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want of attention to his finances, was reduced to great difficulties, 

 and knew not how to replenish his exhausted exchequer. Walk- 

 ing one day in an unfrequented part of his palace, he saw a snaki 

 put his head out of a hole in the wall; on which he ordered it to 

 be killed. His attendants accordingly broke down a part of the 

 wall, in search of the serpent; it eluded their vigilance, but, in so 

 doing, they discovered a secret receptacle, containing treasure to 

 a great amount, which had been concealed there by another prince, 

 and relieved the monarch from his necessities. 



After this preamble, I have more courage in relating the adven- 

 ture which occurred during a journey from Baroche to Dhuboy; 

 when I stopped, with a small escort, for water and refreshments 

 at Nurrah, a large ruined village about six miles from the capital. 

 It had been plundered and burnt not long before, by the Mah- 

 ralta cavalry, when general Goddard took Dhuboy. The princi- 

 pal house at Nurrah, a mansion far beyond the general style of 

 Hindoo buildings, had belonged to a man of family and opulence, 

 who emigrated during the war, and died in a distant country; the 

 house and gardens were then in a state of desolation. I received 

 private information, that under a particular tower in this mansion 

 was a secret cell, known only to the owner and the mason who 

 constructed it; that very man gave me the intelligence; adding it 

 was purposely formed to contain his treasure without the know- 

 ledge of his family, and was afterwards closed with strong 

 masonry. 



We accompanied the informer through several spacious courts 

 and extensive apartments, in a state of dilapidation, until we 

 came to a dark closet in a tower, at one corner of the mansion: 



