Across India Part 30

"Finally, after a thousand adventures, which he never wrote out, he arrived at the court of Oude, where, by some means, he obtained a captaincy in the royal army, and, what was better, the favor of the king. In 1780 he was commander-in-chief of the native army. But his enterprise did not end here; for he was the king's trusted favorite, and of course he became a millionaire, even though there were no railroad shares in being at that period.

"He brought with him some crude notions of architecture, and he set about reforming that of India. He was not a success in this capacity; and, as my lord says, his work is ridiculed by men of taste. But this appears to have been his only sin; for he used the money he had acc.u.mulated in establishing schools, now known under the name of La Martiniere, in which thousands of children are educated. As a Frenchman I do not feel at all ashamed of Claude Martine."

"You need not, Professor," added the viscount. "But here we are at the Lucknow station."

As usual, by the kindness of Lord Tremlyn, everything had been provided for the arrival of the company of tourists. There were carriages and servants, and officers as guides, in attendance. Captain Ringgold was very economical of his time; and, as it was still early in the afternoon, he proposed that the party should visit some of the objects of interest before dinner. The baggage was sent to the hotel, and the carriage proceeded to the Residency, which had been occupied by the official of the British government when the province was under the native ruler. It was in ruins, for it was so left as a memorial of the events of the past.

The city was attacked by the rebels; and the little garrison, with the English people of the town, took refuge in this building. It was a three-story brick house, not at all fit to be used as a fort. The cannon-shot of the besiegers wrecked the building, and many of its defenders, including Sir Henry Lawrence, the commander, perished in the fight.

The visitors looked over the house and its surroundings, and then went to the hotel.

CHAPTER x.x.xII

MORE OF LUCKNOW AND SOMETHING OF BENARES

"I suppose you recall the events of the Mutiny well enough to understand the situation here in 1857," said Lord Tremlyn the next morning when the company had gathered in the parlor of the hotel. "But there was no ma.s.sacre here, as in Cawnpore, to impress the facts upon your memory, though many brave men lost their lives in the defence of the place. There were only seven hundred and fifty troops in the town; but Sir Henry Lawrence had done the best he could to fortify the Residency, ill adapted as it was for defensive works.

"An attempt was made to check the advance of the rebels eight miles from the city; but it was a failure, with the small available force, and two days later the enemy attacked the British at the Residency. Three times the brave defenders beat back the a.s.saults of the a.s.sailants. These events on the spot you have visited occurred between the last of May and the first of July. It was not till the twenty-second of September that Havelock and Outram arrived, and captured the Alum-Bagh, which we shall visit this morning. It was a terrible summer that the beleaguered people and their brave handful of soldiers pa.s.sed; and Tennyson has commemorated Lucknow in his immortal verse.

"But the coming of Havelock was not the end; for the rebels besieged the place again, and it was near the middle of November before Sir Colin Campbell arrived, with a considerable force. He captured the Alum-Bagh, and, leaving in it a force of three thousand five hundred men, he escorted the women and children and the civilians to Cawnpore; but returned in March to subdue the rebels. For a week he fought them, drove them from the intrenchments in which they had fortified themselves, and the mutiny was ended, as I related to you on board of your ship."

The carriages were at the door as soon as the party had breakfasted. They were driven to the cemetery, where they saw the grave of Lawrence, whose memorial is that "He tried to do his duty." In the Alum-Bagh, which means the Queen's Garden, was the grave of Havelock. It was here that Outram had his camp and fortifications for the defence of Lucknow during the absence of Campbell.

The Kaiser Bagh, or Caesar's Garden, contains some of the princ.i.p.al sights of the city, which the viscount pointed out and described. It is a forest of domes and cupolas; and the company halted at the pavilion of Lanka, which a French writer called the least ridiculous of the structures in the enclosure, though the professor insisted that it was quite as bad as the worst. It had an abundance of cupolas with arabesque domes; but the edifice looked like a sh.e.l.l, for the veranda, with lofty columns supporting the roof, appeared to take up the greater portion of the enclosed s.p.a.ce.

The most grotesque feature was at the entrance. A flight of broad stairs led to the princ.i.p.al floor, over which was extended what looked like an imitation of the Rialto bridge in Venice, with a small temple under the middle arch and at the head of the stairs. The top of the bridge was on a level with the flat roof, and the two side-arches started from the ground.

The building was handsome in some of its details; but the professor said it was an "abomination," and Dr. Hawkes called it "queer." The various edifices are now occupied by the civil and military officials.

"Where does the name of this place come from?" asked Captain Ringgold.

"Kaiser Bagh seems to be half German."

"But it is not German," replied Lord Tremlyn. "These buildings were mostly erected no farther back than 1850, by Wajid Ali Shah, the King of Oude, who was deposed by the British government in 1856. He called himself Caesar, and Kaiser is simply a corruption of that name, with no German allusion in it.

He was the husband of the Queen of Oude, whose burial-place you saw in Pere-la-Chaise."

The next visit was to the palace of Claude Martine, a conglomeration of all the styles of architecture ever known, and some that were never heard of.

At first view it looks like a small palace set on the top of a large one.

It is certainly very original and very elaborate. Going to the citadel, they entered by a highly ornamental gateway, which opened to the visitors the view of the vast pile of buildings, in the middle of which is the Imambara. The vastness of the pile presented before them was bewildering, though they had seen so many immense structures that mere size did not now overwhelm them. The Great Imambara is considered the marvel of Lucknow, and should not be confounded with another in the citadel bearing the same general name. To walk around or through this enormous building was simply impossible, and the party contented themselves with a general view from different points. It is located on a lofty terrace; and its long line of walls, crowned with Arabic domes, is very imposing.

"This palace was erected at the close of the last century, by Nawab, with half a yard of other names to fetch up its rear," said Major Shandon, the military officer who was doing the honors of the city, with a pleasant smile. "Like many others of the Indian monarchs, he desired to immortalize his name by erecting a monument in his own honor; and he offered a prize for the compet.i.tion of all the architects of India, for one that would surpa.s.s all others. We think he produced a plan that was worth the money he received; though we don't think he surpa.s.sed the Taj, or some other buildings that might be mentioned."

This immense structure is now a vast a.r.s.enal. The other building, which sometimes robs this one of its honors, is called the Hoosseinabad Imambara; and perhaps the length of the added name may account, to some extent, for the robbery. It is in the citadel, and in sight of its namesake; but the mausoleum, for it is the tomb of Ali Shah, who died in 1841, stands alone; and it does not fatigue the eyes to look at it. It is a light, ethereal sort of structure, and looks like lacework. It is surmounted by a beautiful dome, and the roof bristles with the points of turrets and towers. It contains, besides the tomb of the monarch, a mosque, a bazaar, and a model of the Taj, which make up a sufficient variety for an edifice erected for a tomb.

This temple completed the list marked out for inspection in Lucknow. The party had not supposed there was much of anything here to be seen except the memorials of the Mutiny; and for these alone they would not have missed seeing the historic locality. The rest of the day was devoted to rides through the streets and suburbs of the city. The avenues were wide, the houses neat and commodious, and the gardens laid out with English taste.

The evidences of British thrift were to be seen in many portions of the place.

Lochner's Hotel was their abiding-place, and Major Shandon regaled the party at dinner and in the evening with stories of the place, and proved himself to be a gentleman of "infinite humor." The next morning the company took the train for Benares. They were a very sociable party, and preferred the conference carriage to being confined to the smaller compartments. The route was along the Boomtee River at first, which, some one has said, is the crookedest stream in the world, and the scenery was worth looking at.

But as soon as the ladies and gentlemen had satisfied themselves with looking out the windows the commander presented Sir Modava as the "talkist"

for the trip of six hours, or as much of the time as he chose to occupy.

"I shall not take more than half an hour for what I have to say, my much-loved friends," the Hindu gentleman began, "though I know you are very patient and long-suffering; and I a.s.sure you that I shall not take offence if you look out the windows while I am talking. The Boomtee River is as pretty as it is sinuous. If you write to your friends in the United States about it, you can spell the last syllable t-i, if you prefer; for Indian orthography is not yet controlled by statute, as I hope it will be when we have established an _Academie Indienne_, such as they have in France.

But Benares is my subject, and not spelling.

"Where is Benares? It is four hundred and twenty miles by rail from Calcutta, and is on the left bank of the Ganges. I suppose you know which side that is."

"Of course we do," laughed Mrs. Belgrave. "It is on the left-hand side."

"You have put your foot in it, mother," rallied Louis.

"Into the Ganges?" queried the lady. "I did at Cawnpore, but not here."

"Suppose you were coming up the river in a steamer from Calcutta, which would be the left bank?" asked Louis.

"On my left, of course."

"Then Sir Modava will have to oblige you by locating Benares on both sides of the Ganges, and I don't believe it would be convenient for him to do that," said Louis, laughing at the expense of his mother, who blushed, though she did not see what was wrong, when she realized that she had made a blunder of some kind.

"Better not have said anything," whispered Mrs. Blossom in retaliation; for hitherto she had had a monopoly of all the blunders."

"Will you tell me, Sarah, which is the left bank of a river, for it appears that I don't know," added the lady out loud.

"The left bank of the Ganges is the one Benares is on," replied the worthy woman; and she was greeted with a roar of laughter, and a volley of applause started by the live boys who were making their way across India.

"Quite right, madam!" exclaimed Sir Modava, applauding with the others. "It may be a matter of no particular consequence; but you will excuse me for saying that the left bank is the one on your left as you go down the stream, and not at all as you go up."

"I remember now, for I learned that in my geography when I first went to school; and it is strange that I should have forgotten it," added Mrs.

Belgrave.

"We know just where Benares is now," Sir Modava proceeded. "It is the largest city in this part of India with the exception of Lucknow, to which it stands next, or sixth among those of the country, having a population of 219,467. It extends along the Ganges for three miles; and the sh.o.r.e is lined continuously with staircases, called _ghats_, which lead up to the temples, palaces, and the vast number of houses on the banks of the river. The stream sweeps around the place like a crescent, presenting one of the finest views you ever saw, with the ornamented fronts of dwellings, public offices, and a forest of towers, pinnacles, and turrets. To the Hindus it is the most sacred city known to them.

"When I was a boy I came here for the first time, brought by my father on account of the religious character of the place, if I may call anything idolatrous by such a name. But the city, when you get into it, will disappoint you. It is like Constantinople, very beautiful to look at from the Bosporus, or the Golden Horn; but its dirty, narrow streets disgust you. I am afraid this will be your experience in Benares. You will be obliged to forego the luxury of carriages in making your tours through the place, for the streets are so narrow and crowded that it is impossible to get along with a vehicle. An elephant is equally impracticable, and even in a palanquin your progress would be so slow that you would lose all your stock of patience."

"The city must be 'done' by walking, must it?" asked the commander.

"Whew!" whistled Dr. Hawkes; and the sibilation was repeated by Uncle Moses, for each of them weighed over two hundred and a quarter.

"If the ship were here I would lend you the barge with eight rowers, to enable you to see the sights from the river," suggested Captain Ringgold.

"A steam-launch shall be provided for all the company, and our obese friends shall be provided with stuffed chairs, for the survey of the river scenes; but carriages can be used in some parts of the city, though what you will desire to see can best be observed from the river; and we can land when you wish to see interiors," added Lord Tremlyn.

This interruption was heartily applauded by the Cupids, as the fat gentlemen had been called in Cairo, a.s.sisted by all the others.

"The famous Monkey Temple is just out of the city, and that can be reached by carriages," continued Sir Modava. "There are fourteen hundred and fifty Hindu temples, paG.o.das, and shrines, and two hundred and seventy-two Mohammedan mosques, so that our good friend, General Noury, need not neglect his devotions."

"The good Mussulman never does that, whether there be a mosque at hand or not, for he says his prayers at the proper time, wherever he may be,"

replied the general.