64. With Sir H. Stisted at Norwood. August 1871.
Arrived in England Burton went straight to his sister's at Norwood. His
dejection was abysmal. Says Miss Stisted, "Strong, brave man though
he was, the shock of his sudden recall told upon him cruelly. Not even
during his last years, when his health had all but given way, was he so
depressed. Sleep being impossible, he used to sit up, sometimes alone,
sometimes with Sir H. Stisted, until the small hours of the morning,
smoking incessantly. Tragedy was dashed with comedy; one night a
terrible uproar arose. The dining-room windows had been left open,
the candles alight, and the pug asleep under the table forgotten. A
policeman, seeing the windows unclosed, knocked incessantly at the
street door, the pug awoke and barked himself hoarse, and everyone
clattered out of his or her bedroom to ascertain the cause of the
disturbance. My uncle had quite forgotten that in quiet English
households servants retire to rest before 3 a.m." [246] Subsequently
Lady Stisted and her daughters resided at Folkestone, and thenceforth
they were "the Folky Folk." Burton also took an early opportunity to
visit his brother, and tried to lead him into conversation; but nothing
could break that Telamonian silence.
65. Reduced to L15.
Mrs. Burton, who had returned to Damascus "to pay and pack," now arrived
in England, bringing with her very imprudently her Syrian maid Khamoor.
The L16,000 left by Burton's father, the L300 Mrs. Burton took out with
her, and the Damascus L1,200 a year, all had been spent. Indeed, Mrs.
Burton possessed no more than the few pounds she carried about her
person. In these circumstances prudence would have suggested leaving
such a cipher as Khamoor in Syria, but that seems not to have occurred
to her. It is probable, however, that the spendthrift was not she but
her husband, for when she came to be a widow she not only proved herself
an astute business woman, but accumulated wealth. On reaching London
she found Burton "in one room in a very small hotel." His pride had not
allowed him to make any defence of himself; and it was at this juncture
that Mrs. Burton showed her grit. She went to work with all her soul,
and for three months she bombarded with letters both the Foreign Office
and outside men of influence. She was not discreet, but her pertinacity
is beyond praise. Upon trying to learn the real reason of his recall,
she was told only a portion of the truth. Commenting on one of the
charges, namely that Burton "was influenced by his Catholic wife against
the Jews," she said, "I am proud to say that I have never in my life
tried to influence my husband to do anything wrong, and I am prouder
still to say that if I had tried I should not have succeeded."
For ten months the Burtons had to endure "great poverty and official
neglect," during which they were reduced to their last L15. Having been
invited by Mrs. Burton's uncle, Lord Gerard, to Garswood, [247] they
went thither by train. Says Mrs. Burton, "We were alone in a railway
compartment, when one of the fifteen sovereigns rolled out of my pursed,
and slid between the boards of the carriage and the door, reducing us to
L14. I sat on the floor and cried, and he sat by me with is arm round my
waist trying to comfort me." [248] The poet, as Keats tells us, "pours
out a balm upon the world," and in this, his darkest hour, Burton
found relief, as he had so often found it, in the pages of his beloved
Camoens. Gradually his spirits revived, and he began to revolve new
schemes. Indeed, he was never the man to sit long in gloom or to wait
listlessly for the movement of fortune's wheel. He preferred to seize it
and turn it to his purpose.
66. An Orgie at Lady Alford's. 2nd November 1871.
If the Burtons lacked money, on the other hand they had wealthy
relations with whom they were able to stay just as long as they pleased;
and, despite their thorny cares, they threw themselves heartily into the
vortex of society. Among their friends was Lady Marion Alford, a woman
of taste, talent and culture. The first authority of the day on art
needlework, she used to expound her ideas on the looms of the world
from those of Circe to those of Mrs. Wheeler of New York. At one of Lady
Alford's parties in her house at Princes Gate, October 1871, the Prince
of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh being present, Burton appeared
dressed as a Syrian shaykh, and Mrs. Burton as a Moslem lady of
Damascus. Burton was supposed not to understand English, and Mrs. Burton
gave out that she had brought him over to introduce him to English
society. She thus described the occurrence in an unpublished letter to
Miss Stisted. [249]
"Our orgie was great fun. The Bird and I wore Arab dresses. I went in
the dress of an Arab lady of Damascus, but as myself, accompanied by
Khamoor in her village dress and introducing Hadji Abdullah, a Moslem
shaykh of Damascus. We then spoke only Arabic to each other, and the
Bird broken French to the company present. We were twenty-eight at
supper. The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh were there. We
let them into the joke, and they much enjoyed it, but all the rest were
quite taken in half the evening. Even Lord Lyons and many of our old
friends. The house was perfect and the fountain part [250] quite like
Damascus. After supper we made Turkish coffee and narghilihis, and
Khamoor handed them to the Princes on her knees, the tray on her head in
Eastern fashion. They were delighted and spoke to her very kindly. They
talked for long to Richard, and afterwards to me, and asked when we were
going back to Syria before Lord Granville's brother." This letter, like
most of Mrs. Burton's letters to Miss Stisted, is signed "Z," short for
"Zoo."
In February (1872) Mrs. Burton's mother, who had for years been
paralysed, grew rapidly worse. Says Mrs. Burton, writing to Miss Stisted
(29th February), "My time is divided between her and Richard's concerns.
She did rally a little and I took advantage of it to go one to one
dinner and to the Thanksgiving Day [251] which we saw to perfection,
and enjoyed enormously; and last night to a very large gathering at Lady
Margaret Beaumont's... Everybody was there and it gave me an opportunity
of saying 'How d'ye do?' to the world after my return from Syria... I
am working tooth and nail at the Bird's [252] case, and have got our
ambassador (Elliott) to see me at twelve next Saturday." At this time
everyone was talking about Livingstone, the story of the meeting of
him and Stanley being still fresh in men's minds. It was thought that
another expedition ought to be sent out with Burton to lead, and a
grand luncheon was got up for the express purpose of bring Burton and
a certain great personage together. When the soup was being served, the
great personage, turning to Burton, said: "You are the man to go out
to Livingstone. Come, consent, and I will contribute L500 to the
expedition."
Mrs. Burton, who sat next to her husband, looked up with beaming
eyes, and her heart beat with joy. The object of the luncheon had been
achieved, and Fortune was again bestowing her smiles; but as ill luck
would have it, Burton happened just then to be in one of his contrary
moods. He went on spooning up his soup, and, without troubling to turn
his head, said, "I'll save your Royal Highness that expense."
Poor Mrs. Burton almost fainted. The Livingstone expedition was
subsequently undertaken by Cameron.
67. The Tichborne Trial.
Another event of this period was the Tichborne trial, but though Burton
was subpoenaed by the claimant, his evidence really assisted the other
side.
"I understand," began his interlocutor, "that you are the Central
African traveller."
"I have been to Africa," modestly replied Burton.
"Weren't you badly wounded?" [253]
"Yes, in the back, running away."
His identity being established, Burton gave his evidence without further
word fence. "When I went out to Brazil," he said, "I took a present from
Lady Tichborne for her son, but being unable to find him, [254] I sent
the present back. When returning from America, I met the claimant, and
I recognise him simply as the man I met. That is all." Burton, like
others, always took it for granted that the claimant obtained most of
his information respecting the Tichbornes from Bogle, the black man, who
had been in the service of the family.
68. Khamoor at the Theatre.
In some unpublished letters of Mrs. Burton, written about this time, we
get additional references to Khamoor, and several of them are amusing.
Says Mrs. Burton in one of them, [255] "Khamoor was charming at the
theatre. I cried at something touching, and she, not knowing why, flung
herself upon my neck and howled. She nearly died with joy on seeing the
clown, and said, 'Oh, isn't this delightful. What a lovely life!' She
was awfully shocked at the women dancing with 'naked legs,' and at all
the rustic swains and girls embracing each other."
In January 1872, the Burtons were at Knowsley, [256] the Earl of
Derby's, whence Mrs. Burton wrote an affectionate letter to Miss
Stisted. She says, [257] "I hope you are taking care of yourself. Good
people are scarce, and I don't want to lose my little pet." Later,
Burton visited Lady Stisted at Edinburgh, and about that time met a Mr.
Lock, who was in need of a trusty emissary to report on some sulphur
mines in Iceland, for which he had a concession. The two came to
terms, and it was decided that Burton should start in May. He spent the
intervening time at Lord Gerard's, [258] and thence Mrs. Burton wrote to
Miss Stisted [259] saying why she did not accompany Burton in his visit
to his relatives. She says, "I hope you all understand that no animosity
keeps me from Edinburgh. I should have been quite pleased to go if
Richard had been willing, but I think he still fancies that Maria (Lady
Stisted) would rather not see me, and I am quite for each one doing as
he or she likes... The Bird sends his fond love and a chirrup."