sense, and Nelson's principle, of truth.
Neither of them lost time in besetting the authorities
for a grant both of pension and of compensation which
might clear her of debt. To Addington she wrote her-
self. She was " forced to petition." She was " most sadly bereaved." She was now " in circumstances far below those in which the goodness "of her " dear Sir William " allowed her " to move for so many years."
She pleaded for his thirty-six years' efforts for Eng-
land at Naples. " And may I mention," she added, in words to be carefully scanned as the first expression
of her claims, "what is well known to the then ad-
ministration at home how I too strove to do all I
could towards the service of our King and Country.
The fleet itself, I can truly say, could not have got into Sicily but for what I was happily able to do with the
Queen of Naples (and through her secret instructions
so obtained), on which depended the refitting of the
fleet in Sicily, and with that, all which followed so
gloriously at the Nile. These few words, though
seemingly much at large, may not be extravagant at all.
iThey are, indeed, true. I wish them to be heard only
as they can be proved ; and being proved, may I hope
for what I have now desired." Addington professed
to Lord Melville, who spoke to him on the matter, that
he would give the whole circumstances a favourable
consideration. But Nelson from the first counted little
on his assistance, though of Pitt, for the moment, he
seemed rather more sanguine.
But already, amid all these agitations, the supreme
one of renewed severance from Nelson threatened. He
had always prophesied that the truce of Amiens would
not endure. In May Napoleon divined the safe mo-
ment for breaking it. Russia was then friendly, and
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 399
Austria hesitating. It was not till the following year,
when his murder of the Due d'Enghien scandalised Eu-
rope, that Russia contrived the third coalition, which
Prussia and Austria joined. Napoleon now prepared
to invade Naples : his troops were soon to occupy Han-
over. Our Ambassador, Lord Whitworth, was recalled
from Paris. Maria Carolina assured Emma of her
delight at the prospect of Nelson's renewed Medi-
terranean command, and Acton, who had by now as-
sumed the superintendence of Bronte, looked forward
to seeing his old associate once more.
Death, doubt, and despair confronted Emma to-
gether, but she did not quail. Her faults were many,
but cowardice was never one of them. Her hero
would win fresh victories and once more save his
country. She little recked how long that absence was
to last. For the first time he had been with her for
eighteen months, unparted.
A wedding and a christening signalised the month
of his departure, and showed Nelson and Emma to-
gether in public.
In May, at the Clarges Street house, to which Emma
had then been forced to remove, Captain Sir William
Bolton married his cousin, the daughter of Nelson's
sister and Emma's friend, Mrs. Thomas Bolton.
Emma was afterwards to be godmother to their first-
born, " Emma Horatia." Sir William, for whose promotion Nelson always exerted himself, proved some-
what of a booby, to Nelson's amused chagrin.
And three days before he said farewell, Horatia was
baptized in the same Marylebone church which had wit-
nessed her mother's marriage. The nurse had already
brought the two years old child from time to time to
see them at Merton. Nelson and Emma stood by the
font as god-parents of their own child, and two clergy-
men officiated at the christening of " Horatia Nelson 400 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
Thomson." Now, at least, she might soon find her
home at Merton. Nelson gave her a silver cup, a cup
by which hangs a sad tale, and which, years afterwards,
had to be sacrificed to poverty.
Greville hardly behaved well. He harshly denied
her a moment longer than the end of April in the Pic-
cadilly house. She applied to him, in the third per-
son, to ascertain the precise limit of her stay, as she
must " look out for lodgings " and " reduce her expenses." Nelson, however, now resolved to allow her 100 a month for the upkeep of Merton, but unfortunately, though mainly residing at her " farm," she could not refrain from still renting a smaller town
house in Clarges Street.
An altercation ensued, it is said, between Nelson
and Greville. At any rate, Greville's continued hard-
ness towards Emma, soon to be accentuated by his de-
duction of the income-tax from her annuity, evoked
the following from Nelson more than two years after-
wards :
" Mr. Greville is a shabby fellow. It never could
have been the intention of Sir William but that you
should have had seven hundred pounds a year neat
money. ... It may be law, but it is not just, nor in
equity would, I believe, be considered as the will and intention of Sir William. Never mind! Thank God,
you do not want any of his kindness; nor will he give
you justice."
At four o'clock on the morning of May 18, the post-
chaise drew up before Merton Place : only one trunk
was in it. Before any one was astir. Nelson had bid-
den his passionate adieu, and had driven off with the
dawn. From Kingston, on his road, he despatched
the familiar line of consolation:
"Cheer up, my dearest Emma, and be assured that
I ever have been 2 and am and ever will be, your most
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 401
faithful and affectionate." He had hardly reached his destination when he resumed : " Either my ideas are altered, or Portsmouth. ... It is a place, the picture
of desolation and misery, but perhaps it is the con-
trast to what I have been used to. ... When you see
my ettve, which you will when you receive this letter,
give her a kiss from me,, and tell her that I never shall forget either her or her dear good mother." Two
days later he again gave comfort from the Victory :
" You will believe that although I am glad to leave that horrid place Portsmouth, yet the being afloat
makes me now feel that we do not tread the same ele-
ment. I feel from my soul that God is good, and in.
His due wisdom will unite us. Only, when you look
upon our dear child, call to your remembrance all that
you think I would say, was I present. And be as-
sured that I am thinking of you every moment. My
heart is full to bursting. May God Almighty bless
you is the fervent prayer of, my dear beloved Emma,
your most faithful, affectionate Nelson."
The old trio had been dissolved, and a new trio
reigned in its stead. Horatia now sanctified his ex-
istence, her portrait already adorned his cabin. Emma
becomes Calypso no more, but Penelope a Penelope,
moreover, with repulsed suitors. On Greville's life
even on Hamilton's she had been but an iridescence,
but to Nelson she is light, air, and heat in one; and<
br />
what she was to him, that Nelson remains to her in
perpetuity.
CHAPTER XIII
PENELOPE AND ULYSSES
June, 1803 January, 1806
IT is a far cry from Merton to the Mediterranean,
but for Nelson the one was nearly as important as
the other: the heart of Ulysses was with his
Penelope.
Estranged Greville straightway took up his uncle's
mantle, exchanging learned disquisitions with Banks
about " mud volcanoes in Trinidad." Davison was trying to curb Emma's extravagant schemes for Merton improvements, though he himself was now in elec-
tion scrapes, and a few years later was, unfortunately,
to rival St. George himself as a fraudulent contractor.
Penelope (fretted and ailing), whether at Merton,
Southend, Clarges Street, or Canterbury, by turns
with the Matchams, Boltons, or Nelsons, sent daily
reports to her wandering Ulysses. She tattled alike
of her conflicting emotions, of the dukes and princes,
her suitors, and of her exertions to secure berths for
countless applicants. All Nelson's nephews and nieces
constantly found themselves a happy family under her
roof, and Merton was now Merton Academy for
Charlotte. Strange as it seems, Emma's relations
and Nelson's were on affectionate and equal terms, her
cousin, Sarah Connor, being now governess to the Bol-
ton children, while Mrs. Matcham, Nelson's pet sister,
actually wished to find a new house near Merton.
" Our good Mrs. Cadogan," too, was beloved by his 402
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 403
family and his friends, whom she provided from the
dairy. She was the Merton economist, kept all too
busy checking the accounts of the rapacious Cribb. 1
Such was Penelope's chronicle.
Nelson had only three thoughts Emma, Horatia,
and the French fleet. During the next three years,
whether at Gibraltar or Naples, Toulon or, afterwards,
La Rosas, and eventually off Boulogne, he mused on
these, and these alone, by day; he dreamed of them
at night; they possessed him in fierce concentration.
He was an inspired monomaniac, and the flame of his
fanaticism both burnt and fired him to achievement.
Different kinds of self- forgetful ardour animate every
prophet. Adoration of his country, a woman, and a
child, animated Nelson. In this he contrasts with
all his colleagues and predecessors, who did their duty
like stolid Spartans, unwarmed and unenticed by any
dangerous glow. To the sober-minded, Emma is his
will-of-the-wisp; to him, she was his beacon. He
calls her his "Alpha and Omega"; he beseeches her-not to fret. Her and the French fleet " to these two objects tend all his thoughts, plans, and toils," and he will " embrace them so close " when he " can lay hold of either the one or the other, that the devil himself
should not separate " them. He longed " to see both "
in their " proper places " the one at sea, the other " at dear Merton, which, in every sense of the word," he expects " to find a paradise." He still deemed none worthy " to wipe her shoes." He vowed not to quit his ship till they could meet again. " From Ambas-satrice to the duties of domestic life " he has never seen her equal ; her " elegance, . . . accomplishments, and, above all, goodness of heart," are " unparalleled,"
1 He was a sort of steward at Merton, but he also supplied the green-groceries. He encouraged the extravagant expense of the Merton improvements.
404 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
and he is devoted to her " for ever and beyond ft."
Eagerly he treasured the slenderest tidings of her from
officers returning to or from England.
Each night, as Scott, his chaplain Scott, with his
lightning-struck head relates to Emma, he toasted
their Guardian Angel, with a tender look towards her
portrait, and a side glance, doubtless, at the smiling
face of the child below it. To Horatia he addressed
the first whole letter that he had written to her. He
bought her a gold watch through Falconet of Naples,
and forwarded it as a reminder of her liking to listen
to his own; he sent her a pretty picture-book of " Spanish dresses," bidding her be always good and obedient to her " Guardian Angel, Lady Hamilton." When, for the second time, he ensured such a settlement for
Horatia's future as no imprudence could undo, he com-
mended " the dear little innocent " to Emma, as certain to train her in the paths of religion and virtue.
Emma's every concern interested him. In her letters
he finds the " knack " of hitting off and picturing topics to a marvel. Over her cousin, Charles Connor, now a
midshipman under his charge, he watched like a
father. As he passed Capri, recollection " almost overpowers " his feelings. He enclosed for her the new entreaties of her old friends the King and Queen of
Naples, while she transmitted to him Maria Carolina's
letter to her, protesting the usual sympathy and grati-
tude. Amid his many engrossments he followed the
projected improvements at Merton as if he were there
the new rooms and porch, the new road, the dike to
fill up a part of the " Nile," the surrender of a strip to
" Mr. Bennett, which will save 50 a year," the acquirement of another field, the " strong netting " to surround the rivulet for little Horatia's safety. Davison had remonstrated over the expense ; Nelson directed
him to proceed. He expressly enjoined her a fact
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 405
afterwards important not to pay for them out of her
income. He little guessed what a millstone she was
hanging round her neck; she was right to have her
way; all was right always that she did, wrote, or
thought. He commended her to Davison's tenderest
care. He chose her presents of shawls and chains
from Naples. He recovered some of her lost furni-
ture both at Malta and Palermo. He enclosed 100
for herself and the poor at Merton, together with gifts
to Miss Connor, Mrs. Cadogan, and Charlotte, " a
trifling remembrance from me, whose whole soul is at
Merton"; and her "good mother" is always sure of his " sincerest regard."
Emma's heart, too, was across the sea. She
watched every wind, chance, and disappointment.
When at Sonthend, where she met her old friend Jane
Powell, the actress, she thought of little but Nelson
and Horatia. She was in ill health; but she was still
" patroness of the navy," forwarding each officer's requests to, and his interest with, her Nelson. If she
diverted herself with concerts, or teased her ogling
suitors, at the same time she begged Davison to intro-
duce her to Nepean, for her hero's sake. She kept the
" glorious first of August " with her friends, and only regretted that the Abbe Campbell must be absent. She
looked anxiously for letters, " despatches and sea
breezes will restore you," wrote Mrs. Bolton. She
bought and sent off his very boots a size, it would
seem, too small. He has warned her never to spend
her money " to please a pack of fools," nor to let her native generosity empty her purse even for his sisters,
as she so often did; not to hunt for a legacy from
" Old Q." Nelson (repeating her own phrase)<
br />
" would not give sixpence to call the King my uncle."
He regretted Addington's hard-heartedness in begrudg-
ing her an annuity, but Addington's tether was fast
406 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
coming to an end. He got the Queen to address the
Government on Emma's behalf, though he placed little
reliance on the letter's efficacy or her friendship.
When, nearly eighteen months later, he was baulked,
as he usually was, of his prize-money, Emma char-
acteristically wrote to Davison : " The Polyphemus
should have been Nelson's, but he is rich in great and
noble deeds, which t'other, poor devil, is not. So let
dirty wretches get pelf to comfort them: victory be-
longs to Nelson. Not but what I think money neces-
sary for comforts ; and I hope our, yours, and my Nel-
son will get a little, for all Master O." x How well does this accord with Nelson's own avowal to her of
" honourable poverty " ! "I have often said, and with honest pride, what I have is my own ; it never cost the
widow a tear or the nation a farthing. I got what
I have with my pure blood from the enemies of my
country. Our house, my own Emma, is built upon a
solid foundation."
In September, so wretched was she away from him,
that she implored him to let her come out and see him.
" Good sense," he replied, " is obliged to give way to what is right, and I verily believe that I am more likely to be happy with you at Merton than any other place,
and that our meeting at Merton is more probable to
happen sooner than any wild chase in the Mediter-
ranean." " It would kill you," he repeated, " and myself to see you. Much less possible, to have Charlotte,
Horatia, etc., on board ship." And as for living in Italy, " that is entirely out of the question. Nobody cares for us there " : it would cost him a fortune to go to Bronte, and be " tormented " out of his life. Indeed at this very moment he had serious thoughts of re-
linquishing Bronte altogether.
Nelson was never self-indulgent; he was unselfish,
1 Sir John Orde. This letter is of January, 1805.
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 407
if not selfless, in devotion, even where he went most
astray. Under dispiritments innumerable, and morti-
fications doubly galling to one of his temperament,
through a catalogue of hardships which rival the
apostle's, in weary wakefulness, in headache, eye-ache,
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