“The second observation which I made to Lady Burton was one concerning religion—namely, ‘That whoever was of the Evangelical persuasion could not receive the Holy Sacraments in this manner.’
“To this observation of mine she answered that some years ago he had received Extreme Unction, being, if I mistake not, at Cannes, and that on this occasion he had abjured the heresy and professed himself as belonging to the Catholic Church. On such a declaration from Lady Burton, I did that which a minister of God ought to do, and decided to administer to the dying man the last comforts of our holy religion. As it seemed to me that there was not much time to lose, I wished to administer the Extreme Unction by means of one single anointing on the forehead, as is done in urgent cases; but Lady Burton said that death was not so imminent; therefore she begged me to carry out fully the prescribed ceremony of Extreme Unction.
“This completed, together with the other customary prayers for the dying, I took my departure. I returned to the house of the Provost, Dr. Sũst, and laid everything before him, and he said I had done quite right.
“In a certificate of death drawn up by the Visitatore dei Morti,[45] Inspector Corani, in the register, under the head of religion, is written ‘Catholic.’ The funeral also was conducted according to the rites of the Catholic Church. I am convinced that Sir Richard Burton really became a Catholic, but that outwardly he did not wish this to be known, having regard to his position as a Consul to a Government of the Evangelical persuasion; and I have built up the hope that the innumerable prayers for her husband’s conversion and good works of his pious wife Lady Burton will have been heeded by that Lord who said unto us, ‘Pray, and your prayers shall be answered,’ and that his soul will now have been received by the good God, together with that of the saintly lady his wife.
“One question I permit myself to ask of those who have now published the Life of Sir Richard Burton, which is this, ‘Why did they not publish it during the lifetime of Lady Burton? Who better than she would have been able to enlighten the world on this point of much importance? Why publish it now when she is no longer here to speak?’
“Trieste, January 12, 1897,
“Pietro Martelani,
“Formerly Parish Priest of the B.V. del Soccorso,
now Prebendary and Priest of the Cathedral of Trieste.”[46]
I am further able to state that the gross travesty of Lady Burton’s grief—“her weeping and wailing on the floor,” etc., etc.—is the outcome of a malevolent imagination, from which nothing is sacred, not even a widow’s tears. Lady Burton bore herself through the most awful trial of her life with quietude, fortitude, and resignation.
And now to turn to the second charge—to wit, that Sir Richard was never a Catholic at all; from which, if true, it follows that he was in fact “kidnapped” by his wife and the priest on his death-bed.