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

CAWNPORE AND JHANSI
as certain and to burst forth on a day when the enemy
thinks there is no chance whatever of trouble, is one of
the chief means of carrying a Revolution to success.
Therefore, even in Cawnpore, on the day of the Id festival,
there was not the slightest disorder. The English were so
much frightened that morning that Sir Wheeler telegraph-
ed to Lucknow, "There will be a rising to-day inevitably"!
But when, on the evening of the festival, the Mahomedans
paid and received visits as usual, Sir Wheeler was re-
assured. On the day of the birth of Queen Victoria, the
usual salute of guns was not fired in the apprehension that
the Sepoys would be unnecessarily disturbed by the noise!
Some English officers were heartily grieved that, on the
birth-day of Victoria, a salute dared not be fired in her
honour; but what could the poor fellows do? If we look
at the place erected by the English as a refuge in case of
a rising, as has been said before, we shall at once under-
stand how helpless the condition of the English had
become! Someone would purposely set up a rumour that
the Sepoys had risen, as in the story of the wolf and the
shepherd-boy, and caravans of the English would begin
to run through the streets with all possible speed! An
English officer writes: "Whilst I was there, buggies,
palkies, gharries and vehicles of all sorts drove up and
discharged cargoes of writers, tradesmen, ladies, women
suckling infants, ayahs and children—and officers, too!—
In short, if any insurrection took or takes place, we shall
have no one to thank but ourselves, because we have shown
to the natives how very easily we can be frightened, and
when frightened, utterly helpless!" The cowardice exhi-
bited in this conduct of the English, as this officer says,
was thoroughly understood by the populace. When the
entrenched place was being erected, had not Azimullah
said the same to a Lieutenant in a jocular vein? Azimullah
Khan, in his usual sweet voice, asked the lieutenant, "Well,
Sahib, what are you going to call this new building which
you are constructing here?" The lieutenant replied,
"Really, I have not yet thought about it." The smart
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