toothache, and heartache, constantly sea-sick in the
newly painted cabins which he abhorred, with a body,
as he said, unequal to his spirit, he was always think-
ing of and caring for others; and it is this that endears him to us even more than his glory. At this very time
he bade Emma do her utmost for General Dumouriez,
the brave enemy turned into a friend their friend;
not a sailor in the service but was proud of one of his
"... nameless, un remembered acts
Of kindness and of love,"
and his considerate maintenance of their health was his
perpetual boast.
There was, moreover, something daemonic about this
wonderful man. At a glance he sweeps the horizon,
intuitively discerning the danger and its preventives.
At Naples once more he renewed the royal gratitude,
incited Acton, now rapidly falling into disfavour, and
forecast the French designs at a time when Ferdinand
wrote to him, " the hand of Providence again weighs heavy on us," when the Sicilians themselves, and even the Queen, were on the verge of turning towards Napoleon's risen sun, and our old acquaintance Ruffo, now
ambassador, was off on the wonted wild-goose chase to
Vienna. As in public, so in private, Nelson seems al-
ways to hear voices prompting him. He believes in a
star that will guide him to victory and home. " My
sight is getting very bad," he wrote, " but I must not be sick till after the French fleet is taken," at the very moment when it seemed further off than ever. Small
wonder that, with such a leader, Davison ejaculated his
408 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
certainty that sooner or later Buonaparte's Boulogne
flotilla would " go to old Nick."
Nelson this autumn retailed all the Neapolitan gos-
sip for Emma. Napoleon had dictated to Maria Caro-
lina the dismissal of her ex-favourite, Acton. She her-
self, surrounded by French minions, had relapsed into
the peccadillos of a date prior to Emma's arrival, of
which Acton used to tell them such amazing stories.
The King had thrown the last shred of love for her to
the winds. It would not be long before Napoleon
pounced on and annexed Naples; before the royalties
were once more exiles in Sicily. The Princess Bel-
monte was mischief-making in London, and Emma
must be careful of encountering her. All Sir Will-
iam's old dependants were cared for; one of his ser-
vitors, Gaetano, was already in Nelson's service, and
preferred it to home. Hugh Elliot was now ambas-
sador, friendly to Emma's claims. One of the Ham-
iltons' old abodes had become an hotel. Their ancient
friend, Lord Bristol, was dead at Rome. He had once
promised them the bequest of a table, but now, " There will be no Lord Bristol's table. He tore his last will
a few hours before his death."
These are trifles, but before reverting to Emma, let
us rapidly glance at Nelson's doings during this year
of 1804, during his tedious task of guarding the Medi-
terranean and watching Toulon ("blockading" he would never term it: he hated blockades). He was
endeavouring to decoy the French to sea to " put salt on their tails," but save for a brief spurt in May, endeavouring in vain. As. the French fleet was " in and out," so he was up and down at Malta, Palermo, and
when Spain rejoined the fray, at Barcelona, where the
Quaker merchant " Friend Gaynor " became a fresh intermediary with Emma. His " time," as he said,
" and movements depended on Buonaparte." Impa-
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 409
tient by nature, he could play the waiting game to per-
fection. Though his cough and swelled side continu-
ally troubled him, he was as indefatigable out of action as in it, and he disdained the mean advantage offered
by any subordinate's breach of strict neutrality. He
still hoped to force those unconscionable ships out of
port. Treville was now the Toulon Admiral, and
Nelson " owed him one " for landing the Grenadiers at Naples in 1792. Amid the discouragements of long
delays and the customary official threat to supplant
him, he could look forward to eating " his Christmas dinner at Merton." Although, when his birthday came round, he was farther off from consummation than
ever, and reminded Emma of his " forty-six years of toil and trouble," he refused to appear downcast. The accession of Pitt to power in the spring of 1804 cheered him, both on England's account and hers. He still regularly drank her health and " darling " Horatia's. Her letters still brought before him the tranquillity of their days; he rejoiced in her many acts of kindness, not
only to his friends and relations, but to grateful
strangers. He welcomed a tress of her beautiful hair,
and treated it as a pilgrim does a relic. Even while
he sat signing orders, he wrote to her, " My life, my soul, God in heaven bless you." He remembered the
birthday of the " dear beloved woman " with emphasis.
He instructed her to buy pieces of plate for their new
and joint god-children. Even in his wrath at the cap-
ture of a vessel bringing her portrait and letters, he
made merry over the admiration of them by the French
Consul at Barcelona.
While Emma was occupied with Horatia and her
young charges from Norfolk, all had suddenly to be
dismissed. Nelson's second daughter, " Emma," was born may be at the close of February. The reader will
4 io EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
recall Nelson's torrent of passionate love and anxiety
in the ebullition cited x as applicable to his feelings at the time of Horatia's birth. At this very moment
Horatia was unwell also, and her illness added to his
" raging fever " of emotion as he awaited Emma's news. Before July, the second infant of his hopes was
dead. Thorns there were besides roses at Merton.
All this while the correspondence of the Boltons and
Matchams, both young and old, with Lady Hamilton,
breathes affectionate regard, unfeigned admiration, and
real respect. She is the best of friends; her coming
is eagerly awaited, her going keenly deplored. Eliza
and Anne Bolton find in her a confidante, a trusted and
trustworthy counsellor, the acme of the accomplish-
ments that she knows how to impart to them. With
the William Nelsons it was the same, though here, per-
haps, the motives were less disinterested. Charlotte
adores her benefactress and educatress. As for the
Navy, Louis and others, in their letters, look up to her almost with veneration. If Emma had the power of
offending, that also of conciliating was hers. These
are facts which cannot be wholly ascribed to the exag-
gerations of homely admirers, or to the self-interest of office-seekers. These people seem, none of them, ever
to have relinquished their fondness.
Nothing can exceed the variety of contrasts in a na-
ture to which it lends fascination. Emma's tissue is
spangled homespun, but the spangles mainly overlie it.
Let us examine it on both sides.
We watch her throughout these letters, on the one
hand, simple, homely, sympathetic, with no good or
humble office beneath her, working in and for her
house and her friends;
a Lady Bountiful dignifying
the trivial round, and generous not only with her purse
but with her time, her praise, and her exertions a true
*Cf. chapter xi.
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 4"
Penelope by her spinning-wheel. And yet, on the other
hand, we view her inhaling the fumes of homage,
whether from the suitors or the crowd. We see her
courting the flutter of Bohemia, while she cherishes her household gods, and hugging flattery though she has a
keen scent for the flatterer. In like manner she bor-
rows with far less consideration than she gives; nor
does debt cause her a pang until its consequences are in sight. To the end she remains far more lavish to her
lowliest kinsfolk and associates than to herself, while
she conceals her unsparing generosity quite as much as
her waste. So far from " affecting to be unaffected "
that " sham simplicity which is a refined imposture "
she rather affects affectation, whether from whim or
in self-defence. Devoid of the petty vanities of
fashion, she is vain of her power. Tender in excess to
her friends, to her foes she can be overbearing. En-
joying the recognition of rank, of her own kindred she
is proud; and if she is not gentle, she is never genteel, though in her flush of pride at the royal licence to wear her Maltese honours, she can stoop to bid Heralds'
College invent the " arms of Lyons." Lyon's arms, forsooth! Had her blacksmith father but known of
this, surely he would have thrown up his own brawny
arms in astonishment. Compassionate and sensitive,
to such as thwart or suspect her she can be coarse and
obdurate. Natural and outspoken to a fault, she is
unscrupulous wherever her connection with Nelson is
concerned, in double-speaking and double-dealing.
Piquing flirtation, to Nelson she abides steadfast as a
rock. When least virtuous, she never loses a sense
of and reverence for virtue. A tender, if unwise,
mother, her moods drive her into outbursts with the
child she adores. Big schemes of expenditure always
allure her; to little economies she attends, and she will squander by mismanagement in the mass what her man-412 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
agement saves in detail. Constantly ailing, she is al-
ways energetic, but though never idle, she is often in-
dolent. Passionate and even stormy, she battles hard
with a temperament which repeatedly masters her.
She is at once home-loving and pleasure-loving, care-
ful and careless, sensible and silly, kind and cruel, modest and unblushing, calm and petulant, natural and arti-
ficial; and through all these phases runs the thread of
individuality, of self -consciousness, of independence, of insurgent and infectious courage and enthusiasm.
The letters speak for themselves. Little Miss
Matcham, at " Pappa's " request, indited a prim little note to her dearest Lady Hamilton. Miss Anne Bolton, often at loggerheads with her morbid sister Eliza,
wrote to her at Ramsgate, where she was recruiting her
health with Charlotte and Mrs. William Nelson:
" I would have thanked you sooner for the few af-
fectionate lines you sent me by Bowen, tho' indeed the
life we lead is so uniformly quiet, that tho' we are perfectly happy and comfortable, it is very unfavourable
to letter writing. ... It gives me much pleasure to
find that Miss Connor is not to come into Norfolk, till
you go. I should not know what to do without her.
She is so companionable to me, who, you know, would
have none without her, for Eliza, when most agreeable,
I consider as nothing, and my father is very much in
town. She is so good, she seems quite contented with
the very retired life we lead. We have got our instru-
ment, which, with books and work, form our whole
amusement. Sometimes, by way of variety, we have
the old woman come down, who behaves extremely well
and is become quite attached to Miss Connor. Some-
times we sing to her till the poor thing sheds tears, and we are obliged to leave off. I am glad I have got over
the horror I once felt in her presence, because it is in my power, the short time I am here, to contribute a
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 413
little to her comfort. We have beautiful walks in this
neighbourhood, which Miss Connor and I enjoy, and
you, dearest Lady Hamilton, are often the subject of
our conversation. I live in the pleasing hope of see-
ing you once more, before we begin our journey, which
will not be till the 22nd of August. But possibly, as
you are so well and happy, you may prolong your stay
at Ramsgate. I was delighted at the account Bowen
gave me of you. I made him talk for an hour about
you, and, indeed, to do him justice, he seemed as fond
of the subject as myself. And thank you for the
darling pin-cushion, which is treasured up, and only
taken out occasionally to be kissed. A few nights ago
I had an alarming attack of the same complaint which
was very near killing me a year and a half ago. I
fainted away and terrified them all. Eliza declares
she began to consider what she could do without me.
Thank God, and my father's skill, I am again well.
Pray write to me; if it is but such a little scrap as I
have hitherto had from you, I shall be content. How
often we long to have a peep at you. . . . Miss Con-
nor and Eliza desire their best love to you, as would
daddy, were he at home. God bless you, most dear
Lady Hamilton. . . ." Eliza Bolton, who at Merton
had learned music from Emma and Mrs. Billington,
also reports her own progress.
Nor, meanwhile, in Clarges Street, did Emma neg-
lect the interests of the Boltons. For Tom, she
solicited Nelson's cautious and official friend George
Rose, already busied over her own suit with the new
Ministry : " It will make Nelson happy," she tells him; " I hope you will call on me when you come to
town, and I promise you not to bore you with my own
claims, for if those that have power will not do me
justice, I must be quiet. And in revenge to them, I
can say, if ever I am a Minister's wife again with the
414 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
power I had then, why, I will again do the same for
my country as I did before. And I did more than any
Ambassador ever did, though their pockets were filled
with secret service money, and poor Sir William and
myself never got even a pat on the back. But indeed
the cold-hearted Grenville was in then." She adds that Pitt would do her justice if he could hear her story:
she calls him " the Nelson of Ministers."
When Emma proposed spending the ist of August
with the Nelsons at Canterbury, Nelson, during a fresh
scare of French invasion, evinced playful anxiety at
her neighbourhood to the French coast. But the ist
of August was always her fete. She begged her con-
stant and learned ally, Dr. Fisher, to join their " turtle and venison." " I wish," she concludes, " you would give heed unto us, and hear us, and let our prayers prevail." Doubtless the long, thin beakers and pink cham-pagne of our ancestors were broug
ht out at Canter-
bury to celebrate the anniversary of the Nile, while
" Reverend Doctor " bowed his best, and Emma raised the glass with a tirade in honour of the distant hero.
It was not the French fleet that interrupted this festivity : a worse epidemic than invasion was abroad that
of smallpox. Poor little Horatia caught the disease,
though lightly, and Emma was in great distress. Nel-
son's anxiety was as keen : " My beloved," he wrote,
" how I feel for your situation and that of our dear Horatia, our dear child. Unexampled love never, I
trust, to be diminished, never : no, even death with all his terrors would be jubilant compared even to the
thought. I wish I had all the small-pox for her, but
I know the fever is a natural consequence. Give Mrs.
Gibson a guinea for me, and I will repay you. Dear
wife, good, adorable friend, how I love you, and
what would I not give to be with you at this moment,
for I am for ever all yours." Relieved by better ac-EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 415
counts, he sighed for long years of undivided union
" the thought of such bliss delights me " " we shall not want with prudence."
Horatia could at last be " fixed " at Merton, to his intense delight, though she was not definitely installed there till about May of the next year. Nelson now
despatched to Emma a strange announcement, evi-
dently designed as a circular note of explanation for
the enlightenment of over-curious acquaintances. It
bears date Victory, August 13, 1804: " I am now go-
ing to state a thing to you, and to request your kind assistance, which, from my dear Emma's goodness of
heart, I am sure of her acquiescence in. Before we
left Italy, I told you of the extraordinary circumstance of a child being left to my care and protection. On
your first coming to England, I presented you the child, dear Horatia. You became, to my comfort, attached
to it, so did Sir William, thinking her the finest child he had ever seen. She is become of that age when
it is necessary to remove her from a mere nurse, and
to think of educating her. Horatia is by no means
destitute of a fortune. My earnest wish is that you
would take her to Merton, and if Miss Connor will
become her tutoress under your eye, I shall be made
happy. I will allow Miss Connor any salary you may
think proper. I know Charlotte loves the child, and
therefore at Merton she will imbibe nothing but virtue,
Full text of Memoirs of Emma, lady Hamilton, the friend of Lord Nelson and the court of Naples; Page 47