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

by Yelena Kopylova

  The empire of the sea ;

  Than Henry shall renounce his faith

  And plighted vows to thee!

  And waves on waves shall cease to roll,

  And tides forget to flow,

  Ere thy true Henry's constant love

  Or ebb or change shall know." 1

  " I want but one true heart ; there can be but one

  love, although many real well-wishers," is his prose version in a hitherto unpublished letter.

  These were the refrains of all this year, and, indeed,

  of the little span allotted to Nelson before he was no

  more seen.

  Emma had an ordeal to pass through with a light

  step and a bright face. She had forfeited the com-

  fort of that sense of innocence which she had wel-

  comed ten years before. She awaited Nelson's child,

  and none but her mother and Nelson were to know it.

  She was to seem as if nothing chequered her dance of

  gaiety. Old friends flocked around her. Greville was

  a constant caller, curious about her, vigilant over his

  uncle. Her old supporter, Louis Dutens, was also in

  attendance. The stricken Romney, who pined for the

  sight of her, Was now in the north, but Hayley and

  Flaxman we have seen in her company. There was

  Mrs. Denis, too, her singing friend at Naples, and the

  hardly used Mrs. Billington. And for she was al-

  ways loyal to them she delighted in beholding or

  hearing from her humble kindred again : the Connors,

  the Reynoldses, the Moores of Liverpool; and that

  kelson's verses enclosed in his letter to Emma of February ii, 1801; Nelson Letters, vol. i. p. 30.

  EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 337

  daughter, long ago parted from her by Greville, Emma

  " Carew." And there were Bohemian refugees from Naples, the Banti among their number, who in after

  days were less than grateful to their impetuous

  patroness. New friends also pressed for her acquaint-

  ance. There was Nelson's " smart " relative Mrs.

  Walpole, a fribble of fashion in the Prince of Wales's

  set, Mrs. Udney and a Mrs. Nisbet, with their frivolous

  on-hangers. But, more acceptable than these, were

  Nelson's country sisters and sister-in-law, who loved

  her at first sight and never relinquished their friend-

  ship. With her soul of attitudes, she must have felt

  herself in a double mood heroic under strain, and

  laughtersome at care. The artistic and musical world

  raved of her afresh ; they might well now have cele-

  brated her both as " La Penserosa " and " L'Allegra."

  It was about this time that Walter Savage Landor

  sang of her

  " Gone are the Sirens from their sunny shore,

  The Muses afterwards were heard no more,

  But of the Graces there remains but one

  Gods name her Emma, mortals, Hamilton."

  And perhaps too he remembered her when he wrote

  of Dido

  " Ill-starred Elisa, hence arose

  Thy faithless joys, thy steadfast woes."

  Of old she had been praised for her tarantella.

  Nothing more beautiful could be imagined, was Lady

  Malmesbury's verdict more than five years earlier.

  How was Emma now to trip it through heavy trial,

  and hide an aching heart with smiles and songs ? Mis-

  guided love lent her strength, and its misguidance

  found out the way. She was ready to sacrifice every-

  thing, and to forsake all for one whose absence must

  mean her own and her country's glory. Sir William,

  338 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON

  out of the saddle, was practically in hospital; Nelson,

  practically in hospital, longed for the saddle once more.

  The Northern Coalition threatened a now isolated

  Britain with a stroke more formidable than the South-

  ern had done formerly. Napoleon was exultant. Sir

  William, who really worshipped Nelson, and for whom

  Emma cared to the last, found himself none the less

  rather thankful that Nelson was off in search of fresh

  triumphs, and, with him, the disturbing clamour of

  hero-worship. He longed for his little fishing expedi-

  tions and picture hunts; he was anxious about his pen-

  sion, 1 his late wife's property as well as the tatters of his own. So, committing with a sigh the racket of

  life to his demonstrative Emma, he resigned himself to

  the worldly wisdom of his calculating and still bachelor nephew, Greville, whose ruling motive had always been

  interest. Zeal was not in Greville's nature, but some-

  thing like it coloured his coldness whenever chattels

  were concerned. He was studiously respectful to Nel-

  son. He was amiably attentive to his " aunt." All the same, he was already tincturing Hamilton's mind

  with an alien cynicism ; he and Sir William were gradu-

  ally forming a little northern coalition of their own.

  While he exerted himself in assiduously forwarding

  Sir William's claim on the generosity of the Govern-

  ment, he took good care to discourage any expenditure

  that might anticipate a chance so doubtful.

  Nelson was in a fever of impatience and suspense,

  for Emma, for his country his two obsessions for

  all but himself. He was ever a creaking door, but his

  health, though in his eagerness for action he protested

  it restored, was now beyond measure miserable. His

  eye grew inflamed, his heart constantly palpitated, his

  cough seemed the premonitor of consumption. And

  1 He wanted a real, not a nominal, 2000 a year from Lord Grenville, and 8000 compensation.

  EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 339

  vexations, public as well as private, troubled him.

  The authorities, whether in the guise of Cato, or of

  Paul Pry, or of Tartuffe, hampered his every step,

  while the curs of office snapped about his heels. Added

  to this, he had been forced into a lawsuit an

  " amicable squabble " he terms it with his admired and admiring Lord St. Vincent, who laid claim to the

  prize-money of victories won during his absence. St.

  Vincent had retired into civil service, and was now the

  mainspring of the Admiralty, in which the new Sir

  Thomas Troubridge, who owed his rise entirely to

  Nelson, had also found the snuggest of berths. Both

  the men who had taught Nelson, and the men that he

  had taught, were setting up as his critics and often his spies. His coming expedition was to be a thirteenth

  labour of Hercules. Yet the tribe of cavillers could

  only insinuate (for aloud they dared not speak) of his

  dalliance with Omphale. At least they might have re-

  membered that Nelson had saved them and his coun-

  try, and that if his impulsiveness gave himself away to

  their self-satisfied ingratitude, he was at this moment

  called to give himself up on the altar of duty. On

  Hardy, and Louis, and the two Parkers, and Berry and

  Carrol, he could still count; like all chivalrous leaders, he had his round table, and this was his pride and

  consolation. But it was also his solace to remain mag-

  nanimous, and even now he sent the most generous

  congratulations on his adversary's birthday, which

  were warmly and honourably reciprocated. He had

  h
oped for supreme command, but Sir Hyde Parker

  was preferred : Nelson was only Vice-Admiral of the

  Blue. Scarcely had he been in London a fortnight

  when, with his brother William, he repaired to his

  flagship at Portsmouth, to superintend the equipment

  of the fleet. He had already taken his seat in the

  House of Lords, though he had still to complain that

  340 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON

  his honours had not yet been gazetted. He had ac-

  companied the Hamiltons on their Wiltshire excursion.

  He had nominated Hardy his captain. On January 13

  he quitted Emma, it might be for the last time, and

  with Emma he left both his new hopes and old ties.

  His wife, who had beaten her retreat to Brighton, he

  had now irrevocably renounced ; his mind was " as

  fixed as fate," and of none does the adage " Vestigia nulla retrorsum " hold good more than of Nelson ; it was not long before he wrote significantly, alluding

  to her West Indian extraction, " Buonaparte's wife is of Martinique." Lady Nelson had made no advance,

  not the slightest attempt to provide him for the voyage.

  " Anxiety for friends left," he informed his " wife before heaven " the day after he set out, " and various workings of my imagination, gave me one of those

  severe pains of the heart that all the windows were

  obliged to be put down, the carriage stopped, and the

  perspiration was so strong that I never was wetter, and

  yet dead with cold." And some days afterwards:

  " Keep up your spirits, all will end well. The dearest of friends must part, and we only part, I trust, to meet again."

  By mid-January he had hoisted his flag on the San

  Josef. In March he was commanding the St. George,

  the vessel which, he wrote with exaltation, " will

  stamp an additional ray of glory on England's fame,

  if Nelson survives; and that Almighty Providence,

  who has hitherto protected me in all dangers, and cov-

  ered my head in the day of battle, will still, if it be

  His pleasure, support and assist me."

  Emma had earned her lover's fresh admiration by

  steeling herself to undergo a test that would have

  prostrated even those who would most have recoiled

  from it. She and Nelson had resolved to hide from

  Sir William what was shortly to happen. But Emma

  EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 341

  would take no refuge in absence from home ; sne would

  stand firm and face guilt and danger under her own

  roof-tree. Though this trial might cost her life, she

  would be up and doing directly it was over. If for a

  few days she kept to her room with one of those at-

  tacks which had been habitual at Naples, who but her

  mother and herself need be the worse or the wiser?

  The sudden blow of their parting under such cir-

  cumstances had been exceptionally severe. It recalls

  the famous line of Fenelon:

  " Calypso ne pouvait se consoler du depart d'Ulysse."

  In their mutual anxiety they framed a plan of cor-

  respondence, in which Emma and Nelson were to

  masquerade as the befrienders of a Mr. Thomson, one

  of his officers, distracted with anxiety about the im-

  pending confinement of his wife, who was bidden to en-

  trust herself and the child to the loving guardianship

  and " kind heart " of Lady Hamilton. These secret letters were all addressed to " Mrs. Thomson," while Nelson's ordinary letters Xvere addressed as usual to

  Lady Hamilton. Without some such dissimulation

  they could have very rarely corresponded, for their

  communications were constantly opened ; and, even so,

  Hamilton's curiosity must have been often piqued by

  his wife's receipt of so many communications in Nel-

  son's hand to this unknown friend. But they did man-

  age to exchange fragments even more intimate than

  the interpolations in the body of these extraordinary

  ' Thomson " letters. Not all these, nor all of such as he possessed, were given by Pettigrew in his convinc-ing proof of Horatia's real origin. The Morrison

  Collection presents many of Pettigrew's documents in

  their entirety, and adds others confirming them; so

  also do the less ample Nelson Letters, and others from

  private sources.

  342 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON

  Emma's agitated feelings must be guessed from Nel-

  son's answers, for, as he assured her afterwards, he

  deliberately burned all her own " kind, dear letters,"

  read and fingered over and over again; any day his

  life might be laid down, and he feared lest they might

  pass into hostile hands. From one of hers, however,

  written at Merton a year later in commemoration of

  the victory he was now about to win, something of

  their tenor may be gathered :

  " Our dear glorious friend, immortal and great Nel-

  son, what shall I say to you on this day? My heart

  and feeling are so overpowered that I cannot give vent

  to my full soul to tell you, as an Englishwoman grate-

  full to her country's saviour, what I feel towards you.

  And as a much loved friend that has the happiness of

  being beloved, esteemed, and admired by the good and

  virtues Nelson, what must be my pride, my glory, to

  say this day have I the happiness of being with him,

  one of his select, and how gratefull to God Almighty

  do I feel in having preserved you through such glorious

  dangers that never man before got through them with

  such Honner and Success. Nelson, I want Eloquence

  to tell you what I feil, to avow the sentiments of re-

  spect and adoration with which you have inspired me.

  Admiration and delight you must ever raise in all who

  behold you, looking on you only as the guardian of

  England. But how far short are those sensations to

  what I as a much loved friend feil ! And I confess to

  you the predominant sentiments of my heart will ever

  be, till it ceases to beat, the most unfeigned anxiety for your happiness, and the sincerest and most disinterested determination to promote your felicity even at

  the hasard of my life. Excuse this scrawl, my dear-

  est friend, but next to talking with you is writing to

  you. I wish this day I ... could be near for your

  EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 343

  sake. . . . God bless you, my ever dear Nelson. Long

  may you live to be the admiration of Europe, the de-

  light of your country, and the idol of your constant, attached Emma."

  She is " still the same Emma." A rhapsody of

  " None but the brave deserve the fair " rings in every line. It is melodrama, but genuine melodrama; and

  melodrama of the heart, Nelson loved. It was what

  all along he had missed in his wife, who had lived aloof from his career; whereas Emma and he had lived

  through its thrilling scenes together. It was what he

  himself felt, and that to which Emma answered with

  every pulse. At no time was she in the least awe

  of her hero, whose strong will and gentle heart marked

  him off from those she had best known. With Nel-

  son she was always perfectly natural, using none but

  her own voice and gestures. Had she been really the

  conventional " serpent of old Nile " (and it
is odd what an historical affinity the " Nile " has had to " serpents " ) , that part would thoroughly have clashed with her unchanging outspokenness of tone. Nelson was

  always emphatic and picturesque; he possessed to an

  eminent degree, both in warfare and otherwise, the in-

  tuition of temperament for temperament. Admitting

  idealisation, I cannot think that he was absolutely mis-

  taken in Emma's.

  " I shall write to Troubridge this day " is Nelson's communication to Lady Hamilton, in the earliest letter extant of the " Thomson " series, penned on the passage to Torbay only four days before the child was

  born, " to send me your letter, which I look for as constantly and with more anxiety than my dinner.

  Let her [Lady Nelson] go to Briton, or where she

  pleases, I care not; she is a great fool, and, thank

  God! you are not the least bit like her. I delivered

  344 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON

  poor Mrs. Thomson's note; her friend is truly thank-

  ful for her kindness and your goodness. Who does

  not admire your benevolent heart? Poor man, he is

  very anxious, and begs you will, if she is not able, write a line just to comfort him. He appears to feel very

  much her situation. He is so agitated, and will be so

  for 2 or 3 days, that he says he cannot write, and that

  I must send his kind love and affectionate regards.

  ... I hate Plymouth." Yet Plymouth had just con-

  ferred on him the freedom of the city. Nelson's whole

  soul was with Emma; in the suspense of fatherhood

  he shrank into himself and recoiled from publicity.

  He had no compunctions about Lady Nelson. On the

  very evening of the Plymouth honours he had

  despatched a remarkable epistle, published by its owner

  last year. Nelson was never rich, and his allowance

  of 2000 a year to his wife had been handsome in the

  extreme. Nelson had already heard with incredulity

  " nonsensical reports " that Lady Nelson was instructing the agent to buy a " fine house for him." From his wife, he now acquaints Emma, he had received but

  half one side of a slip of paper to tell him of her cold and her withdrawal from London. He alludes to a

  rumour that she was about to take Shelburne House.

  He treats it with scornful ridicule. He had just met

  Troubridge's sister who lived at Exeter, " pitted with small-pox and deafer far than Sir Thomas." Emma

  need never be jealous. " Pray tell Mrs. Thomson her kind friend is very uneasy about her, and prays most

  fervently for her safety and he says he can only