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

of rewarding those who distinguish themselves, may suggest to you, as well as the severest punishments. . . . You may make any proclamations you may consider likely to bring about the end you have been ordered to attain."

Besides his official instructions Cardinal Ruffo, during the progress of his campaign, was con-• stantly receiving letters of command and encouragement from both the King and Queen of

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Naples. Emma Hamilton's admiration of the Queen was so indiscriminate and all-embracing that she could see nothing save the utmost grace and charm and tenderness in Maria Carolina— even her anger was always virtuous and admirable. But the Queen had another and darker side to her character; there was a marked strain of cruelty in her nature, her ambition stopped at nothing, and at times she was almost ferocious in her desire for vengeance. The violence of her passions is shown by some of her letters to Ruffo. " I wish to warn you about another matter," she tells him on the 5th of April, " Rebellious Naples and her ungrateful citizens may make no terms. Order is to be re-established in that monstrous city by rewarding the faithful and inflicting exemplary punishments on the wicked." In another and later letter she says, "I am full of admiration for the depth of your thoughts, and the wisdom of your maxims. I must nevertheless confess that I am not of your opinion as to the advisability of dissembling and forgetting, or even of giving rewards, for the purpose of winning over the chiefs of the rogues. I do not hold this view from any spirit of revenge; that is a passion which is unknown to me. If, through anger, I speak as if I were possessed by that spirit, I feel that I have in reality no vengeance in my heart, but that I am carried away by my great contempt and indifference for these scoundrels.' 1

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In spite of the disclaimer of any motives of venge, it is an angry and passionate woman ho speaks in those letters. The stupid, heavy Ferdinand had more generosity of feeling towards is rebellious subjects; he winds up a long pistle to Ruffo by saying, " It is my intention thereafter, in accordance with my duty as a good Christian, and the loving father of my people, to forget the past entirely, and to grant to all a full and general pardon, which will protect them all from any consequences of any past transgression. I shall also forbid any investigation, believing as I do that their acts are due, not to natural perversity, but to fear and cowardice."

While Ruffo and his army were marching about Southern Italy, Nelson and his ships had been fully engaged. Nelson, unfortunately fettered by promises, was himself unable to leave Palermo; but his was the guiding head and hand. "My public correspondence," he wrote, "besides the business of sixteen sail-of-the-line, and all our commerce, is with Petersburg, Constantinople, the Consul at Smyrna, Egypt, the Turkish and Russian admirals, Trieste, Vienna, Tuscany, Minorca, Earl St. Vincent, and Lord Spencer. This over, what time can I have for any private correspondence ?" He had ordered the Portuguese squadron under his command to Messina to guard against the possible danger of a French invasion ; to Ball he had entrusted the siege of Malta; and

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when the time was ripe he sent Troubridge with a small squadron to blockade Naples. Thomas Troubridge played a considerable part in the anti-Jacobin crusade, and also later on had something to say as to Nelson's relations with Lady Hamilton. He was a very upright English gentleman, and so good a sea-officer that Nelson said of him, when he had the maddening misfortune to run his ship the Culloden on a shoal in Aboukir Bay just before the Battle of the Nile, " Captain Troubridge on shore is superior to captains afloat!" On another and later occasion he said, "Our friend Troubridge is as full of resources as his Culloden is full of accidents ; but I am now satisfied, that if his ship's bottom were entirely out, he would find means to make her swim." That was one of Nelson's generous little exaggerations; but another admiral, one more given to sarcasm than praise, stern old St. Vincent himself, said of Troubridge, that he was " the ablest adviser and best executive officer in the British navy, with honour and courage as bright as his sword." Troubridge was imbued with all Nelson's hearty hatred of the French ; to him, as to his admiral, the name of Jacobin was anathema, and he needed little pressing to bear in mind, as Nelson instructed him just before sailing, that " speedy reward and quick punishment is the foundation of good government." The appearance of the ships under Troubridge

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off Naples was a sign of hope to the loyalists and Lazzaroni, and a warning to the Jacobins that the days of the Parthenopean Republic were numbered. The islands of Ischia and Procida in the Bay were occupied in the name of the King of the Two Sicilies. The turn of the tide was soon visible. Troubridge wrote to Nelson—

"A person, just from Naples, tells me the Jacobins are pressing hard the French to remain ; they begin to shake in their shoes. Those of the lower order now speak freely. The rascally nobles, tired of standing as common sentinels, and going the rounds, say, if they had known as much as they do now, they would have acted differently."

So much for " noble-sentiment"!

On the 22nd of April the French evacuated Naples, only leaving behind a garrison of five hundred men in the Castle of St. Elmo. In communicating these doings to Lord Spencer,