as their poor mothers called them) came into the world during this stormy period; and with them each day was a struggle for life." Death laid many low; disease and wounds prostrated a still greater number, and those who survived were prey to apprehensions that weakened body and mind. Now and then, "when an officer is struck down to death," an auction is held of the few trifling comforts he may have remained in possession of. Thus £7 is paid for a ham; £4 for a quart bottle of honey; £5 for two small tins of preserved soup; and £3 for a cake of chocolate. "And these prices were moderate compared with those given towards the close of the siege." The tea and sugar were exhausted, save for a small store reserved for the sick. The tobacco was all gone, and "the soldiers, yearning for a pipe after a hard day's work, smoked dry leaves, as the only substitute they could obtain." As the time lengthened out toward the twelfth week the enemy displayed increased activity. The musketry fire increased; mining and open assaults became almost incessant, and the endurance of the garrison was well nigh exhausted, when, one morning, a cry arose from the British soldiers, "The Minié! The Minié!" Amidst the rattle of musketry on the outside they had detected the familiar whistle of the bullet of the Minié rifle, with which only European troops were armed, and the sound told the weary watchers that "Havelock's Saints" were fighting their way through the streets of Lucknow. Northwest of the Residency stands the great Imambara, the "largest room in the world which has an arched roof without supports." This hall is one hundred and sixty-three feet long and fifty feet broad. Fergusson thus describes its curious construction : "This immense building is covered with vaults of very simple form, and still simpler construction, being of rubble or coarse concrete several feet in thickness, which is laid on a rude mould or centreing of bricks and mud, and allowed to stand a year or two to set and dry. The centreing is then removed, and the vault, being in one piece, stands without abutment or thrust, apparently a better and more durable form of roof than our most scientific Gothic vaulting, certainly far cheaper and far more easily made, since it is literally cast on a mud form, which may be moulded into any shape the fancy of the architect may dictate." The Imambara was built by the Nawáb Asuf-uddaulá, in order to afford relief to the people in the great famine of 1784. It was once splendidly decorated, but all its ornamentation has disappeared. A plain slab, without inscription, marks the spot where the Nawab was buried. The western entrance, called the Rúmi Darwazah, or Constantinople Gate, is said to have been built in imitation of the famous gate from which the title of "Sublime Porte" is derived. The Kaiser Bagh, or Cæsar's Garden, was constructed |