The story of Lady Hamilton (9 page)

BATTLE OF THE NILE, AND AFTER

for being foolish about a woman who has art enough to make fools of many wiser than an admiral."

Though for awhile Nelson might not seem clear "whether hewill gohome," hehad little doubt about it when at the end of April Sir William Hamilton presented his letters of recall. If the Hamiltons were going home he was going too; "I go with our dear friends Sir William and Lady Hamilton," he wrote to Minto. One of these dear friends had become so much more than a dear friend to him that he was determined he would not be parted from her, though the whole of Europe might gossip, though his patient wife in England might grieve and wonder. But the violence of his passion for Emma was eclipsing all his upright principles of right and wrong.

It may be imagined with what regrets and griei Emma said farewell to the Italy that had seen her triumphs, that harmonised so well with her own Southern luxury-living temperament. She was leaving a land of sun and colour, an easy-going people,for her own 103

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country with its far more critical and censorious public. A cold breath must have struck her at the thought of England: evenher somewhat blunted susceptibilities must have realised that not the finest of her "Attitudes" would be held excuse for her general behaviour. Most of all, she must have known that it would be impossible for Nelson to live with herself and Sir William in the easy way he had done at Naples and Palermo—he had a wife in England.

Nelson and the Hamiltons returned home not by sea, for Lord Keith would not grant a ship, saying contemptuously that " Lady Hamilton had had command of the Fleet long enough," butby way of the Continent, Vienna, Prague, Dresden, and Hamburg. In this procession through Europe Emma Hamilton was particularly flamboyant—it might seem that she meant to display before everyone howgreatwas her hold upon Nelson. Certain it is that at no time of her varied career is she so little attractive—everyone who met the Nelson-Hamilton party leaves behind in

LADY HAMILTON EN SIBYLLE Painted by Mine, le Brun ; engraved by Greveden

BATTLE OF THE NILE, AND AFTER

their diaries and letters the impression of turning to stare with raised eyebrows at Emma sounding the loud timbrel. But Nelson was fathoms deep in love, he thought all her actions and attitudes perfection. There was probably a strain of defiance in him too, for on the 6th of November 1800, when he landed at Yarmouth in his native county of Norfolk, his first appearance in England since the glorious victory of the Nile, it was with Lady Hamilton hanging on his arm.

CHAPTER FIVE

LORD NELSON'S EMMA HAMILTON

CHAPTER FIVE

LORD NELSON'S EMMA HAMILTON

LORD NELSON MET HIS WIFE AGAIN AFTER hislongabsence—an absence filled with pub-licand privateeventsof the most momentous nature—at Nerot's Hotel in St James's Street, when he reached London. It was his wish, not her negligence, that had prevented her coming to Yarmouth to welcome him. But herwelcomemust have been a somewhat uncertain one—anotherwoman stood between them, for though Lady Nelson had not then realised how completely she had been supplanted, she must have been full of natural fears. It is evident that at the beginning she endeavoured to put as good an aspect upon affairs as possible, she had written to Yarmouth to ask Sir William and Lady Hamilton to stay with herself and husband at Round Wood. But the visit never took place—the inevitable explosion occurred in London. Nelson at first endeavoured to believe it possible for Lady Hamilton and his wife to live together on friendly terms, to believe thatsomehowtheimpossiblesituation might 109

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be adjusted. But he soon saw that things looked different in England, the Mediterranean atmosphere, the Mediterranean glamour, were gone. "This place of London but ill-suits my disposition," he remarked with bitterness. The misery of the situation was working on his mind, and there can be little doubt that, quite apart from the moral wrong of which he was guilty, he treated his wife with scant courtesy and no consideration whatever for her most justly injured feelings. Emma Hamilton, in attempted justification of herself and Nelson, laid stress on Lady Nelson's bad temper, declaring that it drove her Lord into wandering wretchedly through the streets of London all one night, till at last he found refuge at Sir William's house in Grosvenor Square.

If Lady Nelson displayed ill-temper she had reason for it, Nelson apparently made little, if any, attempt to hide his entire devo-tionto Lady Hamilton. Hehadgivenherhis heart, and expected that shortly she would give him what he had always longed for—

no

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a child of his own. Therefore, as Miss Cornelia Knight, who had travelled with the Nelson-Hamilton party through Europe, says,hefelt it necessary u to devote himself more and more to Lady Hamilton for the purposeof what he called supportingher/'Itwaswith thisideaof " supporting" her that he wentwith Sir William and Lady Hamilton to spend the Christmas of i8oowith"Vathek"Beckford at Font-hill Abbey. His own wife he left behind in lodgings at Arlington Street. The callousness of the action was totally against Nelson's nature in its normal state—but his passion for Emma, which had taken completeposses-sion of him, blinded him to everything but her needs and her wishes.

Before they went to Fonthill Abbey William Beckford wrote to Lady Hamilton of the Hero of the Nile : " I exist in the hopes of seeing Fonthill honoured by his victorious presence, and if his engagements permit his accompanying you here, we shall enjoy a few comfortable days of repose, uncontaminated by the sights and prattle of drawing-room in

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parasites." Knowing Emma's tastes he flattered her in the manner she liked, calling her a "superior being," and saying, " You must shine steadily. . . . That light alone which beams from your image, ever before myfancy, like a vision of the Madonna della Gloria, keeps my eyes sufficiently open to subscribe myself with tolerabledistinctness."Butthose gilded remarks hardly represented his real opinion, for many years later,replyingto the question whether Lady Hamilton was a fascinating woman, he said:—

"I never thought her so. She was somewhat masculine, but symmetrical in figure, so that Sir William called her his Grecian. She was full in person, not fat, but embonpoint. Her carriage often majestic, rather than feminine. Not at all delicate, ill-bred, often very affected, a devil in temper when set on edge. She had beautiful hair and displayed it. Her countenance was agreeable, fine, hardly beautiful, but the outline excellent. She affected sensibility, but felt none—was artful; and no wonder, she had been trained

LADY HAMILTON AS A NUN PRAYING By George Roinnev

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in the Court of Naples—a fine school for an English woman of any stamp. Nelson was infatuated. She could make him believeany-thing."

Soon after Nelson's return to his wife in Arlington Street, the final rupture came. Driven beyond endurance bysome reference of her husband to " dear Lady Hamilton," LadyNelsonrose upfrom the breakfast table and exclaimed, "I am sick of hearing of dear Lady Hamilton, and am resolved that you shall give up either her or me." Whereupon the Admiral said, " Take care, Fanny, what you say. I love you sincerely ; but I cannot forget my obligations to Lady Hamilton, or speak of her otherwise than with affection and admiration." " Without one soothing word or gesture," says Nelson's solicitor, William Haslewood, who was present at this unhappy scene, " but muttering something about her mind being made up, Lady Nelson left the room, and shortly after drove from the house. They never lived together again."

In itself the final quarrel was trivial, but H3 H

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things had reached the breaking-point. Though Lady Nelson later begged that the breach between them might be healed, he wasadamant and his decision final. " Living I have done all in my power for you,"he said, having made heran ampleallowance,"and if dead, you will find I have done the same; therefore, my only wish is to be left to myself." Thenceforward he devoted himself to England and to Emma.

No qualms of conscience seemed to have disturbed Emma. With extreme bad taste she nicknamed Lady Nelson " Tom Tit," and took visible delight in her discomfiture. She tells Mrs William Nelson, whom she vows is so " congenial," " Not so with Tom Tit, for there was an antipathy not to be described."

But Nelson could see no fault in her, and if possible he loved her more dearly than before, when at the close of January 1801, their child Horatia was born. This event apparently was so well managed by Emma that no one, save her own old mother, knew it had happened. It will always remain a

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mystery as to whether Sir William Hamilton was as much in the dark as to the state of affairs between his wife and Nelson, as he appeared to be. He was old and adverse to rows, maybe he thought it the wiser part to appear ignorant. Any way, the child Horatia, though smuggled out of the house soon after her birth, was later on brought back again quite openly, with a train of factious circumstances to account for her appearance.

At this time Nelson had hoisted his flag as Second in Command ofthe Channel Fleet, and during the enforced separation from his " Wife in the sight of Heaven" some method of correspondence safer than using their own names had to be discovered,so,to servetheir need, a Mr and Mrs Thompson were invented— Thompson supposed to be an officer in Nelson's own ship—his wife and child on shore under Lady Hamilton's kind care. The disguise frequently wears very thin. In one of the " Thompson " letters Nelson says, " I cannot write, I am so agitated by this young man at my elbow, I believe he

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is foolish, he does nothing but rave about you and her. I own I participate in his joy."

His own voice speaks very clearly through the veil of another " Thompson " letter:—

" I sit down, my dear Mrs T., by desire of poor Thompson to write you a line, not to assure you of his eternal love and affection for you and his dear child, but only to say that he is well and as happy as he can be separated from all which he holds dear in this world. He has no thoughts separated from your love and your interest. They are united with his; one fate, one destiny, he assures me, awaits you both. What can I say more ? Only to kiss his child for him : and love him as truly, sincerely, and faithfully as he does you; which is from the bottom of his soul. He desires that you will more and more attach yourself todear Lady Hamilton."

Emma kept the Admiral's letters to her against his express wish, for he begged her to burn them, for fear they fell into other

LORD NELSON'S EMMA HAMILTON hands, as he burnt hers. Therefore it is that we have only Nelson's side of this Thompson correspondence.

While Nelson was wearing out his heart in absence at sea, Emma was indulging in the social gaieties which she loved ; she and Sir William were established in a house in Piccadilly, giving dinners and entertainments. The Prince of Wales invited himself to dinner, as he wished to hear Emma sing, and the news of this threw Nelson into a very passion of jealousy and fear and rage— " Good God ! " he cried, « He will be next to you, and telling you soft things." But after all the dinner fell through, and there was no need to test the truth of a prophecy made of her at Dresden, " She will captivate the Prince of Wales, whose mind is as vulgar as her own, and play a great part in England." Nelson called her his " Saint " and " Guardian Angel," but his agitation at the thought of her meeting the First Gentleman in Europe was pitiable. Emma, however, took the matter very calmly. She en-117

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joyedsuccess,andcould not understandNel-son's finer scruples of the heart. Even before Nelson's death she was beginning only too visibly to show that coarsening which marked her so lamentably at the end. But we have one little picture of her at this time whichshows her still "the same Emma,"still ardent in her excitability as of old. It was after the news of the Battle of the Baltic had reached them, and Sir William wrote to Nelson, " You would have laughed to have seen what I saw yesterday. Emma did not know whether she was on her head or heels, —in such a hurry to tell you the great news that she could utter nothing but tears of joy and tenderness." It was some time after the battle before Nelson was able to return to England. Once more he landed at Yarmouth, and hastened to join his Emma. From London they all went to spend some time at Boxhill and Staines. The country pleasures he there enjoyed probably increased Nelson's desire—the true sailor's dream—for a country home of his own.