Nelson's Lady Hamilton by Meynell, Esther (cheapest way to read ebooks .txt) 📗

of a tempest that might soon sweep through Europe to the shores of Italy. "The French have shown themselves/' said Burke, "the ablest architects of ruin who have hitherto existed in the world. In a short space of time they have pulled to the ground their army, their navy, their commerce, their arts, and their manufactures." And it was as "architects of ruin" that Maria Carolina regarded all Jacobins, whether French or Neapolitan.

With France in ruins and dishevelment, with

98 NELSON'S LADY HAMILTON

Europe bewildered, with a pro-Spanish husband, the Queen saw herself and her schemes in sore need of support. Her hopes turned towards the England of Pitt—the great Minister who stood out unmoved and calm and obstinately sanguine amid the growing storm. She took the English Acton for her counsellor, she cultivated English sympathies and English good will. She had always been gracious to the British Ambassador, but when he returned in the autumn of 1791 with his wife, she took the surest way to make him her friend by extending a hand to Emma, whom she had heretofore been unable formally to countenance. " Emma has had a difficult part to act," wrote Sir William Hamilton to Horace Walpole, "and has succeeded wonderfully, having gained, by having no pretensions, the thorough approbation of all the English ladies. The Queen of Naples was very kind to her on our return, and treats her like any other travelling lady of distinction; in short, we are very comfortably situated here."

A little later the Queen was to treat her not as a "travelling lady of distinction," but as a friend and confidant and tool, though Emma herself never realized the latter fact.

But before following the development of Emma's intercourse with the Queen, before taking the plunge into the political affairs in which she was soon involved, it is necessary to devote a

THE QUEEN'S COMRADE 99

little further space to the domestic side of the unfolding drama, as revealed in the letters of the period. The guillotine was already casting its ghastly shadow athwart the fair fields of France, Napoleon's great wars and England's greater resistance were already rising slowly above the horizon of the future. But still there was sunshine at Naples, fetes and dinners and the social round in which Emma always delighted —particularly now in her new and assured position as wife of the British Ambassador. " We dined yesterday with Sir William and Lady Hamilton/' writes Lady Malmesbury. " She really behaves as well as possible, and quite wonderfully, considering her origin and education."

This is not, perhaps, very high praise; but Nelson's friend, Sir Gilbert Elliot, writing in 1796, hardly says as much for her :—

" She is all Nature and yet all Art, that is to say, her manners are perfectly unpolished, of course very easy, though not with the ease of good breeding, but of a barmaid; excessively good humoured, and wishing to please and be admired by all ages and sorts of persons that come in her way ; but besides considerable natural understanding, she has acquired, since her marriage, some knowledge of history and of the arts, and one wonders at the application and pains she has taken to make herself what she is. With men her language and conversation

are exaggerations of anything I ever heard anywhere ; and I was wonderfully struck with these inveterate remains of her origin, though the impression was very much weakened by seeing the other ladies of Naples."

But when Sir Gilbert Elliot saw the "Attitudes " he was charmed, like all beholders." We had the * Attitudes' a night or two ago by candli light," he wrote in the same year." They com< up to my expectations fully, which is saying everything. They set Lady Hamilton in a ven different light from any I had seen her in before nothing about her, neither her conversation, hei manners, nor figure, announce the very refinec taste which she discovers in this performance, besides the extraordinary talent which is neede< for the execution."

Five years earlier than this, the year oi Emma's marriage, Lady Malmesbury wrote witl enthusiasm : " You never saw anything so charming as Lady Hamilton's ' Attitudes/ The mo; graceful statues or pictures do not give you ai idea of them."

Sir William Hamilton's attachment to his wife was evidently sincere and warm, and when h< left her for a short time in January, 1792, to g( on one of his sporting expeditions with the Kin] at Persano, he wrote her some charming letters telling her of all that he did and saw, and giving her much affectionate advice.

LADY HAMILTON AS "A BACCHANTE

GEORGE ROMNEY

THE QUEEN'S COMRADE101

It is somewhat amusing to learn that the obstinacy of the King of Naples sometimes went to the length of spoiling his sport—the most disastrous thing possible, in his own eyes. There were wolves and wild boars in plenty, " but the king would direct how we should beat the wood, and began at the wrong end," says Sir William, "by which the wolves and boars escaped, and we remained without shooting power." He adds with a touch of malice, " The King's face is very long at this moment."

In nearly every letter he declares his attachment to Emma: " I would not be married to any woman, but yourself, on earth, for all the world." And next day, " I am glad all goes on so well. I never doubted your gaining every soul you approach. I am far from being angry at your feeling the loss