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As I sat, years ago, in the Admiral’s cabin of Nelson’s flag-ship, the Foudroyant, the thought of this romance came to me, for this ship was the sea-shrine of that great but errant passion. She is a wreck now, her stranded ribs are green with weed, her bones are broken in the wash of the tide. A grave at sea amidst the answering thunder and flash of guns would have been a nobler ending.
But the story, with all its love, cruelty and heroism, remains alike beyond oblivion, condemnation or pardon. It is. It has its niche beside the other great passions which have moulded the world’s history. For if Nelson knew himself when he declared that Emma was part and parcel of the fire breaking out of him, without her inspiration Trafalgar might not have been.
THE DIVINE LADY
A Romance of Nelson and Emma Hamilton
BY
E. BARRINGTON
AUTHOR OF “THE LADIES” AND “THE CHASTE DIANA”
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1924
Copyright
, 1924
By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, Inc.
Published, June, 1924
Second Printing, June, 1924
Third Printing, July, 1924
Fourth Printing, July, 1924
Fifth Printing, August, 1924
Sixth Printing, August, 1924
Seventh Printing, September, 1924
Eighth Printing, October, 1924
Ninth Printing, November, 1924
Tenth Printing, December, 1924
Eleventh Printing, January, 1925
Twelfth Printing, February, 1925
PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY
The Quinn & Boden Company
BOOK MANUFACTURERS
RAHWAY
NEW JERSEY
PREFACE
As I sat, years ago, in the Admiral’s cabin of Nelson’s flag-ship, the
Foudroyant
, the thought of this romance came to me, for this ship was the sea-shrine of that great but errant passion. She is a wreck now, her stranded ribs are green with weed, her bones are broken in the wash of the tide. A grave at sea amidst the answering thunder and flash of guns would have been a nobler ending.
But the story, with all its love, cruelty and heroism, remains alike beyond oblivion, condemnation or pardon. It is. It has its niche beside the other great passions which have moulded the world’s history. For if Nelson knew himself when he declared that Emma was part and parcel of the fire breaking out of him, without her inspiration Trafalgar might not have been.
I have treated it imaginatively, yet have not, as I think, departed from the essential truth which I have sought in many famous biographies such as Mahan’s, Sichel’s, Laughton’s and others.
Yet the best biographies of Emma are the lovely portraits Romney left of his Divine Lady, and of Nelson the best is the sea-cathedral, the
Victory
, at rest in the last home port he sailed from to his splendid doom. From these all the rest of the story might well be reconstructed.
E. Barrington
Canada
PART I
THE GREAT ADVENTURE 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 beatin…
ADVANCE AND RETREAT 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 write …
THE BEGINNING 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 the mod…
THE PROCESS 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 own accou…
THE WAY TO TRIUMPH 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. Grevill…
ACHIEVEMENT 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 her Grace cou…
TRIUMPH 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, for success ha…
NELSON 1793 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 world. Driven…
THE NEAPOLITAN COURT 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 …
DIPLOMACY 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 junior officers …
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