England's Mistress_ The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton - Kate Williams [128]
"Emma is really the Queen's bosom friend," boasted Sir William.12 Emboldened by Maria Carolina's promises of never-ending affection, Emma asked for the ultimate favor: she wanted her daughter, Emma Carew, now eighteen, appointed to the queen's house as a lady of the bedchamber. Emma assured Greville that "the Q. has promised me." She was deluded: Maria Carolina, however much she doted on Emma, would never take an illegitimate daughter of a minor English aristocrat as her lady-in-waiting.
Nelson wrote jubilantly that the king had "created me Duke of Bronte and has annexed an Estate of 3000 pounds Sterling a year, both Title and Estate at my disposal together with a magnificent diamond hiked sword."13 He was thrilled with Bronte, a large estate on the western slopes of Mount Etna, the famous volcano on Sicily's eastern coast. Bronte now produces Italy's best pistachio nuts, but it was then a chilly, poverty-stricken estate, days by cart from any large town and cut off by terrible roads. Thanks to years of chronic underinvestment by Ferdinand, the tenants lived miserably and the buildings were collapsing. The yield was nearer £30 than £3,000. Bronte needed a tough estate manager, experienced in agriculture, fluent in Sicilian, ready to rebuild every building and replant every field. Nelson, however, with no time to undertake the lengthy visit to Bronte, believed Ferdinand's claims that the estate was in perfect condition and sent the hypersensitive landscape gardener, John Graefer, to "turn the grounds into a beautiful garden fit for a great gentleman." If Ferdinand's gift was a joke, since the original Bronte was, in Greek myth, a one-eyed Cyclops, Nelson, like every member of the court, was accustomed to Ferdinand's puerile sense of humor. Deeply satisfied with the gift, he saw it as compensation for the refusal of the English government to make him a viscount, and for the rest of his life he signed himself "Nelson & Bronte."
The court celebrated the end of the rebellion at a giant party at the Palazzo Ciñese. Maria Carolina commissioned three life-size waxworks of Emma, Sir William, and Nelson as the centerpieces. The Emma statue wore a purple gown embroidered with the names of the captains of the Nile. Bewitching lamps were strung all across the palace gardens, exotic ices were arranged in fabulous sculptures, and guests feasted on exquisite sweetmeats and downed decanters of fine alcohol. The grateful, happy court danced in their most sumptuous outfits and marveled at a lavish fireworks display imitating the Battle of the Nile, which ended with the blasting of a tricolor into red, white, and blue sparks. When Ferdinand's youngest son, nine-year-old Prince Leopold, crowned Nelson's statue with a laurel wreath covered in diamonds, Nelson burst into tears, believing that he had finally found a court to truly appreciate him. His body had paid the price for his victories: he was now minus his top teeth, and his remaining eye was filming over, but at moments like this, the sacrifice seemed worth it. He made sure to send glowing accounts of the party to the Times in England.
As soon as Nelson was created Duke of Bronte, Emma ordered muslins embroidered with his new title and wore them at every opportunity. This piece of hem is part of a whole dress embroidered with her lover's name in gold thread and sequins.
After living with his wife