24. Shell in the Mirror Palace

Tatya Tope and Raosaheb arrived on the south-east side of the city on the tenth day, and started bombarding the English. Tope fought at his hardest. Hand-to-hand fight started. It was accompanied by the racket of war-drums and pipes. Our forces were about to win the battle, but the fate intervened: the wind changed its direction and

the smoke (of guns) started blowing into Peshwa's army. The English advanced, with their guns. Their cavalry boldly charged, without fear of life. Peshwa's men panicked and took to heels. Tope and others too abandoned the guns and fled the battle field. The English returned to their camp triumphant the next morning. 

The English launched an all-out assault. The townsmen had spent the previous night sleepless. When the battle entered the eleventh day, spies brought news that the enemy is running out of ammunition, it won't last a day longer. The Queen, armed with sword, standing on the rampart, handed rewards to the gunners. She herself lighted the cannon-fuses sometimes. 

The English guns targeted the residential quarters in the fort. On the second-floor of the royal palace, there was a hall with a permanent decoration; for Ganesh, and for nav-ratr. It was a mirror hall, really: walls and the ceiling were lined with Lucknow-made mirrors. Also, there were chandeliers. A shell fell on the roof, smashed through the roof  and came down to explode with a big noise. Shrapnel flew around, four men died. Not a mirror was left un-shattered.  

However, though the shells fell on the roof, they did not damage the palace. Only, they burned through the ceilings in between to hit the lower floors. So the roof and the  ceilings became sieve-like.

But the shells kept coming, and we the inmates were scared.  Everybody gathered in a room which was felt to be safer. Sixty-four persons stood there in that small room; including the slave-maids. We sweated, due to the summer heat, and due to the fear for life. There wasn't room enough to breath. After a few hours, Queen's gunners hit the English position, and shut down their guns. Thus the fortune kept swinging.

That night, I prayed to Lord Vaijnath, our village deity. When I dropped off for a bit. I had a dream: We, a mass of some 200 men, were crossing the river. When in the middle, suddenly water gushed down, and we almost drowned.  Then a wrestler-like, fair complexioned  load-carrier, standing in the mid-current, said to us: Fear not, I have come to save you. Give me your hands, I would take you to the bank.

Then a gun boomed, and I woke up. I told the uncle about the dream. He said/we understood, that we would survive.  

23. Catcher of Shells

On the fifth day of the battle, British artillery shut down a gun on the western face of the fort. Their shells demolished the gun-platform too. It was necessary to rebuild it.  After the midnight, some masons were brought.  One of them lay down flat on the tower, so as not to be sighted by British gunners. A human assembly line was formed from the foot of the tower, to pass bricks, etc, up. They rebuilt the platform and put the gun back. This gun started shelling the enemy's position, and shut down two English guns.

The English barrage upon the fort peaked on the seventh day.  They targeted Shankar Fort at day-break.  The English have binoculars, one can see the whole fort through them, and whereabouts of men working inside. They cost a couple of thousand rupees, or more. Through one such binocular, the enemy saw that there was only one source of water in the fort. They started shelling it. Four Brahmin water-carriers died. There was a gun-powder factory inside the fort, at Tamarind ground. A shell fell there, and the gunpowder caught fire. There was smoke everywhere, even in the palace down below. Nothing could be seen. When the smoke cleared, it was found that some thirty men and seven-eight women had died of burns. Another forty were injured.

There was no water for bath in the fort that day. Queen's gunners then swung the guns to aim at British position, and shut down a couple of enemy's guns. Thus, reverses and triumphs continued.

The battle became too intense on the eighth day. At night, it was as if the skies had opened up; enemy's guns spewed red balls of fire over the city. People left the houses to save themselves.  On the morrow, the Queen was verily worried. Jhansi forces needed help from outside badly, Raosaheb Peshwa's troops were yet to arrive.

She consulted Dhekre, the priest, and Pandit Upasni, and had a hundred Brahmins perform anushthan at  Ganesh temple , so that Raosaheb may reach quickly.  While the anushthan  went on, the Queen dozed off awhile at night. In her dream, she saw a beautiful married woman, fair, with a straight nose and broad forehead, bejeweled, wearing a red sari and white silk blouse, standing on the ramparts. She was catching the shells with bare hands. While at it, she spoke to the Queen, showing her hands which were blackened by ash, "But for me, who would catch these shells?"