eplied--"No; she has an equal
claim with her other sister and my brother." So equally did they all
participate in his fraternal regards.

Lord Nelson had not, yet, been quite a month in England, and much of
even that short period was occupied in preparations for his departure;
yet he had, now, lived longer in the society of Lady Hamilton and his
friends, than at any time since the death of Sir William. The affection
Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton entertained for each other, is not to be
doubted; but it was a pure and virtuous attachment, founded entirely on
mental esteem. Their loves were mutually the result of a most
enthusiastic admiration of each other's heroic and magnanimous
qualities. Those know little of the human heart, who require to be told
what this sentiment is capable of effecting; and how little it has to do
with the more gross and less durable tie of mere sexual or personal
regard. That they would have been united, if his lordship had survived
Lady Nelson, is a fact sufficiently known. In the mean time, never did
the most chivalrous knight of antiquity cherish in his heart a more
extravagant degree of adoration for the peerless princess of his
affections, than that which our hero manifested for this accomplished
lady. It was with her image continually before him, that he combated the
enemies of his country. Her portrait was always placed in his cabin,
which he familiarly denominated his guardian genius; and he constantly
wore a fine miniature representation of her ladyship's charming
features, suspended in his bosom. In short, he always thought, and
freely said, that there was not her equal in the universe. The agonies
of this parting are not to be described. His lordship, about ten at
night, after visiting the chamber of his adopted daughter, and praying
over the sleeping innocent, tore himself from her agonized ladyship,
surrounded by his remaining relatives, and entered the chaise which
conveyed him, by six o'clock next morning, to Portsmouth.

As a proof of Lord Nelson's ceaselessly ardent desire for the
advancement of his beloved relatives, when his esteemed brother-in-law,
George Matcham, Esq. attended him to the chaise door, his lordship
feelingly lamented that it was not yet in his power substantially to
serve Mr. Matcham; who immediately said--"My dear lord, I have no other
wish than to see you return home in safety; as for myself, I am not in
want of any thing."--"With your large family, my dear