class arsenal, and the home of the dethroned dynasty. Here Bahádur Sháh — faded image of the great Mughal — still lived, a splendid pensioner, impotent for everything but sensuality, intrigue and crime. Half a century before, when Lord Wellesley and Lake were shattering the confederacy of Maráthá States, the English had rescued his ancestor — a blind, helpless old man — from the oppression of the Maráthás and control of the French, Lord Wellesley, with much respectful language, had reduced him to a puppet, consoled him with a good pension and splendid ceremonial for the loss of all real power, and, repenting of his original intention, allowed him to continue to reside at Delhi. Here, though with ever diminishing prestige, the heir of the House of Timúr lived on in quasi-royal state. The unwisdom of the arrangement had been recognised and denounced by Lord Dalhousie. 'Here,' he said, 'we have a strong fortress in the heart of one of the principal cities of our Empire, and in entire command of the chief magazine of the Upper Provinces. It lies so exposed both to assault and to the dangers arising from the carelessness of the people living around it, that it is a matter for surprise that no accident has occurred to it.' The only effectual remedy was, the Governor-General observed, to transfer the stores into the Palace, 'which would then be kept by us as a British post, capable of maintaining itself against any hostile manoeuvre, instead of being, as it is now, the source of positive danger, and, perhaps,
