Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 1.djvu/255

 *lation is carried up through the walls from the ground-floor to the top of the building, and the marble hall is a luxurious apartment. The king having refused to give General Martine the price he asked for Constantia, the latter declared his tomb should be handsomer than any palace in his Majesty's dominions. He therefore built a vault for himself under the house, and there he lies buried; this has desecrated the place, no Musulmān can inhabit a tomb.

The monument stands in the vault; a bust of the general adorns it. Lights are constantly burned before the tomb. The figures of four sipahīs large as life, with their arms reversed, stand in niches at the sides of the monument. In the centre of the vault, on a long plain slab, is this inscription:

"Here lies Major-General Claude Martine, born at Lyons, 1735; arrived in India a common soldier, and died at Lucnow, the 13th December, 1800.

PRAY FOR HIS SOUL."

Claude Martine was a native of the city of Lyons. He was originally a common soldier, and fought under Count Lally; he afterwards entered the service of the East India Company, and rose to the rank of a Major-general. He died possessed of enormous wealth, and endowed a noble charity in Calcutta, called La Martiniere.

The house is a large and very singular building; a motto fronts the whole, "Labore et Constantiâ,"—hence the name of the house.

Returning from this interesting place, we proceeded on elephants to see the Roomee Durwāza, a gateway built at the entrance of the city, on the Delhi road, by Ussuf-ood-Dowla; it is most beautiful and elegant, a copy of a gate at Constantinople.

Near this spot is the Imām-Bārā, a building almost too delicate and elegant to be described; it contains the tomb of Ussuf-ood-Dowla, the second king of this family. Within the court is a beautiful mosque.

We were delighted with the place and the scene altogether—the time being evening, and the streets crowded with natives.