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

TEMPORARY PACIFICATION
So, he had to give up the design and re-enter the jungle.
It seemed now evident that Tatia could not hold out for
more than a week at the most and must eventually sur-
render. So the Revolutionary leaders began to discuss
whether it was now necessary to give up the struggle.
The place was not a jungle but a veritable cage into which
the Mahratta tiger had been driven from all sides. Not
only were English armies ready on every side, but they
were narrowing the cordon every moment. Still Tatia
would not think of giving up the fight. He and Rao
Sahib one day marched out in the direction of Pratapgarh.
It was now about four in the afternoon. Tatia's army
had scarcely come out of the jungle when Major Rocke
came up and blocked his way. Not that Tatia did not
know that this part of the cage was also barred. But he
took his choice and thought that this bar was the least
strong of all, and so the tiger at once made an attempt
to rush out there. Tatia's men marched straight on
Major Rocke's troops and silenced them after a sudden
onslaught. And thus the cage was broken through once
again. The English commandants had to hang down
their heads in shame !
On the 25th of December, 1858, Tatia left the Vasvara
jungle. About the same time, Feroze Shah, the illustri-
ous hero whose work in Oudh has been described in a
previous chapter, was coming with his army to meet
Tatia.⁵ This Prince Mirza Feroze Shah was a worthy
5. "One of the great results that have flowed from the re-
bellion of 1857-1858 has been to make inhabitants of every part
of India acquainted with each other. We have seen the tide of
war rolling from Nepal to the borders of Gujarat, from the deserts
of Rajputana to the frontiers of the Nizam's territories, the same
men overrunning the whole land of India and giving to their resist-
ance, as it were, a national character. The paltry interests of
isolated states, the ignorance which men of one petty principality
have laboured under in considering the habits and customs of other
principalities—all this has disappeared to make way for a more
uniform appreciation of public events throughout India. We may
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