England's Mistress_ The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton - Kate Williams [108]
Determined to defend her dear friend, Emma wrote to Greville:
No person can be so charming as the Queen, she is everything one can wish, the best mother, wife & friend in the world. I live constantly with her & have done intimately so for 2 years & I have never in all that time seen any thing but goodness and sincerity in her & if ever you hear any lyes about her contradick them & if you shou'd see a cursed book written by a vile french dog with her character in it don't believe one word.
Instead of making concessions to those who felt, in the words of an English journalist, "the allurements of liberty" or supplying the poor with food to compensate for the inflation, Ferdinand and Maria Carolina employed a repressive chief of police and sent spies into every part of the city.4 They intensified their security by changing their bedrooms frequently, employing many more bodyguards and leaving the palace under massive guard. Believing themselves fighting a hidden, deadly enemy who wished for nothing more than total destruction of the court, they ordered terrible reprisals against the demonstrators. They commanded troops to imprison or kill every inhabitant of rebellious towns and villages in the country.5 Those simply suspected of anti-monarchist ideas were thrown into jail, languishing indefinitely without trial, and no doubt dozens were tortured. The king and queen demanded their secret services find hard evidence of Jacobin plots, and Naples seethed with false accusations and denunciations.
Emma had her hands full. The queen needed her more than ever, and Sir William's attacks of gout and stomach upsets were becoming very frequent. He was often too ill to attend court, let alone gain privileged access to Ferdinand by hunting and partying with him. He needed his wife to care for him, act as his secretary (he was often too ill to write), and attend court with redoubled vigor to make up for his absence. If all this were not enough, more English visitors arrived than ever before. Since Paris was in bloody chaos, there was nowhere else for the tourist bent on self-indulgence. Emma sighed that her "breakfast, dinner & supper is like a fair."
She was becoming weary of performing her Attitudes for clamoring guests. Although they wanted to see her famous poses of Niobe and Cleopatra, they were rather discomfited by her performances now that she was married. When she was a mistress, they had praised her unreservedly (they were used to enjoying performances by actresses with dubious pasts). But once she was their equal (often superior) as Lady Hamilton, women, particularly of the minor aristocracy, became uneasy about expressing approbation. Just so no one might think them taken in, they now made a point of declaring that she betrayed her humble past, wrecking the wonderful feelings she had inspired in her audience by exclaiming in a thick Northern accent, "Ah, Sir Willum, I've dropped me Joug."6 Men tended to be more forgiving, one young squire proclaiming that her performance "joins every grace that ever was united to the greatest beauty of face and person."7
The palazzo hit a new level of social glitter when Mrs. Elizabeth Billing-ton arrived, trailing glamour and luscious blond hair. The highest-paid opera singer in England, she was famous for her extraordinary three-octave range and expressive