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By Root 1459 0

and Nelson closely on the Foudroyant in Naples from June 24 or 25 to August 5, Sir William was used to taking a backseat to their intense relationship. He was secretly grateful that the little sailor had taken flamboyant Emma off his hands and relieved him of her bouts of hysteria. When Nelson sailed briefly to Minorca in October, Sir William sent him a letter begging, “Emma is tired of the Colli for God's sake come back as soon as possible.” He felt he was fading, and he recognized that Nelson loved Emma in a way that she needed and he was unable to give her. Naturally sanguine, he had always been out of step with her expressive and demonstrative nature, and he had resented the emotional demands she made. “My shattered constitution now calls for some little repose and relaxation,” he groaned.14 He was simply too tired to protest against being cuckolded.

Sir William had been asking the government since March to allow him leave for a holiday in England. Once at home, he would "consult with my Friends what is best for me." For, as he confessed to Greville, "to keep on as I have done for 35 years—it is impossible… even with Emma's assistance, which is infinite."15 He suffered from frequent diarrhea and bouts of sickness that he blamed on the "intense heats and damp" but were actually caused by dysentery. When he was not fretting about his health, he was worried about money. He owed well over £19,000 to bankers in Palermo, Naples, and London, and the rents from his estates hardly covered his interest payments. He longed to return home but declared he could not, for it was "impossible to quit Lord Nelson who does not understand any languages but his own and fairly said that if we went he could not stay here." The king and queen wanted Nelson to remain, so Sir William had to wait, but he lamented to Greville that it was "at an Expense I can no means afford." Not only did "all Foreigners and the Nobility of this Country flock to this house" but also Nelson's "numerous train of officers that come to him on business."16 Tired of the round of celebrations and Emma's relentless sociability, he complained that "a Comely Landlady calls more company than I could wish to my House."17

"I shall finish my Diplomatical Career gloriously," he declared, believing his acts to quell the rebellion confirmed him worthy of the highest honor from the British government.18 He wanted to return to England, relax for a year, and ensure his comfortable retirement by extracting compensation and a bigger salary from the government. If it failed to comply, he would appeal directly to King George. The Foreign Office maneuverd to head off Sir William's attempt to hold the government to ransom by removing him from his post. Lord Grenville wrote in December to grant the leave and added he had arranged for a permanent replacement.

Nelson was entirely happy, puffed up by the attention from the Neapolitan ladies and flirtations with Maria Carolina's daughters, who were frequent visitors to the Palazzo Palagonia. A twenty-five-year-old traveling English artist, Henry Barker, compared him and Emma to Hercules and Omphale, the Lydian queen who held the Greek hero captive. When Barker paid an afternoon visit, he found Emma and one of the princesses spinning together. At dinner, "Lord N. sat on L.H's right & she cut his meat. He was very lively." Nelson thought it a huge joke to tell the princesses that "Damn your eyes" was a good way to greet an Englishman. Barker was dazzled by the array of nobility but shocked by the gambling, in which "Lady H. & Lord N. were principal actors."19 Emma loved gaming and Nelson loved to sit by her, offering whispered advice, brushing his hand against her, touching her hair, intoxicated by her glamour and falling ever more desperately in love. Excited by the illicit thrill and the midnight secrets of the long, hot Sicilian nights, they seized every chance to be together.

CHAPTER 35

Days of Ease and Nights of Pleasure

Heroes and conquerors are subdued in their turn,"joked the Times in November 1799. "Mark Antony followed Cleopatra