o marry Emma Lyon in spite
of his family's remonstrances. Lady Hamilton became as great a lady as
can be imagined. It is asserted that the Queen of Naples was on an
intimate footing with her. Certain it is that the Queen saw her
often--politically, might perhaps be said. Lady Hamilton, being a
most indiscreet woman, betrayed a number of little diplomatic secrets
to the Queen, of which she made use to the advantage of her country.

Lady Hamilton was not at all clever, though she was extremely
supercilious and disdainful, so much so that these two defects were
conspicuous in all her conversation. But she also possessed
considerable craftiness, of which she made use in order to bring about
her marriage. She wanted in style, and dressed very badly when it was
a question of every-day dress. I remember that when I did my first
picture of her, as a sibyl, she was living at Caserta, whither I went
every day, desiring to progress quickly with the picture. The Duchess
de Fleury and the Princess de Joseph Monaco were present at the third
sitting, which was the last. I had wound a scarf round her head in the
shape of a turban, one end hanging down in graceful folds. This
head-dress so beautified her that the ladies declared she looked
ravishing. Her husband having invited us all to dinner, she went to
her apartment to change, and when she came back to meet us in the
drawing-room, her new costume, which was a very ordinary one indeed,
had so altered her to her disadvantage that the two ladies had all the
difficulty in the world in recognising her.

When I went to London in 1802 Lady Hamilton had just lost her husband.
I left a card for her, and she soon came to see me, wearing deep
mourning, with a dense black veil surrounding her, and she had had her
splendid hair cut off to follow the new "Titus" fashion. I found this
Andromache enormous, for she had become terribly fat. She said that
she was very much to be pitied, that in her husband she had lost a
friend and a father, and that she would never be consoled. I confess
that her grief made little impression upon me, since it seemed to me
that she was playing a part. I was evidently not mistaken, because a
few minutes later, having noticed some music lying on my piano, she
took up a lively tune and began to sing it.

As is well known, Lord Nelson had been in love with her at Naples; she
had maintained a very tender correspondence with him. When I went to
return her visit one morni