Burnaby

“ Only son of the late Sir William Chaloner Burnaby, Bart, by Elizabeth, second daughter of Crisp Molineaux, of Garboldisham, co. Norfolk, Esq., and grandson of the late Admiral Sir William Burnaby, successively commander-in-chief at the Leeward Islands and Jamaica, who died in 1770. ”

“ Over the girl's white shoulder, too much displayed, Pollen peered at Burnaby with the vague, hostile smile of the guest not yet introduced to a guest of similar sex.
"Late as usual!" he announced. "Mimi kept me!" His manner was subtly domestic.
"You're really on the stroke of the clock," said Mrs. Ennis. "Madame de Rochefort—Mr. Burnaby—Mr. Pollen." She laughed abruptly, as if a thought had just occurred to her. "Mr. Burnaby," she explained to the girl, "is the last surviving specimen of the American male—he has all the ancient national virtues. ”

“ Is he in the tea business too?" asked Mrs. Selden. She was interested by now, leaning across the table, her dark eyes catching light from the candles. It was something—to interest Mrs. Selden.
"No," said Burnaby abruptly. "No. He's in no business at all, except going to perdition. Y'see, he's a squaw-man—a big, black squaw-man, with a nose like a Norman king's. The sort of person you imagine in evening clothes in the Carleton lounge. He might have been anything but what he is." ”

“ My uncle is Major Burnaby of the Guides."
"Might have known it, h'm! you're as like as two tom-cats. Jack Burnaby's a fine fellow, sir; I know him. Fine country this. We made it a fine country. Ain't you proud to be an Englishman? 'Tis four hundred years or so since Vasco da Gama--heard of him, I suppose?--came ashore here on his famous voyage to India. To be exact, it was the year 1497. It was a fine place then; did a fine trade, sir. He didn't get backed up. No stamina in those Portuguese. Suffer from jumps, don't you know. Arabs got in ”

“ Corney O'Brien.
Dr. Corney O'Brien was, alas! more than a thousand miles away, sitting in the smoking-room of the Mombasa club, waiting with some impatience for Major Burnaby to finish the letter he was writing at the table. It was a letter home, to Mr. Barkworth, and the doctor knew why his friend's face wore such a look of concern as his pen scratched over the paper.
... "I thought," he wrote, "that I knew my nephew pretty well, but I know only now--alas! too late, I fear--what grit there was in him. We old stagers are too much inclined, perhaps, to pooh-pooh the enthusiasms of our juniors. ”

“ Yes, my boy, you must go. You have a valid reason--the strongest motive anyone could have. And your uncle, sir--begad, if he takes you to task for disobedience, why, just refer him to me, and say that I'll get Tommy Bowles to ask a question in the House. I know him!"
"But how can Mr. Burnaby go after them?" put in Lilian. "They have taken all the launches, I know."
Mr. Barkworth's countenance fell.
"Whew!" he ejaculated. "That's a facer! Never do to go on foot, Tom; never overtake 'em in time round the north shore. H'm!"
"I have a launch," said the missionary quietly. ”

“ Burnaby paused and looked about the circle of attentive faces. "That's all. But it's enough, isn't it? To come out of nothing, going nowheres, and run into a dirty Indian who says: 'By Jove, that's the first decent cup of tea I've had in ten years!' And then along [Pg 51] comes this Terhune and says that he knows the man."
Mrs. Malcolm raised her chin from the hand that had been supporting it. "I don't blame you," she said, "for being late."
"And this man," interrupted Sir John's sonorous voice, "this squaw-man, did he tell you anything about himself?" ”

“ Ten years before he started for Khiva, there was much talk at
the Rag of the wonderful feat of the young Guardsman, who undertook
for a small wager to hop a quarter of a mile, run a quarter of a mile,
ride a quarter of a mile, row a quarter of a mile, and walk a quarter of
a mile in a quarter of an hour, and who covered the mile and a quarter
of distance in ten minutes and twenty seconds.
Fred Burnaby had, whilst barely out of his teens, realised his boyish
dream, and become the strongest man in the world. ”

“ Barkworth: "Heaven is as near the hot desert as the cool church at home". But his mind revolted against death. "I am young--young!" his heart cried. "I want to live, to do things. I am not a broken horse or a rusty engine. No, Tom Burnaby, I'll never forgive you if you chuck it all up yet." And he braced himself and plodded on.
Just after noon, on the fifth day after the pigmies' present, the travellers found that the forest was thinning somewhat; the trees were farther apart, and there was a renewal of the low bush, not so dense or so obstructive as it had been for the past few days. ”

“ Tom walked at the head of his men with one of the best of his scouts, pressing on until he felt as though he were in a dream, his movements mechanical, requiring no effort, his feet seeming to find their way over obstacles without any volition of his, his mind busy all the time with other things. The pace was slow, for the path could rarely be seen, hemmed in by giant trees, underwood, and thorn. On and on the men tramped in silence, their bare feet making a curious swishing sound on the sodden mould. ”

“ Among published personal records, there are George Keith’s Journal of Travels from New Hampshire to Caratuck (London, 1706) ; Capt. Nathaniel Uring’s Voyages and Travels, published at London in 1727; [383] and Andrew Burnaby’s Travels through the middle settlements in North America in the years 1759 and 1760, London, 1775. [384] Burnaby passed on his way, from Bristol through Providence to Boston. The early part of the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is of exceptional value as a reflex of the life of New England as it impressed a young man. ”

“ There was the hut in which the chief, his enemy, lay; there were the guards, sleeping, it was true, but likely to wake at any moment. Around was the village, filled with Arabs, Manyema, and slaves; an alarm would set hundreds of men on the alert, and there was but a slender chance of escaping from so many. Beyond the village, three hundred yards away, was the thin outer belt of the forest; could he but gain that, Tom thought, he might hide and elude pursuit. There was danger from wild beasts, no doubt; but a wild beast was less dangerous than the vengeful Portuguese. ”

“ And if chivalry is, as I take it to be, the championing of the weak and the oppressed, no region of the world offers a wider field than Central Africa, where there is still ample work for the countrymen of Livingstone and Gordon. Some day, perhaps, you may yourself visit that land, and come back with as deep a sense of its glamour and pathos as the rest of us. Meanwhile, since even at Harrow the sky is not always clear, why not on some rainy afternoon pack up your traps and transport yourself in imagination to Uganda with Tom Burnaby? ”

“ Mbutu returned to the hut in a state of unconquerable nervousness. After a sleepless night, he gave his master the information he had received.
"What bosh!" cried Tom, laughing. "What a fool the medicine-man must be! I don't see what he has to gain by putting this on to me. Supposing he worked up the people to tear me to pieces, he couldn't get rid of Barega, and Murasi would be as far from being chief as ever."
"No, no, sah," said Mbutu, "him say sah kill oxen; berrah well. Chief say bosh; berrah well. Black men say no bosh; chief fool; white man him master; bad chief; must hab nudder chief. ”

“ Burnaby for an American editor.
"I am asked to give a short note of personal reminiscence about my lately departed friend, Colonel Fred. Burnaby, with whom I was intimate for three years before his death. Every one has read his popular life, and heard of his many exploits; how alone in mid-air he navigated a balloon across the Channel; how he accomplished, in spite of State telegrams to the contrary, his adventurous and patriotic ride to Khiva in dead winter and defying perils of all sorts ”

“ It had been done
by MacGahan, but that plucky journalist had judiciously started in the
spring. Burnaby resolved to accomplish the enterprise in winter; and
accordingly, on November 30th, 1875, he started by way of St.
Petersburg, treating himself, as a foretaste of the joys that awaited
him on the steppes, to the long lonely ride through Russia in midwinter.
At Sizeran he left civilisation and railways behind him, and rode on a
sleigh to Orenburg, a distance of four hundred and eighty miles. ”

“ He caught the look, and her eyelids flickered and fell before his gaze, and then, as the footman repaired the damage, she sank back once more into the half-light beyond the radiance of the candles. "How shy she is!" thought Burnaby. "So [Pg 53] many of these English women are. She's an important woman in her own right, too." He studied her furtively.
Into the soft silence came Sir John's carefully modulated voice. "Barbara and I," he explained, "will feel this very much. We both knew Bewsher." ”

“ But Fred Burnaby gaily went forth, clothed-on with
sheepskins. After several days' hard riding and some nights' sleep on
the snow, he arrived in Khiva, chatted with the Khan, fraternised with
the Russian officers, kept his eyes wide open, and finally was invited
to return by a telegram from the Commander-in-Chief, who had been
brought to understand how this strange visitor from the Cavalry Barracks
at Windsor had fluttered the military authorities at St. Petersburg.
This adventure might have sufficed an ordinary man for a lifetime. ”

“ On horseback through Asia Minor 2 vols. 1877; A ride across the channel 1882; killed by a spear wound at battle of Abu Klea in Soudan 17 Jany. 1885; obelisk to his memory in St. Philip’s churchyard, Birmingham unveiled 11 Nov. 1885. Life and times of Col. F. Burnaby by J. R. Ware and R. K. Mann 1885, portrait; Vanity Fair 7 Feb. 1885, portrait; I.L.N. lxxxvi, 103 (1885) , portrait.
BURNABY, John Dick (eld. son of John Dick Burnaby of Evington, Leics. 1776–1852, captain Grenadier guards) . b. ”

“ Already Tom had seen what was impending. He massed the whole of his reserve on the eastern face, placing the hardiest and least-wearied men alternately with the others so as to equalize the strength of the fighting line. He was himself pale with anxiety; his whole body seemed to him a bundle of tingling nerves; and as he contrasted his worn-out troops with the fresh and buoyant Arabs advancing, their unstained swords and spears gleaming in the sunlight, he prayed that Mbutu with the missing eight hundred might still come in time to redress the balance. ”

“ Instantly the blood-curdling jackal's howl undulated through the drenched air. The men sprang forward, with never a yell or cheer, a quick grunt alone proclaiming their excitement. With a rush they gained the stockade, scrambled up and over, Tom never knew how, and while the startled enemy were still pouring half-dazed out of their shelters, and hurrying up by twos and threes towards the palisade, Tom's men were among them. The Arabs in their long burnouses were distinguishable even in the murk; their dependants formed only a blacker patch. ”

“ Scouts led the way, under Lieutenant Mumford. Then came the advance-guard, two companies of Askaris and a Maxim-gun, with Captain Lister. At a short interval followed more Soudanese, with Major Burnaby; then came the carriers with their guard, and finally the rear-guard, of which Tom found himself in command. Dr. O'Brien hovered about, first at one part of the column, then at another, in case of what he called "evenshualities".
Before giving the order to march, the major beckoned Tom apart.
"Tom," he said, "here's a rifle and a revolver for you. You know how to use the rifle, at any rate. ”

“ He stood listening until the purr of a great motor rose and died on the snow-muffled air. "He's gone!" he said, and turned back into the room. He spread his arms out and dropped them to his sides. "Swastika!" he said. "And God keep us from the evil eye!"
"What do you mean?" asked Mrs. Malcolm.
"Sir John," said Burnaby. "He has 'a bad heart.'" [Pg 69]
"Stop talking your Indian talk and tell us what you mean."
Burnaby balanced himself on the hearth. "Am I to understand you don't know?" he asked. "Well, Morton's Masters, and 'the girl's' Lady Masters, and Bewsher—well, he's just a squaw-man." ”

“ Standing before the fireplace in her blue gown, she resembled a tapering lily growing from the indigo shadows of a noon orchard. [Pg 37]
"Rhoda'll have cocktails when there aren't any more left in the country," said Pollen. "Trust Rhoda!"
Mary Rochefort laughed. "I always do," she said, "with reservations." She turned to Burnaby. "Where are you just back from?" she asked. "I understand you are always just back from some place, or on the verge of going."
"Usually on the verge," answered Burnaby. He looked at her deliberately, a smile in his dark eyes; then he looked at Pollen. ”

“ In pitch darkness, for the sky was heavy with threatening rain, they made their way across the courtyard into the village, past the silent reservoir and the swollen stream, up to the stockade above the precipice. There they clambered over with infinite caution, lest the slightest sound should arouse the attention of the Arabs below. Feeling over the ground, they searched for the small aperture through which Tom had thrust his stick when exploring the cavern. Tom was half afraid lest some shifting of the soil had covered it up ”