European army. . ... . I t was the sense of power that
induced them to rebel.”
The Sepoy, it is well known, only rebels for his pay
or his caste; the former he receives punctually, but
the report, carefully disseminated by emissaries of the
king of Oude, that the cartridges had been greased
with the fat of cows and pigs, thus striking at the
religious prejudices of Hindu and Mohamedan by one
blow, frightened and exasperated him, in the same
manner as at Vellore, in 1806, the Government order
to change the turban of the Sepoys, which the family
of Tippoo took advantage of, and thereby caused the
first mutiny.
Within the Fort, besides the Motee Musjid already
described, there is the modern Arsenal, in which are supposed
to be preserved the celebrated gates of Somnath,
the holy Brahminical city of Goojrat; they are about
twelve feet high, and said to be composed of «anrial
wood, elaborately carved and inlaid. Another account,
however, and probably the true one, is that the
genuine gates, which for eight centuries had been
guarding the tomb of Mahmud of Ghazni, had been
restored to the temple of Somnath, whilst those
carried off by Gen. Nott in 1842, and brought to Agra,
were not of sandal wood at all, but of deal, and of
much later date. As I did not see them, I cannot
vouch for the truth of either statement; but if those
at Agra were the original gates, they would hardly
have been consigned to a lumber room in the Fort,
where nobody ever set eyes upon them.
Akbar’s palace overlooks the Jumna, and is still
in tolerable state of preservation. I t consists of a
number of buildings and detached pavilions in white
marble, and richly ornamented with carving and
mosaics, reminding one somewhat of the Alhambra,,
the same Moorish arches, open-work galleries, balconies,
and slender columns, fit only to grace the
palaces of fairyland. All within breathes mystery, and
many a curious tale is told of the famous “ bath of'
mirrors,” the design of which is extravagantly fantastic
; walls and vaulted ceilings of the different
compartments and passages, which the baths consist
of, are completely covered with bits of mirror intermixed
with bright-coloured glass, and arranged in the
most intricate designs, representing flowers, &c. The
water falls in a broad sheet into a marble pool over
brilliant lamps, and the fountains are so constructed
as to be lighted up from within. Most of the
chambers and spacious halls are connected by open
courts and gardens filled with fountains and the scent
from thousands of flowers. There is also the throne
room, and a courtyard paved with squares of black