Nelson's Lady Hamilton (16 page)

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God bless you, my dear Sir. I will not say how glad I shall be to see you. Indeed I cannot describe to you my feelings on your being so near us.—Ever, Ever, dear Sir, Your affte. and gratefull. EMMA HAMILTON "

Following this note to Nelson came another hurried line, evidently of the same date—

" DEAR SIR, —I send you a letter I have received this moment from the Queen. Kiss it, and send it back by Bowen, as I am bound not to give any of her letters.—Ever your EMMA."

To Mr. Walter Sichel belongs the credit of having unravelled a tangle of misconjecture, and brought forward Nelson's well-known letter as the immediate answer to this note of Lady Hamilton's. The two fit together with exactitude—

" MY DEAR LADY HAMILTON, —I have kissed the Queen's letter. Pray say I hope for the honor of kissing her hand when no fears will intervene, assure her Majesty that no person has her felicity more than myself at heart and that the sufferings of her family will be a Tower of Strength on the day of Battle, fear not the event, God is with us, God Bless you and Sir William, pray say I cannot stay to answer his letter.— Ever yours faithfully. HORATIO NELSON"

On this letter Emma afterwards wrote, " This letter I received after I had sent the Queen's letter for receiving our ships into their ports, for the Queen had decided to act in opposition to the King, who would not then break with France, and our Fleet must have gone down to Gibraltar to have watered, and the battle of the Nile would not have been fought, for the French fleet would have got back to Toulon."

The natural conclusion to draw from these documents is that the Queen's letter, forwarded to Nelson by Emma, contained promises of further letters to the Governors of Sicilian ports —not simply the Queen's general order which Emma had obtained for him already, but something which was not sent to him till later. In the Codicil to his Will, Nelson says—

" The British fleet under my command could never have returned a second time to Egypt had not Lady Hamilton's influence with the Queen of Naples caused letters to be wrote to the Governor of Syracuse, that he was to encourage the fleet to be supplied with everything, should they put into any port in Sicily. We put into Syracuse, and received every supply ; went to Egypt and destroyed the French fleet."

But before he went to Egypt that second triumphant time he had a futile voyage to Alexandria, bringing him nothing but mental distress

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and disappointment. He longed to " try Buonaparte on a wind/' and missed the opportunity— which would have changed the destinies of Europe—by a sail's length, as it were. Rewrote to his Commander-in-Chief from Alexandria, explaining his failure, and submitting with courageous dignity to the possibility of censure and recall:—

" I am before your Lordship's judgment, which in the present case I feel is the tribunal of my country, and if, under all circumstances, it is decided that I am wrong, I ought, for the sake of our country, to be superseded; for at this moment, when I know the French are not in Alexandria, I hold the same opinion as off Cape Passaro— viz. that under all circumstances I was right in steering for Alexandria, and by that opinion I must stand or fall. However erroneous my judgment may be, I feel conscious of my honest intentions, which I hope will bear me up under the greatest misfortune that could happen to me as an officer—that of your Lordship's thinking me wrong."

Disappointed, puzzled, driven by his eager and anxious mind, for once failing to take into account the possibility that his own fleet might have outsailed Buonaparte's unwieldy armada, Nelson turned from Alexandria and stretched over to the coast of Caramania, and then, in distress for the safety of the Two Sicilies, returned

to Syracuse, having, in his own words, "gone a round of six hundred leagues with an expedition incredible," and yet come back "as ignorant of the situation of the enemy as I was twenty-seven days ago!"

What he suffered during the anxieties and uncertainties of the chase, under the burden of his tremendous responsibilities, is shown by his saying, " On the i8th" [the day before he anchored at Syracuse] " I had near died, with the swelling of some of the vessels of the heart. More people, perhaps, die of broken hearts than we are aware of." Many years later he told Troubridge, " Do not fret at anything, I wish I never had, but my return to Syracuse in 1798, broke my heart, which on any extraordinary anxiety now shows itself, be that feeling pain or pleasure."

At Syracuse the Governor at first made difficulties about admitting more than four English ships; but eventually, under the influence of some talisman from the Queen, the difficulties melted away, and the whole of Nelson's fleet was refreshed. He wrote gratefully to Sir William and Lady Hamilton—

" MY DEAR FRIENDS, —Thanks to your exertions, we have victualled and watered: and surely watering at the Fountain of Arethusa we must have victory. We shall sail with the first

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breeze, and be assured I will return either crowned with laurel, or covered with cypress."

And so Nelson and his " band of brothers " once more set their faces towards Egypt.

CHAPTER IX

AFTER THE NILE

THE long pursuit was ended. It was no longer quest but conquest when on the late afternoon of the ist of August, 1798, Nelson sighted the French fleet anchored in Aboukir Bay. It was near sunset; he had no pilots, the coast was strewn with shoals; but to his inspired determination these were small things ; the long-sought enemy was before him. The French flattered themselves that for the night, at least, they were safe. They did not know the English admiral. Like a thunderbolt of war, Nelson fell upon them, irresistible and terrible. All through the hours of dark the battle raged close by the Egyptian shore—lit for a time by the flaming torch of the burning Orient, the great French flagship, the thunder of whose explosion was followed by a stunning silence, an awestruck pause, as the seamen stood at their guns with the linstocks burning unheeded in their hands, gazing at the appalling spectacle. When morning broke the French fleet was annihilated—taken, burnt,

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or sunk. In its suddenness, one of the most dramatic battles of history; in its completeness, one of the most momentous—the Nile stands out as Nelson's most dazzling achievement. In Mahan's words, " The blow had struck home and resounded through the four quarters of the world."

Nelson might well call it not a victory but a conquest, for its effects were far-reaching. Napoleon's plans were completely undone ; his Army of the Pyramids was untouched, but it was no longer a danger. " The French army is in a scrape," wrote Nelson, with his usual strategic insight. " They are up the Nile without supplies. The inhabitants will allow nothing to pass by land, nor H. N. by water."

The joy at Naples, when the news of the overwhelming victory arrived, can only be measured by some knowledge of the previous dejection of the Neapolitan court and the constant menace under which it had been dwelling ever since the outbreak of the French Revolution. From the mouth of the Nile on the 8th of August, with the awe of his great triumph still upon him, Nelson wrote very simply to Sir William Hamilton: " Almighty God has made me the happy instrument in destroying the enemy's fleet; which, I hope, will be a blessing to Europe."

Captain Capel and Lieutenant Hoste brought the splendid news to Naples in the Mutine, and

"ARIADNE"

GEORGE RO.MNEY

were received with acclaim. Maria Carolina's raptures far outstepped the usual bounds of royal decorum; she wept and laughed and walked up and down in a passion of relief. Emma, as might be expected, did not hide her light under a bushel. It was the most glorious occasion that ever a woman had lived to take part in. Nelson was her countryman, the friend of her husband and herself, and they had aided him to this superb victory. The state of almost hysterical exultation into which she was thrown is best shown by the letter she wrote to Nelson on the 8th of September:—

"My DEAR, DEAR SIR, —How shall I begin, what shall I say to you ? 'Tis impossible I can write, for since last Monday I am delerious with joy, and assure you I have a fevour caused by agitation and pleasure. God, what a victory! Never, never has there been anything half so glorious, so compleat. I fainted when I heard the joyfull news, and fell on my side and am hurt, but [am] now well of that. I shou'd feil it a glory to die in such a cause. No, I wou'd not like to die till I see and embrace the Victor of the Nile. How shall I describe to you the transports of Maria Carolina, 'tis not possible. She fainted and kissed her husband, her children, walked about the room, cried, kissed, and embraced every person near her, exclaiming, Oh,

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brave Nelson, oh, God bless and protect our brave deliverer, oh, Nelson, Nelson, what do we not owe to you, oh Victor, Savour of Itali, oh^ that my swolen heart coud now tell him personally what we owe to him !

"You may judge, my dear Sir, of the rest, but my head will not permit me to tell you half of the rejoicing. The Neapolitans are mad with joy, and if you wos here now, you wou'd be killed with kindness. Sonets on sonets, illuminations, rejoicings; not a French dog dare shew his face. How I glory in the honner of my Country and my Countryman ! I walk and tread in air with pride, feiling I was born in the same land with the victor Nelson and his gallant band. But no more, I cannot, dare not, trust myself, for I am not well. Little dear Captain Hoste will tell you the rest. He dines with us in the day, for he will not sleep out of his ship, and we Love him dearlyo He is a fine, good lad. Sir William is delighted with him, and I say he will be a second Nelson. If he is only half a Nelson, he will be superior to all others.

" I send you two letters from my adorable queen. One was written to me the day we received the glorious news, the other yesterday. Keep them, as they are in her own handwriting. I have kept copies only, but I feil that you ought to have them. If you had seen our meeting after the battle, but I will keep it all for your arrival.

I coo'd not do justice to her felling nor to my own, with writing it; and we are preparing your appartment against you come. I hope it will not be long, for Sir William and I are so impatient to embrace you. I wish you cou'd have seen our house the 3 nights of illumination. 'Tis, 'twas covered with your glorious name. Their were 3 thousand Lamps, and their shou'd have been 3 millions if we had had time. All the English vie with each other in celebrating this most gallant and ever memorable victory. Sir William is ten years younger since the happy news, and he now only wishes to see his friend to be completely happy. How he glories in you when your name is mentioned. He cannot contain his joy. For God's sake come to Naples soon. We receive so many Sonets and Letters of congratulation. I send you some of them to shew you how your success is felt here. How I felt for poor Troubridge. He must have been so angry on the sandbank, so brave an officer! In short, I pity those who were not in the battle. I wou'd have been rather an English powder-monkey, or a swab in that great victory, than an Emperor out of it, but you will be so tired of all this. Write or come soon to Naples, and rejoin your ever sincere and obliged friend.

"EMMA HAMILTON"

There is something of the real heroic ring in

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that letter, in spite of its extravagance and lack of balance, its extraordinary demonstrativeness. But if the letter is somewhat extraordinary, so were the circumstances. Emma would have been less than English had she not carried a swelling heart in her breast and looked upon Nelson with eyes of worship. Triumphs at sea there were in the memory of men then living—• the glorious ist of June, Rodney's Battle of the Saints, and, earlier, Hawke's great victory of Quiberon Bay ; but the lustre of the Nile eclipsed them all. Moreover, to Emma the older admirals were names, and no more ; but Nelson she knew; Nelson she had seen and spoken with.

Long had Emma yearned for great events and when she found herself in the very midst of an unparalleled occasion, she missed no single moment, omitted no single sign of rejoicing. Indeed, her festivities were as exuberant as herself. The greatness of the time must be symbolized in every way. She tells the victorious admiral, " My dress from head to foot is alia Nelson. Ask Hoste. Even my shawl is in Blue with gold anchors all over. My earrings are Nelson's anchors; in short, we are be-Nelsoned all over."