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

THE FALL OF LUCKNOW
who would write about it. Many an other incident has
not come to light, because there was no pen to record
these. These atrocities were going on to such an extent
that distinctions were actually drawn up between a merci-
ful death and a cruel death ! A murder, such as the one
above, was a merciful death. The cruel death which ren-
dered even cold-blooded murder merciful meant something
like the following : “Some of the Sepoys were still alive
and they were mercifully killed ; but one of their number
was dragged out to the sandy plain outside the house ;
he was pulled by his legs to a convenient place, where he
was held down, pricked in the face and body by the
bayonets of some of the soldiery, while others collected fuel
for a small pyre ; and when everything was ready—the
man was roasted alive ! These were Englishmen, and
more than one officer saw it ; no one offered to interfere !
The horrors of this infernal cruelty were aggravated by
the attempt of the miserable wretch to escape when half-
burned to death. By a sudden effort he leaped away and,
with the flesh of his body hanging from his bones, ran
for a few yards ere he was caught, brought back, put on
the fire again, and held there by bayonets, till his remains
were consumed ! ” ¹⁵
* * *
Delhi has fallen. Lucknow, too, has fallen. But the War
of Independence did not flag. Seeing this unexpected
result, the English were convinced fully that they had
made a mistake in imagining that this Revolution was
caused by the Sepoys and only for one or two grievances.
This was no mutiny, it was a War of Independence ! One
or two grievances are not responsible for this rising, but
political slavery, the source of all the innumerable griev-
ances suffered—that alone was the cause. The selfish-
ness of personal gain lay not at its root, but the sacred
flame of liberty, the glorious ideal of Swaraj and Swa-
15. Russell’s Diary, page 302.
413