things as amid the distractions of this great city which the Emperor has created where yesterday was a lonely waste."

"If it be your Majesty's will," said the Emperor, "that one should go, let it, I pray you, be your slave."

And thus it was settled. The Great Mogul, worthy descendant of Timour the Tartar, invincible in war, sagacious in council, omnipotent conqueror of Hindostan, yielded to the fancy of the soiled and sainted ascetic. The word was given to move on to Agra, and the beautiful palaces, the spacious courtyards, the lofty council chambers, were quitted as promptly as if they had been furnished lodgings. The Sheik regained his solitudethe greater solitude of a deserted city-and when he died was buried here in a tomb whose floor is jasper, whose walls are marble inlaid with precious stones, whose doors are of solid ebony, and over which rises an arched canopy covered with mother-of-pearl.

A city more or less was nothing to Akbar, absolute master of a hundred million men and of all the riches of India. Having created a splendid city at Futtehpore Sikri, he determined to excel it at Agra, and succeeded. His palace with its many adjuncts remains to this day in a condition which enables a visitor

to realize all the magnificence of the Mogul Court. It stands high on the banks of the Jumna, the buildings occupying a space of a mile and a half in circuit, surrounded by a glorious red sandstone wall sixty feet high. In Akbar's time there were outside this battlemented wall a ditch and rampart. These have disappeared; but the inner moat, thirty feet wide, still exists, and the fort is entered by the drawbridge which once resounded to the tread of Akbar's spearmen.

In a great courtyard surrounded by arcades, now used as a British arsenal, stands the judgment-seat of Akbar. In a recess in the centre of the hall is a pavilion of white marble inlaid with mosaic where the throne was placed. Below is a large white slab on which the Prime Minister of the hour (they were changed even more frequently than capitals) stood and introduced claimants for justice to the notice of the Emperor. Behind the throne are a series of chambers lighted by windows of trellis-work closely cut in marble. Through these on great occasions when Durbars were held the ladies of the Zenana used to peer forth, themselves unseen, just as ladies in the House of Commons at this day peep from their cage over the Speaker's chair. This hall has recently been repaired by the

Indian Government at an expenditure of eight thousand rupees. Close by is the Motel Musjid, or Gem Mosque, a gem of architecture which would be held as matchless if a mile down the river, clearly seen from the walls of the fort, the white dome of the Taj did not seem to float, a fairy thing far up in the blue sky. In this mosque, built of pure white marble, Akbar was accustomed to worship in the select company of his many wives. The Emperor, the princes of his household, his Ministers and chief men of war, spread their prayer rugs on the marble pavement, while the ladies said their prayers behind marble screens which guarded them from wanton glances.

Shah Jehan, grandson of Akbar, was half a century later provided with prolonged and exceptional opportunities of conducting his devotions in this mosque. His son Aurungzebe, having arrived at the conclusion that his father had had enough of sovereignty when he had sat on the throne for nearly a quarter of a century, shut him up in this mosque and peacefully reigned in his stead. At the back of the Hall of Justice is a corridor in which lies Akbar's marble couch, grievously shattered and clumsily mended as if it were a broken dish. But even in its decrepitude it puts to shame a gilt-backed,

cane-seated, British lion-decked, uncomfortable monstrosity which the Nawab of Lucknow presented to the Viceroy when he held a Durbar at Agra.

The Emperor's palace remains as to its main structure in excellent preservation. But its bejewelled walls have been sadly pecked at by successive hosts of conquerors, notably including the British soldier, who seems to have had a fine eye for jasper, agate, and cornelian, and a deft hand for picking it out with the point of his bayonet.

The Indian Government with well-dispensed liberality have recently wakened up to the value of these priceless possessions and have not only taken measures to stop further depredations but have begun the work of restoration. For the last five years two hundred men have been daily employed in restoring the unsightly gaps whence the precious stones have been plundered. Under a better taskmaster than Akbar these descendants of the early artists labour, cutting out marble with bows strung with fine steel wire, shaping and polishing precious stones, and fitting them into the wall with a nicety which but for varied colour would defy discovery of the joining places.

The original carving of the pure marble,

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not being portable or saleable property, has suffered least, and there are suites of rooms containing panels some four feet high, from the rough face of which are carved in relief beautiful flowers which bend their heads with all the graceful repose of the living plant. Even beyond these in beauty are the screens, each one carved out of a solid slab in marble and looking like delicate lace-work. Sometimes a whole window is thus wrought, giving glimpses of the Jumna which washes the walls of the fort, and of the green fields that lie beyond. Often it is an open screen over a doorway, designed to promote the circulation of air which is one of the chief ends of the house-builders in India. Wherever the screens appear they are beautiful beyond possibility of reproduction by modern art, and it is well that so many remain undamaged.

In the Diwan-i-khas, or private audiencehall, is another throne of Abkar's, a slab of black marble six feet square. Like his couch, it is cracked right across. At intervals on the line of the crack are two smudged red spots, whereby hangs a tale. When the Maharattas, continuing their triumphant campaign against the Mussulmans, took Agra, the Rajah of Burtpore presumptuously seated himself on the throne of the Great Mogul;