Autograph letter signed by Isabel Burton about Captain Richard Burton 1887

[BURTON, Captain Sir Richard Francis]; BURTON, Isabel (1831-1896). Autograph Letter Signed about her husband's poor health.
 
Cannes, 3 March 1887.
 
180 x 110 mm, single sheet folded, written on the first page with autograph signature and date on the reverse. Toning and handling, horizontal and vertical fold lines, a little surface marking, but overall very good.
 
A significant letter written at the time of the catastrophic illness of her husband, Sir Richard Francis Burton, during their stay in Cannes in early 1887. Isabel writes that he had been "taken suddenly dangerously ill" shortly before their intended departure and was in such a state that he "cannot be spoken to", leaving her wholly occupied at his bedside and acting as intermediary for correspondence. She adds that she hopes to move him "by slow stops towards Trieste", noting that "this Riviera disagrees with him".
 
The letter can be directly associated with the severe medical crisis described in The Life of Captain Sir Richard F. Burton, where Isabel records that in February 1887 Burton suffered "one of the most awful fits of epileptiform convulsions (the only one he ever had in all his life)", followed by a prolonged period of incapacity. She further identifies this moment as the turning point "from the time of my husband's becoming a real invalid - February, 1887". The present letter, written from Cannes on 3 March, falls precisely within this episode, documenting the immediate aftermath of the attack, his inability to receive visitors, and the arrangements for his slow removal back towards Trieste under medical supervision.