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

At the beginning of 1810, Fate dealt her ; shrewd blow—her mother died. Mrs. Cadogai had been the greatest support and comfort t< Emma, and in all the vicissitudes of her caree there is no sign of anything but the most perfec

accord and mutual devotion between them. Emma was completely overcome by her loss, and more than a year afterwards wrote, " I have lost the best of mothers, my wounded heart, my comfort, all buried with Her. I can not now feel any pleasure but that of thinking and speaking of her/ 1

There was now only Horatia left, and with Nelson's daughter Emma Hamilton wandered to different places in London—from Bond Street to Albemarle Street, from thence to Piccadilly once more, and then to Dover Street. She might frequent the old haunts, but the old faces were gone, and she again involved herself in debt, for she still kept open house and presented some appearance of prosperity to the people who hung on to her reckless bounty. Then quite suddenly the crash came : she was arrested for debt, and only saved herself from prison by residing with poor Horatia within the rules of the King's Bench. This disaster did not continue very long ; she still had faithful friends, who came to her aid and stood bail, while the Boltons and the Matchams, instead of turning from her, evidently regarded her as a shamefully ill-treated woman. With that marvellous power of recovery with which she had been endowed by nature, and an 1 equally marvellous power of procuring funds or living on credit, Emma established herself again in Bond Street after this episode. But her

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resuscitation was short; in July, 1813, she was arrested for debt a second time, and had to return with Horatia to the narrow lodgings in Temple Place. Her confinement was not rigorous ; she could see her friends, and was allowed, for her health's sake, to drive out. But she was really ill, and her indomitable spirit was at last beginning to break under her accumulated troubles. The state of mind to which she was driven is shown by the way in which she attacked the innocent little girl, Horatia, to whom she was really devoted, and who was certainly more deserving of pity even than her unfortunate mother. On Easter Sunday of this year she wrote an extraordinary accusatory letter to her young daughter.

" Ah! Horatia," she cries, " if you had grown up as I wished you, what a joy, what a comfort might you have been to me ! For I have been constant to you, and willingly pleas'd for every manifestation you shew'd to learn and profitt of my lessons. ... I have weathered many a storm for your sake, but these frequent blows have kill'd me. Listen then from a mother, who speaks from the dead. Reform your conduct, or you will be detested by all the world, and when you shall no longer have my fostering arm to sheild you, woe betide you, you will sink to nothing." There is more in this strain, and she goes on, " I weep, and pray you may not be totally

lost; my fervent prayers are offered up to God for you. I hope you may become yet sensible of your eternal welfare. I shall go to join your father and my blessed mother, and may you on your deathbed have as little to reproach yourself as your once affectionate mother has."

There is something distinctly unbalanced in these reproaches to a child of twelve, and Emma was bewailing herself again in six months' time. "If my poor mother was living to take my part," she tells her young daughter, "broken as I am with greif and ill-health, I should be happy to breathe my last in her arms. I thank you for what you have done to-day. You have helped me nearer to God, and may God forgive you."

Poor Horatia!Poor Emma!

While she was still confined within the rules of King's Bench—her kind " City friend," Alderman Smith, eventually came to the rescue and bailed her out—a further trouble fell upon her. Some years earlier Nelson's letters to her had been stolen by some unfaithful servant or dependant, and in 1814, to her public discomfiture and private grief, they were published. Her last rag of reputation was torn from her, and the revelation of the Prince of Wales' episode, which so agitated Nelson in 1801, destroyed her last 1 chance of royal help. It is needless to inquire what were the comments of the scandal-mongers of the day. But as the criticism of Mrs. St.

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George—who had known both Nelson and th< Hamiltons at Dresden— is at once just and true it is worth transcribing. Of Nelson's letters sh< said—

"Though disgraceful to his principles ol morality on one subject, they do not appear t< me, as they do to most others, degrading to hii understanding. They are pretty much what evei man, deeply entangled, will express, when h< supposes but one pair of fine eyes will read hi< letters; and his sentiments on subjects uncoi nected with his fatal attachment are elevated-looking to his hearth and his home for futui happiness; liberal, charitable, candid, affectionate, indifferent to the common objects of pursuit, and clear-sighted in his general views of politics and life."

Before the publication of the "Nelson Letters," and while still residing within the rules of King's Bench Prison, Emma celebrated, for the last time on English soil, the anniversary of the Battle of the Nile. In inviting one or two of her remaining friends, she wrote—

"It is the first of August, do come, it is a day to me glorious, for I largely