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

10 reward, although justice was claimed for me

:>y the hero who lost his life in the performance

)f his duty to that country, in one of the most

Brilliant victories that was ever accomplished,

lifter a series of former services unexampled

ilmost in the history of the world.If I had

>argained for a reward beforehand, there can be

10 doubt but that it would have been given to

ne, and liberally; I hoped then not to want it.

do now stand in the utmost need of it, and surely

t will not now be refused to me.I accompany

his paper with a copy of what Lord Nelson

frote in the solemn moments which preceded

le action in which he fell; and I am still not

without a hope that the dying, earnest, entreaty

f such a man, in favour of a child he had adopted

nd was devotedly fond of, will be complied with,

s well as my own application."She concluded

lis memorial by expressing her faith in " the

istness and perfect fairness " of any Government

epartment to which her claims might be referred,

iut added, " If to the Naval one, where they in be well judged of, I should hope for due :tention."

Emma Hamilton always believed in the avy, and always liked seamen.To Earl St. ! incent she wrote—

" MY DEAR LORD, —A strong sense of the deep gard which you have ever shewn, for all that ;lates to the welfare of our country in general,

and consequently to its naval glory in particular; with the tender recollection, how dear you thus rendered yourself to the heart of our immortal and incomparable hero, whose ardent wish it was to see your Lordship always at the head of the Admiralty, a sentiment that still pervades the: bravest bosoms in the navy; have awakened in my heart a hope after so many years of anxiety and cruel disappointment, that the public services of importance, which it was my pride as well as duty to perform, while the wife of his Majesty*s Minister at the Court of Naples, may, possibly, through your Lordship's friendly and generous advice, and most able and active assistance, whicl" I now most earnestly solicit, but a short time longer remains either unacknowledged, or un rewarded, by my King and country. ... I wil not arouse the just indignation of your Lordship'.' great and honourable mind, by reciting the mani petty artifices, mean machinations, and baseb deceptive tenders of friendship, which hitherto have prevented Lord Nelson's dying request fron being duly heard, by those to whom it is s< peculiarly and pathetically addressed."

Poor Emma might well feel herself alone i the world so far as real friends went—hangers-o she always had about her so long as she possesse a penny. But of her real friends and the ol circle that had so pleased her, some were dea< some had gone away, and some were disguste

by her incurable extravagance and foolish passion for exaggeration. By this very Memorial to which she refers in her letter, she lost the support —rather a chilly support, but still influential and valuable to her—of Rose and Canning, owing to some unjustifiable statements she made about their promises to Nelson in regard to her future. Emma never could learn to tell the strict truth—it was almost always too plain and unadorned for her flamboyant taste. And before judging her very obvious failings in this respect and in others too harshly, it is well to remember ihe deep truth and deeper charity of the mad Ophelia's saying, " Lord, we know what we are, Nbut know not what we may be."

Some years before the production of this Prince Regent Memorial of 1813, Lady Hamilton lad come to financial grief. Merton Place, which she loved for its many associations and for all !:he improvements that she and Nelson had jplanned together, and she had carried out with a beckless disregard of cost, had to be sold, and her iffairs were taken in hand by some excellent men ;#ho desired to aid her and disentangle her from i.he wretched state in which she was then living. iFhey formed themselves into a committee, did ihe best they possibly could with her assets, and Cleared her of debt. Emma, of course, was vehemently grateful : " Goldsmid and my city Iriends came forward, and they have rescued me

from Destruction, Destruction brought on by Earl Nelsons having thrown on me the Bills for finishing Merton, by his having secreted the Codicil of Dying Nelson, who attested in his dying moments that I had well served my country. All these things and papers ... I have laid before my Trustees. They are paying my debts. I live in retirement, and the City are going to bring forward my claims."

Thus Emma was pulled out of the Slough of Despond—for a time. But " living in retirement " was against the grain with her ; whatever resolutions she may have taken she certainly managed to see plenty of society at Richmond, where she was residing at this time. The fear of debt could not check her passion for amusement. It may be that she clung so tenaciously to the light and stir of her little world because she felt how blank was the future, how dark the outer circle beyond the rays of the fire and the candlelight. Perhaps she did not dare to sit down and "look before and after and pine for what is not." It is no wonder if there are indications o melancholy