Page:Lord Amherst and the British Advance Eastwards to Burma.djvu/195

Rh till we heard the earth-shaking steps of the great lord, when we were obliged to depart.'

On the 19th the party visit Fatehpur Sikri, the deserted fortress-palace of the great Akbar, where can still be seen in all their fairy-like beauty of carved sandstone and marble his Zenana, his mosque, ' supported by innumerable pillars, his Halls of Audience, and all the edifices of Mughal state.' An old Pindárí chief visits them—'a strange wild-looking old man.' Finally, on January 24, they reach Bhartpur, where the young Rájá comes out to meet them with all his troops, all his ministers, and all his relations. Lord Amherst received him into his howdah, and the two dignitaries entered the town together.

'On the 25th,' Lady Amherst says,' we all rose early to view the famous walls of Bhartpur, the ditch and breaches made by our mines, also the site of Lord Combermere's camp, and the trenches.' But the spirit of the scene has been transformed. In the evening they all dined with the Rájá: the town was most beautifully illuminated. There were triumphal arches, coloured lamps, and all else that suited rejoicing. They were met at dusk by numbers of men carrying lighted torches. The dinner was very handsome, and in English style; nautching went on all the time; they left amid renewed cheers and benedictions (into the sincerity of which Lady Amherst did not make too curious inquiry), because the British Government had put the rightful heir on the throne.