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

of invasion, looking vith rapacious eyes across "the ruffled strip of alt," which was all that barred their progress ! o London; but that was an insurmountable carrier, as fate and Nelson were to prove. " I 't say the French can't come," said wise old Vincent; " I only say they can't come by

The French fleet was in three divisions— jnty ships at Brest, ten at Toulon, five at :hefort.With these three squadrons, Napo-m's object was so to decoy and bewilder the •itish fleet that he might obtain that temporary imand of the Channel which would make >sible the invasion of England.By striking three directions he hoped to confuse the real ic. The ships from Toulon and Rochefort to proceed independently to the West lies, rendezvous there and do what damage

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they could, and return to Rochefort together. The Brest division was to land an army corps in Ireland, and then to cover the crossing of the troops waiting at Boulogne.

It must be remembered that Nelson had not the key to these Napoleonic schemes. We see ( the whole huge combination ; he saw only a little bit of it—that the Toulon fleet which he had been watching had at last put to sea. Amid all the maze of possible French motives and very evident English dangers, Nelson had one thread to guide him : his lifelong determination, on all occasions and wherever possible, to find and destroy the French fleet. The old fire came down on him and the old anguish of anxiety. " I am in a fever," he wrote; " God send I may find them !" He went to Egypt after them, and returned disconsolate, to find that the French had put back into Toulon, much battered by the storms and the encounter with the open ses after so many months in harbour. " Buonaparte,' wrote Nelson later, "has often made his brag! that our Fleet would be worn out by keeping the sea,—that his was kept in order, and increasing by staying in Port; but he now finds, I fane) if Emperors hear truth, that his Fleet suffer more in one night than ours in one year."

Buonaparte's first combinations had broken u in some disarray ; his squadrons had made useles outings and failed to meet, while the British wer

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still masters of the sea-situation.But a second effort soon followed.The Toulon fleet broke out again, and made for the West Indies, and once more Nelson followed. His long, close chase to the West Indies and back again was unsuccessful in its object of catching the French fleet; but Villeneuve, with Nelson so close on his track, could do nothing save fly.Jamaica was I saved, the sugar ships were saved, and, driven |irresistibly by the terrible British admiral, the I French fled back to Europe, where, owing to jthe warning sent by Nelson, they were met off iCape Finisterre by Sir Robert Calder. After ja partial fleet action, Villeneuve put into Vigo, and a month later retreated to Cadiz.So Napoleon's sea-plans were upset; Nelson's vigilance had defeated them, and he was free to turn his face homewards—for the last time.

He reached Merton on the igth of August, find all his agitated and happy family assembled receive him.But warm as was Nelson's affec->n for his brother and sisters and their children, was Emma and the little dark-eyed Horatia linging to her skirts, who made the centre and ie radiance of his home.Each day as it fled is precious and too short.He was happy and tore at peace than he had been for years in his mind; but over all hung the foreboding lat his work was not yet finished, that this ;pite was only snatched before the storm of

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war once more broke around his head. After a short week or two the summons came : England needed Nelson for the last and final effort, an< without a thought of self he gave up all he hel< most dear and went forth to fight his last battle.

Emma Hamilton was a brave woman, as sufficiently proved by her past actions, but sh< did both herself and Nelson a wrong when sh< later claimed that it was she who spurred the hero to his final sacrifice. Harrison's version of the story (written under her influence) is well known; she tells it again in a letter to Nelson's chaplain, Dr. Scott, written nearly a year after the admiral's death. " Did I ever keep him at home ?" she asks. " Did I not share in his glory ? Even this last fatal victory, it was I bid him go forth. Did he not pat me on the back, call me brave Emma, and said, ' If there were more Emmas there would be more Nelsons' ?" Instead of her having to urge him to his duty, impartial study of Nelson's correspondence reveals that it was he who was constantly setting a high ideal of devotion to England before Emma, Two years earlier he had written to her—

" The call of our country, is a duty which you would, deservedly, in the cool moments of reflection, reprobate, was I to abandon : and I should feel so disgraced, by seeing you ashamed of me! No longer saying—' This is the man who has saved his country! This is he who is the first

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to