Diwan-i-Amm, or the common hall of audience. This is
a large hall, the roof of which is supported upon four colonnades of
pillars of red sandstone, now white-washed, but once covered with
stucco work and gilded. On one of these pillars is shown the mark of
the dagger of a Hindoo prince of Chitor, who, in the presence of the
Emperor, stabbed to the heart one of the Muhammadan ministers who
made use of some disrespectful language towards him. On being asked
how he presumed to do this in the presence of his sovereign he
answered in the very words almost of Roderic Dhu,

I right my wrongs where they are given,
Though it were in the court of Heaven.[22]

The throne projects into the hall from the back in front of the large
central arch; it is raised ten feet above the floor, and is about ten
feet wide, and covered by a marble canopy, all beautifully inlaid
with mosaic work exquisitely finished, but now much dilapidated. The
room or recess in which the throne stands is open to the front, and
about fifteen feet wide and six deep. There is a door at the back by
which the Emperor entered from his private apartments, and one on his
left, from which his prime minister or chief officer of state
approached the throne by a flight of steps leading into the hall. In
front of the throne, and raised some three feet above the floor, is a
fine large slab of white marble, on which one of the secretaries
stood during the hours of audience to hand up to the throne any
petitions that were presented, and to receive and convey commands. As
the people approached over the intervening one hundred and twenty
yards between the gateway and the hall of audience they were made to
bow down lower and lower to the figure of the Emperor, as he sat upon
his throne, without deigning to show by any motion of limb or muscle
that he was really made of flesh and blood, and not cut out of the
marble he sat upon.

The marble walls on three sides of this recess are inlaid with
precious stones representing some of the most beautiful birds and
flowers of India, according to the boundaries of the country when
Shah Jahan built this palace, which included Kabul and Kashmir,
afterwards severed from it on the invasion of Nadir Shah.[23]

On the upper part of the back wall is represented, in the same
precious stones, and in a graceful attitude, a European in a kind of
Spanish costume, playing upon his guitar, and in the character of
Orpheus charming the birds a