rattle, he roared, "Do you think I am going to be
bum-bailiff to a parcel of blood-suckers!" And yet these gentlemen had
sometimes, in their moderation, charged as little as sixty per cent.
Henceforward Burton looked evil upon the whole Jewish race, and resolved
to write a book embodying his researches respecting them and his
Anti-Semite opinions. For the purpose of it he made minute enquiries
concerning the death of one Padre Tommaso, whom the Jews were suspected
of having murdered in 1840. These enquiries naturally have his foes
further umbrage, and they in return angrily discharge their venom at
him. In his book The Jew, published after his death, [242] he lashes the
whole people. He seems in its pages to be constantly running up and down
with a whip and saying: "I'll teach you to be 'an Ebrew Jew,' I
will." His credulity and prejudice are beyond belief. He accepts every
malicious and rancorous tale told against the Jews, and records as
historical facts even such problematical stories as the murder of Hugh
of Lincoln. Thus he managed to exasperate representatives of almost
every class. But perhaps it was his championship of the Shazlis that
made the most mischief. Says Lady Burton, "It broke his career, it
shattered his life, it embittered him towards religion."

Complaints and garbled stories reached London from all sides, and Burton
was communicated with. He defended himself manfully, and showed that in
every question he had been on the side of righteousness and equity,
that he had simply fought systematically against cruelty, oppression
and nefariousness. He could not and would not temporize. An idea of the
corruption prevalent at Damascus may be fathered from the fact that on
one occasion L10,000 was promised him if he would "give an opinion which
would have swayed a public transaction." Says Lady Burton, "My husband
let the man finish, and then he said, 'If you were a gentleman of my own
standing, and an Englishman, I would just pitch you out of the window;
but as you are not, you may pick up your L10,000 and walk down the
stairs.'" [243]

63. The Recall. 16th August 1871.

Accusations, many of them composed of the bluest gall; and manly letters
of defence from Burton now flew almost daily from Damascus to England.
The Wali, the Jews and others all had their various grievances. As it
happened, the British Government wanted, just then, above all things,
peace and quiet. If Burton could have managed to j