ueen
was prodigiously affected, and earnestly intreated Lady Hamilton to
return with her to Naples. Sir William, too, her majesty remarked, when
he had transacted his business in England, whither he was for that
purpose accompanying his illustrious friend, would find the soft climate
of Italy far more congenial to his constitution than the damp atmosphere
of his own native country. Neither Sir William, nor his lady, however,
could listen to any arrangement which must subject them to even a
temporary separation from each other. Their domestic happiness,
notwithstanding the very considerable disparity of age, was ever most
exemplary; and it seems probable, that the amiable demeanour of Lady
Hamilton, whose tender regard for Sir William could not fail to excite
the admiration of every virtuous visitor, first gave birth to that
ardent friendship by which Lord Nelson unquestionably felt himself
attached to her ladyship. When the Queen of Naples found, that nothing
could induce Sir William to leave his lady behind, her majesty
immediately wrote an instrument, appointing Lady Hamilton to receive,
for her eminent services, an annuity of one thousand pounds a year.
This, however, Sir William positively objected to her ladyship's
accepting. He maintained, that he could not suffer his lady to take it,
without subjecting them both to unmerited suspicions at home; and her
ladyship, impressed with similar sentiments, instantly tore the paper
in pieces. The Queen of Naples, however, persisting in her desire to
promote, if possible, the interests of her estimable and beloved
friends, now penned an elegant epistle to her Britannic majesty, in
which she is said to have recommended Sir William and Lady Hamilton as
worthy of receiving every possible honour.

The travelling party, who proceeded from Vienna, on the 26th of
September 1800, with Lord Nelson, and Sir William and Lady Hamilton,
including domestics, consisted of seventeen persons. The Archduke
Charles had written to his aunt, the Queen of Naples, soon after her
arrival, intreating that Lord Nelson might be requested to visit him at
Prague, in the way to Dresden; being himself so extremely ill, that he
was unable to pay the British hero his respects at Vienna, as had been
his most earnest wish. His lordship, accordingly, on arriving at Prague,
the capital of Bohemia, had an immediate interview with that great
military hero. He was accompanied, as usual, by his friends Sir William