In criticising the characters of my heroines it must be remembered that the morals of the Neapolitan court in the time of Maria Carolina are indescribable in an English novel; but this, as a matter of fact, is the one point in which I have shrunk from presenting things without extenuation. It will be noticed that at the period of which I write, the year of the Nile, I believe Lady Hamilton to have been a lovely and enchanting woman, and that I believe that the connection between Nelson and her began as a pure romance, each worshipping the other as the most splendid human being in the world. The beautiful letter of hero-worship which she wrote to him after the battle of the Nile I first saw in its entirety in Professor Laughton’s sumptuous volume, “The Companions of Nelson.”

Before I conclude I have to express my thanks to Mr. E. Neville-Rolfe, British Consul at Naples; to the Marquis A. de Gregorio, and the Messrs. Whitaker, of Palermo; and to Miss A. Mason, a great-niece of Nelson, besides those whom I have mentioned above. I am also indebted to the writings of Mr. Clark Russell; to the highly valuable and hitherto unpublished Nelson documents which have been appearing in Literature; to the accurate and splendidly illustrated Nelsoniana which have been appearing in the popular illustrated Service paper, The Army and Navy Illustrated, and in the English Illustrated Magazine; and to Lord Charles Beresford’s and Mr. H. W. Wilson’s “Nelson and his Times,” which was published as a supplement to the Daily Mail. I have followed Lord Charles’s view of Nelson himself more closely than any other, because it is so sympathetic, and is written by one who is at once a brilliant naval expert and the sea-commander to whom the nation looks for exploits like Nelson’s.

I am prepared for much censure and acrimonious discussion, especially over the very point upon which I take my stand, that a novel dealing with the character of Nelson ought above all things to be a human document. He is, to me, the most intensely human figure in History.

Douglas Sladen.

Palazzo Monteleone, Palermo,
April 6th, 1898.

Contents.

PROLOGUE.
PAGE
INTRODUCING THE READER TO THE LADY KATHERINE FLEET[1]
CHAPTER I.
OF THE FINDING OF LORD NELSON’S JOURNAL[11]
CHAPTER II.
INTRODUCING THE ADMIRAL[19]
CHAPTER III.
OF THE LETTERS OF A BOY AND A GIRL[28]
CHAPTER IV.
OF OUR ENTRY INTO SYRACUSE[31]
CHAPTER V.
IN WHICH WILL HAS HIS FIRST CHANCE, AND HIS FIRST ESCAPADE, AND HIS FIRST MEETING WITH THE PRINCESS OF FAVARA[37]
CHAPTER VI.
AT THE FOUNTAIN OF CYANÉ AND THE PAPYRUS BEDS OF THE ANAPO[52]
CHAPTER VII.
SATISFYING A PRINCE’S HONOUR[63]
CHAPTER VIII.
OF THE BATTLE OF THE NILE, ON THE FIRST OF AUGUST, 1798[76]
CHAPTER IX.
HOW THE ADMIRAL BEGAN HIS FRIENDSHIP WITH LADY HAMILTON[101]
CHAPTER X.
WHAT HAPPENED AT THE BALL GIVEN BY LADY HAMILTON IN HONOUR OF THE ADMIRAL[112]
CHAPTER XI.
HOW THE ADMIRAL ENTERED THE MAZE OF NEAPOLITAN POLITICS[127]
CHAPTER XII.
OF A VISIT TO POMPEII IN 1798, IN WHICH THERE WERE LOVERS, AND OF THE SUPPER IN THE INN AT RESINA[139]
CHAPTER XIII.
OF THE SUPPER AT THE PALACE THAT FOLLOWED[166]
CHAPTER XIV.
WHAT THE ADMIRAL WROTE OF MY LADY IN HIS JOURNAL[181]
CHAPTER XV.
OF THE VOYAGE TO MALTA, WITH THE ACCOUNT OF WHAT HAPPENED AT CASERTA[191]
CHAPTER XVI.
WHAT THE ADMIRAL WROTE IN HIS JOURNAL ABOUT LOVE[213]
CHAPTER XVII.
WHICH THE IDLE READER MAY SKIP, AS POLITICS. IT SETS FORTH THE COWARDICE AND UNRAVELS THE INTRIGUES WHICH LED TO THE FALL OF NAPLES[227]
CHAPTER XVIII.
HOW THE NEAPOLITANS DECLARED WAR, AND HOW THEY WAGED IT[257]
CHAPTER XIX.
HOW TWO MILLIONS AND A HALF OF TREASURE WERE SMUGGLED FROM THE PALACE TO THE BRITISH AMBASSADOR’S[265]
CHAPTER XX.
HOW THE VANGUARD TOOK THE ROYAL FAMILY TO PALERMO IN THE GREATEST STORM THE ADMIRAL EVER KNEW[288]
CHAPTER XXI.
HOW WILL WAS ENTERTAINED BY THE PRINCESS AT HER PALACE OF THE FAVARA[309]
CHAPTER XXII.
HOW ALL EUROPE WAS AT SIXES AND SEVENS[321]
CHAPTER XXIII.
OF THE LOVE OF THE ADMIRAL AND MY LADY[334]
CHAPTER XXIV.
HOW THE ADMIRAL WENT TO THE FAVARA, AND THE PROPHECY BEGAN ITS FULFILMENT[346]
CHAPTER XXV.
HOW THE ADMIRAL TOOK NAPLES, AND OF THE HANGING OF CARACCIOLO[365]
CHAPTER XXVI.
OF THE STRANGE PLIGHT IN WHICH WILL FOUND KATHERINE[386]
CHAPTER XXVII.
OF THE DEATH OF DONNA RUSIDDA, THE RESURRECTION OF CARACCIOLO, AND THE HAPPY ENDING[404]

The Admiral