"What a meek and quiet spirit was she, active to laboriousness, though
refined in person. Affectionate she was, very dear to me also, but
unspeakable is the loss to others. This is the third wife taken from those
whom I desired as comrades: one died in Dublin, one in Bagdad, now one in
Ladakia....

"No _blame_ against Mr. P. ought to be mixed with sympathy for this
melancholy event. His wife's brother, on medical grounds, saw no objection
to the journey.... Few English ladies are in body so well adapted as she
was to bear the inconveniences, the long weariness, or the dangerous
exposures of Turkish travel."

At last the time was come for the journey to Bagdad. Francis Newman and
his friends went with their own horses, and with European saddles and
stirrups.

"The native broad travelling saddle overlaps the animal's sides like a
table, and tilts both ways. To get up at the side without help is a feat
almost impossible. Many a time Mr. Parnell got off to search after some
article of food or convenience for old Mrs. Cronin. To get up again, his
most successful way was to make a run from behind and _divaricate_ on to
the horse's tail, like a boy playing at leap-frog; but the beast was
always frightened, and bolted before he was well on. You will imagine the
rest!... but we were all equally ludicrous, and indeed it is quite a
serious inconvenience."

The next entry mentions the return of Mr. Parnell. He told them that Mr.
Hamilton seemed absolutely unable to learn a foreign language, and this
undermined his spirits and health, and made him a depressing companion.