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

THE ERUPTION
valuables, were rushing to the fort, only too happy to be
permitted to sleep under the fort guns. Horses, carriages,
palanquins, vehicles of every sort and kind were put into
requisition to convey panic-stricken fugitives out of the
reach of imaginary cut-throats. In the suburbs, almost
every house belonging to the Christian population was
abandoned. Half-a-dozen determined fanatics could have
burned down three parts of the town...."⁵
In the very capital of the English, merely at a bazaar
rumour, so much " peace and safety " began to reign.
Therefore, the Government prepared to destroy the
Barrackpore Sepoys and the Nabob of Oudh, who were
the cause of so much " peace and safety." They got, from
one amongst the Sepoys, the information that the Barrack-
pore Sepoys would rise on the night of the 14th. So, before
they could rise, they were brought before the English
artillery and disarmed. And, on the 15th of June, the
Nabob of Oudh and his minister were arrested for the
" safety of the realm," and their houses, including the
Zenana, were thoroughly searched. And, though nothing
of an incriminating nature was found, the Nabob and his
Vizier were incarcerated in the Calcutta fort. Thus, the
gradually accumulating powder-magazine of the city of
Calcutta itself was emptied, only just before the spark
fell on it.
The Vizier Ali Nakkhi Khan was the man who, residing
in a harmless garden-house at Calcutta, had set on foot
the Revolutionary secret organisation among the Sepoys
all over Bengal and had woven the terrible net in order
to re-establish his master on the throne of Oudh. When
he was imprisoned in the Calcutta fort, the Revolution
lost, as it were, its head. While in the fort, he once spoke
plainly to the English who were cursing the Revolutionar-
ies : " The terrible Revolution created in India is in my
5. Red Pamphlet, page 105.
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