ll your Lordship the obligations which the whole Royal
Family, as well as myself, are under on this trying occasion to her
Ladyship." Her Ladyship, still hankering after her old friend
Greville, writes him, "My dear adorable queen and I weep together, and
now that is our only comfort." It is no concern of ours, but it looks
uncommonly as though Greville still held the field, and the opinion of
many that Nelson would not have had much chance against her former
lover is borne out by many facts.

Amongst the saddest stories that raged about the Hamiltons, their
friends, and Nelson was the scandal of gambling for large stakes. Some
are persistent in the assertion that the report was well founded, and
others that it was not so bad as it was made out to be. Lady Hamilton
asserted that the stories were all falsehoods invented by the
Jacobinical party, but her Ladyship's veracity was never to be relied
upon. Perhaps a foundation of truth and a large amount of exaggeration
sums up the reports, so we must let it go at that. Troubridge seems to
have been convinced that his Admiral was in the midst of a fast set,
for he sends a most imploring remonstrance to him to get out of it and
have no more incense puffed in his face. This was fine advice, but the
victor of the Nile made no response.

IV

Nelson was little known to his countrymen before the St. Vincent
battle. But after the victory of the Nile his name became immortal,
and he could take any liberty he liked with our national
conventionalisms. Even his love affairs were regarded as heroics. He
refused occasionally to carry out instructions when he thought his own
plans were better, and it was winked at; but had any of them
miscarried, the memory of St. Vincent and the Nile would not have
lived long.

When he arrived with the Hamiltons in London after his long absence
and victorious record, the mob, as usual, took the horses from the
carriage and dragged him along Cheapside amid tumultuous cheers.
Whenever he appeared in public the same thing happened. At Court,
things were different. His reception was offensively cold, and George
III ran some risk when he affronted his most popular subject by
turning his back on him. Whatever private indiscretions Nelson may
have been guilty of, nothing could justify so ungrateful an act of
ill-mannered snobbery. The King should have known how to distinguish
between private weakness, however unconventional, and matchless public
service.