h the little man, that he told
his wife afterwards that if she had no objection he was going to invite
Captain Nelson to their home. Lady Hamilton had no objection, although a
sea-captain was hardly in their class. "But," argued Sir William, "this
captain is different; on talking to him and noting his sober, silent,
earnest way, I concluded that the world would yet ring with the name of
Nelson. He fights his enemy for laying his ship alongside and grappling
him to the death."

So a room was set apart in the Hamilton household for Captain Nelson.
The next day the captain wrote home to his wife that Lady Hamilton was
young, amiable, witty and took an active part in the diplomatic business
of the court. Nelson at this time was thirty-five years old; Lady
Hamilton was three years younger.

Nelson remained only a few days in Naples, but long enough to impress
himself upon the King and all the court as a man of extraordinary
quality.

Sorrow and disappointment had made him a fatalist--he looked the part.
Admiral Hood at this time said: "Nelson is the only absolutely
invincible fighter in the navy. I only fear his recklessness, because he
never counts the cost."

It was to be five years before Nelson met the Hamiltons again.

* * * * *

The man who writes the life of Lady Hamilton and tells the simple facts
places his reputation for truth in jeopardy.

Emma Lyon was the daughter of a day-laborer. In her babyhood her home
was Hawarden, "the luster of fame of which town is equally divided
between a man and a woman," once said Disraeli, with a solemn sidelong
glance at William Ewart Gladstone.

At Hawarden, Lyon the obscure, known to us for but one thing, died, and
if his body was buried in the Hawarden churchyard, Destiny failed to
mark the spot. The widow worked at menial tasks in the homes of the
local gentry, and the child was fed with scraps that fell from the rich
man's table--a condition that grew into a habit.

When Emma was thirteen years old, she had learned to read, and could
"print"; that is, she could write a letter, a feat her mother never
learned to do.

At this time the girl waited on table and acted as nurse-maid in the
family of Sir Thomas Hawarden. Doubtless she learned by listening, and
absorbed knowledge because she had the capacity. When Sir Thomas moved
up to London, which is down from Hawarden, the sprightly little girl was
taken along.

Her dresses were a litt