ng, I found her radiant with joy, and
besides she had put a rose in her hair, like Nina. I could not help
asking her what the rose signified. "It is because I have just
received a letter from Lord Nelson," she answered.

The Duke de Berri and the Duke de Bourbon, having heard of her poses,
very much desired to witness a spectacle which she had never been
willing to offer in London. I requested her to give me an evening for
the two Princes, and she consented. I also invited some other French
people, who I was aware would be anxious to see this sight. On the day
appointed I placed in the middle of my drawing-room a very large
frame, with a screen on either side of it. I had had a strong
limelight prepared and disposed so that it could not be seen, but
which would light up Lady Hamilton as though she were a picture. All
the invited guests having arrived, Lady Hamilton assumed various
attitudes in this frame in a truly admirable way. She had brought a
little girl with her, who might have been seven or eight years old,
and who resembled her strikingly. One group they made together
reminded me of Poussin's "Rape of the Sabines." She changed from grief
to joy and from joy to terror so rapidly and effectively that we were
all enchanted. As I kept her for supper, the Duke de Bourbon, who sat
next to me at table, called my attention to the quantity of porter she
drank. I am sure she must have been used to it, for she was not tipsy
after two or three bottles. Long after leaving London, in 1815, I
heard that Lady Hamilton had ended her days at Calais, dying there
neglected and forsaken in the most awful poverty.

The excursions I made at Naples did not prevent me from accomplishing
a great deal of work. I even undertook so many portraits that my first
stay in that town extended to six months. I had arrived with the
intention of spending only six weeks. The French Ambassador, the Baron
de Talleyrand, came to inform me one morning that the Queen of Naples
wished me to do the portraits of her two eldest daughters, and I began
upon them at once. Her Majesty was preparing to leave for Vienna,
where she was to busy herself about the marriage of these Princesses.
I remember her saying to me after her return: "I have had a successful
journey; I have just made two fortunate matches for my daughters." The
eldest, in fact, soon after was married to the Emperor of Austria,
Francis II., and the other, who was called Louise, to the Grand Duke