Sultán." He was a hardened and conscienceless tyrant, but his successor, Firoz Sháh, appears to have been deeply concerned about his misdeeds, for he went to the trouble of collecting acquittances from all who had been wronged by Muhammad. These were placed in the tyrant's tomb, with a view to affording him justification on the day of judgment.

CHAPTER V.

THE IMPERIAL PALACE.

THE first landmark to arrest the eye of the traveler approaching Delhi from the west is the Mutiny Memorial, standing in bold prominence upon the southerly spur of the Ridge. It is a red sandstone, Gothic spire, resting upon a triple platform. From its windows may be identified many of the points of chief interest in connection with the memorable siege of Delhi. The Kashmir Gate, associated with one of the most gallant deeds in the annals of warfare; near by the Kudsiya Gardens, and the adjoining cemetery, in which lie the bones of General Nicholson, "who led the assault of Delhi, but fell in the hour of victory." Just beyond, Ludlow Castle, the residence of the murdered Simon Fraser, and the site of the two breaching batteries. Immediately north, and barely half a mile distant, is the celebrated Hindu Ráo's House, a whitewashed bungalow, now used for convalescent soldiers. Farther north, a mile or more, is the abandoned tower, whose castellated walls sheltered the Flag-staff Battery. But every inch of ground between the Jumna and the western edge of the Ridge calls to mind some incident of "the siege."

The chief point of attraction in modern Delhi must be what was the Imperial Palace-now the Fort. It lies directly on the river, and is surrounded on three sides by an imposing wall of red sandstone, topped by small, round watch towers. It has two magnificent gateways. The Lahore Gate, directly in the centre of the western wall, leads to the Chándni Chauk, or "Silver Square," the main street of the city, which runs due west right through it, and divides it into two almost equal parts. The Delhi Gate lies in the southeast corner of the Fort.

Since the Mutiny extensive portions of the Palace have been ruthlessly demolished, and others adapted to the purpose of barracks. Although much of the old grandeur of the place remains, it has lost the uniformity and completeness which were among its conspicuous characteristics, and the most delicate of its architectural and ornamental features have been destroyed or injured.

The outline of the Palace forms an immense parallelogram, sixteen hundred feet east and west, by exactly twice that distance north and south. The entire space was occupied by a symmetrical arrangement of halls, pavilions, baths, women's quarters, garden courts, and all the offices necessary to the order and comfort of the enormous household of a Great Mughal.

From the Lahore Gate a vaulted arcade of two stories, three hundred and seventy-five feet long, runs

It

due east to the entrance of the Palace proper. is like the nave of some gigantic Gothic cathedral, the noblest approach to a palace ever conceived. The passage is between two rows of shops, which occupy the ground story, to the Nákar Khána, or Music Hall, beyond which is the Diwán-i-Am, the Hall of Public Audience, open on three sides, and supported by rows of red sandstone pillars, formerly adorned with gilding and stucco-work. In the wall at the back is a staircase that leads up to the throne, raised about ten feet from the ground, and covered by a canopy, supported on four pillars of white marble, the whole being curiously inlaid with mosaic-work. Behind the throne is a doorway, by which the Emperor entered from his private apartments.

The whole of the wall behind the throne is covered with paintings and mosaic, in precious stones, of the most beautiful flowers, fruits, birds and beasts of Hindustán. They were executed by Austin de Bourdeaux, who, after defrauding several of the princes of Europe by means of false gems, which he fabricated with great skill, sought refuge at the court of Shah Jahán, where he made his fortune, and was in high favor with the Emperor.

In front of the throne, and slightly raised above the floor of the hall, is a large slab of white marble, which was formerly richly inlaid with mosaic-work, of which the traces only now remain.

The Diwán-i-Khás, Private Hall of Audience, is

about a hundred yards beyond the Public Hall of Audience, to the east, and overhanging the river. Nothing can exceed the delicacy of its inlaid work and the poetry of its design. Nowhere else in the world can be found an apartment of such elegance as this poem in stone.

It is a white marble pavilion, open on all sides, and richly ornamented with gilding and pietra dura. The front opens upon a large quadrangle, and the building once stood in a beautiful garden. It was one hundred and fifty feet long and forty feet in breadth, with a graceful cupola at each corner. Colonnades of white marble pillars supported the roof. "The polished

marble has been worked into its forms with as much delicacy as though it had been wax, and its whole surface, pillars, walls, arches and roof-even the pavement-was inlaid with the richest, most profuse and exquisite designs in foliage and arabesque; the fruits and flowers being represented in sections of gems, such as amethysts, carnelian, blood-stone, garnet, topaz, lapis lazuli, green serpentine and various colored crystals. A bordering ran round the columns, similarly decorated, inlaid with inscriptions in Arabic, from the Kurán. The whole had the appearance of some rich work from the loom, in which a brilliant pattern is woven on a pure, white ground, the tracery of rare and cunning artists. Purdahs of all colors and designs hung from the crenated arches on the outside to exclude the glare and heat."