s is an asthenic
age--and true-hearted men are rare." Presently we find him revisiting
some of his old haunts. In his youth he had explored Italy almost from
end to end; but the literary associations of the various towns were
their principal charm. To him, Verona stood for Catullus, Brindisi for
Virgil, Sorrento for Tasso, Florence for "the all Etruscan three," [93]
Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, Reggio and Ferrara for Ariosto. It was
from Ariosto, perhaps through Camoens, who adopted it, that he took his
life motto, "Honour, not honours"--

"'Tis honour, lovely lady, that calls me to the field,
And not a painted eagle upon a painted shield." [94]

All the Burton servants obtained some knowledge of Italian, even
Allahdad being soon able to swear fluently in it, and his aptitude,
joined to a quarrelsome temper and an illogical prejudice against all
Italians, caused innumerable broils.

By and by the family returned to England and Miss Stisted thus describes
the progress: "One of the earliest pictures in my memory is of a
travelling carriage crossing snow-covered Alps. A carriage containing my
mother and uncle, sister and self, and English maid, and a romantic
but surly Asiatic named Allahdad. Richard Burton, handsome, tall and
broad-shouldered, was oftener outside the carriage than in it, as the
noise made by his two small nieces rendered pedestrian exercise, even
in the snow, an agreeable and almost necessary variety." Now and then he
gave them bits of snow to taste, which they hoped might be sugar. [95]
On reaching England he sent Allahdad back to Bombay.

Much of the year 1850 was spent at Leamington and Dover, and in 1851,
Burton, accompanied by his brother Edward, crossed to Boulogne, where he
prepared for publication his books, Goa, Scinde, Falconry in the
Valley of the Indus, and Bayonet Exercise. Love of a sort mingled
with literature, for he continued various flirtations, but without any
thought of marriage; for he was still only a lieutenant in the service
of John Company, and his prospects were not rosy. We said "love of a
sort," and advisedly, for we cannot bring ourselves to believe that
Burton was ever frenziedly in love with any woman. He was, to use his
own expression, no "hot amortist." Of his views on polygamy, to which
he had distinct leanings, we shall speak later. He said he required two,
and only two qualities in a woman, namely beauty and affection. It
was the Eastern idea. The Hindu An