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

NANA SAHIB AND LAKSHMI BAI
Rupees) by his side keen and ready to leap forth from the
scabbard, and his body all aflame with anger and keen
desire to avenge the Swarajya and the Swadesh !
Ye, conflicting emotions, stop ! What a terrible tumult
is happening there ! The insolent message, the last, has
come to Nana from the English, that he has not a vestige
of claim to the pension of Baji Rao; nay, that he must
even give up the proprietary rights to Brahmavarta ; and
this, the Company further claimed, was justice ! Justice ?
Now the English need not take the trouble of giving a
definite reply whether it was justice or injustice ! Exten-
sive preparations are in progress and there, on the field
of Cawnpore, will be determined the issue of the question.
It is there that the question, whether it is justice or in-
justice to injure the heart of a Mahratta, will be fully
discussed. Decapitated, headless trunks, mutilated bodies,
flowing streams of blood—these will determine the issue.
Aye, and the vultures sitting on the parapets of the well
of Cawnpore will listen to this discussion and give a
definite answer to the issue raised, Justice or Injustice ?
While splendid preparations were being made for this
extraordinary ceremony at Nana's palace, his Chhabeli
sister was not sitting idle. Before her had come the same
question—Justice or Injustice ? When she adopted her
darling Damodar as her son, soon after the sudden death
of her husband in 1853, the English annexed Jhansi,
refusing to recognise the rights of adoption. But Jhansi
was not a state which could be annexed by mere word
or letter. Not the Banka of Nagpur, but the dear sister
Chhabeli of Nana—Ranee Lakshmi Bai was ruling there !
As if she cared a whit for this "annexation"! From her
proud heart, seeing this low and heartless cunning of the
English, pealed forth the thunders born of injured pride
and a sense of honour, and through these the lightning of
10. Dalhousie's Administration, Vol. II.
39