it is at present. Its extensive bazaars teemed with the life and movement of a great Oriental capital. From the four quarters of the compass passed in and out in unending succession caravans bringing merchandise from all parts of India and even from the remote confines of Asia. The most magnificent court that the gorgeous East has known brought to the scene an indescribable wealth of glittering pageantry. Long trains of richly caparisoned elephants, escorted by troops of mounted men equipped with bucklers and spears and wearing the splendid uniform of the imperial guard, went in stately procession through the streets, while from the lofty altitude of the gold and silver howdahs upon the backs of the great animals looked down with supercilious indifference the princes of the Imperial House decked out with precious stones and "the barbaric pearl and gold" which an exuberant Oriental fancy decreed as the fitting adornments of royal personages.
On the judgment seat of the celebrated Akbar in the Fort sat his degenerate son Jehangir, "the Conqueror of the World." A man in the prime of life, he had reigned only five years at the period with which we are dealing. As the narrative will show he was a strange compound of qualities mostly bad. An Oriental despot of the most pronounced type, his life was stained with a thousand crimes. He became so hardened to cruelty that out of mere wantonness he would perpetrate the most horrible barbarities; yet he could be generous when the fit seized him, and even at times showed a certain magnanimity in his dealings with those about him. A strong sense of humour occasionally characterized his actions, while his demeanour towards those whom he liked assumed ofttimes a bluff heartiness curiously contrasted with the
