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

THE CONFLAGRATION
thrown to the skies the screams of brown women and
children at Fatehpur, so, the Pandays threw the screams
and the corpses of white women and children into the deep
down! The account between the two races, extending
over a hundred years, was thus being settled !² Even the
Bay of Bengal might, in ages, be filled up ; but the yawn-
ing well of Cawnpore—never !
About the same time, Havelock was pushing forward after
defeating the army sent by Nana Sahib at Pandu nadi.
Commander Bala Sahib Peshwa, brother of Nana Sahib,
was hit by a bullet in the shoulder, in a skirmish, and
returned to Cawnpore. Nana Sahib called together a
council of war to settle the future plan of campaign. The
question was discussed whether Cawnpore should be eva-
cuated without fight or a strong resistance should be offer-
ed to the English advance ; and, at last, after a long
discussion, the latter alternative was decided upon. On
the 10th July, the English army came near Cawnpore.
The news of the Cawnpore well had not reached them.
Though Wheeler's fort was gone, they had a strong inten-
tion of rescuing Bibigarh. With this desire, they did not
rest a moment in spite of fatigue, sun, and strife. When
the turrets of Cawnpore came into view, Havelock was
inspired all the more by these hopes. He sent reconnoitr-
ing parties to spy the army of the Pandays. That army
was so splendidly arranged on the field that the English
warrior who had spent all his life on the battlefield per-
ceived that there were some men, among the Revolutiona-
2. "The refinements of cruelty—the unutterable shame—with
which, in some chronicles of the day, this hideous massacre was
attended, were but fictions of an excited imagination, too readily
believed without inquiry, and circulated without thought. None
was mutilated, none were dishonoured...... This is stated, in the
most unqualified manner, by the official functionaries, who made
the most diligent enquiries into all the circumstances of the massacres
in June and in July."—Kaye and Malleson's Indian Mutiny, Vol.
II, page 281.
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