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By Root 1367 0

begged the executor of Sir William's will, Robert Greville, for an advance of £100, but he was still fending off her creditors and had no money to spare. Her attempt to hide her illness was working too well—the gossip columns in England reported on Lady Hamilton living it up in Calais, exaggerating her spending, which did not help persuade Robert Greville or the government to send her money. Emma protested angrily that she was living quietly and contested the revelations of the Letters of Lord Nelson to Lady Hamilton, declaring to the Morning Herald that she, Sir William, and Nelson were all "too much attached to his Royal Highness ever to speak or think ill of him," but her quest to win sympathy was doomed.3 Convinced that she would be rescued, Emma kept up the show to the end and continued to solicit assistance by hosting grand parties. But for most of the English in Calais, a drive out to Nelson's flamboyant mistress simply meant a free dinner and a good story to tell their friends. In October, she beseeched the government that she had not a shilling, pleading, "If there is Humanity still left in British Hearts they will not suffer us to die in famine in a foreign Country for God's sake."4 Money failed to appear, and her health worsened. She began to seek the solace of religion, attending the local Catholic church and finding a sympathetic friend in the local priest. The behavior of Earl Nelson, erstwhile clergyman, perhaps convinced her to embrace a faith in which priests seemed less worldly. Her reasons for turning to Catholicism were also pragmatic—in the St. Pierre congregation, she was free of the prying eyes of the English at the Anglican church in Calais, a gossipy little social club for expats and travelers.

Religion gave her optimism, but her body was unable to keep up. Emma's long-term problems with sickness, diarrhea, and stomach pain were the result of amoebic dysentery, probably picked up in Naples, since Sir William had suffered from the same complaint. Although her love of rich foods and fine wine did not help, her health was ruined not by gluttony, as is commonly argued, but by a parasite caught in the city that made her famous.

By November, Emma was unable to afford the farm and too ill to live in the country, for she needed daily access to doctors and chemists. She, Horatia, Dame Francis, Mary, and the other maids moved to a cheap flat in 27 rue Frangaise in Calais, rented from a Monsieur Damas. Emma had one room, Horatia lived next door, and the servants were crammed into another. The move exhausted her last shreds of energy, and within a week of arriving, she took to her bed. She wrote no more letters. In an attempt to dull the pain, she drank spirits and took heavy doses of laudanum, which, mercifully, was freely available and cheaper than alcohol. She was dying.

Shivering and struggling to breathe, Emma passed her final weeks in a blur of pain. Initially, her hands and feet began to swell, then her legs filled with fluid as the abscess drained into the lungs, stomach, and chest. Eventually, as her kidneys failed and her body became saturated, she suffered severe shooting pains, coughing, and vomiting. Horatia believed she had "water on the chest" or tuberculosis, which suggests she was coughing blood and unable to eat or drink. Doctors commonly treated stomach and liver complaints with doses of mercury, so her sufferings would have been intensified by even more vomiting.

Dame Francis, Mary Cornish, and possibly a hired nurse tended Emma, but there was little they could do to make her comfortable. The British consul, Henry Cadogan (coincidentally named but no relation), gave them money and covered the outstanding bills. Emma gave him some jewelry and a lock of Nelson's hair in gratitude. The last of her dresses and trinkets went to the pawnbrokers.

When the effects of the laudanum wore off, Emma had little to cheer her. She knew that Nelson's child would be left a penniless orphan. Thirteen-year-old Horatia bravely tried to keep Emma company. Washing and trying to feed her mother was beyond her,