Witness--Henry Blackwood
T. M. Hardy
Nelson ordered the "Temeraire," the fighting "Temeraire"--the ship of
which Ruskin was to write the finest piece of prose-poetry ever
penned--to lead the charge, then saw to it that the order could not be
carried out, for the "Victory" led.
By noon Nelson had gotten several men into the king-row. Three of the
enemy's ships had struck, two were on fire, and four were making a
desperate endeavor to escape the fate that Nelson had prepared for them.
At one o'clock, Nelson's own ship, the "Victory," had grappled with the
"Redoubtable" and was chained fast to her. Nelson's men had shot the
hull of the "Redoubtable" full of holes and once set fire to her. Then,
thinking the vessel had struck, since her gunners had ceased their work,
Nelson ordered his own men to cease firing and extinguish the flames on
the craft of the enemy.
Just at this time a musket-ball, fired from the yards of the
"Redoubtable," struck Nelson on the shoulder and passed down through the
vertebrae. He fell upon the deck, exclaiming to Captain Hardy who was
near, "They have done for me now, Hardy--my back is broken."
He was carried below, but the gush of blood into the lungs told the
tale: Nelson was dying. He sent for Hardy, but before the captain could
be found the hurrahing on the deck told that the "Redoubtable" had
surrendered. A gleam of joy came into the one blue eye of the dying man
and he said, "I would like to live one hour just to know that my plans
were right--we must capture or destroy twenty of them."
Hardy came and held the hand of his friend. "Kiss me, Hardy--I am
dying--tell Lady Hamilton that my last words were of her--good by!" and
he covered his face and the stars on his breast with a handkerchief, so
that his men might not recognize the dead form of their chief as they
hurried by at their work.
Nelson was dead--but Trafalgar was won.
* * * * *
Lady Hamilton was unfortunate in having her history written only by her
enemies--written with goose-quills. Taine says: "The so-called best
society in England is notoriously corrupt and frigidly pious. It places
a premium on hypocrisy, a penalty on honesty, and having no virtues of
its own, it cries shrilly about virtue--as if there were but one, and
that negative." Nelson in his innocence did not know English society,
otherwise he would not have commended Lady Hamilton to the gratitude of
the English. It was a little like commending her to a pack of wolves.
The sum of ten thousand pounds was voted to each of Nelson's sisters,
but not a penny to Lady Hamilton, "my wife before the eyes of God," as
he himself expressed it.
Fortunately, an annuity of four hundred pounds had been arranged for
Horatia, the daughter of Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton, and this saved
Lady Hamilton and her child from absolute want. As it was, Lady Hamilton
was arrested on a charge of debt, imprisoned, and practically driven out
of England, although the sisters of Lord Nelson believed in her, and
respected her to the last. Lady Hamilton died in France in Eighteen
Hundred Thirteen.
Her daughter, Horatia Nelson, became a strong, excellent and beautiful
woman, passing away in Eighteen Hundred Eighty-one. She married the
Reverend Philip Ward, of Teventer, Kent, and raised a family of nine
children. One of her sons moved to America and made his mark upon the
stage, and also in letters. The American branch spell the name "Warde."
In England several of the grandchildren of Lord Nelson have made the
name of "Ward" illustrious in art and literature.
Mrs. Ward wrote a life of her mother, but a publisher was never found
for the book, and the manuscript was lost or destroyed. Some extracts
from it, however, were published in the London "Athenaeum" in Eighteen
Hundred Seventy-seven, and the picture of Lady Hamilton there presented
was that of a woman of great natural endowments: a welling heart of
love; great motherly qualities, high intellect and aspiration, caught in
the web of unkind condition in her youth, but growing out of this and
developing a character which made her the rightful mate of Nelson, the
invincible, Nelson, the incorruptible, against whose loyalty and honesty
not even his enemies ever said a word, save that he fell a victim to his
love, his love for one woman.
Loveless, unloved and unlovable Tammas the Titan, from Ecclefechan,
writing in spleen says: "Nelson's unhappy affair with a saucy jade of a
wench has supplied the world more gabble than all his victories." And
possibly the affair in question was quite as important for good as the
battles won. The world might do without war, but I make the hazard it
could not long survive if men and women ceased to love and mate.
However, I may be wrong.
People whose souls are made of dawnstuff and starshine may make
mistakes, but God will not judge them by these alone. But for the love
of Lady Hamilton Nelson would probably never have lived to fight
Trafalgar--one of the pivotal battles of the world.
Nelson saved England from the fell clutch of the Corsican, and Lady
Hamilton saved Nelson from insanity and death. Nelson knew how to do
three great things--how to fight, how to love, how to die.
* * * * *
SO HERE ENDETH "LITTLE JOURNEYS TO THE HOMES OF GREAT LOVERS," BEING
VOLUME THIRTEEN OF THE SERIES, AS WRITTEN BY ELBERT HUBBARD: EDITED AND
ARRANGED BY FRED BANN; BORDERS AND INITIALS BY ROYCROFT ARTISTS, AND
PRODUCED BY THE ROYCROFTERS, AT THEIR SHOPS, WHICH ARE IN EAST AURORA,
ERIE COUNTY, NEW YORK, MCMXXII.