मेरा आजीवन कारावास / माझी जन्मठेप (स्वातंत्र्यवीर सावरकर - काले पानी का ऐतिहासिक संस्मरण)

Over and above the improvised agencies for getting news of which we have
written in the foregoing pages, suddenly we got the news from the authorities themselves.
Mr. Barrie himself would blurt it out to us. Others also brought it to us occasionally out
of absent-mindedness or because they were overcome with fits of sympathy for us. Mr.
Barrie's news was ever bad news—a curse more than a blessing. Whatever to the
detriment of India, whatever was damaging to our cause and was bound to fill our hearts
with despair or told us about the weakness and disintegration of our past flowed freely
from his lips, and he took pains to come over and communicate it gleefully to us. He told
it to us and listened to our comments upon it, which he carefully noted in his diary and
journal. Even then we were not slow to thank him for whatever he gave us. For a man,
worth the name, always likes to hear news unfavourable to one whom he loves, as he
loves heartily to hear great, good tidings about him or her. News that is good news brings
satisfaction to his soul while bad news makes him ready, body and soul, to run to the
rescue of his beloved person. It nerves his arms and fortifies his soul to fight for and save
the person from the impending calamity. We shall have occasion as we go on to hear
more about this matter. But as a sample of Mr. Barrie's behaviour with us I give the
following incident. When Mr. Gokhale, the great patriot of India, had died, Mr. Barrie
rushed up to me and said, "Well, Sir, you always want news, Mr. Savarkar; here is
something for you, Gokhale is dead!"

Gokhale dead!

He brought this sad and tragic news to me in the evening when I had set down for
my meal. The news was so sudden and so unexpected that I could not believe it for a
moment. I burst into tears, whereupon Mr. Barrie said, "But was he not against you?”
I uttered, "By no means; I have learnt in a College of which he was the head. We had
differences but we were not enemies. He was one of the best products of our age, and
an undaunted patriot and a sincere servant of India." On this Mr. Barrie went on, "What
then of the evidence in your trial of a conspiracy against him? And what of his
observation that until you were caught and punished there will be no peace in India?" I
answered promptly, "Do not, please, believe in such hear-say reports. It is no use. We
had intimate talks with each other and we cherished deep affection and reverence for
each other. And this can be borne out by those who were present on the occasion. My
way of doing things may not approve itself to him from his own standpoint of service of
the country. But that does not detract from his sterling patriotism, and as for
revolutionary and secret societies I may say that when he attacked them in a speech or
two in England and when some of the members of the Abhinava Bharat Mandal, at a
secret meeting, spoke of finishing him off, I stood up and censured them severely for
even a thought of doing harm to his body. I condemned it as a reprehensible act to attack
any one for honest difference of opinion, and much less a man who was our own in blood
and race and whose service to the country was unimpeachable. This would be downright
heinous act and an unpardonable sin, and saw that the resolution, that they had put down
was thrown out by the meeting. My friends themselves will bear me out in what I am
telling you today. If every Indian were as patriotic and as dedicated to the service of India