Snakes. Delhi 3 T 3 



on the river. Since the Mutiny a great part of the 

 palace has been demolished in order to make room 

 for English barracks. 



We drove in under the great archway. Where are 

 now the Harem Court, the Burj-i-Shamali, the Mitiaz 

 Mahal, the Nanbat Khana, the Golden Mosque, and 

 the fountains and gardens, which all once formed part 

 of the most magnificent palace in the Old World ? 

 Many beautiful buildings have been, preserved intact, 

 but without the courts and corridors connecting them, 

 they lose all their meaning and more than half their 

 beauty. We walked through hall after hall, room 

 after room, rich, in the past, with a vast pomp and 

 splendour difficult for a European to conceive. What 

 embroideries and gorgeous curtains hung once upon 

 the old disused hooks in the marble walls ! what 

 heavy Persian carpets doubtless deadened the footfall 

 in those gilded halls! 



Once already, attention has been drawn in an early 

 part of this volume to the wonderful and beautiful 

 Hall of Private Audience the Diwan-i-Khas where 

 runs again and again the inscription written in Arabic, 

 in gold letters upon white marble, " If there is an 

 Elysium on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this." 

 Wall after wall reiterates it, and it must have been 

 a heaven in the Oriental eyes, for it embodied the 

 triumph of opulence and lavish splendour, the acme 

 of a bizarre glory, such as the old race of Moguls, 

 and none since them, only knew. 



Time saw the silver ceiling looted from the length 



