njustly vain,
Upon the ancestral trunk's departed claim;
Nor they reclining on the gilded beds
Where Moscow's zebeline downy softness spreads." [216]

Indeed he still continued, at all times of doubt and despondency, to
turn to this beloved poet; and always found something to encourage.

55. In Paraguay. August 15th to September 15th 1868. April 4th to April
18th 1869.

The year before his arrival in Santos a terrible war had broken out
between Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina on the one side and Paraguay on
the other; the Paraguayan dictator Lopez II. had been defeated in many
battles and Paraguay so long, thanks to the Jesuits and Dr. Francia, a
thriving country, was gradually being reduced to ruin. Tired of Santos,
which was out of the world and led to nothing, Burton in July 1868 sent
in his resignation. Mrs. Burton at once proceeded to England, but before
following her, Burton at the request of the Foreign Office, travelled
through various parts of South America in order to report the state of
the war. He visited Paraguay twice, and after the second journey made
his way across the continent to Arica in Peru, whence he took ship to
London via the Straits of Magellan. [217] During part of the voyage he
had as fellow traveller Arthur Orton, the Tichborne claimant. As both
had spent their early boyhood at Elstree they could had they so wished
have compared notes, but we may be sure Mr. Orton preserved on that
subject a discreet silence. The war terminated in March 1870, after
the death of Lopez II. at the battle of Aquidaban. Four-fifths of the
population of Paraguay had perished by sword or famine.

Chapter XIV. October 1869-16th August 1871, "Emperor and Empress of
Damascus."

Bibliography:

32. Vikram and the Vampire. 33. Letters from the Battlefields of
Paraguay. 1870. 34. Proverba Communia Syriaca. 1871. 35. The Jew.
Written 1871, published 1898.

56. Archbishop Manning and the Odd Fish.

Mrs. Burton had carried with her to England several books written by her
husband in Brazil, and upon her arrival she occupied herself first
in arranging for their publication, and secondly in trying to form a
company to work some Brazilian mines for which Burton had obtained a
concession. The books were The Highlands of Brazil (2 vols. 1869), The
Lands of the Cazembe (1873) and Iracema, or Honey Lips, a translation
from the Brazilian (1886).

We hear no more of the mines, but she was a