112

LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

work as this, to relate the curious, and very unusual parti-culars of this campaign, in which I was not personallyengaged. As it is, I have already been drawn into accountswhich may he regarded as foreign to my intended purpose.But the history of these Neapolitan hostilities and atrocities,is so intimately connected with the names of Nelson, Pitt,Hamilton , and Acton, that I trust my readers will notbegrudge the lecture I provide for them. The real historyof the events I am reciting is not known in England. Onlysome vague anecdotes and intimations, have caused thewell-thinking portion of the British public, somehow tosuspect, that British influence, and British honour wereboth prostituted and compromised at Naples. So, as amatter of national interest, I have ventured to enter intothe retrospective matter, I otherwise ought to haveomitted.

I will leave the Lazzarone Monarch with his tag-ragarmy to be beaten and dispersed by a handful of Frenchmenunder Kellermann, Macdonal, and Championet, and, mean-while, offer a few words on Nelson and Lady Hamilton, —names celebrated in Italy , not only as suggestive of theideas of victory and beauty, but also, unhappily, of weaknesssycophancy, and sanguinary perfidy.

I have shown how was commenced the mutual acquaint-ance between the “ Hero of the Nile,” and the beautifulwife of Sir William Hamilton, British ambassador at Naples. Ihave been assured that this lady’s primitive name, was EmmaLiona. She was born in Wales of poor parents, her fatherbeing an Italian, and lived without care or education, untilthe age of sixteen, when she fell into the hands of a kind ofmountebank named Graham, who is mentioned by Arcken-haltz, the German writer of a tour in England, as the inven-tor and exhibitor of a kind of magic harmonious bed, calledby him “ Celestial.” On this bed, Emma, was exhibited,