on this trying occasion, to
her ladyship. They necessarily came on board without a bed, nor
could the smallest preparation be made for their reception. Lady
Hamilton provided her own beds, linen, &c. and became their slave;
for, except one man, no person belonging to royalty assisted the
royal family. Nor did her ladyship enter a bed the whole time they
were on board. Good Sir William, also, made every sacrifice for the
comfort of the august family embarked with him. I must not omit to
state, the kindness of Captain Hardy, and every officer in the
Vanguard; all of whom readily gave their beds for the convenience
of the numerous persons attending the royal family. At three in the
afternoon, being in sight of Palermo, his Sicilian majesty's royal
standard was hoisted at the main top-gallant mast-head of the
Vanguard: which was kept flying there, till his majesty got into
the Vanguard's barge; when it was struck in the ship, and hoisted
in the barge, and every proper honour paid to it from the ship. As
soon as his majesty set his foot on shore, it was struck from the
barge. The Vanguard anchored at two in the morning of the 26th. At
five, I attended her majesty, and all the princesses, on shore: her
majesty being so much affected, by the death of Prince Albert, that
she could not bear to go on shore in a public manner. At nine, his
majesty went on shore; and was received with the loudest
acclamations and apparent joy. I have the honour to be, with the
greatest respect, your lordship's most obedient humble servant,

"Nelson."
Earl of St. Vincent."

It has been said, that the King of Naples had not, without much
difficulty, been induced to quit the seat of his government. Doubtless,
as will ever be the case, where various powerful parties unhappily
divide a country, each chiefly regardful of it's own particular
interest, the leaders of the several factions would struggle, by all
imaginable stratagems, to draw into their own vortex the sovereign on
whose debasement they could alone hope to erect any satisfactory
individual exaltation. The King of Naples, though a man of excellent
dispositions, and neither defective in valour nor in wisdom, might
possibly have fallen a prey to some of the numerous deceptive artifices
which originated in these causes, if the admirable political sagacity of
his vigila