Protestant. It throws additional
and welcome light on Sir Richard's early days, but as we have elsewhere
remarked, the principal charge that it made against Lady Burton, namely
that she was the main cause of her husband's downfall at Damascus, is
unsupported by sufficient evidence.

186. Mr. Wilkins's Work, 1897.

That there should be a counterblast to The True Life was inevitable,
and it came in the shape of The Romance of Isabel Lady Burton, which
consists of Lady Burton's unfinished autobiography and a continuation by
Mr. W. H. Wilkins. The work is a valuable addition to Burton lore, but
Mr. Wilkins's friendship for Lady Burton led him to place her on a
far higher pedestal than we have been able to give her. Perhaps it was
natural that in dealing with the True Life he should have betrayed some
heat. However, death has now visited Miss Stisted [696] as well as Lady
Burton, and the commotion made by the falling of the stone into the
pool is at this distance represented only by the faintest of circles.
In 1898, Mr. Wilkins published, with an acceptable preface, three of
Burton's unfinished works in one volume, with the title of The Jew,
the Gypsy, and El Islam, and in 1901 he placed the public under further
obligation to him by editing and issuing Burton's Wanderings in Three
Continents.

187. Burton's Friends.

Most of Burton's friends have followed him to the tomb. Edward Rehatsek
died at a ripe age at Worli on 11th December 1891, and was cremated
in Hindu fashion. At the time of his death he was working at the
translation of the third part of The Rauzat-us-Safa. [697] In his last
letter to Mr. Arbuthnot, after referring to his declining health, he
finished by saying, "Hope, however, never dies; and as work occupies
the mind, and keeps off despair, I am determined to translate for you,
though slowly, the third part of the Rauzat-us-Safa, so as to make the
history of the Khalifahs complete." [698]

Mr. Arbuthnot continued to take interest in Oriental matters and
wrote prefaces for several translations by Rehatsek and Dr. Steingass,
including the First Part of Rehatsek's Rauzat-us-Safa (1891) and
Steingass's Assemblies of Al Haririr (1898). His Arabic Authors appeared
in 1890, his Mysteries of Chronology in 1900. He died in May 1901, and
was buried at Shamley Green, Guildford. He left money for the Oriental
Translation Fund, of which, it will be remembered, he was the founder,
and his memory will