The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Volume 2Harrison, James
History
The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Volume 2
Harrison, James
Admirals -- Great Britain -- Biography; Great Britain. Royal Navy -- Biography; Nelson, Horatio Nelson, Viscount, 1758-1805
his lordship had recently risked even a disobedience of orders from his
temporary commander in chief, while promoting the interests of their
Neapolitan Majesties, and it will feel sufficient reasons for our hero's
delicate repugnance to the ready acceptance of any undesired
aggrandizement, however highly merited, on this particular occasion.
On the 13th, therefore, in consequence of this acquiescence, the King
of Naples sent his lordship a superb diamond-hilted sword, with a most
affectionate letter; thanking him for having reconquered his majesty's
kingdom, and again placed him on the throne of his ancestors. The value
of this present, estimated at four thousand guineas, was incalculably
enhanced by the very appropriate circumstance of it's being the
identical sword which had been given to the King of Naples, by Charles
the Third, on that monarch's memorable departure to Spain, accompanied
by the following most remarkable declaration--"With this sword, I
conquered the kingdom which I now resign to thee. It ought, in future,
to be possessed by the first defender of the same; or, by him who shall
restore it to thee, in case it should ever be lost." At the same time,
Lord Nelson received an official letter from his Excellency the Prince
Di Luzzi, informing him that his Sicilian Majesty had that day been
graciously pleased to create his lordship Duke of Bronte, in Sicily, and
to confer on him all the valuable estate and privileges attached to that
most honourable title.
When it is considered, that the word _Bronte_ signifies, in the Greek
language, _Thunder_; that the fabulous forger of the thunder of Jupiter
was said to be one of the Cyclops, named _Bronte_, who resided at Etna
in the Island of Sicily, where the Dukedom of Bronte is situated; and
that the military guard of honour, appertaining to the Dukes of Bronte,
still actually wear, in allusion to the fabled Cyclops, sons of Neptune
and Amphitrite, who had one large eye in the middle of their foreheads,
the representation of an eye on the front of their caps; there could
not, every person must admit, have been a more appropriate dignity
bestowed on our incomparable hero, by his Sicilian Majesty, than that
which he had thus liberally and judiciously been induced to confer.
Lord Nelson, penetrated with unutterable gratitude, by his majesty's
most generous munificence, instantly wrote the following letter to the
minister who had made this interesting communication.
"Palermo, 13th August 1799.
"SIR,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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