Page:The Seven Cities of Delhi.djvu/90

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

with her request, inscribed on the inlaid marble headstone, "Except with grass and green things, let not my grave be covered, for grass is all-sufficient pall for the graves of the poor." The other graves in this enclosure are those of unimportant Moghal princelings.

In the next enclosure lies Mahomed Shah, in whose reign India was invaded by Nadir Shah. The victor's son received in marriage one of the king's relatives, but she died in childbirth, and, with her baby, lies here. The marble doors of the enclosure are carved in relief.

In the third enclosure was buried the son of Akbar the Second, Mirza Jahangir, who, for firing a pistol at the British Resident, was banished to Allahabad. There he died, in 1821, of the effects of too much cherry-brandy, to which beverage he was extremely partial, complaining only that it too soon made him intoxicated. The gravestone of the prince is shaped on the top like that of a woman, for that of a man should have a raised pen-box; the explanation of this is, that this stone had already been carved for the grave of some lady, but was thought otherwise very suitable, and a pen-box was fashioned of plaster, which has now disintegrated.

Chausath Khamba.—In another court are