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

THE CONFLAGRATION
We give below two extracts, both from English writers,
so that the reader might judge for himself the difference
between Indian and English vengeance.
In the prisons at Lucknow, there were several English
women and officers. For six months, their lives were
spared. But when the English army entered the city at
the first onslaught of Sir Colin, massacring all—innocent
and guilty alike, the angered Revolutionaries went to the
palace and wanted to take vengeance on some of the Eng-
lish prisoners. Accordingly, Lieutenant Orr, Sir Mount
Stuart, and five or six other Englishmen were given over
and they were immediately shot down. But when they
insisted that the English women-prisoners also should be
killed, "to the honour of womanhood, the demand was
imperatively refused by the Begum so far as the females
were concerned, and they were immediately taken under
her care in the Zenana of the palace."$^{13}$
We give below, for comparison and contrast, one or two
examples of the vengeance of the English. These have
been given by Russell himself, the famous correspondent
of the London Times. "While the massacre was going
on in the palace, a frightened child was leading an old
man. The old man came before the English authorities
and, prostrating himself before them, asked that their lives
should be spared. As if in answer to this wailing request,
the English officer took out his pistol and shot him on
the temple! Again, he pressed the trigger but the shot
missed. He pressed again but the shot again refused to
kill the innocent boy. The fourth time—thrice he had
time to repent—the gallant officer succeeded and the boy's
life-blood flowed at his feet!"$^{14}$
This incident has come out, because there was someone
13. Charles Ball's Indian Mutiny, Vol. II, page 94.
14. Russell's Diary, page 384.
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