Agra in the Mutiny.

Agra did not take any prominent part in the events of the Mutiny. A
mob plundered the city, burnt the public offices, and killed a number
of Europeans; but the rioters left soon to join their comrades at
Delhi. There was a small engagement outside the city. The British
troops and the whole of the European population were afterwards shut
up in the Fort until the capture of Delhi. The Lieutenant-Governor,
Mr. John Russell Colvin, died there, and was buried in front of
the Dîwan-i-âm.



The Fort

The present Fort was commenced by Akbar in 1566, on the site
of an older one constructed by Salîm Shah Sur, the son of Shere
Shah. Its vast walls (seventy feet in height, and a mile and a half
in circuit), its turrets, and noble gateways present from the outside
a most imposing appearance. It contains within its walls that most
exquisite of mosques, the Mûti Masjid, and the palaces of Akbar and
Shah Jahan. The principal or north entrance is the Delhi Gate, nearly
opposite to the railway station and the Jâmi Masjid. Formerly there
was a walled enclosure in front of this gate, called the Tripulia,
or Three Gates, which was used as a market. This was cleared away by
the military authorities in 1875. Crossing the drawbridge over the
moat which surrounds the Fort, the visitor passes the outer gate,
and by a paved incline reaches the Hathi Pol, or Elephant Gate
(Plate III.), so called from the two stone elephants, with riders,
which formerly stood outside the gate, on the highest of the platforms