Part 38 (1/2)
Soained its equilibriue Burton [637] ”To a Protestant, dick's reception into the Holy Church less and void He was dead before extreme unction was administered; and my sole idea was to satisfyto the Catholic rites and lie together above ground in the Catholic cemetery He was not strictly received, for he was dead, and the formula Si es capax, &c, saved the priest's face and satisfied the church” When an to set in, the body, which was found to be covered with scars, the witnesses of a hundred fights, was embalmed, laid out in uniform, and surrounded with candles and wreaths ”He looked so sweet,” says Lady Burton, ”such an adorable dignity, like a sleep” [638] Behind the bed still hung the great map of Africa On his breast Lady Burton had placed a crucifix, and he still wore the steel chain and the ”Blessed Virgin Medal,” which she had given hianyika journey
Priests, pious persons, and children froe of St Joseph, in which Lady Burton had taken so much interest, watched and prayed, recited the office for the dead, and sang hymns
There were three distinct funerals at Trieste, and there was to be another nine land All that can be said is that Lady Burton seeeantry and cere-drawn agony
The procession was a royal one The coffin was covered with the Union Jack, and behind it were borne on a cushi+on Burton's order and e with a pyramid of wreaths, and lastly, the children of St Joseph's orphanage, a regiovernor and officials of Trieste
Every flag in the toas half-ed the streets, and everyand balcony was crowded Every head was uncovered The procession wound its way from the Palazzo Gosleth down the declivity into the city under a bright sun pouring down its full beah the serriedto Lady Stisted, [639] Lady Burton says, ”I did not have him buried, but had a private room in the cemetery [a ”chapelle ardente”] consecrated (s and doors on the ground floor) above ground where I can go and sit with him every day He had three church services performed over him, and 1,100 masses said for the repose of his soul” ”For the man,” coainst the whole business,' perhaps 1,100 h” In an oration delivered in the Diet of Trieste, Dr
Caallant soldier, an honour to the town of Trieste” The whole press of the world rang with his praises The noble tribute paid to his ernon C Swinburne has often been quoted:
”While England sees not her old praise diht swihtens her loud sea's rim: Shall shi+ne and sound as her sons proclaim The pride that kindles at Burton's name, And joy shall exalt their pride to be The same in birth if in soul the same” [640]
”Our affairs,” Lady Burton tells Lady Stisted, in a heartrending letter, [641] ”are so nus that I have not strength enough to get theht weeks, and I could not bear to arrive in Xmas holidays, but immediately after they are over, early January, I shall arrive, if I live, and pass through Folkestone on my way to Mortlake with the dear remains to make a tomb there for us two; and you must let o into a convent for a spiritual retreat for fifteen days, and after that I should like to live very quietly in a retired way in London till God shohat I am to do or, as I hope, will take o in a few months is my only consolation As to me, I do not kno anyone can suffer so o to bed ill, I have had a supernatural strength of soul and body, and have never lost my head for one moment, but I cannot cry a tear My throat is closed, and I soo snap soon, I think I have not forgotten you, and what it means to you who loved each other so much I shall save many little treasures for you His and your father's watch, &c There are hundreds of telegrams and letters and cards by every post from all parts of the world, and the newspapers are full The whole civilized world ringing with his praise, and appreciative of hisit an honour to have known him Noill be felt e have lost I shall pass the re his life and you y I rite to her Your affectionate and desolate Isabel”
To Mr Arbuthnot, Lady Burton also wrote a very long and pitiful letter
[642] As it records in other words much that has already been mentioned ill quote only a few sentences
”Dear Mr Arbuthnot, ”Your sympathy and that of Mrs Arbuthnot is very precious to eneral letters, but you were his best friend I should like to tell you all if I saw you but I have no heart to write it I a hi because I have so much to do with his books and MSS, and secondly because the rent is paid to the 24th February and I am too poor to pay two places Here I cannot separate frohly stunned that I feel nothing outside, but my heart is crucified I have lost all in him You ant to know o into a long retreat in a convent and will offer myself to a Sister of Charity I do not think I shall be accepted for e and infirmities, but will try The world is for me a dead letter, and can no more touch me No ood tomy affairs himself as I really cannot care about the friendshi+p and kindness Your affectionate and desolate friend, Isabel Burton
”I have saved his gold watch-chain as a reat, noble and learned Richard Francis Burton, ”wader of the seas of knowledge,” ”cistern of learning of our globe,” ”exalted above his age,” ”opener by his books of night and day,”
”traveller by shi+p and foot and horse” [643] No man could have had a fuller life Of all travellers he was surely the most enthusiastic
What had he not seen? The plains of the Indus, the slopes of the Blue Mountains, the classic cities of Italy, the mephitic swamps of Eastern Africa, the Nilotic cataracts, Brazil, Abeokuta, Iceland, El Dorado--all kneell--hiested church service: lands fertile, barren, savage, civilized, utilitarian, dithyrambic He had worshi+pped at Mecca and at Salt Lake City He had looked into the face of Meraven with an iron pen,'
upon the head waters of the Congo, and the foliate coluth of the Sao Francisco, crossed the Mississippi and the Ganges Then, too, had not the Power of the Hills been upon him! With what eminence indeed was he not familiar, whether Alp, Cameroon or Himalaya! Nor did he despise the features of his native land If he had climbed the easy Andes, he had also conquered, and looked down frorubbed in the Italian Pompeii he did not, on that account, despise the British Uriconium [644] He ranks with the world's most intrepid explorers--with Columbus, Cabot, Marco Polo, Da Gama and Stanley Like another famous traveller, he had been ”in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in weariness and painfullness” In the words of his beloved Camoens, he had done
”Deeds that deserve, like Gods, a deathless name” [645]
He had lived almost his three score and ten, but, says one of his friends, ”in the vigour, the vehenation over any , or littleness, he was to the last as youthful as when he visited Mecca and Harar If, however, the work he did, the hardshi+ps he endured, and the aave forth to the world are to be taken as any measure of his life, he lived double the term of most ordinary men” Like Ovid, for the parallelism preserved itself to the end, he died in the land of his exile
”It has been said of hiland ever had and neglected” He was aof multitudinous articles in the journals of the learned societies, having proceeded fro in the literary faculty and that no one of his books is entirely satisfactory, it should be borne in e We go to hiain, if his books are not works of art, they contain, nevertheless, uist, traveller and anthropologist, he was certainly one of the greatest land has produced
Chapter xxxVIII 20th October 1890-December 1890, The Fate of ”The Scented Garden”
173 The Fate of The Scented Garden
Burton wad dead All that was mortal of him lay cold and motionless in the chapelle ardente But his spirit? The spirits of the departed, can they revive us? The Rohosts: death ends not all, I ween”