case my own idea
is that I may be able to last till March."

184. Death of Lady Burton, 22nd Mar. 1896.

Lady Burton from that time gradually grew weaker; but death, which "to
prepared appetites is nectar," had for her no terrors. To her it meant
release from pain and suffering, ultimate reception into the presence
of an all-merciful God, re-union with her beloved husband. She did,
however, last, as she had anticipated, till March. Early in that month
she returned to Baker Street, where she died rather suddenly on Sunday
the 22nd.

By her will dated, 28th December 1895, she left some L12,000 to
her sister, Mrs. FitzGerald, [695] and the following persons also
benefitted: her sister, Mrs. Van Zeller, L500; her secretary, Miss
Plowman L25; Khamoor L50; her nephew Gerald Arthur Arundell, the cottage
at Mortlake; the Orphanage at Trieste, L105. She directed that after
her heart had been pierced with a needle her body was to be embalmed in
order that it might be kept above ground by the side of her husband.
She stated that she had bought a vault close to the tent, and that two
places were to be reserved in it in order that if a revolution should
occur in England, and there should be fear of the desecration of the
dead, the coffins of her husband and herself might be lowered into it.
She provided for 3,000 masses to be said for her at once at Paris, and
left an annuity to pay for a daily mass to be said there perpetually.
The attendance of priests at her funeral was to be "as large as
possible."

Lady Burton was buried on Friday March 27th, the service taking place in
the Catholic church at Mortlake where five years previous she had knelt
beside the coffin of her husband; and a large number of mourners was
present. After mass her remains were carried to the Arab Tent, and so
she obtained her wish, namely, that in death she and her husband might
rest in the same tomb.

185. Miss Stisted's "True Life."

As might have been expected, Lady Burton's Life of her husband gave
umbrage to the Stisted family--and principally for two reasons; first
its attempt to throw a flood of Catholic colour on Sir Richard,
and secondly because it contained statements which they held to
be incorrect. So after Lady Burton's death, Miss Stisted wrote and
published a small work entitled The True Life of Sir Richard Burton.
It is written with some acerbity, for Lady Burton as a Catholic was not
more militant than Miss Stisted as a