Nelson was greatly pleased with this gift, and ordered it placed upright
in his cabin. Finally, at the request of his friends, it was carried
below. He was eventually buried in it.
The joy at Napoleon's defeat was inexpressible. England made Nelson a
baron, with a pension of £2,000 a year while he lived, to descend to his
two male successors. The East India Company voted him £10,000, as they
had thus been saved from French conquest. The Emperor Paul of Russia
sent him his portrait set in diamonds, in a gold box. The Sultan of
Turkey sent a pelisse of sable fur valued at five thousand dollars, and
a diamond aigrette valued at eighteen thousand dollars, taken from the
royal turbans. The Sultan's mother sent a box set in diamonds valued at
five thousand dollars; the King of Sardinia a gold box set in diamonds;
the King of the Two Sicilies a sword which once belonged to Charles III.
of Spain. His friend Alexander Davison sent medals to the officers and
men costing £2,000. These were all greatly prized by the men.
Italy was as rejoiced at the defeat of the French as was England. When
the news reached Naples, both the queen and Lady Hamilton fainted. Lady
Hamilton wrote to Nelson of the queen, "She cried, kissed her husband,
her children, walked frantic about the room; cried, kissed and embraced
every person near her, exclaiming, O brave Nelson! O God, bless and
protect our brave deliverer! O Nelson, Nelson, what do we not owe you! O
victor, saviour of Italy! Oh that my swollen heart could now tell him
personally what we owe him!" She was the sister of Marie Antoinette,
and, of course, felt no love for the people who had put her beautiful
sister to death.
On Sept. 22 Nelson and his ships appeared off Naples. Hundreds of boats
and barges went out to meet them with music and banners. He describes
the scene in a letter to Lady Nelson, "I must endeavor to convey to you
something of what passed; but if it were so affecting to those who were
only united to me by bonds of friendship, what must it be to my dearest
wife, my friend, my everything which is most dear to me in this world?
Sir William Hamilton and his wife came out to sea, attended by numerous
boats with emblems, etc. They, my most respectable friends, had nearly
been laid up and seriously ill; first from anxiety, and then from
joy....
"Alongside came my honored friends; the scene in the boat was terribly
affecting; up flew her ladyship, and exclaiming, 'O God! is it
possible?' she fell into my arms more dead than alive. Tears, however,
soon set matters to rights; when alongside came the king. The scene was
in its way as interesting; he took me by the hand, calling me his
'Deliverer and Preserver,' with every expression of kindness." ...
The poor of Italy were no less enthusiastic. They brought cages of
birds, and opening them, allowed the little creatures to fly about the
ship, and alight upon the admiral's shoulder.
Nelson had been very ill, and was taken to the house of Sir William
Hamilton, where his wife nursed the admiral back to health. She arranged
a celebration for him on his fortieth birthday, Sept. 29. Eighteen
hundred people were entertained at a cost of two thousand ducats. "Every
ribbon, every button, has Nelson," etc., writes the admiral. "The whole
service is marked H. N., Glorious 1st of August!"
Encouraged by the victory of Nelson, a second coalition was now formed
against Napoleon, composed of Russia, Austria, England, Portugal,
Naples, and Turkey. Ferdinand of Naples engaged to raise eighty thousand
soldiers for the common cause. A force of thirty-two thousand Italians
were sent to Rome to drive out the French, but were defeated, and the
French in turn entered Naples and compelled the royal family to fly for
safety to Palermo.
Lady Hamilton, with great skill and courage, after having explored a
subterranean passage from the royal palace to the seaside, had two
millions and a half of royal treasures, paintings and the like, removed
to the English ships. She also assisted the king and his family secretly
to reach Nelson's barges on the night of Dec. 21. They were carried to
the Vanguard in a heavy sea.
On the night of Dec. 23 the fleet sailed. A dreadful storm arose; Nelson
says, "the worst I ever experienced since I have been at sea." Almost
all were ill, and Lady Hamilton, who was a good sailor, soothed and
comforted them. Sir William sat with a pistol in his hand, prepared to
shoot himself if the vessel sank. The little Prince Albert was taken ill
on the morning of Dec. 25, and died at seven o'clock that evening in
Lady Hamilton's arms.
Naples for a time was transformed by the French into the Parthenopæan
Republic, which later was abolished, and the insurgents put to death by
Ferdinand. Nelson has been censured, and justly, for the execution, on
board one of his ships, the Foudroyant, of Francesco Caracciolo, who
belonged to one of the noble families of Naples, and, with others, had
been promised protection by a British officer. Caracciolo was tried and
condemned as a rebel by officers of his own country, and Nelson decided
not to interfere. The prisons of Naples were indeed slaughter pens; but
wars are never humane, and struggles between despotism and liberty are
rarely bloodless.
Ferdinand rewarded Nelson with the Sicilian dukedom of Brontë, with an
estate worth about £3,000 per annum. Nelson at once gave from this
estate an annuity of £500 for life to his father. He had already given
out of the £10,000 voted him by the East India Company, five hundred
pounds each to his father, his brother-in-law, Mr. Bolton, his sister,
Mrs. Matcham, and his brothers Maurice and William. When his brother
Maurice died in April, 1801, Nelson gave his blind widow £100 a year
while he lived, and Lady Hamilton cared for her after his death. He
wrote to his wife, "If I were rich I would do more. To my father say
everything which is kind. I love, honor, and respect him as a father and
as a man, and as the very best man I ever saw. May God Almighty bless
you, my dear father, and all my brothers and sisters, is the fervent
prayer of your affectionate--Nelson."
The Queen of Naples gave Nelson the king's picture set in diamonds and
emeralds. She gave Lady Emma Hamilton her portrait set with diamonds,
with the words "Eterna Gratitudine" on the back, hanging it round her
neck by a chain of gold; to Sir William a gold snuffbox, with a picture
of the king and herself set in diamonds; the king sent Sir William and
his wife each a picture of himself richly set in jewels, worth a
thousand guineas. Lady Hamilton also received two coach-loads of costly
dresses from Queen Caroline, and a superb diamond necklace, with the
cipher of the names of all the royal children, ornamented by locks of
their hair. Emperor Paul of Russia sent her the cross of the Order of
Malta, the first Englishwoman upon whom the honor was ever bestowed.
The Island of Zante sent Nelson a golden-headed sword and a truncheon
set round with diamonds, thanking him "for having by his victory
preserved that part of Greece from the horrors of anarchy."
The French having been driven out of Italy, Nelson, in poor health,
asked to return to England. Sir William Hamilton had been superseded by
Hon. Arthur Paget, so he and his wife decided to return at the same
time. The queen and some of her children accompanied them to Vienna.
Here Prince Esterhazy entertained the party in regal style for four
days, a hundred grenadiers, six feet high, waiting at table. At Dresden
the party remained eight days, when two vessels were fitted up for their
conveyance down the Elbe to Hamburg. Everywhere great crowds gathered to
see the hero of the Nile. At Hamburg he met a venerable clergyman who
had travelled forty miles to ask the admiral to write in the parish
Bible. Here Nelson called upon the poet Klopstock. He also bought some
elegant lace trimming for a court dress for his wife.
On Oct. 31 they started for England on a mail packet, and reached
Yarmouth Nov. 6, 1800, after an absence of two years and seven months.
On landing in a harbor radiant with flags, his carriage was drawn by the
eager multitude to the inn; the freedom of the town was given him; and
then, with his officers and people of the town, he went to the church to
return thanks for his safe return to his country. He reached London
Sunday, Nov. 9, and went to Nerot's hotel, King Street, St. James's,
where his father and Lady Nelson had come from Norfolk to meet him. On
the following day the people took his horses from his carriage and drew
him from Ludgate Hill to Guild Hall, where he received the thanks of the
common council, and a golden-hilted sword studded with diamonds.
Rumors of Nelson's devotion to Lady Hamilton had already reached England
and his wife. She received him coldly. Shortly after this, while Lord
and Lady Nelson were with the Hamiltons at the theatre, Lady Nelson,
unable to control her feelings, fainted in the box where they were
sitting.
For two months Lord Nelson and his wife lived, as might be supposed,
most unhappily, when he determined to leave her forever, settling upon
her £1,600 per year. He wrote to his friend Davison, "Sooner than live
the life I did when last I came to England, I would stay abroad
forever." The last time he saw her, Jan. 13, 1801, before he left for
the Baltic, he said at parting, "I call God to witness there is nothing
in you or your conduct I wish otherwise."
In 1801 England found herself engaged in conflict with Denmark, which
had become an ally of Russia, Prussia, and Sweden, in naval rights. On
March 12, 1801, a fleet of fifty-two sail was sent into the Baltic from
England, Nelson acting as second in command under Sir Hyde Parker. On
March 16 the ship Invincible, of seventy-four guns, struck on a
sand-bank called Hammond's Knowl, and went down, taking four hundred
persons with her.
The harbor of Copenhagen was most strongly fortified. The city was
protected by defences which stretched a distance of about four miles.
The Danes had removed all the buoys, so that Nelson was obliged to make
soundings and replace them.
On the morning of April 1, the British fleet anchored within two leagues
of Copenhagen. On April 2, at five minutes past ten in the forenoon, the
battle began. Nelson's squadron being received with the fire of more
than a thousand guns. As some of his ships had become disabled, Admiral
Parker, at a distance, thinking that the fire was too hot for Nelson,
threw out the signal to retreat, knowing that if Nelson could possibly
continue the battle he would do so.
When told of the signal, Nelson put his glass to his blind eye, saying,
"I really do not see the signal! Keep mine for closer battle flying!
That's the way I answer such signals. Nail mine to the mast!"
The men fought heroically on both sides. The battle lasted for five
hours, men fighting knee-deep among the dead on the decks. The Danes
lost 1800 men, including prisoners, 6,000, and the English 253 killed
and 688 wounded.
Nelson said, "I have been in one hundred and five engagements in the
course of my life, but this has been the most terrible of all."
An armistice was effected, and the Crown Prince of Denmark gave a grand
banquet to the Danish commissioners and English officers. At the
banquet, Nelson praised the bravery of the Danes, and asked to be
introduced to Lieutenant Villemoes, a youth of seventeen, who, on a
floating battery or raft, with six small cannon and twenty-four men,
came under the very stern of Nelson's ship, the Elephant, and attacked
her. Twenty of his men were killed; but the boy-commander, standing up
to his waist among his dead comrades, fought till the truce was
proclaimed. Southey gives the number of guns as twenty-four, and the men
one hundred and twenty.
When the lad was brought before Nelson, he embraced him, and told the
prince that the youth deserved to be made an admiral. "If, my lord," was
the answer, "I were to make all my brave officers admirals, I should
have no captains or lieutenants in my service."
Nelson, brave to rashness himself, admired it in others. When, early in
1800, in the Mediterranean, Le Généreux, one of the ships that had
escaped at the battle of the Nile, was captured, Nelson patted the head
of a little midshipman, who was very pale, and asked him how he
relished the music. He told the boy how Charles XII. ran away from the
first shot he heard, but was afterwards called "the Great" for his
bravery. "I therefore hope much from you in future," said the admiral.
Nelson was made a viscount for the battle of Copenhagen. His estates and
titles were to go to his father, to his brother William, and then to the
male heirs of Nelson's sisters, Mrs. Bolton, and next Mrs. Matcham.
In very poor health he returned to England, and was welcomed to the home
of Sir William Hamilton, at 23 Piccadilly.
By the wish of Nelson, Lady Hamilton purchased a country home for him,
called Merton Place, in Surrey, eight miles from London. "It would make
you laugh," wrote Sir William, "to see Emma and her mother fitting up
pig-stys and hen-coops, and already the canal is enlivened with ducks,
and the cock is strutting with his hens about the walks.... I have lived
with our dear Emma several years. I know her merit, have a great opinion
of the head and heart that God Almighty has been pleased to give her,
but a seaman alone could have given a fine woman full power to choose
and fit up a residence for him without seeing it himself."
On Oct. 29, 1821, Viscount Nelson took his seat in the House of Lords.
The following year, in May, the Rev. Edmund Nelson, the father of the
admiral, was coming to live with his son and the Hamiltons at Merton
Place; but he died at Burnham Thorpe, April 26, at the age of
seventy-nine.
During the summer of 1802, Nelson journeyed to Wales with the family of
his brother, the Rev. William Nelson, and the Hamiltons, and everywhere
received the homage of the people. Oxford gave him the freedom of the
city in a gold box, and the degree of D.C.L. to him and to Sir William.
He passed under triumphal arches, medals were struck in his honor, and
crowds escorted him with lighted torches.
The next year, 1803, England and France, or, in reality, England and
Napoleon, were again at war. Nelson wrote a characteristic note to the
Premier:--
"HOUSE OF LORDS, 4 o'clock, March 9, 1803.
"Whenever it is necessary, I am _your_ admiral.