift. She said six, tho' I never

  knew her and her daughter to have but three, as I well

  remember they usually disputed who was to put on

  the clean shift of a Sunday morning. However, I was

  obliged to buy six shifts in order to live quiet. Pray

  assure her Majesty and General Acton that I can't hold

  out much longer. Besides, my family is increased. I

  have got a cat and a horse which has been robbed from

  me by the Jacobines. I met him with a prince, and

  took emediately possession of him as my real proprity.

  ... I am told a conspiracy has been discovered and a

  sum of money found, in order to let seventeen of the

  principal Jacobines escape, now confined (and they are

  marked for execution) in the Castell-Nuovo ; they say

  the Governor (from whom they have taken the com-

  mand) is deeply conserned in the business. I am sorry

  for him, tho' I have no acquaintance with the man, but

  I am told he is a brave man and a soldier. But there

  is something in the air of the climate that softens the

  nerve so much, that I never knew a man nay, nor a

  EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 303

  woman of the country that cou'd resist the temptation

  of gold." Thus Matthew Wade, humourist and phi-

  losopher.

  The Vicariate of Naples was now reposed in the

  Duke of Salandra, who had always been loyal. Nelson

  appointed Troubridge Commodore of the Naples

  squadron, and presented him with the broad, red pen-

  nant. Nelson himself was soon to be elevated for a

  time to the chief Mediterranean command. The ist

  of August was celebrated with as much rejoicing as

  the situation allowed. Nelson relates to his wife, not

  in " vanity " but in " gratitude," the King's toast, the royal salute from the Sicilian ships of war, the vessel

  turned into a Roman galley in the midst of which,

  among the " fixed lamps," stood a repetition of last year's " rostral column," the illuminations, the magnificent orchestra, the proud cantata Nelson came, the

  invincible Nelson, and they were preserved and again

  made happy. Indeed, Leghorn and Capua had both

  surrendered, as well as Naples. By the Qth of August

  the Foudroyant with its jubilant inmates had returned

  to Palermo.

  Emma had again triumphed. But at what a cost to

  her peace of mind! A royal reign of terror had un-

  nerved her. She was never to see " dear, dear

  Naples " again. Her husband leaned upon her daily

  more and more ; and yet the active association of nearly two months, which seemed like two years, had brought

  her and Nelson closer than ever together as affinities.

  All along it was the force and vigour of her character

  far more than her charms and accomplishments that

  appealed to him, and her unflagging strength of spirit

  had never displayed itself to greater advantage than

  during these trials of the last few months. She tended

  faster and faster towards some irrevocable step, the

  304 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON

  very shadow of which perturbed while it allured her.

  A note of discord jars on the whole tune of her

  triumph.

  On one of the short sea expeditions, so rumour goes,

  that time had allowed them to join in making, a phan-

  tom had startled them. Out of the depths the livid

  body of Caracciolo, long immersed but still buoyant,

  had risen from nothingness and fixed them with its

  sightless gaze.

  CHAPTER X

  HOMEWARD BOUND

  To December, 1800

  THERE is an almost imperceptible turning-point

  in career, as in age, when the slope of the hill

  verges downwards. Emma had now reached

  her summit. Henceforward, in gradual curves, her

  path descends.

  The royal fete chain petrc at Palermo in Nelson's

  honour eclipsed each previous pageant. No spl
endour

  seemed adequate to the national gratitude. The Tem-

  ple of Fame in the palace gardens, its exquisitely mod-

  elled group of Nelson led by Sir William to receive his

  wreath from the hands of Emma as Victory ; the royal

  reception and embrace of the trio at its portals, and the laurel-wreaths with which Ferdinand crowned them;

  the Egyptian pyramids with their heroic inscriptions;

  the Turkish Admiral and his suite in their gorgeous

  trappings, grave and contemptuous of the homage paid

  to the fair sex; the young Prince Leopold in his mid-

  shipman's uniform, who, mounting the steps at the

  pedestal of Nelson's statue, crowned it with a diamond

  laurel-wreath to the strains of " See the Conquering Hero " ; the whole court blazing with jewels emblematic of the allied conquests; the mimic battle of the Nile

  in fireworks ; the new cantata of the " Happy Con-

  cord," and the whole Opera band, with the younger

  Senesino at their head, bursting at the close into " Rule 305

  J306 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON

  Britannia " and " God save the King " ; the weather-beaten Nelson himself moved to tears all these

  formed picturesque features of a memorable night.

  Lieutenant Parsons, an eye-witness, thus alludes to it

  and the tutelary goddess both of the royal house and

  its two defenders, by sword and pen :

  " A fairy scene . . . presided over by the Genius of Taste, whose attitudes were never equalled, and with

  a suavity of manner and a generous openness of mind

  and heart, where selfishness, with its unamiable con-

  comitants, pride, envy, and jealousy, would never dwell

  -I mean Emma, Lady Hamilton. . . . The scene [of

  the young Prince crowning Nelson] was deeply affect-

  ing, and many a countenance that had looked with un-

  concern on the battle . . . now turned aside, ashamed

  of their . . . weakness." Viva Nelson! Viva Miledi!

  Viva Hamilton! rent the air.

  Emma divided the honours with Nelson. A tor-

  rent of stanzas gushed from the Sicilian improvisatori ; even surgeons burst into song.

  But there were more substantial favours. Nelson

  received not only a magnificent sword of honour and

  caskets of remembrance, together with, a few months

  later, the newly founded order of merit, but, partly by

  means of Emma's advocacy, the title and estates of the

  Duchy of Bronte. These, however, through the mis-

  management first of Grafer and afterwards of Gibbs,

  yielded a poor and most precarious revenue for him,

  and, as will be seen hereafter, a fluctuating one for

  Emma, whose annuity was to be charged upon it. The

  title " Bronte," with its Greek derivation of thunder, so curiously according with the name of his vessel,

  caused Nelson afterwards to be continually styled by

  Emma and his sisters " Jove " the thunderer. Presents poured in upon him : the Crescent from the Grand

  Signior, the sword and cane from Zante, commemorat-

  EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 307

  ing the deliverance of Greece, the grants from English

  companies. Nor was Emma without royal recogni-

  tion. A queenly trousseau awaited her on her arrival,

  and she received regal jewels, valued, it was said, at

  six thousand pounds, but which she sold two years

  afterwards, to Nelson's admiration, for her husband's

  benefit. " Nestor," indeed, was becoming more and more involved in debt, and about this period he borrowed over two thousand pounds from Nelson. He

  was not only worried, but worn. He took offence at

  trifles, and had quarrelled even with Acton.

  Nelson did not dally, though Downing Street pained

  him by its insinuations. From all these festivities his

  alertness at once returned to vigilance and service.

  Not a fortnight passed before occupied as he was with

  every sort of multifarious correspondence he sent

  Duckworth to protect the British trade, on the main-

  tenance of which he laid infinite stress, at Lisbon and

  Oporto, to watch Cadiz, and to keep the Straits open.

  He minutely directed Ball's operations at Malta, still

  hampered by every vexatious delay on the Italian side,

  and by the follies of Nizza, the Portuguese Admiral.

  Early in September he charged Troubridge and Louis

  with their mission to Civita Vecchia, which within a

  month freed Rome from the French., Directly he re-

  ceived this most cheering intelligence, he himself started in the Foudroyant for Port Mahon, with the one object

  of concentrating every available force by land and sea

  on the complete reduction of Malta, which remained

  ever in his " thoughts, sleeping or waking." He did not land at Palermo till October, when he was able to

  announce to Sidney Smith (uniformly and magnani-

  mously helped, praised, and counselled by him through-

  out) that Buonaparte had passed Corsica in a bombard

  steering for France. No crusader ever returned with

  more humility contrast his going in L' Orient. All

  308 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON

  the same this was ill news, and Nelson was furious also

  at not receiving troops from Minorca, and at the frauds

  of the victualling department. He kept a sharp look-

  out on the Barbary States and pirates. He deplored

  the inactivity of the Russian squadron at La Valetta,

  and he resented the Austrian demand for their pres-

  ence elsewhere ; his representations caused a " cool reception " to the Archduke's suite when they visited Palermo. By Christmas he cursed the stupidity which

  had allowed Napoleon, hasting back for his strokes at

  Paris, to elude the allies. But above all, both he and

  Emma strained every nerve to extort grain for starv-

  ing Malta from the King and Queen of Naples chican-

  ing with Acton to retain every bushel for their own

  necessities. Until, after " infamous " delays and falsi-fied promises, the dole was granted which saved thirty

  thousand of the Maltese loyalists from death, he

  " cursed the day " he " ever served the King of Naples." " Such," he wrote to Troubridge, " is the fever of my brain this minute, that I assure you, on my honour, if the Palermo traitors were here, I would shoot

  them first and myself afterwards." Troubridge was

  equally emphatic. The Maltese deputies lodged under

  Emma's roof. She was their " Ambassadress." It was not long before Emma's services in this matter

  were publicly recognised by the Czar, as Grand Master

  of the Maltese Knights. When he bestowed the Grand

  Cross on Nelson and on Ball, he also bestowed it on

  Lady Hamilton, with a special request to the King of

  England for his licence to wear it there, the only occa-

  sion, as she was ever proud to relate, that it had ever

  been conferred upon an Englishwoman. 1 This order

  1 Cf. Nelson Letters, vol. i. p. 271. The vexed question of whether she spent as much as 5000 on this matter scarcely repays investigation. The fact remains that her services were sufficient for imperial recognition, and that the King of England EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 309

  she wore next year at Vienna, and it still figures in a

  portrait of her taken there, as well as in a drawing of

  her in 1803 by Sir Thomas Lawrence. She was styled

  " Dam
e Chevaliere of the Order of St. John of Jeru-

  salem," and from this time forward Ball always ad-

  dressed her as " sister."

  But the Maltese embroilments were by no means

  the sole annoyances that distracted Nelson's sensitive

  nature. He was stung to the quick by the Admiralty's

  complaints and suspicions. " As a junior Flag officer,

  . . . without secretaries, etc.," he wrote home, " I have been thrown into a more extensive correspondence

  than ever perhaps fell to the lot of any Admiral, and

  into a political situation, I own, out of my sphere. . . .

  It is a fact that I have never but three times put my

  feet on the ground since December, 1798, and except

  to the court, that till after 8 o'clock at night I never relax from my business." " Do not," he breaks out to Lord Spencer, " let the Admiralty write harshly to me my generous soul cannot bear it, being conscious

  that it is entirely unmerited " ; and, once more, to Commissioner Inglefield, " You must make allowances for a worn-out, blind, left-handed man."

  Nor was he least tormented by the growing passion

  allowed her to wear the order on her return. Her own account in a letter to Greville, hitherto uncited, is this : " I have rendered some service to the poor Maltese. I got them ten thousand pounds, and sent corn when they were in distress." Nelson Letters, vol. i. p. 277. Her Prince Regent's Memorial alleges details : " I received the deputies, open'd their despatches, and without hesitation I went down to the port to try what could be done. I found lying there several vessels loaded with corn for Ragusa. I immediately purchased the cargoes : . . . this service Sir Alexander Ball in his letters to me, as well as to Lord Nelson, plainly states to be the means whereby he was enabled to preserve that important island. I had to borrow a considerable sum on this occasion, which I since repaid, and with my own private money this expended was nothing short of 5000." Morrison MS. 1046.

  3io EMMA, LADY HAMILTON

  of his heart. His utterances are despondent. The

  East India Company had voted ten thousand pounds in

  token of their gratitude. Two thousand pounds of it

  he bestowed on his relations; the whole was placed at

  his wife's disposal. " I that never yet had any money to think about, should be surprised if I troubled my

  head about it," he told his old intimate and business manager, Davison (the rich contractor of St. James's

  Square), whom, after the Nile battle, he had appointed

  agent for his scanty prize-money. " In my state of

  health, of what consequence is all the wealth of this