Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/237

 Chauk; it is of the common size, built of red stone, and surmounted by three domes. The King of Persia took Delhi, 1739. Nadir Shah, on hearing of a tumult that broke out in the great market-place, in which two thousand Persians were slain, marched out at night with his men as far as this Masjid; here he thought it prudent to halt until daylight. When daylight began to appear, a person from a neighbouring terrace fired upon the king, and killed an officer by his side. Nadir Shah was so much enraged, that although the tumult had by this time totally subsided, he sent out his soldiers, and ordered a general massacre of the inhabitants. This order was executed with so much rigour, that before 2, above one hundred thousand, without distinction of age, sex, or condition, lay dead in their blood, although not above one-third part of the city was visited by the sword. Nadir Shah sat during this dreadful scene in the Masjid of Roshan-ool-Dowla; none but slaves dared approach him. At length the unfortunate Emperor of Delhi, attended by a number of his chief omrah, ventured before him with downcast eyes. The omrah who preceded the king, bowed their foreheads to the ground. Nadir Shah sternly asked them what they wanted? They cried out with one voice, "Spare the city." Muhammad said not a word, but the tears flowed fast from his eyes. The tyrant, for once touched with pity, sheathed his sword, and said, "For the sake of the prince Muhammad I forgive." The massacre was instantly stopped.

Since that dreadful carnage, this quarter of Delhi has been but very thinly inhabited.

An auction of the presents that had been made to the Government having been advertised to take place at a Europe shop in Delhi, I went to the place, and desired them to purchase several articles for me, among others a single sheet of paper that measured forty feet in length by nineteen feet and a half in breadth. It is made, they tell me, from the fibres of the leaf, or the bark of a tree, and is brought from Almorah and other parts of the hills. Some of the sheets are very large and rather coarse, others are smaller and very fine; insects do not attack shawls that are wrapped in this sort of paper. An Amadou