"MY LORD,
"On the 22d, I wrote a line to Commodore Duckworth, telling him that the Royal Family of the Two Sicilies were safely embarked on board the Vanguard; and requested him to take the first opportunity of acquainting your lordship of this event. For many days previous to the embarkation, it was not difficult to foresee that such a thing might happen. I, therefore, sent for the Goliath, from off Malta; and for Captain Troubridge in the Culloden, and his squadron from the north and west coast of Italy: the Vanguard being the only ship in Naples Bay. On the 14th, the Marquis De Niza, with three of the Portuguese squadron, arrived from Leghorn; as did Captain Hope, in the Alcmene, from Egypt. From this time, the danger for the personal safety of their Sicilian Majesties was daily increasing; and new treasons were found out, even to the minister at war. The whole correspondence relative to this important business was carried on, with the greatest address, by Lady Hamilton and the queen; who, being constantly in the habits of correspondence, no one could suspect. It would have been highly imprudent, either in Sir William Hamilton or myself, to have gone to court; as we knew that all our movements were watched, and that even an idea was entertained, by the Jacobins, of arresting our persons, as a hostage—as they foolishly imagined—against the attack of Naples, should the French get possession of it. Lady Hamilton, from this time, to the 21st, every night received the jewels of the royal family, &c. &c. &c. and such cloaths as might be necessary for the very large party to embark; to the amount, I am confident, of full two millions five hundred thousand pounds sterling. On the 18th, General Mack wrote, that he had no prospect of stopping the progress of the French; and intreated their majesties to think of retreating from Naples, with their august family, as expeditiously as possible. All the Neapolitan navy were now taken out of the mole, consisting of three sail of the line and three frigates. The seamen, from the two sail of the line in the bay, left their ships, and went on shore; and a party of English seamen, with officers, were sent from the Vanguard, to assist in navigating them to a place of safety. From the 18th, various plans were formed for the removal of the royal family from the palace to the water-side. On the 19th, I received a note from General Acton; saying, that the king approved of my plan for their embarkation. This day, and the 20th, and 21st, very large assemblies of the people were in commotion; several people were killed, and one was dragged by the legs to the palace. The mob, by the 20th, were very unruly, and insisted that the royal family should not leave Naples. However, they were pacified by the king and queen's speaking to them. On the 21st, at half past eight, three barges, with myself and Captain Hope, landed in a corner of the arsenal. I went into the palace, and brought out the whole royal family; put them in the boats; and, at half past nine, they were all safely on board the Vanguard: when I gave immediate notice to all British merchants, that their persons would be received on board every and any ship in the squadron, their effects of value being before embarked; and I had directed that all the condemned provisions should be thrown overboard, in order to make room for their effects. Sir William Hamilton had also directed two vessels to be hired for the accommodation of the French emigrants, and provisions were supplied from our victuallers. In short, every thing had been done for the comfort of all persons embarked. I did not forget, in these important moments, that it was my duty not to leave the chance of any ships of war falling into the hands of the French; therefore, every preparation was made for burning them, before I sailed. But the reasons given me by their Sicilian majesties, induced me not to burn them till the last moment. I, therefore, directed the Marquis De Niza to remove all the Neapolitan ships outside the squadron under his command; and, if it were possible, to equip some of them with jury-masts, and send them to Messina: and, whenever the French advanced near Naples, or the people revolted against their legitimate government, then immediately to destroy the ships of war, and to join me at Palermo; leaving one or two ships to cruise between Capri and Ischia, in order to prevent the entrance of any English ships into the Bay of Naples. On the 23d, at seven in the evening, the Vanguard, Samnite, and Archimedes, with about twenty sail of vessels, left the Bay of Naples, The next day, it blew much harder than I ever experienced since I have been at sea. Your lordship will believe, that my anxiety was not lessened by the great charge that was with me; but, not a word of uneasiness escaped the lips of any of the royal family. On the 25th, at nine in the morning, Prince Albeit, their majesty's youngest child, having eat a hearty breakfast, was taken ill; and, at seven in the evening, died in the arms of Lady Hamilton! And here it is my duty to tell your lordship, the obligations which the whole royal family, as well as myself, are under, on this trying occasion, to her ladyship. They necessarily came on board without a bed, nor could the smallest preparation be made for their reception. Lady Hamilton provided her own beds, linen, &c. and became their slave; for, except one man, no person belonging to royalty assisted the royal family. Nor did her ladyship enter a bed the whole time they were on board. Good Sir William, also, made every sacrifice for the comfort of the august family embarked with him. I must not omit to state, the kindness of Captain Hardy, and every officer in the Vanguard; all of whom readily gave their beds for the convenience of the numerous persons attending the royal family. At three in the afternoon, being in sight of Palermo, his Sicilian majesty's royal standard was hoisted at the main top-gallant mast-head of the Vanguard: which was kept flying there, till his majesty got into the Vanguard's barge; when it was struck in the ship, and hoisted in the barge, and every proper honour paid to it from the ship. As soon as his majesty set his foot on shore, it was struck from the barge. The Vanguard anchored at two in the morning of the 26th. At five, I attended her majesty, and all the princesses, on shore: her majesty being so much affected, by the death of Prince Albert, that she could not bear to go on shore in a public manner. At nine, his majesty went on shore; and was received with the loudest acclamations and apparent joy. I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, your lordship's most obedient humble servant,
"Nelson."
Earl of St. Vincent."
It has been said, that the King of Naples had not, without much difficulty, been induced to quit the seat of his government. Doubtless, as will ever be the case, where various powerful parties unhappily divide a country, each chiefly regardful of it's own particular interest, the leaders of the several factions would struggle, by all imaginable stratagems, to draw into their own vortex the sovereign on whose debasement they could alone hope to erect any satisfactory individual exaltation. The King of Naples, though a man of excellent dispositions, and neither defective in valour nor in wisdom, might possibly have fallen a prey to some of the numerous deceptive artifices which originated in these causes, if the admirable political sagacity of his vigilant and august consort, the worthy daughter of Maria Theresa, aided by the keen council of our immortal Nelson, and the penetrative wisdom and address of the British minister and his accomplished lady, had not preserved his Sicilian, majesty's unsuspecting mind from the ruinous effects of such, destructive machinations. Nothing can possibly be more obvious, than that the advice of these friendly fellow-sufferers must necessarily have been sincere; and, if the king really did hesitate, before he embraced a design which nothing but necessity could justify, it must only be ascribed to that ardent desire of constantly doing what is right, which finally induced his majesty to adopt the proposed salutary measure. The king, however, had by no means abandoned his loyal Neapolitan subjects, in thus guarding against the treasons of the disloyal; that would not have been a measure for our exalted hero or his estimable friends ever to have advised, or either of their Sicilian majesties to have adopted. On the contrary, Prince Pignatelli had been previously created a viceroy; a grand, police guard established, to preserve the tranquillity of the city during his majesty's absence, commanded by officers selected equally from the respective classes of the nobility and private citizens; and large sums of money, with a prodigious number of arms, freely distributed among the Lazzaroni, to preserve all the advantages of their accustomed ardent zeal and loyal attachment. It was, therefore, in fact, only a temporary removal of the court of the King of the Two Sicilies, from his capital of Naples, in one grand division of his dominions, at a most critical period, to that of Palermo, in the other. In short, the prudence of the precaution soon manifested itself by the event; and the noble part which our immortal hero so successfully performed, by his consummate wisdom, on the important occasion, liberally interwove, with the civic laurels of Italy, the honoured wreath of naval glory, which had been recently and universally yielded to his invincible valour on the banks of the Nile.