The Divine Lady: A Romance of Nelson and Emma Hamilton

THERE comes a moment in the fully unfolded maturity of beauty when any change must be for the worse. There is a portrait of Emma about the time of the flight to Palermo which ex...

Nelson had cause to know that truth in the days that followed. He was losing, losing steadily. There were moments of frantic joy buried like jewels in a rubble of fears, anxieti...

IT was a still Sunday afternoon with a November mist clinging like a cold breath to London, daylight still but the lights showing little starry points in the streets below when...

SHE sat by the window and sang, and as she sang the children on the green outside clustered under the elms in little groups to listen to the delicious voice, for she sang carele...

A TROUBLOUS year, but it brought a new part to Emma. Nelson had carried back to Lord Hood an account of the excellent dispositions of the Ambassadress toward the Fleet; the juni...

IN those days every interest of Naples centred on the sea and the news it might bring. The French were still occupying the republic they had made of Rome and Roman territory and...

EMMA, laughing, singing, not a care in her sea-blue eyes four years later. Emma, the sunlight of the Palazzo Sessa, sweet as a summer dawn to Hamilton and to all the world. Grev...

THAT dinner party was the opening of her triumph. The guests spread her fame abroad, her beauty, modesty, fresh spontaneous charm, and above all, her exquisite singing. Not that...

IT appeared to Nelson in the anxious days coming on that Heaven itself had sent him the destined helper in his war against French domination. Two things were clear as noonday to...

CAPTAIN HORATIO NELSON was at this time thirty-four years old, and far from despicable in person. He was slender almost to a fault and so small-boned that most observers classed...

AFTER this Emma saw the Duchess constantly. She became, indeed, her chief interest in Naples. The girl was so bright and _simpatica_ (to use the more expressive Italian) that he...

BUT while those letters were speeding to Greville, Sir William, not unobservant that absence appeared to make the heart grow fonder, resolved to try the same prescription on his...

AS Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson sailed for Syracuse, many thoughts kept him company in striding up and down his quarterdeck. He loved his wife with a calm affection which recogniz...

THE letter reached Greville at the stately house of her Grace the Duchess of Argyll and was delivered into his hand as he sat with two ladies so beautiful at their different age...

THAT journey home, in spite of all the splendours which his own and Emma’s renown and the Queen’s company occasioned, was a nightmare to Nelson. He was utterly besotted on her;...

DURING the next few days Greville watched her with ever-growing interest, and diagnosed her with the cool precision but discriminating admiration which he brought to his cabinet...

A MORE modest, decorous life than that in Edgware Row could scarcely be, setting aside the initial impropriety. The past fell away from her like a nightmare that daylight efface...

THE friendship between Emma and the Ambassador strengthened every day, and to Greville’s secret amusement and satisfaction, he was continually in Edgware Row. London, apart from...

GREVILLE did not return in February. He had other and more important invitations and time a little dulled the strong impression Emily Hart had made upon him. She had written mor...

THE letters on which Greville counted set in between him and his uncle directly Hamilton was re-established in the Palazzo Sessa. The complaisant uncle wrote also to Emma, dwell...

LONDON and triumph—so dizzy and dazzling that Emma might have almost repeated her favourite saying that she did not know whether she was on her head or her heels. Almost, only,...

Emma’s plans were nearing fruition, and, again granting the initial error, were they so unnatural? Her husband was gone; that chapter finally closed; and every hope for the futu...

SIR WILLIAM for the first time in his life fell in love. Her smile curled about his heart, her maidenly advances and retreats enchanted him. In vain Greville, not daring to writ...

SPRING comes slowly in England; winter entrenched and relaxing his dominion inch by inch, fighting as he goes with bitter blasts of snowy winds, sharp rains, and cruel seas beat...

THE first word he said was “Well?” with a keen glance at Sir William, lying back, luxurious, in his chair. There was still a scent of strawberries in the room and the faint perf...

EMMA had cause to realize how deeply she had offended, during the next few days, for Greville assumed what she called his touch-me-not manner and was coldly polite and distant....

THE terror and chaos which dominated the France of the Revolution had at last overflowed her coasts, and the vision of Marie Caroline was realized before the eyes of all the wor...

I HOW GREVILLE MET HER 3 II THE ACQUAINTANCE RIPENS 22 III THE EXPLOSION 36 IV PEACE AND CATSPAWS 49 V THE RIFT 63 VI THE FAIR TEA MAKER 77 VII DISCUSSION 88 VIII THE BARGAIN 99

IX THE BARGAIN CONCLUDED 115 X THE GREAT ADVENTURE 128 XI ADVANCE AND RETREAT 140 XII THE BEGINNING 153 XIII THE PROCESS 170 XIV THE WAY TO TRIUMPH 185 XV ACHIEVEMENT 203 XVI TR...