ilton, alone among
the three, seems to have been single-minded--to have viewed their
mutual relations to the end, not with cynical indifference, but with a
simplicity of confidence hard to be understood in a man of his
antecedents. It may have been, however, that he recognized the
inevitable in the disparity of years and in his wife's early training,
and that he chose to cover her failings with a self-abnegation that
was not without nobility. Upon such a tacit affirmation he set a final
seal in a codicil to his will, well calculated to silence those who
saw scandal in the association between his wife and his friend. "The
copy of Madam Le Brunn's picture of Emma, in enamel, by Bone, I give
to my dearest friend Lord Nelson, Duke of Bronte, a very small token
of the great regard I have for his Lordship, the most virtuous, loyal,
and truly brave character I ever met with. God bless him, and shame
fall on those who do not say amen."

Sir William's death, by withdrawing the husband's countenance to
Nelson's remaining under the same roof, might have complicated matters
for the two lovers, but the outbreak of war necessitated the admiral's
departure a month later. When he returned to England for the last
time, in August, 1805, he was, deservedly, the object of such
widespread popular devotion, and his stay was so short, that the voice
of censure was hushed amid the general murmur of affectionate
admiration. The noble qualities of the man, the exalted spirit of
self-sacrifice and heroic aspiration that breathed in his utterances,
and was embodied, not only in his brilliant deeds, but in the obscure,
patient endurance of the last two years, evoked a sentiment which
spread over him and her a haze of tender sympathy that still survives.
In the glory of Trafalgar, in his last touching commendation of her
and his child to the British Government, in the general grief of the
nation, there was justly no room to remember their fault; both
acquaintance and strangers saw in her only the woman whom he loved to
the end. The sisters of Nelson, women of mature years and
irreproachable character, maintained a correspondence with Lady
Hamilton during their lives; long after his death, and the departure
of his influence, removed any interested motive for courting her
friendship. Between them and Lady Nelson, on the other hand, the
breach was final. Their occasional mention of her is unfriendly, and
upon the whole contemptuous; while she, as far