Page:Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan.djvu/211

Rh directions, and considerable research is needed to find the corresponding bodies. These frescos were effaced by Tipú before the siege, but restored by Colonel Wellesley when he inhabited the building. In course of time they again became hardly recognizable, when Lord Dalhousie, on his visit to Mysore in 1854, ordered them to be repainted by a native artist.

The old fortress of Seringapatam remains in much the same state as it was left in after the siege nearly a hundred years ago. The formidable fortifications have stoutly withstood the ravages of time, while the breach made in the curtain is still visible from the opposite bank of the river, where two cannons fixed in the ground denote the spot on which the English batteries were erected. Inside is shown the gateway on the northern face where Tipú fell in his death-struggle. The whole island is now insalubrious. A few wretched houses only remain where once was a great capital, and the ancient temple of Vishnu looks down, as if in mockery, on the ruins of the palace of the Muhammadan usurper.