f
Mortlake, and I was gratified to find that, owing to the watchfulness of
the Arundell family, it is kept in perfect repair. [5]

Let me first speak of the unpublished letters. These were lent me by Mr.
John Payne (40 letters), Mr. W. F. Kirby (50 letters), Major St. George
Burton, Mrs. E. J. Burton, Mrs. Agg, Mr. Mostyn Pryce, Dr. Tuckey, Mr.
D. MacRitchie, and Mr. A. G. Ellis. Many of the letters reveal Burton in
quite a new light. His patriotism and his courage were known of all men,
but the womanly tenderness of his nature and his intense love for his
friends will come to many as a surprise. His distress, for example, on
hearing of the death of Drake, [6] is particularly affecting.

Of the friends of Sir Richard Burton who have been interviewed I must
mention first of all Mr. John Payne. But for Mr. Payne's generous
assistance, this work I must frankly admit, could not have been written.
He, and he alone, held the keys to whole chambers of mystery. Mr. Payne
was at first extremely reluctant to give me the material required.
Indeed, in his first letter of reply to my request for information (7th
August 1904) he declined positively either to enter the lists against
Burton, with whom, he said, he had been on terms of intimate friendship,
or to discuss the matter at all. "As for what," he said, "it pleases the
public to think (save the mark!) of the relative merits of my own and
Burton's translations, I have long ceased to care a straw." But this led
me to write even more pressingly. I assured Mr. Payne that the public
had been unjust to him simply because nobody had hitherto set himself
the great task of comparing the two translations, and because the true
history of the case had never been laid before them. I assured him that
I yielded to nobody in admiration of Sir Richard Burton--that is, on
account of what he (Sir Richard) did do, not on account of what he did
not do; and I gave it as my opinion that Mr. Payne owed it both to the
public and to himself to lay bare the whole story. After several letters
and interviews I at last induced him to give way; and I think the public
will thank me for my persistency.

My revelations, which form an astonishing story, will no doubt come as
a complete surprise to almost everybody. I can imagine them, indeed,
dropping like a bombshell into some circles; but they are founded, not
only upon conversations with Mr. Payne, but upon Burton's own letters to
Mr. Payne, all of which ha