station had come in carriages or on horseback to witness the ceremony.

Afterwards we walked over to the commander-in-chief's camp, which, with its various tents, elephants, camels, and other accessories, occupied a space three times as large as Washington parade-ground in New York.

The next day was devoted to the "old sports" of leaping, running, throwing cannon balls, running in a sack, and others. They were joined in by the men of the Third Europeans, and attracted a large number of spectators from the station.

Wherever the English are they must have their manly exercises. Climate is not the slightest obstacle. The soldiers in India play cricket bareheaded in the sun's rays, when the thermometer stands at 100° in the shade; their officers dare both the deadly sun of summer and the pestiferous miasms of the jungul, in hunting the tiger. Every English colony or settlement has its races, every station in India has its racket court, every Englishman in India will ride a hundred miles without rest for a single day's snipe-shooting, and even when the forces were collecting at Cawnpoor for the relief of Lucknow, when more sentimental soldiers would have been thinking of what they had passed through and of what was still before them, the English army engaged in the sports of the olden time, with as much zest as if they were on the peaceful shores of "merrie England."

On the following Sunday I went to mass at the Romish cathedral, which is a large pukka building in the Doric style, but cruciform, and covered with a dome. The music of the service, which was sung by the nuns, was exceedingly good. After church I called on the Bishop, whose palace is in the same compound with the cathedral. I had received a letter of introduction to him, from Fra Raffaello, the Romish priest of Umbala. I found "his Lordship," as he is called, a very pleasant, gentlemanly man. He was a capuchin from Naples. We had quite a long conversation, during which he informed me that there are about five hundred thousand native Christians, of the Romish persuasion, in India; but confessed that now-a-days but few converts were made; all the efforts of the

priests being required to retain Christian families in the faith. Agra once contained twenty-five thousand Christian families, according to M. de Thevenot, who visited the city in 1666. This number may be a little exaggerated, but there must have been a very large number of Christians. They were mostly French, or Dutch, or their half-caste descendants, who were employed in the artillery, arsenals, and gun-foundries of the Emperor. These duties were, in all parts of India, entrusted exclusively, by the native rulers, to Europeans, who were all Christians, and formed in the aggregate quite a large Christian population. When M. de Thevenot visited Agra it had half a million of inhabitants-while now it has not over seventyfive thousand.

I was anxious to see whether the opinion of the native character formed by the Bishop, as an Italian, a Romanist, and one who had been for years in daily intercourse with natives, would differ at all from the impressions which I had myself derived from observation, history, the conversation of Englishmen and such intercourse as I had been able to hold with the natives themselves. I found that he entertained exactly the same opinions which I had formed, and have expressed, and he said that in all parts of India the missionary priests, who live almost as natives, have come to the same judgment.

The following day I crossed over the river to the "Ram Bagh" or "Garden of Ram"-a beautiful and extensive gar

den on the bank of the Jumna. It was founded in the time of the Mogul Emperors, but is now kept in order by the Company. The stone pavilions and marble villas which it contains, are always occupied in the summer season by pic-nic and other parties, who often remain several days.

On the way back I stopped at the mausoleum of Kwaja Aeeas, commonly called "the tomb of Aktmud ood Dowlah." It stands within a quadrangular enclosure, upon a marble chubootra. The mausoleum is of white marble, about fifty feet square, and twelve feet high. At each corner is a round marble tower, about forty feet in height, surmounted by a marble kiosk. In the middle of the roof, is a square, dome-shaped canopy of marble, resting on supports of marble openwork.

The whole tomb was once covered with decorations in mosaic and painting, but both are now in bad repair.

In the interior is a circular apartment, with marble walls, and an arched marble roof, both richly decorated with graceful designs in various colours and gilding. In the centre of this room lie the remains of Kwaja Aeeas, one of the most remarkable characters of Jehangeer's reign.

He came originally from Western Tartary, being attracted to India by the hopes of procuring employment in the court of the Emperor Akbur. So poor was he that he started on this long journey, with only one bullock, which carried his wife and their little baggage. On the way his wife was delivered of a daughter. Once arrived at Akbur's court, he rapidly rose to a high position, both by his intrinsic merits, and the favour of some relations who had long been in the Emperor's service. His daughter, Noor Mahul, had now grown up to be a prodigy of beauty. Being freely admitted to the royal zěnana she was accidently seen by the Prince Mirza Suleem, afterward the Emperor Jehangeer, who at once conceived for her that violent passion, which forms the subject of Moore's poem, "The Light of the Harem."

Sheer Afgun, a Toorkman noble, had long been espoused to Noor Mahul, and, notwithstanding the opposition of the heir-apparent, he married her. As soon, however, as Jehangeer was seated on the musnud, as Akbur's successor, he caused his successful rival to be murdered, and took possession of his wife, whom he married. From this time Noor Mahul, or as she now styled herself Noor Jehan, exercised an absolute sway over the Emperor, and became a paramount authority in the government. Her father, over whom this tomb was erected, was raised to the rank of Aktmud ood Dowlah or high treasurer; and afterwards promoted to be the prime minister of the empire. Her relations from Tartary flocked to the court, and were well provided for.

She never had any children by Shah Jehan, but her one daughter by her first husband, she married to a younger son of the Emperor. In order to secure the crown to her son-inlaw, she induced the Emperor to put out the eyes of his eldest

son Khosroo. His mother was then invited by Noor Jehan to visit her apartments. She led her out to a well in the court, which she asked her to look down. Her victim complied, and Noor Jehan at once threw her in. Khosroo was afterwards taken to the South of India by Shah Jehan, the Emperor's second son, who said "he could not bear to be separated from his poor blind brother" and was there murdered by his orders.

Notwithstanding the efforts of Noor Jehan, the Emperor's second son, Shah Jehan, succeeded to his father's throne on his death. He put the Empress in confinement, and blinded his brother Shah Reear, her protegé. His other relations were all strangled by his orders. With the accession of Shah Jehan the influence of this remarkable woman ceases. For ten years she had in fact governed the empire, had even led the imperial troops in battle, and had caused her name to be struck on the coin of the royal mint-a solitary instance of that honour being awarded to a woman in India.

The new Emperor Shah Jehan, had married her niece, Moomtaz-ee-Mahul, over whose remains the Taj was afterwards erected. She seems to have inspired her husband with an affection as deep and powerful as that of which Jehangeer felt for her aunt; but Shah Jehan being a man of greater ability than his father did not leave the reins of his government in the hands of a woman.

CHAPTER XXVI.

AGRA TO JAI POOR.

Chowdris-Combination versus Competition-Our Retinue-Price of Labour-Commercial Integrity-Leaving Agra-The Departure of "a Warrior Lord "-A Loan to the Sovereign Company-The Royal Pilgrimage-“Seekree, the City of Victory-Tomb of a Wealthy Saint- A Magnificent Gateway-Bishop Heber's Guide-Throne-room -Human Chessmen-Blind-man's Buff-The Old Lake-A Triumph for ReligionIrreverence-Dining in a Palace-"Pointing a Moral "-Four Rupees' worth of Picturesque Piety-Fording a Jheel-Bhurtpoor-English Protection and its FruitsThe Fort-Its Sieges-An Indian Sebastopol-Rajah's Palace-Battle of DeegQuail Fighting-A Boxing Match-Deer-Bosawur-Breakfast at 3 P. M.-The Village-A Native Distillery-People on Road-Antelopes-Manpoor-Walled Villages -Naked Sanctity-Pilgrim to the Shrine of Juggurnath-Buranah-PigeonsDress of the Rajpoots-Hills of Jaipoor-Palace of the Rajah-Jaipoor.

ON the 12th of January, my American friends had returned from Delhi, and we were all ready to start for Bombay. The previous week had been occupied in making arrangements, and bargaining for the bearers. We at first made application to a Chowdri* who lived near the hotel, but not liking his terms we had recourse to all the others in the place. These fellows were ostensibly in opposition to each other; but as we discovered that they were really in league, we gave our custom to the first man with whom we had spoken. This is a curious feature in the habits of all native tradesmen. As some one has remarked "they do not understand competition, but are masters of combination." All trades and occupations are in the hands of certain castes or guilds, who unite their forces against the customer. By an apparent competition. they will induce purchasers to buy at a price far exceeding the real value of the article; and the surplus profit is then divided among all those who have joined in the plot. This

* Chowdri, a native maître de poste from whom kuhars or palkee-bearers are hired.