When I wrote to the Queen, I said—­“I left Lady Hamilton, the eighteenth of May; and so attached to your Majesty, that I am sure she would lay down her life to preserve your’s.  Your Majesty never had a more sincere, attached, and real friend, than your dear Emma.  You will be sorry to hear, that good Sir William did not leave her in such comfortable circumstances as his fortune would have allowed.  He has given it amongst his relations.  But she will do honour to his memory, although every one else of his friends call loudly against him on that account.”

I trust, my dear Emma, she has wrote you.  If she can forget Emma, I hope, God will forget her!  But, you think, that she never will, or can.  Now is her time to shew it.

You will only shew the King and Queen’s letters to some few particular friends.

The King is very low; lives, mostly, at Belvidere.  Mr. Elliot had not seen either him or the Queen, from the seventeenth, the day of his arrival, to the twenty-first.  On the next day, he was to be presented.

I have made up my mind, that it is part of the plan of that Corsican Scoundrel, to conquer the kingdom of Naples.  He has marched thirteen thousand men into the kingdom, on the Adriatic side; and he will take possession, with as much shadow of right, of Gaeta and Naples:  and, if the poor King remonstrates, or allows us to secure Sicily, he will call it war, and declare a conquest.

I have cautioned General Acton, not to risk the Royal Family too long; but Naples will be conquered, sooner or later, as it may suit Buonaparte’s convenience.

The Morea, and Egypt, are likewise in his eye.  An army of full seventy thousand men are assembling in Italy.

Gibbs and Noble are gone to Malta.

I am, you may believe, very anxious to get off Toulon, to join the fleet.

Sir Richard Bickerton went from off Naples, the day I left Gibraltar.

We passed Monte Christo, Bastia, and Cape Corse, yesterday; and are now moving, slowly, direct for Toulon.

What force they have, I know not; indeed, I am totally ignorant:  some say, nine sail of the line; some, seven; some, five.  If the former, they will come out; for we have only the same number, including sixty-fours, and very shortly manned.

However, I hope they will come out, and let us settle the matter.  You know, I hate being kept in suspence.

  [July 8th.

I left this hole, to put down what force the French have at Toulon.  Seven sail of the line ready, five frigates, and six corvettes.  One or two more in about a week.  We, to day, eight sail of the line—­to-morrow, seven; including two sixty-four gun ships.

You will readily believe, how rejoiced I shall be to get one of your dear, excellent letters, that I may know every thing which has passed since my absence.

I sincerely hope, that Mr. Booth has settled all your accounts.  Never mind, my dear Emma, a few hundred pounds; which is all the rigid gripe of the law, not justice, can wrest from you.