tified by early Hindu Kings who in turn yielded place to the "imperial
banditti," and they held it until the English came and cried a truce to the
old fierce wars. And all these have left traces of their sovereignty amid
the rocks, the grass and the rank weeds of the hill. It is a living
illustration of the words of the poet:--

"Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai
Whose Portals are alternate Night and Day,
How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp.
Abode his destined Hour and went his way."

V.

THE STORY OF IMTIAZAN.

The scene of her earliest memories was a small room with spotless
floor-cloth, the windows whereof looked out upon the foliage of "ber" and
tamarind. During the day a black-bearded man would recline upon the
cushions, idly fondling her and calling her "Piyari" ( dearest); and at
night a pretty young woman would place her in a brightly-painted "jhula"
(swinging-cot) and sing her to sleep. Then the scene changes. He of the
black beard is away, and the form of the beloved lies stark beneath a white
sheet while mysterious women folk go to and fro within the house. A
kindly-faced old man, who in earlier days had helped her build little
dust-heaps beneath the trees, takes her from the warm cot and hands her
over to a woman of stern face and rasping tongue, with whom she dwells
disconsolate until one fateful day she finds herself alone in a
market-place, weeping the passionate tears of the waif and orphan. But
deliverance is at hand.

The sight of the weeping child touches a chord in the heart of Gowhar Jan,
the famous dancing girl of Lahore. She takes the orphan home, christens her
Imtiazan, and does her best to blunt the evil memories of her desertion.

Gowhar Jan did her duty by the child according to her lights. She engaged
the best "Gawayyas" to teach her music, the best "Kath-thaks" to teach her
dancing, the best "Ustads" to teach her elocution and deportment, and the
best of Munshis to ground her in Urdu and Persian _belles lettres_; so
that when Imtiazan reached her fifteenth year her accomplishments were
noised abroad in the bazaar. Beautiful too she was, with the fair
complexion of the border-races, slightly aquiline nose, large dark eyes and
raven hair, the latter unadorned and drawn simply back in accordance with
the custom of her mother's people which forbids the unmarried girl to part
her hair or deck it with flowers. Her Indo-Punjabi dress, the loose
many-folded trousers,