Page:The Slave Girl of Agra.djvu/156

 and Noren at last emerged into that fine open square which faced the main gate of the fort. The solidity and beauty of the lofty walls of red sandstone, and their long and graceful sweep, encircling the edifices and palaces of the fort, struck Noren once again as he stood in the square and beheld the great handiwork of Akbar. Except on the side of the river Jumna the fort was defended by a deep ditch, faced with hewn stone and filled with water; and the ditch and the walls of the fort separated it from the rest of the city.

Rajput chiefs, in the pay of the Emperor, mounted guard in this square by turns, ostensibly to defend the gate of the fort, and rows of white tents accommodated their soldiers and retainers. Royal horses were exercised here every morning, and the Grand-Master of the Cavalry attended to examine their condition. Crowds of other people surged from all parts to this centre of the great city, and jugglers and mountebanks and astrologers, the dancing bear and the performing monkey, amused the people at all times of the day.

A Bazaar with an endless variety of fancy articles had grown up where thousands of people daily resorted, and children and veiled women thronged the stalls. Rajas and Mansabdars rode through the crowded square with their trains of armed retainers, or were carried in litters by vociferous bearers, and a continuous stream of humbler men traversed it to enter the fort and to see their great Emperor. It is only in Oriental lands that one sees the life of the people in its various aspects under the open sky from morn to dewy eve.

The two horsemen left the square behind and rode through the stalwart and well-defended gates of the