At the earnest request of the Queen of Naples, their departure from Vienna had been put off for several days; when it could no longer be protracted, this dreaded separation took place at the imperial palace of Schoenbrun, situated on the river Wien, which gives name to the city of Vienna, from whence the palace is only two miles distant.  The queen was prodigiously affected, and earnestly intreated Lady Hamilton to return with her to Naples.  Sir William, too, her majesty remarked, when he had transacted his business in England, whither he was for that purpose accompanying his illustrious friend, would find the soft climate of Italy far more congenial to his constitution than the damp atmosphere of his own native country.  Neither Sir William, nor his lady, however, could listen to any arrangement which must subject them to even a temporary separation from each other.  Their domestic happiness, notwithstanding the very considerable disparity of age, was ever most exemplary; and it seems probable, that the amiable demeanour of Lady Hamilton, whose tender regard for Sir William could not fail to excite the admiration of every virtuous visitor, first gave birth to that ardent friendship by which Lord Nelson unquestionably felt himself attached to her ladyship.  When the Queen of Naples found, that nothing could induce Sir William to leave his lady behind, her majesty immediately wrote an instrument, appointing Lady Hamilton to receive, for her eminent services, an annuity of one thousand pounds a year.  This, however, Sir William positively objected to her ladyship’s accepting.  He maintained, that he could not suffer his lady to take it, without subjecting them both to unmerited suspicions at home; and her ladyship, impressed with similar sentiments, instantly tore the paper in pieces.  The Queen of Naples, however, persisting in her desire to promote, if possible, the interests of her estimable and beloved friends, now penned an elegant epistle to her Britannic majesty, in which she is said to have recommended Sir William and Lady Hamilton as worthy of receiving every possible honour.

The travelling party, who proceeded from Vienna, on the 26th of September 1800, with Lord Nelson, and Sir William and Lady Hamilton, including domestics, consisted of seventeen persons.  The Archduke Charles had written to his aunt, the Queen of Naples, soon after her arrival, intreating that Lord Nelson might be requested to visit him at Prague, in the way to Dresden; being himself so extremely ill, that he was unable to pay the British hero his respects at Vienna, as had been his most earnest wish.  His lordship, accordingly, on arriving at Prague, the capital of Bohemia, had an immediate interview with that great military hero.  He was accompanied, as usual, by his friends Sir William and Lady Hamilton, to the palace; and was so delighted with the archduke, that he said, when he got into the carriage, returning to their hotel—­“This is a man after my own heart!” The next day, being the anniversary of our hero’s birth, Michaelmas-day 1800, the Archduke Charles gave a grand entertainment; verses written for the occasion were published in the newspapers; and the whole city was illuminated.  Sir William Hamilton politely remarked, at this festival, with one of these two renowned heroes on each side of him, that he had then the honour to be between the greatest naval and the greatest military character in Europe.