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

THE CONFLAGRATION
So, Colonel Dames set out from Azimgarh resolving to
revenge himself on Kumar Singh on the 28th of March.
He thought he had his revenge, for he was victorious over
Kumar Singh ; but it was only to find the old game re-
peated again, perhaps better than before. The fresh
soldiers with their fresh commander got such a sound
beating that Colonel Dames ran from the field right to
Azimgarh and took refuge within the fortifications of the
city. No one now even spoke of attacking Kumar afresh.
Kumar now entered Azimgarh and leaving the work of
annihilating the few Englishmen in the fortifications to a
few of his followers—and to famine—he pushed on trium-
phant to Benares !
The governor-general who, as we have said before, was
now at Allahabad, was filled with terror, now that the lion
had opened wide his jaws. “ Knowing what sort of a man
Kumar Singh was, that he possessed audacity and courage,
and that he knew the value of time in military operations,
Lord Canning realised at once the danger of the situa-
tion.”² He who had just imprisoned the English forces
at Azimgarh and, having marched with wonderful rapi-
dity the eighty-one miles of the way, had threatened to
cut off Allahabad from Calcutta by attacking the city of
Benares, he—the Rana Kumar Singh, reinforced as he
now was by the Sepoys flying away after the defeat at
Lucknow and knowing full well the art of keeping together
and in discipline even such demoralised forces as he had,
was not to be lightly treated by Lord Canning. It was
owing to the firm grip on the cities of Allahabad and
Benares which the English could maintain through the
loyalty of the Sikhs in the first part of the mutiny, that
the rebellion was nipped in the bud in the provinces round
Calcutta ; and when it seemed the design of Kumar Singh
to catch again the lost opportunity by dashing on Benares
and Allahabad, Lord Canning ordered Lord Mark Kerr
2. Malleson’s Indian Mutiny, Vol. IV, page 321.
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