27. Queen Leaves Jhansi

Towers of the fort offerred panorama of a pathetic city. Houses were on fire. Cattle roamed the streets, crying out for water and feed. Hundreds of corpses were strewn around. 

At dusk, the Queen ordered that fort gates be opened; those who wanted to escape into the city, could go. I and uncle too left, and reached Mandavgane's place.

Around midnight, the Queen left the fort  with 1,500 troops. They ran into the English, and sword-fight started. Hundreds were killed, the Queen lost 400. The Queen rode a white horse. She was dressed in a men's attire and wore an armour of mesh and carried a sword under her arm. The 12-year-old adopted son was strapped to the back. 

As she passed along, the English chased after. The Queen broke through their ranks and galloped away. Most of the troops with her perished in the fight, she was left with only a handful of men and her maid (who too rode a horse). They set our for Kalpi. The English horsemen went after them a mile out, but turned around as nothing could be seen in the darkness of the night. 

The Queen reached Kalpi by the next nightfall. When she woke up in the morning, she had her period, which made her (momentarily) untouchable. What a condition she found herself in! Words fail me. She hadn't had a meal for three days. Apart from the sari and blouse she had on, she had no other feminine clothes. She had no money. No wonder she was in tears; those who saw her wept uncontrollably. 

26. Massacre of Jhansi

The English entered the city, and started shooting all the men at sight. Halwai Pura was set on fire; the killings began. The men between the ages of five and eighty began to be smoked out and killed. Some warriors of the Queen army returned downtown, found barber and shaved off beards, whiskers, etc, to take on non-soldier like guise. Those who could not find a barber, shaved themselves. Some disguised themselves as monks. Thousands of Englishmen entered the city from all directions and killed left, right and centre. The chaos could not be imagined. Bhide family kept a small park in central Jhansi. Around 20,000 men and women gathered there. When the English soldiers arrived to kill, those inside lay prostrate before them, and pleaded: we are subjects/civilians. There is no warrior among us, spare our lives. The English took pity on them, and left after putting guard at the entrance to the compound.

The invaders went from house to house. Men in the house would be beaten up, tortured, until they revealed the hidden money. If anything was found, the men would be spared. But then another gang of Englishmen would land, and killed the men of the house upon not finding anything to loot.

But the English didn't kill the women. Yet, some ladies from good families thought the enemy would convert/rape them: they jumped into backyard wells and killed themselves. In some houses women stood between their husbands and the barrel of enemy's gun; and were shot. The men, nevertheless, would be shot after the wife fell dead.

However, the English didn't kill women intentionally. Keeping a distance, they would ask the ladies to remove jewellery, and would ransack the house.  Walls would be tapped with sticks; sometimes a part would be broken, to find a hidden pitcher of money. Floors too were dug up.

Thirsty animals -- horses, elephants, camels, dogs -- roamed the streets, crying out.

  

25. The Breach

On the night of the eleventh day of the battle, a shell fell on a fully-grown elephant which was tethered at the front entrance. It singed his back. Some shells hit the menagerie, which housed some exotic birds, mynas, peacocks, other animals. The poor beasts cried out and cried out: all of them perished. It was a  disaster.

On the morning of the 12th day,  the English army had its men stack up countless piles of water-soaked hay against the southern city-wall. Using them as stairs, thousands of  English troops climbed the wall. Those guarding the southern side panicked, and fled. English now had no obstruction.

The Queen heard this, and descended from the fort at the head of a force of a thousand-and-half long-serving Muslim/Arab soldiers. Soon, they came face to face with the English.

A hand-to-hand battle broke out, blades flashed. The only right simile would be Mahabharatian war. The English lost heart, and ran off eastwards. They entered some houses, and started shooting at the Queen's Muslim force. The Muslims had no means of returning the fire. An old general, a septuagenarian, went to the Queen and said to her holding her hand: Your highness, if you were to advance, a bullet will kill you. There is no glory in dying a whore's death. The English are sheltering behind house walls. Let's return to the fort and lock ourselves in,  let the God then guide us on future course of action.