We had comparatively little intercourse with the people on shore, for the Admiral found it hard to get over his contempt for their braggadocio and feebleness in attack, though there is a surprising amount of persistence in the Maltese character. I, and I suppose other officers in the Vanguard (I was now promoted lieutenant), were more interested in rumours of love than rumours of war. My Lady’s undisguised admiration for the Admiral was naturally a fruitful topic of conversation. It was still only a laughing matter: not that any one ever laughed at our beloved Commander—the jest was at her.
I knew more even on that matter than did most of them, and I had also on my conscience Will’s confidences. It is strange how love breaks down pride. It had never struck me that it was possible for Will Hardres to condescend to confidences; but he had not been in love with this slip of a girl above a week or two before he had to cry Peccavi to me, just to have the pleasure of pronouncing her name.
It had not, of course, escaped his shipmates that he was paying her attention; but seeing that he was the only officer on the three ships who could speak Italian (except the Vanguard’s chaplain, who did not count), they thought it natural that he should devote himself to the most beautiful girl at the Court. They of course knew nothing of the obstacles in the way of such a proceeding in Sicily, which were broken down in such an extraordinary manner, and regarded his duel with her brother simply in the light of an introduction.
Will was full of an afternoon which he had spent in her company the day after our expedition to Pompeji and the banquet at the Queen’s Palace, at Caserta, whither the Admiral had driven some twenty miles to dine and spend the night. General Mack had arrived two days before, and it was the desire of the Queen that these two should know one another better, as the campaign seemed to depend upon their concerted action.
The Admiral, who, as I have mentioned, had alluded to the General in no very complimentary terms the night before, at the Queen’s banquet, was more favourably impressed after a personal meeting: in fact, I have heard him say afterwards, with a bitterness unusual in him, that Mack owed his advancement in life to the power of giving an impression of a capacity he did not possess. At the time he said to Will, who was in attendance on him in his private suite, taking certain orders from him before he retired to bed—“He is active and has an intelligent eye, and will do well, I have no doubt. He assures us that the Emperor has desired the King of Naples to begin, and he will support him. Mack says he will march in ten days; their Majesties have given him their confidence, and I feel I am in full possession of it. The Queen was so impressed with him that she could not help saying—‘General, be to us by land what my hero Nelson has been by sea.’ I have endeavoured to impress the General with a favourable impression of me, and I think I have succeeded.”
The Court was at Caserta, to which it paid frequent visits in the summer and autumn—mainly, no doubt, at this moment to be able to dispense with the unwelcome presence of the French Ambassador while it was receiving the General who had come from the Emperor to lead the Neapolitan forces against the French. The Court could go to Caserta without attracting much notice, because there was a large portion still remaining of the old feudal forest, among whose ilexes the King loved to hunt; and Her Majesty, who was very wasteful, loved throwing away money on the collection, under her personal superintendence, of all the water in the neighbouring mountains for her artificial waterfall, fifty feet high, and vast systems of fountains. The Hamiltons generally went with them, and her adroit Ladyship was at the pains to have about her persons of position skilled in all the musical and theatrical diversions in which the dissipated Court delighted.
There was a great deal of method in Her Majesty’s mad extravagances. Her waterworks employing so much labour as they did, and being personally superintended by herself, gave her the opportunity of conversing with all manner of persons without exciting suspicion, and her enthusiasm for dragging visitors round to see her operations gave her the opportunity of taking people like the Admiral and General Mack, whom she wished to consult, out of reach of eavesdroppers. If they had been closeted together for a great while in the Palace, all Naples would have discussed what they had said or were supposed to have said; but if they were being dragged to see the waterfall-tunnel, or the casino of S. Leucio, which was quite three miles from the Palace, it was nothing.
My Lady did not accompany them: walking exercise fatigued her, though she would dance or stand about at a reception for a number of hours.
The Queen commanded the attendance of one of her ladies, and Donna Rusidda volunteered. The Admiral was attended by Will. The General, for reasons of his own, preferred not to have any of his staff with him. As he promised a good deal more than he was justified in doing, perhaps witnesses would have been inconvenient. My Lady kept General Acton, the Prime Minister, who was tottering for the moment, and therefore not to be trusted with secrets till his position should be decided at least one way or another. But I doubt not that the excuse on which she kept him was that she had important confidences for him from Her Majesty, which the others could not be allowed to suspect.
Sir William was like the King. At really important moments people were apt to forget him. And indeed he was by no means well of the fever yet, though the drive over the hills had invigorated him.