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FIRE IN THE EARTH
which
she then began collecting, in necklaces, ear-pendants, bracelets, and
sunburst brooches, later fetched enough cash to furnish the house at 23
Piccadilly, to which she and her aged husband retired. It was after Sir
William's death in London that Lord Nelson provided a country haven for
Emma at Merton.
Emma
and her close companion, the queen of Naples, had specially executed
jewelry for the great celebrations attendant upon Lord Nelson's rout
of the French fleet in the Nile. Emma had seen Horatio Nelson,
England's sailor-hero, only once in her life up to that time, but their
mutual attraction ripened into romance through years of correspondence
carried on while Nelson was at sea. In one letter, describing the
elaborate plans for welcoming Nelson back to Naples, she says "The King
is having his picture set with dymonds for his Lordship (Nelson) and
the Queen has ordered a fine set of china with pictures of all his
battles on it." The queen previously had given Nelson her own miniature
set in gold and wreathed in diamonds.
Nelson's
victory over the French in Egypt was only a temporary check to Napoleon
and the forces of revolution. The mob was on the march overland and the
king and queen of Naples began to fear for their lives. The queen was
an Austrian, sister of Marie Antoinette, who already had left her head
in the revolutionary basket. Marie Caroline's own dowry jewels, which
had come to Naples with her, as well as all the state treasures, were
in jeopardy. She and members of her court were faced with the necessity
of evacuating $10,000,000 in diamonds, silverplate, pictures, and
clothing and putting it all safely aboard two English vessels which
were also to carry the ladies to Sicily.
Lady Hamilton, who never was so resourceful as when faced with catastrophe, explored an old secret passage lead-
(184)
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