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

THE CONFLAGRATION
While the British camp was busy in planning assaults, the
people of Delhi were busy in actually carrying them out.
All of them cannot be described here for want of space.
Yet, the sortie of the 9th of July and again that of the
14th of July, and the doggedness with which the Revolu-
tionaries fought, and the bravery with which the English
and the revolutionaries fought are too important and
inspiring to be omitted without any remark. On the first
day, the English cavalry was actually routed and driven
back. The English artillery was silenced. A brave Sepoy
threw Hill and his horse down on the ground. Hill, re-
covering himself, drew his sword, while three Sepoys
jumped upon him. Hill tried to shoot twice and twice
he missed, while one of the Sepoys succeeded in snatching
away his sword. They closed in hand-to-hand fight ; they
struggled ; down they came. Hill was lying on the ground
and the Sepoy was standing with one foot planted on
Hill's breast and with sword drawn in his hand. Major
Tombs saw this from a distance of nearly thirty feet ; he
aimed and shot at the Sepoy and killed him. Major
Tombs raised Hill from the ground and began to move
him off, but saw, to his utter dismay, that yet another
Sepoy had picked up the pistol of Hill and was coming
towards him. The Sepoy, single-handed, fought with two
or three Englishmen, wounded one with the sword, killed
the second, and was himself struck down by the sword of
a third. Tombs and Hill, both of them got the " Victoria
Medal " for this brave encounter, and Sir John Kaye says
that the brave Sepoy, too, ought to have got the " Baha-
dur Shah Medal " ! How many must have deserved the
Bahadur Shah Medal for their brave martyrdom in that
War of Independence! But this, too, is equally true, that
those that are so brave and so self-sacrificing get, if not the
Bahadur Shah medal, yet the nobler one, the Duty medal
of Martyrdom, even from the hands of Death himself !
On this day, the English soldiers were disgracefully routed!
But unable to avenge this on the Revolutionaries, these
brave people went back to their camp and wreaked their
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