Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1854-07-28
DAILY EVENING STAR.
NELSON'S LOVE.


NELSON'S LOVE.
Lamartine's Memoirs of Celebrated
Characters" has, in the memoir of Mel.
son, an episode concerning the famed
teauty that once enchanted him. Ira.
cling Nelson through the early stages o,
his rapid and signal success, the autho,
leaps us to the contemplation of his
''fatal attachment" to Lady Hamilton
she who was "at first the Aspasia, and
afterwards the HerodiaS of her age. y
Here is descriptionof how this wonderful
woman emerged from obscurity, and
blazed on the world.
LADY HAMILToN'S YOUTH AND FORTUNES.
Her only name was Emma, for her
father remained always unknown. She
was one Of the children of love, of crime,
of mystery, whom nature delights to
overwhelm with gifts in compensation
for the loss of hereditary claims. Her
mother was poor farmers servant in
the county of Chester. Whether she had
lost her husband by death, or, like IIagar,
had been abandoned by her seducer, She
arrived, unknown and reduced to beegary
at a village in Wales, the Switzerland Of
England. She carried in her arms fe-
male infant of few months old. The
beauty Of both attracted the simple noun
taineers of the village of Hawarden; the
stranger picked up livelihood by work.
ing for the farmers and cleaning in the
fields. The marked and noble features
of the child served to propagate the rumor
that her birth was illustrious and myste-
rious; she was said to be daughter of
Lord Halifax. Nothing afterwards, either
in her fortune or education, gave color to
the report. At the age of twelve she
was received in a neighboring family as
children's servant. The frequent visits
of her master and mistress to London,
where they resided in the house of their
relative, the celebrated engraver, Boydell,
gave her the first idea of the impression
her figure produced on the crowd in pub
lie places, and a vague presentiment of
the high fortune to which her beauty
would exalt her. At sixteen she made
her escape from Hawarden, field too
obscure and circumscribed for her ex.
panded dreams, and engaged herself in
the household of respectable tradesman
in London. A lady of superior rank,
struck by her appearance in the shop,
elevated her to higher position in ser.
vitude.
Almost without employment in an
opulent family, Emma gave herself up to
the persual of those fascinating romanccs
which create an imaginary world for the
love or ambition Of youthful minds: she
frequented the theatres, and --imbibed
there the first inspirations Of the genius
of dramatic expression, of action, and
attitude, which she became the animated
statue of beauty and passion. Being
by her mistress for some house
hold negligence, her growing taste for the
theatre induced her to seek situation in
the family of one of the managers. The
irregularity and freedom of that estab-
lishment, the constant intercourse with
actors, musicians, and dancers, initiated
her in the subordinate mechanism of the
dramatic art. She was then in the flower
of her youth, and the full perfection of
her beauty. Her tall and elegant figure
equalled in natural grace the studied at
titudes of the most practiced fguarantes.
Her voice was soft, mellow, and capable
of expressing deep tragic emotion. Her
endowed with susceptibility
as delicate and vary ing as the first feel
ings of virgin mind, was, at the same
time, pensive and dazzling. All who
saw her at that period of her life agreed
in describing her as reSuScitation of
Psyche. Purity of soul, transparent
through the elegance of feature, surround
ed her, even in her dependent position,
with respect which admiration dare not
overleap. She spread fire without being
in the flame herself; her inno-
cence found safeguard even in the ex-
cess of her beauty. Her first fall was
not descent to vice, but a gliding into
arising from yielding ma.
ture. Ayoung countryman of the village
of Hawarden, son of the farmer who had
first given an asylum to her mother, was
seized by prcss-gang, and carried in
fetters to the feet at anchor, in the
Thames. Emma, at the entreaty of the
prisoners sister, accompanied her to the
captain Of the ship to implore the liberia
ton of her brother. Won by the beauty
of the fair suppliant, he listened to her
prayers and tears, removed her from her
low though honest station, overwhelmed
her with shameful luxury, furnished
house for her, supplied her with masters
in every ornamental accomplishment,
boastfully displayed his conquest in pub
lie, and left her, when the squadron
sailed, exposed without safeguard to new
seductions.
One of his friends, bearing a noble
name, and possessed of large fortune,
carried off the faithless Emma to an es-
tate in the country, treated her as his
wife, made her the queen of the hunting
parties, fetes, and balls; and finally grow
ing tired of her at the end of the season,
left her in London at the mercy of chance,
necessity and crime. Thrown back from
this golden cloud on the hard pavement
of the metropolis, and deprecated in the
eyes of her former protectors by the pub
licity of her adventures, Emma was re-
ceived by night, and in rags, under the
care 0f one of those infamous DrOcureSSeS