The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-07-24


Bruton has just been published in
London. A large portion of these two
volumes is the autobiographical work
of Lady Burton herself; but w. II.
Wilkins has filled in the gaps. He has
gathered information concerning MS
subject from many sources, and he has
set forth the whole story of her ad-
Vonturous life with such literary skill,
such tact, such sympathy, and insight
that he must be complimented upon
having given to the reading world one
of the most notable of the many excel
lent biographies which have seen the
light in the course of the past twelve
months.
The story of Miss Arundells love for
Captain Burton, as it is unfolded in
these pages, is as captivating as any
love story ever imagined by writer
of pure romance. Isabel Arundel was
beautiful girl, high spirited. uncon-
ventional, Intellectually ambitious, in
dependent and possessing a very large
share of the mysterious quality which
she. herself describes as 'supernormal
consciousness" This supernomal con-
sciousness amounted in her TO what
might almost be called the gift of Sec
ond sight. over and over again we
Tttlu VI uGI VI SOilS uiS1SiAN
occurrence or divining some coming
event with an accuracy of prescience
little short Of amazing. In her early
girlhood she made the acquaintance of
q gypsy named Hagar Burton, who
prophcsied that she, Isabel Arundel,
would cross the sea, be in the same
town with her Destiny and not know
1t, and that she would bear the name of
Burton. Long afterwards, when walk
ing one day with her sister on the
ramparts of Boulogne, Miss Aruudell
saw a distinguished-lo stranger
walking towards her.
HE looked at me-" she says, "as
though he read me through and
through in moment, and started lit
tie. was completely magnetized; and
when we had gone a little distance
away turned to my sister, and whis-
pered to her:
THAT MAN WILL MARRY ME-"
She saw him again on the next day;
he followed her and wrote up in chalk
the words: MAY l speak to you?"
leaving the chalk on the wall. Miss
Arundel took up the chalk and wrote
back: mo; mother will be angry"
Afterwards, however, they met and
spoke, and she learned that the strang-
er was Captain Richard Burton.
On leaving Boulogne she saw no
more of Burton for four years, and had
apparently no prospect of meeting him
I again. Yet during his absence on his
famous pilgrimage to Mecca, and on
his first expedition into Africa, she fol-
lowed him ceaselessly in thought and
in prayer night and day. After his re-
turn from the Crimea she met him
quite by chance in the Botanical Gar
! dens. At the end of a fortnight he
asked her: Gould you do anything so
slckly as to give up civilization? And
If get the consulate of Damascus will
you marry me and go and live there?
Think it over" She replied: 81 dc
not want to think it over--I have been
thinking it over for six years, ever
since / first saw you at Boulogne. !
have prayed for you every morning
and night. have followed all your ca
reer minutely, i have read every word
you ever wrote, and / would rather
have crust and a tent with you than
be queen of all the world, and so say
how, Yes. yes, yes"
KEPT SECRET"
This betrothal was kept a secret dur.
ing the whole time while Burton was
fighting his terrible way through the
Central African jungle to find the ia.
bled lakes beyond the Usagara Noun
tains, which at that time the eye OF
the white man had never seen. But
they were married at last, and never
surely, were a man and woman better
mated. They travelled together in many
lands, and Isabel proved herself to be
uneXampled in her ability and energy
as a consul's wife. One realizes very
fully in this book how utterly both
Richard Burton and his wife were
thrown away in the consular service
and how shamefully Burton was neg.
lected and misunderstood by the gov.
ernment which employed him. In many
of his appointments his wife was Of
signal and practical service to him.
Mr.. wilkins vigorously and success
fully defends Lady Burton against thu
acrimonious and unfounded allegation:
made against her by Miss Georgina
Sisted in her so-called "True Life o.
Sir Richard Burton" Miss Sisted, wht
is Burton's niece, declared that Bur
toms recall from the consulate of Da
nascus was directly due to the socia
and political difficulties brought abou
by his wife's blunders and imprudence
Mr.. Wilkins disproVes this assertion
absolutely and completely. Miss Sits
ted has also stated that Lady Burtoi
lost her head and fed from Damascus
On hearing a rumor OF cholera; but W,
are here shown that Lady Burton
worked bravely and courageousl.
among the cholera patients and wa
even herself attacked by the disease
With equal success does Mr.. wilkins
-exonerate Lady Burton from the crue
accusation of having acted in ba,
faith in the matter of Burton's conver
sion to the Roman Catholic church
, and from the impugnme1t of the mo
tives which led her to destroy tn
manuscript Of her dead husband
translation OF THE Scented Garden"
THE BICYCLE LEG.
1t has now been discovered by tn