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_,[5] 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 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.
"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.
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