three days,
at least, notwithstanding all the intreaties of Sir William and Lady
Hamilton: nor did this incomparable man finally agree to receive
them--maintaining, to the last, that he could not do so without
subjecting the purity of his motives, in what he had happily effected,
to the opprobrium of unjust suspicion--till Lady Hamilton, at the
express instance of the queen, solicited the inflexible hero, even on
her knees, to consent to the wishes of these truly amiable and most
munificent sovereigns; as requisite to demonstrate that, amidst the too
rigid sense which he evidently entertained of what might seem to him
proper for the maintenance of his own honour, he was not altogether
unregardful of what the world, as well as themselves, must ever consider
as absolutely necessary for the preservation of their's. The exquisite
address of this argument, as suggested by her Sicilian Majesty, and
pressed by the unaffected eloquence of her ladyship, was too powerful to
be opposed. His lordship could offer nothing sufficiently substantial
against such persuasive wisdom; and, being unable longer to reason, he
could no longer continue to resist. Should the scornful insolence, that
is ever awakened, in low and vicious minds, by even the slightest
mention of virtuous deeds, endeavour to interpose the mean malignity of
it's cold suspicions on hearing this recital; let the humbler bosom,
that cherishes more generous sentiments, reflect but for a moment, that
his lordship had recently risked even a disobedience of orders from his
temporary commander in chief, while promoting the interests of their
Neapolitan Majesties, and it will feel sufficient reasons for our hero's
delicate repugnance to the ready acceptance of any undesired
aggrandizement, however highly merited, on this particular occasion.

On the 13th, therefore, in consequence of this acquiescence, the King
of Naples sent his lordship a superb diamond-hilted sword, with a most
affectionate letter; thanking him for having reconquered his majesty's
kingdom, and again placed him on the throne of his ancestors. The value
of this present, estimated at four thousand guineas, was incalculably
enhanced by the very appropriate circumstance of it's being the
identical sword which had been given to the King of Naples, by Charles
the Third, on that monarch's memorable departure to Spain, accompanied
by the following most remarkable declaration--"With this sword, I
conquered the kingdom