remembers the great sweetness of her grandmother's temper, and tells
that she often saw her take from a casket a miniature of Nelson, look
at it affectionately, kiss it, and then replace it gently; after which
she would turn to her and say, "When you are older, little Fan, you
too may know what it is to have a broken heart." This trifling
incident, transpiring as it now does for the first time, after nearly
seventy years, from the intimate privacies of family life, bears its
mute evidence to the truth of the last two witnesses, that Lady Nelson
neither reproached her husband, nor was towards him unforgiving.[20]
Nelson's early friend, the Duke of Clarence, who had given her away at
the wedding, maintained his kindly relations with her to the end, and
continued his interest to her descendants after his accession to the
throne.

Thus abruptly and sadly ended an attachment which, if never ardent,
had for many years run undisturbed its tender course, and apparently
had satisfied Nelson's heart, until the wave of a great passion swept
him off his feet. "I remember," writes Miss Knight, "that, shortly
after the Battle of the Nile, when my mother said to him that no doubt
he considered the day of that victory as the happiest in his life, he
answered, 'No; the happiest was that on which I married Lady Nelson.'"
On the 13th of January, 1801, Nelson took formal and final leave of
her before hoisting his flag at Torbay. "I call God to witness," he
then said, "there is nothing in you, or your conduct, that I wish
otherwise." His alienation from her was shared by most of his family,
except his father, who said to him frankly, that gratitude required he
should spend part of his time with Lady Nelson. Two years before, he
had written of her: "During the whole war [since 1793] I have been
with Lady Nelson, a good woman, and attentive to an infirm old man,"
and they had continued to live together. The old man persuaded himself