We soon passed the suburbs of the city, and held on our way towards the Durgah. I was not without hope that we might fall in with Azima on the road; but in this I was disappointed. As we passed over the brow of an eminence, the tombs of the kings of Golconda broke on our sight, occupying the whole of a rising ground in front. I had never before seen them, indeed I knew not of their existence, and they were the more striking on this account. I was astonished at their size and magnificence even from that distance; but how much more so when we approached them nearer! We had plenty of time before us, and I proposed, if the Durgah should not be much further, to diverge from the road and examine them. I rode up to the driver of the cart, and asked him how far we were from the place of our destination. "You cannot see the Durgah yet," said the man, "but it is just behind the tombs, on the border of a large tank; you cannot miss it; you will see its white dome and gilt spire above the tamarind trees which surround it." "Very good," said I; "do you go on thither, and if you are asked any questions, say that you belong to a party which is coming out from the city. We shall go to the tombs, and will join you shortly." The driver kept to the road, and we, diverging from it, directed our way to the mausoleums of the departed kings. As we approached them, their immense size, and the beautiful groups which they assumed as our point of view shifted, struck forcibly on the mind, while the desolation around them added to their solemn appearance. "What a pity," said Peer Khan, who accompanied me, "that the good people of the city do not make gardens about these proud buildings! the spot seems to be utterly neglected, even as a burying-ground." "They are better as they are," said I; "the dust of the present miserable generation would hardly mix with that of so noble a one as that which has left such a monument of its glory. Ay," continued I, as we entered the first immense tomb, "these were kings and princes who lie here; men who won their kingdoms at the sword's point, and kept them,--how different to the present degenerate race, who are indebted for the bread they eat to the generosity of the Feringhees!"