Even the horse she had chosen for the hour of danger did not help. One thigh was numb. Blood was flowing from stomach. The sword cut inflicted by a British soldier who followed her speedily tore the right cheek. Her eye-ball was wrenched. Even then with her lefthand she cut off the arm of that solider.
Gul Mohamed ,who was the bodyguard of the Rani, could not bear his sorrow. He, a warrior who had fought bravely, began to weep.
Raghunath Simha and Ramachandra Rao Deshmukh helped the Rani to dismount from her horse. Raghunath Simha said: "There is not a moment to lose. We must quickly reach the house of Baba Gangadas nearby."
Ramachandra Rao put the weeping boy Damodar on a horse, took the Rani’s body on his lap and raced towards Saint Baba Gangadas’s house. Raghunath Simha and Gul Mohamed followed as bodyguards.
Even in darkness Baba Gangadas recognized the Rani’s blood-stained face. They washed the face with cold water. They poured water from the holy Ganga into her mouth. She recovered a little and with trembling lips muttered: "Hara Hara Mahadev.’ Thereafter she became unconscious.
A little later the Rani opened her eyes with difficulty. She was them muttering stanzas from the Bhagavad Gita which she had learnt by heart in her childhood. The voice grew feebler; her last words were, "Vasiudeva I bow to you." The fortune of Jhansi set.
Raghunath Simha, Gul Mohamed and Damodar Rao shed tears.
In a solemn voice, Baba Gangadas said: " Brightness has not end; it is hidden in every atom. It shines again at the proper time."
The incomparable Rani’s body disappeared in flames.
New Delhi Time
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