depend on your goodness. . . . May the Heavens bless
and preserve my dearest friend and give her every com-
fort this world can afford, is the sincerest prayer of
your faithful and affectionate Nelson and Bronte."
Nelson is all prayer and piety for Emma. It is one
of the most singular features of his erratic greatness
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 345
that he lays her, the coming child, and himself as hum-
ble and acceptable offerings before God's throne. His
sincerity resembles in another plane that of Carlyle,
who, in some of his epistles to his mother, translated
his own earnest free-thought into terms of the Scotch
Covenanter. But at the same time the reader is often
tempted to echo what the same Carlyle objected to in
French eighteenth-century sentimentalism : " So much talk about Virtue. In the devil and his grandmother's
name, be Virtuous then ! "
Every night Nelson withdrew after the day's
fatigues, and amid incessant occupations, to hint (when
he feared to pour forth) his torture of anxiety and
passionate fulness of unbounded affection. He bade
her be of good cheer. He assured " Mr. Thomson "
of her " innate worth and affectionate disposition."
But during these weary days of waiting, a full month
before Oliver had been chosen to convey his famous
and self-convicting letter, he must have disclosed his
inmost soul to its idol through him, or perhaps through
Davison, who at this very time had travelled over two
hundred miles to pay him a visit. Another letter of
far less reserve, and one never, so far as I know,
cited, exists in relation to the coming birth of the
second child the little Emma who died so soon in
the earlier months of 1804. It is so remarkable, and
probably so identical with others which he must have
written on this earlier occasion, that I subjoin a por-
tion of it here, venturing to fill in some of the ex-
cisions :
" MY DEAREST BELOVED, . . . To say that I think
of you by day, night, and all day, and all night, but
too faintly expresses my feelings of love and affection
towards you. [Mine is indeed an] unbounded af-
fection. Our dear, excellent, good [Mrs. Cadogan]
346 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
is the only one who knows anything of the matter; and
she has promised me when you [are well] again to
take every possible care of you, as a proof of her
never-failing regard to your own dear Nelson. Be-
lieve me that I am incapable of wronging you in
thought, word, or deed. No; not all the wealth of
Peru could buy me for one moment; it is all yours
and reserved wholly for you. And . . . certainly
. . . from the first moment of our happy, dear, en-
chanting, blessed meeting. . . . The call of our coun-
try is a duty which you would deservedly, in the cool
moments of reflection, reprobate, was I to abandon :
and I should feel so disgraced by seeing you ashamed
of me ! No longer saying, ' This is the man who has
saved his country! This is he, who is the first to go
forth to fight our battles, and the last to return ! '
. . . 'Ah!' they will think, 'What a man! What
sacrifices has he not made to secure our homes and
property; even the society and happy union with the
finest and most accomplished woman in the world.'
As you love, how must you feel! My heart is with
you, cherish it. I shall, my best beloved, return if it
pleases God a victor; and it shall be my study to
transmit an unsullied name. There is no desire of
wealth, no ambition that could keep me from all my
soul holds dear. No ; it is to save my country, my wife
in the eye of God. ... Only think of our happy meet-
ing. Ever, for ever I am your's, only your's, even
beyond this world. . . . For ever, for ever, your own
Nelson." 1
Emma certainly inspired the Nelson who delivered
England; and for all time this surely ought to out-
weigh the carping diatribes of half-moralists who nar-
row the whole of virtue to a part. It cannot be too
much emphasised that Nelson loved her and not merely
1 Nelson Letters, vol. i. p. 175, "August 26 [1803]."
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON '347
her enhancements. " Thank God," he wrote at the beginning of February, " you want not the society of
princes or dukes. If you happened to fall down and
break your nose or knock out your eyes, you might go
to the devil for what they care, but it is your good
heart that attaches to you, your faithful and affec-
tionate Nelson." x
About January 29, in a week of storm, Horatia was
born. Within the week Emma, unattended, had
taken the baby by night in a hackney coach to the
nurse, Mrs. Gibson, of Little Titchfield Street. Within
a fortnight, " thinner . . . but handsomer than ever,"
she could play hostess at her husband's table; in three
weeks she was importuned by, though she refused to
entertain, royalty. From first to last, she wrote daily
to Nelson, and she was active in concealment. Her
force of will and endurance at this juncture pass com-
prehension. She behaved as if nothing had happened,
though she must seriously have deranged her health.
" I believe," wrote the transported father so soon as her glad tidings reached him, " I believe dear Mrs.
Thomson's friend will go mad with joy. He cries,
prays, and performs all tricks, yet dares not show all
or any of his feelings, but he has only me to consult
with. He swears he will drink your health this day
in a bumper, and damn me if I don't join him in spite
of all the doctors in Europe, for none regard you with
truer affection than myself. You are a dear good
creature, and your kindness and attention to poor Mrs.
T. stamps you higher than ever in my mind. I can-
not write, I am so agitated by this young man at my
elbow. I believe he is foolish, he does nothing but
rave about you and her. I own I participate in his joy
and cannot write anything."
It is noteworthy that the eccentric demeanour of
1 Letter of February i, 1801.
348 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
" dear Mrs. Thomson's friend " accords with what was evidently a trait in the Nelson family; for Sir William, describing to Nelson the joy of his brother " the reverend doctor," on hearing the first intelligence of Copenhagen while dining with him in Piccadilly, says :
" Your brother was more extraordinary than ever. He would get up suddenly and cut a caper; rubbing his
hands every time that the thought of your fresh
laurels came into his head."
The day after the " young man " at Nelson's elbow had been thus disporting himself, Nelson again
addressed Lady Hamilton. He had cut out two lines
from her letter with which, he declares, he will never
part. He had exceeded his promise of the clay before,
and had drained two bumpers to the health of Mrs.
Thomson and her child in the company of Troubridge,
Hardy, Parker, and his brother, till the latter said he
would " hurt " himself : " that friend of our dear Mrs.
T. is a good soul and full of feeling," he wrote ; " he wishes much to see her and her little one. If possible
I will get him leave for two or three days when I go
to Portsmouth, and you will see his gratitude to you."
Next morning he communicates with her indirectly as
" Mrs. Thomson." Her " good and dear friend does not think it proper at present to write with his own
hand," but he " hopes the day may not be far distant when he may be united for ever to the object of his
wishes, his only, only love. He swears before heaven
that he will marry her as soon as possible, which he
fervently prays may be soon. Nelson is charged " to say how dear you are to him, and that you must [at]
every opportunity kiss and bless for him his dear little girl, which he wishes to be called Emma, out of gratitude to our dear, good Lady Hamilton, but in either
[case?] its [name?], [whether?] from Lord N., he
says, or Lady H., he leaves to your judgment and
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 349
choice." He has " given poor Thomson a hundred pounds this morning for which he will give Lady H.
an order on his agents " ; and he begs her to " dis-tribute it amongst those who have been useful to you on
the late occasion; and your friend, my dear Mrs.
Thomson," he adds, " may be sure of my care of him and his interest, which I consider as dearly as my
own. . . ."
But perhaps the least guarded of this long series is
a fragment to be found in the old volume of Nelson
Letters, though Pettigrew's transcripts and the Morri-
son- original do not comprise it. It bears date Febru-
ary 16. " I sit down, my dear Mrs. T.," it runs, " by desire of poor Thomson, to write you a line : not to
assure you of his eternal love and affection for you
and his dear child, but only to say that he is well and
as happy as he can be, separated from all which he
holds dear in this world. He has no thoughts sep-
arated from your love and your interest. They are
united with his; one fate, one destiny, he assures me,
awaits you both. What can I say more? Only to
kiss his child for him : and love him as truly, sincerely, and faithfully as he does you; which is from the bottom of his soul. He desires that you will more and
more attach yourself to dear Lady Hamilton." Only
a week earlier he had addressed to her that stirring
passage which told her that it was she who urged him
forth to glory, that he had been the whole world
round, and had never yet seen " her equal, or even one who could be put in comparison."
Every night he and his " band of brothers " continue to raise the glass to the toast of Emma. Letter
succeeds to letter, affection to impatience, and impa-
tience to ecstasy. He makes a new will, bequeathing
her, besides other jewelled presentations, the portrait
which Maria Carolina had given him of herself at part-
350 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
ing; charging, too, in her favour the rental of Bronte,
but on this occasion only in the case of the failure of its male heirs; creating, above all, a trust for the child, of whom " Emma Hamilton alone knows the parents," of whom too she is besought to act as guardian, and by
her honour and integrity to " shield it from want and disgrace." He would " steal white bread rather than that the child should want." He and she are to be
and be known as godparents of an infant in whom they
take a " very particular interest," and he especially requests that it may be brought up as " the child of her dear friend Nelson and Bronte." He discusses the
name; Emma had evidently begged that it might be his,
nor hers as originally proposed. Let it be christened
" Horatia " and be registered, anagramatically, as
" daughter of Johem and Morata Etnorb." 1 As for the date of baptism, he leaves it entirely to his Emma's discretion, but, on the whole, after some hesitation
he favours its postponement, since a clergyman might
ask inconvenient questions. He rejoices to hear that
the baby is handsome, for then it must be like his dear
" Lady Hamilton," between whom and Mrs. Thomson there is said to be a striking resemblance. After all,
there is no immediate hurry to settle these trifles. He
must soon rejoin her, if only for a day. Till March
he would still be kept off the English coasts, near and
yet far from Emma ; he chafes at a division uncaused
by duty or by distance. He will run up so soon as
" Mr. Thomson " can get leave, and propitiate that watch-dragon, Troubridge.
Emma's correspondence with Mrs. William Nelson
from the latter end of February shows how and when
he appeared in London. But before he hastened to
her side, a curious and undetailed episode, mixing a
drop of bitter disquiet with his draught of rapture, will
**'. e. Horatio and Emma Bronte.
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 351
be followed with interest. It exhibits Emma's con-
stancy and fortitude under a temptation which sur-
prised her, and anguished her fretting lover. Her
firmness in overcoming it and, with it, his jealousy,
riveted him, if possible, more closely than ever. It
pervades every one of Nelson's letters, from the Febru-
ary of this year to the end of March, and many long
afterwards.
While, strained and nervous beyond measure, she
now awaited Horatia's birth, she was annoyed and
alarmed, though probably flattered also, by a message
from the Prince of Wales eager to bridge over the
dull interval till Parliament might pronounce his father imbecile and himself Regent. He politely commanded
Sir William to invite him to dinner on a Sunday even-
ing. It was his desire to hear Lady Hamilton sing,
together with La Banti, who was now in London,
and whose son Nelson actually placed in the navy
together with Emma's cousin, Charles Connor. Sir
William was anxious to obtain from the Government
not only his full pension, but also a liberal reward
for the heavy losses which Jacobinism had inflicted on
his property. Moreover, he hoped, though in vain, for
a new appointment the governorship of Malta. The
Prince's aid was all-important for the ex-Ambassador.
He had been more than civil during the short visit of
1791, when he had commissioned portraits of the fair
Ambassadress ; and, though an ill-natured world might
put the worst construction on his presence in Picca-
dilly, Sir William trusted to Emma's prudence and his
own interest. 1 The fiery Nelson, however, infuriated,
1 Cf . his letter to Nelson of Feb. n, Nelson Letters, vol. ii.
p. 200. "... She has got one of her terrible sick headaches.
Among other things that vex her is that we have been drawn in to be under the absolute necessity of giving a dinner to the P. of Wales on Sunday next. He asked it himself, having
expressed a strong desire of hearing Banti's and Emma's voices 352 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
even demented, at the bare suspicion, ascribed the
whole manoeuvre to the bad offices and influence of
Lady Abercorn, Mrs. Walpole, and a " Mrs. Nisbet,"
who had been heard public
ly to assert that Lady Ham-
ilton had " hit " the Prince's " fancy." Sir William, however, was now once more under Greville's thumb,
and it is likely that the mild Mephistopheles of King's
Mews had his finger in this pie. At a moment so awk-
ward, Emma certainly disbelieved that her husband
ever did more than countenance the affair. She was
proud of her talent, and pleased at the sensation it
created in the Duke of Queensberry's circle. But the
attentions of such a charmer as the First Gentleman in
Europe were doubtless of design; and she was on her
guard at the outset, though in after years she cultivated the new friendship of the Prince, together with the
long-standing one of his admiring brothers. Her child
had half-hallowed in her eyes the sin that sacrifice had endeared, and she resented the buzz of the scandal-mongers. She welcomed, indeed invited, Nelson's
plan of bringing up his sister-in-law to the rescue.
Sir William's intention that the royal visit should be
en famille, and its projected secrecy, worked up Nel-
son's feelings to their highest pitch: better by far, if it had to be, a big reception. In the end, however, no
party took place, still less was there any eclat. The
Prince was baffled, despite Sir William. Emma
together. I am well aware of the dangers, etc. ... As this dinner must be, or he would be offended, I shall keep strictly to the musical part, invite only Banti, her husband, and Taylor; and as I wish to show a civility to Davison, I have sent him an invitation. In short, we will get rid of it as well as we can, and guard against its producing more meetings of the same sort. Emma would really have gone any lengths to have avoided Sunday's dinner. But / thought it would not be prudent to break with the P. of Wales, etc. ... I have been thus explicit as I know well your Lordship's way of thinking, and your very kind attachment to us and to everything that concerns us."
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 353
showed that she could renounce vanity for love, and
that she dared to rebuff importunity in high places.
Nelson's mountain brought forth a mouse, nor did he
ever cease to commemorate his appreciation of Emma's
firmness " firm as a rock/' he said of his trust in her afterwards.
Nelson was really on the rack. His distracted let-
ters of more than a fortnight until his apprehensions
of the main danger had been calmed present a strik-
ing self-revelation, and are doubly interesting because
Emma's own letters to Mrs. William Nelson supple-
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