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

THE FIGHT IN DELHI
for the assault. It was all settled who should gather,
where the gathering should take place, and when and how
the different divisions should start under the cover of night,
who should command the right and who the left. All
these and many other details of the attack were settled
and fixed and, now at two o'clock in the morning, the
English army began to debouch itself on the parade
ground which was fixed as the secret rendezvous. When
it is certain that to-morrow's night will give us the chance
of sleeping in the royal palace itself, who is so foolish
as to grudge, to-night, a few hours' loss of sleep? Un-
likely, indeed, but unfortunately true ! For it happened
that, at the proper hour, some parts of the army were
found missing. Brigadier Graves thinks it rashness to
begin the assault on Delhi in this fashion and it is even
suggested by many others that such a scheme would be
fatal to the British power itself all over India. Therefore,
the dreams of the quick success and straight attacks,
indulged in by the British army, had to be realised that
night not in the palace of Delhi but on the camp-
beds alone.
The next morning, Wilberforce Greathead again drew up
a scheme for the future attack and sent it to the com-
mander, Barnard, for reconsideration of the same. Gene-
ral Barnard, though a famous warrior known much in the
Crimean campaigns, yet had been suspected of a very
halting and hesitating mind. He called a council of war,
on the 14th of June, to consult his chief officers on the
subject of the assault. Even after the bold and eloquent
advocacy by Greathead of a straight assault, the other
officers could not feel confident of its success, and they
urged further that even assuming that the assault would
result in success, still, it would be as much waste of energy
and prestige as an actual defeat. The straight assault
might carry Delhi—yet, how to hold it? How many
English soldiers were likely to survive the constant can-
nonade of the Revolutionaries from street to street and
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