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By Root 1491 0

planned to transport Maria Carolina r r on his ship to Trieste and accompany the Hamiltons home, his commander, Lord Keith, exploded that Lady Hamilton had ruled the fleet long enough. Despite his opposition, fanfares sounded across the harbor as the Foudroyant set off on June 10, 1800, weighed down with the queen, her four youngest children, and three marriageable daughters, together with eighty ministers, nobles, attendants and servants, doctors, cooks, and nannies. The Hamiltons had about twelve secretaries and servants, as well as Mrs. Cadogan and various English friends who expected the tria to pay for their trip home. It was Emma's homeward journey, and she looked forward to showing off her celebrity, but she was seven weeks pregnant and feeling weak and very nauseated.

At Leghorn, on the Tuscan coast, Maria Carolina said good-bye to Emma, showering her with heaps of jewels, including a diamond necklace containing locks of her children's hair, and giving splendid presents to Sir William and to Nelson. Then the British navy refused permission for Nelson to sail the Foudroyant back to England. As he fumed and tried to work out how to reach home (there were no ships he could charter to take them, even if he could have afforded to), the queen grew increasingly afraid of the nearby French forces and begged Nelson to take her entire party back to Sicily in the Foudroyant. While the queen cajoled and Emma tried to encourage Nelson to negotiate with his superiors, the French continued to advance. On July 8, the terrified inhabitants of Leghorn seized the city's stock of arms and surrounded their royal visitors in the governor's palace, declaring that they would keep them prisoner until Nelson led them into battle against the enemy. Nelson locked himself in a back room, and Maria Carolina, the princesses, and the ladies of the court fell into hysterics.

Emma had to come to the fore—and her skills as an actress would never be more necessary. Dressed in white, she appeared on the palace balcony and extolled her friend's innocence and delicacy, pleading against "violently surrounding an amiable and illustrious queen." Her heartfelt appeal won over the crowd. But they still wanted Nelson, and Emma had to tell them he would not speak to them until they returned their weapons to the city's stores. They straggled home, most welcoming the excuse to turn back with honor. Maria Carolina, relieved but still piqued that Emma had failed to get her on the Foudroyant, dashed inland to Florence, with Nelson and the Hamiltons hot on her heels. They decided to travel more than 150 miles east to Ancona, on the Adriatic coast, from where they could catch a ship to Trieste.

The Hamiltons and friends rambled within two miles of French military posts, through swarms of people fleeing the enemy advance. At Ancona, they discovered that the nervous queen had dismissed the Austrian frigate that had been fitted out to receive her. The giant party drummed their heels for three weeks until Nelson managed to commandeer enough Russian boats to transport them. Once they had piled onto the ships, their unhappiness only increased. The weather was terrible, and the first lieutenant, a close friend of Caracciolo, reviled the royal family and had no interest in making the journey more comfortable. There was so little space that some of the passengers had to sleep on the orlop deck among the ordinary sailors. Sir William lay in bed groaning, declaring he was dying. Nelson, who knew that Emma stood to be impoverished by the terms of Sir William's current will, encouraged him to write a new will to amend it to make a more generous provision for her. Sir William refused, determined that his estate would be Greville's.

At Trieste, the Nelson party collapsed into bed in their luxury hotel. As they departed on August 10, the city blazed with more than four thousand wax lights and oil lamps in Nelson's honor. They had a long route ahead of them through the Austro-Hungarian Empire: Trieste to Laibach (now Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia), Klagenfurt to Graz (now in Austria),