From the Secunder Bagh we proceed to the fantastic pile of buildings which the French adventurer, Claude Martin, erected as a residence for himself. Martin was a native of the city of Lyons, and served under Lally in the regiment of Loraine. After Chandernagore was taken by Clive he entered the service of the East India Company, and rose to the rank of Captain. He then entered the service of the Nawab of Oude, but was allowed by the Company to retain his rank and enjoy promotion. The Marquis of Hastings, who, when Governor-General, visited Lucknow (October, 1814), writes : " The house, built in the English style, stands upon a gentle elevation with some extent of lawn about it. On returning to Constantia I had the opportunity of considering that mansion. It was erected by General Martyn, a native of Lyons in France, who came to India as a private soldier. Having got into the service of Asoph-oo-Dowlah, he distinguished himself by his talents so as to obtain rapid promotion ; but his strict accuracy to punctuality in all pecuniary concerns was more beneficial to him. His character in that respect became so established that the natives who had amassed money and dreaded the rapacious gripe of the sovereign, entrusted their riches to the care of General Martyn. Such amplitude of funds enabled him to take advantage of many favourable opportunities, and to make many advantageous speculations, so that he gathered extraordinary wealth. He expended some of it in erecting this house on a plan entirely his own. The idea of it was probably taken from those castles of pastry which used to adorn desserts in former days. The mansion consisted of three stories gradu ally diminishing in the size of the square, so as to leave to the two upper stories a broad space between the apartments and the parapet which covered the wall of the story below it. This
was for the purpose of defence, with a view to which the building was constructed. The doors of the principal floor were plated with iron, and each window was protected by an iron grate. Loopholes from passages above gave the means of firing in perfect security upon any persons who should force their way into these lower apartments. The spiral stone staircases were blocked at intervals with iron doors ; in short, the whole was framed for protracted and desperate resistance. The parapets and pin nacles were decorated with a profusion of plaster lions, Grecian gods, and Chinese figures, forming the most whimsical assemblage imaginable. Still, the magnitude of the building, with its cupolas and spires, gave it a certain magnificence." Leaving the Martiniere, there is yet one spot sacred to Englishmen to be visited before quitting Lucknow. It is the tomb of Havelock. A lofty obelisk marks his resting place : " On the low plain by the Alum Bagh," wrote a gallant soldier, " they made his humble grave ; and Campbell and Outram, and Inglis, and many a stout soldier who had followed him in all his headlong march, and through the long fatal street, were gathered there to perform the last rites to one of England's noblest dead. As long as the memory of great deeds, and high courage, and spotless self-devotion is cherished amongst his countrymen, so long will Havelock's lonely tomb in the grove beneath the scorching Eastern sky, hard by the vast city, the scene alike of his toil, his triumph and his death, be regarded as one of the most holy of the many holy spots where her patriot soldiers lie."