fading Hamilton. Yet such was Lord Minto's con-
viction two years later. It is curious that the im-
puters of craft always deny her a spark of cleverness,
and they must certainly have thought Nelson much
1 Nelson, writing to Lady Hamilton in the following year (only three days before Horatia's birth), says: "When I consider that this day nine months was your birthday, and that although we had a gale of wind, yet I was happy and sang ' Come, cheer up, fair Emma,' etc., even the thoughts compared with this day make me melancholy." Morrison MS.
503, January 26, 1801.
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 319
stupider than themselves. Worldlings do not always
know the world, still less the world of such a com-
plex heart as Emma's. Her feelings may perhaps be
best imagined by her little poem sent to Nelson at the
opening of his last year on earth.
" I think I have not lost my heart,
Since I with truth can swear,
At every moment of my life,
I feel my Nelson there.
If from thine Emma's breast her heart
Were stolen or thrown away,
Where, where should she my Nelson's love
Record, each happy day?
If from thine Emma's breast her heart
Were stolen or flown away,
Where, where should she engrave, my Love,
Each tender word you say?
Where, where should Emma treasure up
Her Nelson's smiles and sighs,
Where mark with joy each secret look
Of love from Nelson's eyes?
Then do not rob me of my heart,
Unless you first forsake it;
And then so wretched it would be,
Despair alone will take it." 1
In these lines, surely, there is a ring of " les larmes dans la voix."
In sixteen days the Maltese episode was over, but
Palermo was not reached for eleven days more. Nel-
son had pleaded complete exhaustion as his reason for
being unable to continue at present in his subordinate
command. Lord Spencer sent him a dry and sus-
picious answer. Nelson desired to recruit his health
at home. He bemoaned the supineness of those who
1 Nelson Letters, vol. ii. p. 127.
320 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
might have prevented the fresh invasion of Italy. Al-
ready he had bidden his friend Davison to announce
his impending return to Lady Nelson : " I fancy," the mutual friend wrote to her, " that your anxious mind will be relieved by receiving all that you hold sacred
and valuable." She " alternated between a menace and a sigh." But she was not to behold him so soon
as had been expected, or to test the truth of what had
been darkly hinted. The Hamiltons were to be his
companions, and the Queen had for the last three
months been preparing a plan for their joint con-
venience. Now wholly bereft of her power over
and the affection of her husband, vainly exerting her-
self to induce Lord Grenville to retain Hamilton at his
post, dreading that England would withdraw her fleet,
suspicious, too, that Britain might rob the Sicilies of
Malta, she resolved, in her isolation, to visit her relatives at Vienna, after a private and political visit to
Leghorn. The three princesses and Prince Leopold
were to go with her, and Prince Castelcicala, bound on
a special mission to the Court of St. James, was to
head the train of a numerous suite. The French were
now once more beginning to defeat the Austrians, and
she longed to set off before it might be too late.
What so natural as that the Tria juncta in uno should
accompany her till the inevitable wrench of parting?
One of her letters to Emma three months previously
reveals at once the state of her own perplexed and per-
plexing mind, her reliance on Emma's counsel, and the
cause of Castelcicala's mission. So much depends on
the point of view. Throughout, hers had been utterly
alien to the average Englishwoman's :
" MY DEAR LADY, I have been compelled by a
painful affair to delay my reply, and I write this, my
dear friend, in great pain. . . . Do you remember that
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 321
on Tuesday evening I asked you if you had received
any letter ; you told me no : my eyes filling with tears, I was obliged to leave you. I wrote that I was dreadfully depressed. ... I send you the substance of my
letter from Circello. The official one seems to con-
tain no more, but as this fatal packet from Paget ap-
pears to hinge upon our not being left here without a
minister during your husband's absence, I think it may
yet be remedied. I am in despair. I am excessively
angry with Circello for not having more strongly op-
posed it, and if you, my good, honest, true friends, quit us, let them leave Keith in the Mediterranean. We
begin by losing you, our good friends, then our hero
Nelson, and finally, the friendship and alliance of Eng-
land; for a young man [Paget?] liable to misbehave
himself through the temptations of wrong-headed men
who will induce him to abuse his power, will not be
tolerated, and troubles will arise from it. I grieve
to cause you uneasiness ; my own is concealed, but bit-
terly felt. I send you, my good friend, the original
letter from Circello. Do not let Campbell see it, or
know that you have seen it, and return it to-morrow
morning. . . . Suggest to me what should be done to
prevent this misfortune . . . both for the State and
for my feelings. ... 7 will do whatever you counsel
me. ... Do not afflict yourself. Tell the Chevalier
I have never felt till now how much I am attached to
him, how much I owe him. My eyes swim with tears,
and I must finish by begging you to suggest to me what
to do, and believe that all my life happy or wretched,
wherever it may be, I shall be always your sin-
cere, attached, tender, grateful, devoted, sorrowful
friend."
None the less, the anniversary of King George's
birthday was celebrated with undiminished fervour at
Palermo. Every member of the royal family ad-
322 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
dressed separate letters of compliment to Lady Ham-
ilton. Their Anglomania .still prevailed.
Among these valedictions is a letter of less formal
interest. Lady Betty Foster had commended a
protegee Miss Ashburner to Emma's protection.
She had married a Neapolitan, and, as Eliza Perconte,
was now governess to one of the princesses. " With
me," she says, " the old English proverb, ' out of sight, out -of mind,' will never find a place." Emma had
conciliated all but the Jacobins. Her unceremonious
kindness had endeared her to many loving friends
among the lowest as well as the highest. The sailors
and the common people would have died for her.
Her absence made a real void. Lord Bristol was now
once more at Naples it is a pity that the farewell of
one so unaccountable is missing. Prince Belmonte's,
however, is not, though it was addressed from Peters-
burg to Vienna. " I am so indebted to you," he writes in English, " and you deserve so much
to be loved,
that my gratitude and sincere friendship will last till
my tomb. God bless you in your long travels."
Farewell was now said not only to Palermo, but to
Italy. Nevermore did Emma behold " the land of the
cypress and myrtle," the land of her hero's laurels, of her husband's adoption, of her own zenith. It must
often hereafter have haunted her dreams.
She, with her husband, mother, and Miss Knight,
accompanied the Queen and Nelson to Leghorn. They
sailed on June 10, and anchored five days later, though
Nelson's usual tempest prevented a landing for two
days more. This marks the last of the Foudroyant
for the chief actors in the memorable scenes of this
and the previous year. It had proved a ship of his-
tory and of romance. Nelson had pressed the Govern-
ment to put it at the Queen's disposal as far as Trieste, but it was promptly requisitioned for repairs; Mrs.
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON '323
Grundy, in the person of Queen Charlotte, may have
intervened. Bitterly disappointed, its barge's crew at
once petitioned to be allowed to serve in any ship
which their great Admiral might still choose for his
homeward journey. The news that on July II Nel-
son had struck his flag spread consternation at
Palermo.
For three weeks more they all tarried at Leghorn.
Nelson and his party met with a royal welcome, and
were conducted in state to the Cathedral with the
Queen. All received splendid memorials from Maria
Carolina. Emma's was a diamond necklace with
ciphers of the royal children's names intertwined with
locks of their hair. The Queen, in presenting it, as-
sured her that it was she who had been their means of
safety. Nor were they safe at present. The French
army was gradually advancing towards Lucca in their
immediate neighbourhood. Nelson sent a line of as-
surance to Acton that till safety was secured and plans
were settled, he would not desert the Queen. Emma
was still paramount; nor was it long before, and for
the last time, she displayed that ready presence of
mind, and power of popularity with crowds that had
often astonished Maria Carolina, and contributed so
much to Nelson's admiration. She had armed the
Lazzaroni at Naples, she harangued and pacified the
insurgents during their stay at Leghorn.
On July 17 they started together for Vienna by
way of Florence, Ancona, and Trieste.
This journey, with its after stages of fresh pomp
and pageant at Prague, at Dresden, and at Hamburg,
was the most ill-advised step that Nelson and the Ham-
iltons could have taken. Had they proceeded, accord-
ing to their original plan, by sea, they would never
have so irritated the motherland which, after long ab-
sence, they were all revisiting. They were, indeed,
Memoirs Vol. 14 11
324 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
quite ignorant of the prejudices which they would be
called upon to combat. They deemed themselves chil-
dren of the world by virtue of their association with
great events, great persons, and a great career; but of
our island-world they had grown curiously forgetful.
Well, indeed, would it have been for them if they had
remembered. They had lived in a hot-house; they
were going into the fog. They had long been closely
isolated in an inner, as well as an outer, world of their own. Every one, except the detestable Jacobins, had
hymned their praises. Nelson's supreme renown had
coloured every word and every action. For them the
Neapolitan and Sicilian court stood for every court
elsewhere. As it had been with the allies of Britain,
so would it prove in Britain itself. They hugged their
illusions. They were aware, of course, of whispers
and comments and suspicions, but these they derided as
the makeshifts of envious busybodies. 1 Even now
Sir William gave out that he would shortly return, a
more youthful Ambassador than ever, though he was
even more worn out than Nelson. He and Emma
were under the wing of the greatest hero on earth, who
had only to sound the trumpet of his fame for the
ramparts of official Jericho to fall. Emma herself was
1 Lord Minto, writing from Vienna in March, 1800, and hoping that Nelson, who was worn to a shadow, would take Malta
before returning home, says : " He does not seem at all conscious of the sort of discredit he has fallen into, or the cause of it, for he writes still not wisely about Lady Hamilton and all that. But it is hard to condemn and use ill a hero, as he is in his own element, for being foolish about a woman who has art enough to make fools of many wiser than an Admiral.
. . . Sir William sends home to Lord Grenville the Emperor of Russia's letter . . . [about the Maltese decoration for the Maltese service]. All this is against them, but they do not seem conscious." Minto Life and Letters, vol. ii. p. 114. On p. 139
Lady Minto writes, " His zeal for the public service seems entirely lost in his love and vanity, and they sit and flatter each other all day long."
325
in her most aggressive mood; " Nature " certainly now outweighed " Sensibility " : she would be an Ishmaelite in face of icy English officialism discrediting each of
her words and suspecting her every step. She was at
length conscious of what, in its very concealment, was
about to rivet her for ever to her lover. She would
brave it out with nerves of iron and front of brass,
for that which other women were incapable of endur-
ing, her strength and courage could achieve. At
Vienna the Empress loaded Maria Carolina's intimate
with attentions; with the Esterhazys she was the ob-
served of all observers. The bitter parting with her
Queen but nerved her to greater and louder demon-
strations. When hushed diplomacy sneered and snig-
gered in pointedly remote corners, she raised her fine
voice higher than ever to teach John Bull on the Con-
tinent a lesson of robustness. At the mere hint that
English influence was hoping to dissuade the Saxon
Elector from receiving one who was the friend of a
Queen and an Empress, she protested, with a laugh,
that she would knock him down. In the Saxon cap-
ital she braced herself to perform her Attitudes to per-
fection; nobody should guess her real condition. She
was ill at ease, and to mask it she was all retaliation
and defiance. The finical got upon her nerves, and she
on theirs.
And, added to this, the tour itself combined the
features of a royal progress and of a travelling show.
At Vienna no attentions sufficed to prove the gratitude
to Nelson, ay, and to Emma, of the Austrian house.
Lady Minto herself, an old ally, but the wife of an
Ambassador, who soon made up his mind never to
" countenance " her, stood her sponsor at the drawing-room. The Bathyanis vied with the Esterhazys.
Emma was constantly with Maria Carolina at Schon-
brunn as the tearful hour of separation approached.
326 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
The Queen's parting letter,
which begins " My dear
Lady and tender friend," contains one notable passage:
" May I soon have the consolation of seeing you again at Naples. I repeat what I have already said, that at
all times and places, and under all circumstances,
Emma, dear Emma, shall be my friend and sister, and
this sentiment will remain unchanged. Receive my
thanks once more for all you have done, and for the
sincere friendship you have shown me. Let me hear
from you; I will manage to let you hear from me."
We shall see how Maria Carolina kept her word. It
was said that Emma refused from her the offer of a
large annuity. It has, of course, been denied that
Emma was ever endued with the grace of refusal.
But, quite apart from the natural pride of independ-
ence, which characterised her from her girlhood to
her grave, it is improbable that either Hamilton or
Nelson would have permitted her to be the pensioner
of a foreign court.
Banquets and functions abounded, and they were not
restricted to the court. Banker Arnstein " the Goldsmid," as Lady Hamilton afterwards called him, " of Germany " showered his splendours upon them.
There were endless concerts, operas, entertainments,
excursions, visits of ceremony and of pleasure, shoot-
ing parties, water parties, and, it must be owned,
parties of cards. One of their fellow-guests at St.
Veit, a castle of the Esterhazys', has recorded his
hostile impressions. He was Lord Fitzharris, natu-
rally annoyed to see her with Nelson, and he may have
lost his money in this encounter, and, possibly, his
temper.
" Sunday, grand fireworks. Monday (the four de
fete}, a very good ball. And yesterday, the chasse.
Nelson and the Hamiltons were there. We never sat
down to supper or dinner less than sixty or seventy
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 327
persons, in a fine hall superbly illuminated; in short,
the whole in a most princely style. Nelson's health
was drunk with flourish of trumpets and firing of
cannon. Lady Hamilton is, without exception, the
most coarse, ill-mannered, disagreeable woman we met
with. The Princess with great kindness had got a
number of musicians, and the famous Haydn, who
is in their service, to play, knowing Lady H. was fond
of music. Instead of attending to them, she sat down
to the faro table, played Nelson's cards for him, and
won between 300 and 400. . . ." Haydn, it must
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