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

THE CONFLAGRATION
Lucknow. Lord Canning urged that, once the focus of
the operations of the Mutineers, namely Lucknow, was
destroyed, the smaller places would surrender easily. In
deference, therefore, to the orders of Lord Canning, Sir
Colin determined first to attend to Lucknow. As pre-
viously agreed, Seaton, Walpole, and the commander-in-
chief had brought together at Fatehgarh about ten or
eleven thousand troops. In all the strategic positions of
the Doab, small garrisons were stationed for keeping the
province in hand. The army was reinforced by a fresh
batch of troops sent from Agra. With their larger re-
inforcements, Sir Colin started from Fatehgarh. English
historians thus describe the magnitude of the English
forces at this time : “ Onao and Bunni deserts had pro-
bably never witnessed such big armies, engineers, artillery,
horses, infantry, carriages full of supplies, camp-followers,
tents big and small ; all arrangements were complete in
every particular. Seventeen battalions of infantry (of
which fifteen were English), twenty-eight squadrons of
cavalry (which included four European regiments), fifty-
four light guns, and eighty big guns were included ! ”
Thus, on the 23rd of February 1858, Sir Colin Campbell
left Cawnpore, and crossed the Ganges again with such
a splendidly equipped and large army in order to punish
Lucknow.
Oh Ganga, witness these strong English troops coming to
destroy Ayodhya ! And, O proud Ayodhya, are you at
least now going to humble yourself to the dust frightened
by these odds ?
Ayodhya must have felt that the crossing of the Ganges
by the English was to destroy her. She must have felt for
the reduction to dust of her villages and for the destruc-
tion of her temples and images by dynamite;⁴ but not so
much for all these things as for the fact that the Nepalese
Published by Asian Educational Services, New Delhi, 2014.
4. Russell's Diary, page 218.
396