१८५७ का स्वातन्त्र्य समर (वीर विनायक दामोदर सावरकर - अंग्रेजों द्वारा छपने से पूर्व प्रतिबन्धित महाग्रन्थ)

THE INTERLUDE AND THE PUNJAB
to attack the fort itself. It is necessary to record here that
English historians applaud the Gurkha regiment under
Seymour for conspicuous bravery in this battle. In
English eyes, the names of these Gurkhas have become
favoured and honoured, for this extraordinary eagerness
and unparalleled bravery in cutting the throats of their
mother's sons !
The English won the battle of Bundel-ki-Sarai with
the help of the Gurkhas, but the battle destroyed all the
fancies of their imagination ; for, it killed the vain hope
of the English soldiers that they would spend the night
in Delhi and spill the arch-enemy's blood. The unplea-
sant truth, that there were not only disorderly camp
followers in the Revolutionary army, but that here, on the
walls of Delhi, swords flashing with the fire of righteous-
ness were now unsheathed for the protection of Swa-
dharma and Swaraj, was forced upon the notice of
the English by this stubborn battle ! In this battle, the
English lost four officers and forty-seven men, besides one
hundred and thirty wounded. But the thing which spread
more sorrow and despair in the English army than all
these losses, was the death, in the thick of the battle, of
Adjutant-General Colonel Chester. It will be seen, later
on, how English historians surpass English novelists when
they give the losses of the Revolutionaries. But even in
this din of the first battle, it is necessary to say that, as
regards the number of cannon which the English captured
on that day, one gives thirteen, and the other says they
were exactly twenty-six ! We should also note that both
these were military officers present in the fight !
In this manner, on the evening of the 8th June, the
English army encamped outside the walls of Delhi. The
work of bringing the armies from Umballa and Meerut
safely to Delhi depended solely on the movements in the
Punjab. It is, therefore, here necessary to see what were
the effects of the Meerut rising in this important province,
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