Lord Granville
wrote and asked Isabel if her husband would accept the Consulate of
Trieste, just vacant by the death of Charles Lever, the novelist.
Isabel was praying by her mother's coffin that their troubles might
pass away when the letter arrived, and it came to her like an answer
to prayer, for their prospects were just then at their gloomiest. She
at once wrote to her husband in Iceland, and was able soon after to
send his acceptance of the post to Lord Granville.
Trieste, a small commercial consulate with 600 pounds sterling a year
salary and 100 pounds office allowance, was a sad drop after Damascus,
at 1,000 pounds a year and work of a diplomatic order. But the Burtons
could not afford to refuse the offer, for their needs were pressing, and
they took it in the hope of better things, which never came. Burton had
a great desire to become Consul at Morocco, and he thought Trieste might
lead thither. Alas! it did not; and the man who had great talents, a
knowledge of more than a score of languages, and an unrivalled experience
in the ways of Eastern life and oriental methods, was allowed to drag out
eighteen years in the obscurity of a second-rate seaport town, where his
unique qualifications were simply thrown away. He had had his chance,
and had lost it. He was not a "safe man"; and England, or rather the
Government, generally reserves--and wisely--the pick of the places in the
public service for "safe men.
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