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By Root 1444 0

acting, and she aimed to take advantage of the city's new status as Europe's favorite aristocratic playground. The Hamil-tons eagerly introduced her at court. She was soon appointed prima donna at the city's San Carlo Opera, and the Neapolitans fell in love with her— so much so that when their priests later declared that Vesuvius erupted to express God's displeasure at seeing a Protestant on the stage of a Catholic city, they ignored them. She and Emma had much in common, for both knew the power of an image (indeed, she had copied her hostess's St. Cecilia pose when she had sat for Romney). After performances, Mrs. Billington always directed her carriage to whisk her to Emma's home. In Sir William's handsome rooms, she struck up an intimacy with the plump, asthmatic young Prince Augustus, George Ill's sixth son, who was in disgrace after recently marrying Lady Augusta Murray without his father's permission. When the sumptuous carriages of Mrs. Billington and the prince were outside the palazzo, Emma's salon was more of a fair than ever. An invitation to hear the opera singer and the runaway royal singing duets was the hottest ticket in town.

As in England, Emma's most frequent visitors and closest friends were Whig supporters: Sir Charles Blagden, Lord Cholmondeley, Lord Palmer-ston, Lord and Lady Plymouth, the Duchess of Devonshire, Lady Foster, Lady Webster, and Lord Bristol, Emma's particular friend. After King George had refused to receive Emma at court, Sir William had become somewhat less staunchly loyal to the Tory party, and he raised no protest as his wife turned his home into a salon for Whigs abroad, all of them intent on their principle that wealth and property, not simply aristocratic title, should confer power. Any gathering attended by the Whigs soon became a gambling party, and thousands were squandered at faro, quinze, and hazard, games of pure chance played in groups. The frisson of play lay in trying to second-guess one's neighbor's hand, and in acting, pretense, and double bluff—all skills at which Emma excelled. In 1793, Sir William gave her a birthday present of a necklace of fabulous diamonds as a bribe to stop her from throwing down so many notes onto the gambling table.

There were other matters to worry about. In France, a diminutive Cor-sican, Napoleon Bonaparte, had risen to be commander in chief of the army. His troops were rampaging through Europe, and they were heading for Naples.

CHAPTER 30

In Fear of Napoleon

Maria Carolina was frantic. She vacillated between fear of being overthrown by a Jacobin mob and terror of a French invasion. The king retreated to the hunting field and, as Sir William wrote in exasperation, "accustomed to a life of continued dissipation, gives but little attention to the Affairs of State, which are transacted chiefly by the Queen of Naples and General Acton."1 Casting about for a way to save herself, the queen turned to Emma.

Most English notables who visited Naples were related to members of Parliament, and the queen wanted Emma to introduce them to her and help persuade them that Britain should assist in the defense of Naples. Emma dropped heavy hints to Greville, hoping her ex-lover might pass the information to his friends in government. The queen, she wrote, "loves england and is attached to our ministry and wishes the continuation of the war as the onely means to ruin that abominable french council." Maria Carolina ran a clever publicity campaign, presenting herself to smitten English visitors as a vulnerable queen and a great admirer of Britain.2 In England, Whig leader Charles Fox, convinced that the French wished for peace, was the voice of the anti-war movement. Tories and supporters of the war-mongering Prime Minister Pitt did not generally need to be persuaded that the French desired to subjugate all Europe. By introducing the Duchess of Devonshire, the Hollands, Blagden, and the rest to Maria Carolina, Emma hoped to inspire Fox's friends to support the cause of war.

In 1794, the queen wrote to Emma asking her to tell the company at their commemoration