DELHI. 
57 
lie sternly ordered her to be confined in one of the 
inferior apartments of the seraglio, a large dilapidated 
chamber, which had remained many years desolate 
and uninhabited. Contrary to his usual munificence 
to women, he also restricted her to a miserable allow- 
ance of fourteen annas , something less than two 
shillings of English money daily, for the subsistence 
of herself and her slaves. 
Mher-ul-Nissa was a woman of a haughty spirit, 
and could ill brook such contumelious treatment ; 
yet for a long time she found no remedy, and gave 
herself up to grief and despair. At length, her 
spirit recovered its natural elasticity, and hope came 
to console her in her affliction — hope that she might 
yet find an opportunity of re-kindling the emperor s 
passion. She was confident in the power of her 
amazing beauty, if she could only bring it to bear 
upon the monarch ; but although Itohkia Sultana, 
wdio was deeply interested in her fate, used all her 
eloquence in her favour, she could not prevail upon 
her son to alter his conduct, or in any measure to 
relax his extraordinary enmity towards the beautiful 
widow. The ready invention of Mher-ul-Nissa, ho w- 
ever, set her upon various schemes for bringing about 
what she so ardently desired ; and for the purpose of 
raising her reputation in the seraglio, and of sup- 
porting herself and slaves in something more like 
comfort, she began to employ her taste and invention 
in the cultivation of poetry and other elegant arts, 
