We Mean The Tender Attachment Of
Horatio (Lord) Nelson, Commanding H. M. Frigate Albemarle, 28 Guns
Then In Port, - His Romantic Admiration For Miss Mary Simpson, The
Youthful And Accomplished Daughter Of Saunders Simpson (Not "James,"
As Dr. Miles Asserts), The Cousin Of James Thompson, Sr., One Of
Wolfe's Veterans.
Traditions, venerable by their antiquity, told of
the charms divine, of the conquests of a marvellously handsome Quebec
beauty in the latter part of the last century:
The Catullus of 1783
thus begins his inspired lay in the Quebec Gazette of that year:
'Sure you will rather listen to my call,
Since beauty and Quebec's fair nymphs I sing.
Henceforth Diana in Miss S - ps - n see,
As noble and majestic is her air;
Nor can fair Venus, W - lc - s, vie with thee,
Nor all thy heavenly charms with thee compare.'
"It was our fate first to attempt to unravel the tangles of this
attractive web. In the course of our readings, in 1865, our attention
had been drawn to a passage in the life of Nelson by the Laureate of
England, Robert Southey, [132] and enlarged on by Lamartine in the
pleasant sketch he gave of the naval hero. Our investigations were
aided by the happy memory of an old friend, now deceased: the late
Lt.-Col. John Sewell, who had served in the 49th under General Brock,
and whose birth was nearly contemporary with the visit of Nelson to
our port in September, 1782. It was evident the chief biographers of
the gifted sea captain ignored the details of his youthful attachment
on our shores.
"'At Quebec,' says Southey, 'Nelson became acquainted with Alexander
Davison, by whose interference he was prevented from making what would
have been called an imprudent marriage. The Albemarle was about
to leave the station, her Captain had taken leave of his friends, and
was gone down the river to the place of anchorage; when the next
morning, as Davison was walking on the beach, to his surprise he saw
Nelson coming back in his boat. Upon inquiring the cause of his re-
appearance, Nelson took his arm to walk towards the town, and told him
he found it utterly impossible to leave Quebec without again seeing
the woman whose society contributed so much to his happiness, and then
and there offering her his hand.' 'If you do,' said his friend, 'your
utter ruin must inevitably follow.' 'Then, let it follow,' cried
Nelson; 'for I am resolved to do it.' 'And I,' replied Davison, 'am
resolved you shall not.' Nelson, however, on this occasion was less
resolved than his friend, and suffered himself to be led back to the
boat.'
"This led us to prepare a short 'Novelette' on the subject in the
Revue Canadienne, in 1867, subsequently incorporated in the Maple
Leaves: amended and corrected as new light dawned upon us in the
Tourists' Note Book, issued in 1876, and Chronicles of the St.
Lawrence, published in 1878.
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