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

found himself stranded on half-pay, with no chance of promotion. As a last resource he went to Merton. When he arrived there he found Nelson in an irritable humour, declaring that he was " pestered to death by young gentlemen, his former shipmates." This was disconcerting, but Tom Allen, Nelson's old sailor-servant, "went in search of an able auxiliary, who entered the study, in the most pleasing shape—that of a lovely and graceful woman ; and, with her usual fascinating and playful manner, declared, 'His Lordship must serve me/ His countenance, which, until now, had been a thundercloud, brightened; and Lady Hamilton was the sun that lightened our hemisphere. She, with that ready wit possessed by the fair sex alone, set aside his scruples of asking a favour of the first Admiralty Lord, by dictating a strong certificate, which, under her direction, he wrote, * Now, my young friend/ said her ladyship, with that irresistible smile which gave such expression oi sweetness to her lovely countenance, 'obey m)

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directions minutely; send this to Lord St. Vincent, at Brentwood, so as to reach him on Sunday morning.' My commission as an officer was dated the same as the aforesaid certificate. May it be made up to thee in another and better world, sweet lady!" exclaims the grateful lieutenant, " for man's injustice in this—where thou hast been most foully calumniated—and thy sins and weaknesses attributed to their proper source: thy low birth and association of thy infant years, joined to the most extraordinary talent and beauty that ever adorned thy sex."

In the summer of this year the Hamiltons and Nelson and Charles Greville set out for a driving tour to Sir William's estates at Milford, which Greville had been managing for his uncle. Owing perhaps to seeing Milford Haven in company with Lady Hamilton, Nelson was struck with its suitability for a dockyard, and through his influence at the Admiralty one was established there on land belonging to the Hamiltons. Some years later the dockyard establishment was transferred to Pembroke. The tour turned out a triumphal progress for the admiral: in every town and hamlet he passed through, his countrymen came out to welcome and rejoice over him. There might be coldness and caution in high quarters, notably at Blenheim, which they visited, but the hearts of the people were warm. Emma herself partook in all the glory and all the plaudits;

and when she got back to Merton, exhausted with her exertions, but triumphant, she wrote exultantly, "We have had a most charming Tour which will Burst some of THEM.'* An explosive comment which is typical Emma!

The time was now drawing on when Emma's rightful protector was to leave her. Sir William's health had been slowly failing, and in the early spring of 1803 it was evident that he was very near his end. His wife and Nelson were constantly with him, caring for his last hours with a tenderness that would be strange in view of the facts, were human nature itself not capable of such strange complexities. Nelson had referred to Sir William as Emma's " uncle," and openly speculated upon his death. Emma had played the traitor to her husband and hidden the consequence without an apparent pang of compunction. Yet on the day he died she wrote, " Unhappy day for the forlorn Emma. Ten minutes past ten dear blessed Sir William left me." While Nelson said, "Our dear Sir William died at 10 minutes past Ten this morning in Lady Hamilton's and my arms without a sigh or a struggle. Poor Lady H. is as you may expect desolate."

In all the curious drama of Emma's life there is surely no episode so inexplicable as this of Sir William dying in the arms of his weeping and faithless wife, while Nelson soothed his last moments. Whether Sir William Hamilton

LADY HAMILTON AS A NUN

GEORGE RO.MNEY

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suspected anything of the truth must remain a mystery. It seems impossible to believe that he, very much a man of the world and not ignorant of his wife's upbringing, should have been so blind to a situation at which many people were broadly hinting. Yet never by word or sign did he display the least doubt of either his friend or his wife, and in his will he left a miniature of Emma to Nelson: " The copy of Madame Le Brunn's picture of Emma in enamel by Bone, I give to my dearest friend Lord Nelson, Duke of Bronte, a very small token of the great regard I have for his lordship, the most virtuous, loyal, and truly brave character I ever met with. God bless him, and shame fall on all those who do not say Amen."

The conduct of all the three is best characterized by Mr. A. C. Swinburne's saying of Mary Stuart: " That there are fewer moral impossibilities than would readily be granted by the professional moralist, those students of human character who are not professional moralists may very readily admit."

Captain Hardy's comment on the affair was somewhat curt: " Sir William Hamilton died on Sunday afternoon, and was quite sensible to the last. How her Ladyship will manage to Live with the Hero of the Nile now, I am at a loss to know, at least in an honourable way."

Part of this problem was temporarily solved

by the outbreak of war with France, when Nelson was given the command of the Mediterranean, for " Buonaparte knows that if he hoists his flag it will not be in joke." Nelson's views on the renewal of the war are shown in the noble words he used in the