From Elephant Khedder to Crocodile Tank 369 



must have been a fine fellow to have held Seringapatam, 

 and three times to have sustained a siege against 

 English troops ; his subjects fought like the pluckiest 

 devils, up to the last. 



The fortress must have been a hard nut to crack ; 

 as we stood on its ruins we were immensely struck 

 with its vast strength. When the river had been 

 crossed, the entrenchments and ramparts climbed, the 

 great rock and battlemented wall won, a deep moat 

 faced the English besiegers, inside all, before the 

 actual fort was reached. Across this moat there lay, 

 at the final storming by Lord Cornwallis and Colonel 

 Wellesley, afterwards Duke of Wellington, a single 

 plank, left there by the sheer carelessness of Tippoo's 

 soldiers. Over the plank the English storming party 

 one man at a time rushed, and took the fort, 

 with cold steel. 



We saw the spot where Tippoo himself was killed 

 by an ordinary soldier, for the sake of a marvellous 

 necklace of jewels which he wore ; and we went down 

 into the gloomy dungeons . . . the scene of the depths 

 of a native's cruelty. 



Having been over the ruined fort, we walked to 

 the Lai Bagh, or Red Garden, which belongs to the 

 magnificent tomb built by Tippoo Sultan over the 

 remains of his father, Hyder Ali, and in which Tippoo 

 himself was buried. A long walk, shaded by trees 

 and glowing with flowers, led to this mausoleum. As 

 a mark of respect there stood ready to meet us at 

 the gate a native with a gigantic umbrella, which he 



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