and enormous wealth. Society lionized him, and the women pronounced him "perfectly charming." His handsome person, native wit and marvelous jewels made a deep impression, and one young lady of good family came perilously near contracting marriage with the pretender. It is needless to say that Azí Múllah's errand on behalf of his master was futile, but he lost nothing in the regard of the latter, to whom he continued to be, after his return, companion, councilor and general factotum. Under a show of extreme cordiality these two nursed their deep hatred to the English. The Náná affected the society of the English residents of Cawnpur, entertained them at Bithúr, and was by them considered a very agreeable and friendly neighbor.

The palace was furnished in European style, in a most extravagant manner, but not in the best of taste. The stable was extensive, and contained the finest horses, elephants and camels obtainable. There was a fine kennel, and a menagerie "which would have done credit to any Eastern monarch, from the days of Solomon downward." The armory was a comprehensive collection of the weapons of all ages and countries. The equipages were imported from London, at great cost, and were the best productions of the metropolitan manufacturers.

The Náná's plate, jewelry and wardrobe were of fabulous worth, his sword of state alone having cost, it is said, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

All this for public display; but the palace, like its owner's character, had a secret side of which few were aware. In it were apartments "horribly unfit for any human eye, where both European and native artists had done their utmost to gratify the corrupt master, who was willing to incur any expense for the completion of his loathsome picture-gallery."

How successfully this fiend contrived to veil his real character may be judged from the statement of one who had an extensive acquaintance with him. "I knew Náná Sáhib intimately," he says, "and always regarded him as one of the best and most hospitable natives in the Upper Provinces, and certainly one of the last men to have been guilty of the atrocities laid to his charge." He is described as "very fat... his face round, his eyes very wild, brilliant and restless; his complexion, as is the case with most native gentlemen, scarcely darker than a dark Spaniard; his expression, on the whole, of a jovial, indeed somewhat rollicking, character."

After the massacre at Cawnpur, there was no individual in the whole length and breadth of the country upon whom the British soldiers were more keenly eager to lay hands; but the Náná, with cunning dexterity, evaded them to the end.

When his army fell back before Havelock, the Náná was already in flight, and the burning of his palace was but meagre satisfaction to the men who

had seen the fresh blood of his victims. He joined the insurgents at Lucknow, but again fled in the face of danger, and was at large, a hunted fugitive, during the closing operations of the following year.

The ultimate fate of Náná Sáhib is a matter of conjecture. He probably died in the jungle, a prey to wild beasts, or the victim of starvation.

CHAPTER XV.

LUCKNOW.

LUCKNOW, the capital of Oudh, lies on both sides of the Gúmti. It is the fourth in size of the cities of India, having a population of about two hundred and seventy thousand, contained in an area of thirtysix square miles.

About six miles distant is the ancient Ayodhya, one of the principal scenes of the Rámáyana, and the capital of the great Solar race, the ancestors of the families of Udaipur and Jodhpur.

During the revolutionary period of the latter half of the eighteenth century, the Persian Sádat Khán established an independent kingdom in Oudh. "Ayodhya (the ancient capital) and Lucknow were the places at which he chiefly resided, and having assumed for his crest the fish, which is still, so to speak, the arms of Oudh, he changed the name of the well-known fort of Lucknow from Kila Likna (so called after the founder, one Likna Ahur) to Machi Bhawan, or the fish-house."

The successive rulers of Oudh were notoriously incompetent, and with few exceptions hopelessly

depraved. Worst of them all was the Nawab Nazírud-dín, who "might one hour be seen in a state of drunken nudity with his boon companions and the low menial who was his chief confidant; at another he would parade the streets of Lucknow, drunk at mid-day, driving one of his own elephants. All decency and propriety were banished from the Court" during the reign of this profligate, who died in 1837. Ten years later, Wajid Alí," the last, and, with the exception of Nazír-ud-dín, perhaps the most despicable, of his line, mounted the throne." After repeated and futile warnings, he was deposed in February, 1856, and passed the balance of his life in splendid ease as a pensioner of the British Govern

ment.

Oudh was annexed, and the condition of its millions became immediately bettered; but this could only be achieved at the expense of the grandees and landholders, who had previously robbed and oppressed the peasantry. Thus it happened that at the time of the Mutiny the province of Oudh contained a large and influential element which was highly discontented and ripe for mischief. Sir Henry Lawrence was the Commissioner, and to his wise and energetic measures is due the fact that Lucknow was not the scene of such a disaster as befell Cawnpur.

The Residency was the main point of a cluster of buildings which Sir Henry entrenched and fortified as far as possible. The position extended about seven