with a carriage, and
we were quickly driven to his residence--a circumstance, by the way,
which I discovered next day to be a legitimate matter of felicitation
to myself, for there is, strange to say, no hotel in Delhi for
Europeans, travelers being dependent upon the accommodations of a
_dak_-bungalow, where one is lodged for a rupee a day.

In the morning we made an early start for the palace of the padishahs,
which stands near the river, and indeed may be said to constitute the
eastern portion of the city, having a wall of a mile in extent on its
three sides, while the other abuts along the offset of the Jumna upon
which Delhi is built. Passing under a splendid Gothic arch in the
centre of a tower, then along a vaulted aisle in the centre of which
was an octagonal court of stone, the whole route being adorned with
flowers carved in stone and inscriptions from the Koran, we finally
gained the court of the palace, in which is situated the Dewani Khas,
the famous throne-room which contained the marvelous "peacock throne."
I found it exteriorly a beautiful pavilion of white marble crowned by
four domes of the same material, opening on one side to the court,
on the other to the garden of the palace. On entering, my eye was
at first conscious only of a confused interweaving of traceries and
incrustations of stones, nor was it until after a few moments that I
could bring myself to any definite singling out of particular elements
from the general dream of flowing and intricate lines; but presently
I was enabled to trace with more discriminating pleasure the flowers,
the arabesques, the inscriptions which were carved or designed in
incrustations of smaller stones, or inlaid or gilt on ceiling, arch
and pillar.

Yet what a sense of utter reverse of fortune comes upon one after the
first shock of the beauty of these delicate stone fantasies! Wherever
we went--in the Dewani Aum or hall of audience; in the Akbari Hammun
or imperial baths; in the Sammam Burj or private palace of the
padishahs, that famous and beautiful palace over whose gate the
well-known inscription stands, "If there is a Paradise on earth, it
is here;" in the court, in the garden--everywhere was abandonment,
everywhere the filthy occupations of birds, everywhere dirt, decay,
desolation.

It was therefore a prodigious change when, emerging from the main gate
of the palace, we found ourselves in the great thoroughfare of Delhi,
the Chandni Chowk (literally "S