Nights whole platoons of men of more or
less weight. Jealousy, folly and ignorance made common cause against
the new translation--the most formidable coterie being the group of
influential men who for various reasons made it their business to cry
up the commonplace translation of E. W. Lane, published in 1840,
and subsequently reprinted--a translation which bears to Payne's
the relation of a glow-worm to the meridian sun. The clique at first
prepared to make a professional attack on the work, but the appearance
of Volume i. proved it to be from a literary, artistic and philological
point of view quite unassailable. This tactic having failed, some
of these gentlemen, in their meanness, and we fear we must add,
malevolence, then tried to stir up the authorities to take action
against Mr. Payne on the ground of public morality. [381] Burton had
long been spoiling for a fight--and now was his opportunity. In season
and out of season he defended Payne. He fell upon the Lane-ites like
Samson upon the Philistines. He gloried in the hurly-burly. He wallowed,
as it were, in blood. Fortunately, too, at that time he had friends in
the Government--straightforward, commonsense men--who were above all
pettinesses. Lord Houghton, F. F. Arbuthnot, and others, also ranged
themselves on the same side and hit out manfully.

Before starting on the Palmer expedition, Burton, in a letter of October
29th, had written to Mr. Payne: "The more I read your translation the
more I like it. You have no need to fear the Lane clique; that is to
say, you can give them as good as they can give you. I am quite ready
to justify the moral point. Of course we must not attack Lane till he is
made the cheval de bataille against us. But peace and quiet are not in
my way, and if they want a fight, they can have it." The battle was
hot while it lasted, but it was soon over. The Lane-ites were cowed and
gradually subsided into silence. Mr. Payne took the matter more coolly
than Burton, but he, too, struck out when occasion required. For
example, among the enemy was a certain reverend Professor of Semitic
languages, who held advanced opinions on religious matters. He had
fought a good fight, had suffered persecution on that account, and is
honoured accordingly. "It is usual," observed Burton, "with the weak,
after being persecuted to become persecutors." [382] Mr. ----- had the
folly to put it about that Payne's translation was made not direct from
the Arabic but