338 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



tectural interest; that they were mostly merely en- 

 closing walls, offices, or apartments for servants. Still 

 all lovers of the picturesque must regret that they were 

 not allowed to remain, for we should then behold the 

 palace complete as when the Emperor left it ; we now 

 see only isolated buildings and fragments of walls. 



At the time of my visit the palace was in the posses- 

 sion of a Christian family, who had obtained a grant of 

 a large tract of the freshly cleared land in its vicinity. 

 When visiting their property they were in the habit of 

 residing in what remained habitable of the palace ; and 

 this, for the short period of my stay, their agent invited 

 me to occupy. This habitable portion of the palace 

 was very small ; it consisted of only two rooms, a very 

 large hall, the same in which the tigress had taken up 

 her abode, and one smaller half- octagonal chamber 

 beyond. This chamber formed the summit of a great 

 tower that rose sheer from the river some forty feet or 

 more below. 



The view from the windows was one of the wildest 

 I ever beheld. At the base of the tower the river ran 

 deep and still ; further away it was shallower, and 

 flowing over rocks and boulders, was broken into a 

 thousand eddies, often into long sheets of foam. The 

 opposite shore displayed a desolate expanse of sand 

 and stones, interspersed by patches of brushwood and 

 tall, coarse grass ; then a long slope of forest led up to 

 a very wilderness of mountains. The prospect was 

 unrelieved by field or village or any habitation of man. 

 As the day declined the loneliness of the scene became 

 oppressive ; when night came on it was still more so, 



