The Admiral had gone to bed the night before more dejected than I ever knew him; for though he had had the honour to receive His Majesty on board, and the executive officers of the Government, to take up their official residence there, until such time as St. Elmo should have fallen and Naples be safe again for the Royal presence, he was terribly cast down by a piece of news which came by the same frigate that had brought His Majesty, and which I found the means to send on to Will. The Queen had not been suffered to accompany the King. That great Sovereign was left to eat her heart out in disgrace, nominally for the misfortunes into which her headlong recourse to arms in the November before had plunged her kingdom, really because General Acton, who accompanied His Majesty, found that by using the King as a tool against her he himself had the ruling of the kingdom instead of taking his orders from her. It was thought very strange that one of the Queen's ladies--the Princess of Favara, Donna Rusidda--should make urgent and repeated applications to accompany the Court to Naples, though Her Majesty was not suffered to go. Her applications were consequently refused, and the convoy, guarded by His Majesty's frigate the _Sea-Horse_, Captain Foote; and His Sicilian Majesty's frigate the _Sirena_, which had the King on board, started without her. But since convoys sail very slowly, they were overtaken by a light vessel, with some despatches for His Majesty; and with the despatches came the melancholy news that the Princess had been found dead in the Mardolce lake. The business of receiving the Court on board was over, and I was standing in attendance on the Admiral, when up comes My Lady, evidently with something grave on her mind. I was about to take my leave when the Admiral motioned me to stay. Indeed, privacy on the flagship there was none to be had, except by turning the King out of the Admiral's state-room. What with the Court and its hangers-on, and officers from the squadron with various business, the ship had about double her complement on board, though at bedtime they grew a little less from the sheer want of room to lie down. It was evening, but we were close to a lantern, whose light fell on the faces of My Lady and the Admiral, though so little on mine that perhaps they forgot me. "Nelson," began My Lady, with blunt words but the gentlest and most engaging manner, "were you in love with little Rusidda, that I came upon with you that day at the Favara?" "Dearest Emma, I never loved any but you--not even, as I know now, Lady Nelson. I never knew what perfect friendship and sympathy was until I met your noble heart, which has filled up all my heart, leaving no space for anything unless it were a child of yours--flesh of your flesh--if you had one."