Nelson's Lady Hamilton by Meynell Esther

Author:Meynell, Esther
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Hamilton, Emma, Lady, 1761?-1815, Nelson, Horatio Nelson, Viscount, 1758-1805
Publisher: London : Methuen

244 NELSON'S LADY HAMILTON

Possibly it was felt at home that Nelson's ardour for the cause of his Sicilian Majesty had somewhat overstepped the bounds, and unpleasant rumours were getting back to England of the undue influence of Lady Hamilton and the extravagant scenes at Palermo. The impression made upon Lord Keith by the Hamilton household, of which Nelson was now a far more important member than Sir William, is shown by his writing early in 1800 to the Honourable Arthur Paget, who succeeded Sir William Hamilton as British Minister: "Anything absurd coming from the quarter you mention does not surprise me. The whole was a scene of fulsome vanity and absurdity all the long eight days I was at Palermo."

But Nelson had already reached the point at which he could see no wrong in anything that Emma said or did—she embodied perfection in his partial eyes.

His somewhat excessive devotion to the Sicilian royalties was, however, strained almost to breaking-point at times. Ferdinand was not a statesman, and would not see the force of the reasons Nelson urged for his return to Naples to once more take up the affairs of his kingdom. "My situation here is indeed an uncomfortable one," the admiral wrote to Earl Spencer, "for plain common sense points out that the King should return to Naples, but nothing can move

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