MY DEAREST BELOVED EMMA: THE DEAR FRIEND OF MY BOSOM,--The
signal has been made that the enemy's combined fleet are coming
out of port. We have very little wind, so that I have no hopes
of seeing them before to-morrow. May the God of battles crown my
endeavours with success; at all events, I will take care that
my name shall ever be most dear to you and Horatia, both of whom
I love as much as my own life. And as my last writing before the
battle will be to you, so I hope in God that I shall live to
finish my letter after the battle. May Heaven bless you, prays
your
This was found unsigned on his desk. These are the last lines he wrote
to the woman he called his "wife in the sight of God." There is none
of the robust assurance of blazing deeds that he has in store for the
enemy which characterize some of his earlier letters to Emma, nor is
there any craving for continued existence or for extinction. But who
can read this melancholy farewell without being impressed with the
feeling that there is a subdued restraint to avoid uttering his
thoughts on inevitable fate and eternal sleep, lest it gives anxiety
and disheartens the woman he loved so well?
On the same day he wrote an affectionate letter to his daughter, which
is clearly intended as a supplementary outpouring of a full heart to
the mother whom he knew would have to read it. The tone and wording is
what a father might have written to a girl of fifteen instead of five.
There is a complete absence of those dainty, playful touches that
would delight a child of her age. In reality, it rather points to the
idea that it was intended not only as a further farewell to mother and
child, but as an historical epistle and a legacy to Horatia which she
would read in other days in connection with the great battle in which
he was to be engaged only a few hours after he had written it.
MY DEAREST ANGEL,--I was made happy by the pleasure of receiving
your letter of September the 19th, and I rejoice to hear you are
so very good a girl, and love my dear Lady Hamilton, who most
dearly loves you. Give her a kiss for me. The combined fleets of
the enemy are now reported to be coming out of Cadiz; and
therefore I answer your letter, my dearest Horatia, to mark to
you that you are ever uppermost in my thoughts. I shall be sure
of your prayers for my safety, conquest, and speedy return to
dear Merton and our dearest good Lady Hamilton.
Receive, my dearest Horatia, the affectionate blessing of your
Father,