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

THE ERUPTION
his minister Azimullah Khan, came down to the banks
of the sacred Ganges. There stood Subahdar Tikka Singh
and the heads of the Secret Society awaiting him. The
whole company then got into a boat. They entered the
waters of the holy Ganges ; everyone there took an oath,
with the holy water of the Ganges in his hands, that he
would participate in the bloody war for his country's
liberty. Then followed a deliberation of two hours in
which the whole of the future programme was definitely
decided upon, and the company returned. Their secrets
were known to the sacred Ganges alone and in her hands
they were safe ! But this much is well known that, on
the following day, Shams-ud-din came to the house of
his beloved Azizan and told her that within two days the
Feringhis would be destroyed and India would be free !
Shams-ud-din did not give this news of freedom to her
as empty bravado ; for, the heart of this beauty yearned
as much for India's freedom as that of her brave lover.
Azizan was a dancing girl very much loved by the Sepoys;
she was not one, however, who sold her love for money
in the ordinary market, but in the field of freedom it was
given as a reward for the love of country. We will soon
show further on how a delightful smile from her beautiful
face encouraged fighting heroes and how a slight frown
from her dark eyebrows hastily sent back to the field
cowards who had come away.
While the plans of the Revolutionaries were thus ripening,
the terror in the English camp was beyond all description!
Sir Wheeler sighed with relief when he got reinforce-
ments from Lucknow and when the treasure and the
arsenal had been put under the charge of Nana Sahib.
But the English population had lost all courage. The
24th of May was the great Id festival of the Mahomedans.
The English in every town apprehended a rising on that
day. But the leaders in 1857 were not such fools as to
rise on such an easily marked day. To keep peace osten-
tatiously on a day when a rising is expected by the enemy
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