It is better to deal with these charges seriatim.
With regard to the first, we have the positive and public testimony of Lady Burton, which was never contradicted during her lifetime, to the effect that her husband was alive when the Sacrament of Extreme Unction was administered to him. As, however, this testimony has been publicly called in question, though not until eight months after her death, we obtained through the kindness of the Baroness Paul de Ralli, a friend of Lady Burton at Trieste, the following written attestation from the priest who attended Sir Richard Burton’s death-bed, and who is still living:
Declaration.[43]
“On October 20, 1890, at six o’clock in the morning, I was called in to assist at the last moments of Sir Richard Burton, British Consul.
“Knowing that he had been brought up, or born in, the Evangelical religion, before repairing to his house I went to see Dr. Giovanni Sũst, the Provost of this Cathedral, in order to find out from him what I was to do in the matter. He replied that I should go, and act accordingly as the circumstances might seem to require.
“So I went.
“Entering into the room of the sick man, I found him in bed with the doctor and Lady Burton beside him.
“At first sight it seemed that I was looking, not at a sick man, but rather at a corpse. My first question was, ‘Is he alive or dead?’ Lady Burton replied that he was still living, and the doctor nodded his head, to confirm what she had said.
“And in fact the doctor was seated on the bed holding in his hands the hand of Sir Richard Burton to feel the beat of his pulse, and from time to time he administered some corroborante,[44] or gave an injection. Which of these two things he did I cannot now recollect, but it was certainly one or the other of them. These are things which one would certainly not do to a corpse, but only to a person still living; or if these acts were performed with the knowledge that the person in question was already dead, they could not be done without laying oneself open to an accusation of deception, all the more reprehensible if put in operation at such a solemn moment.
“In such a case all the responsibility would fall upon the doctor in charge, who with a single word, or even a sign given secretly to the priest, would have been able to prevent the administration of the Holy Sacrament of Extreme Unction.