A PILGRIMAGE FOP. PEACE
you will have done your duty. Ten to one, killing you.
unarmed and unresisting will assuage the assailant's lust
and he will leave his victim unmolested. But it has been
said to me that tyrants do not act as we want or expect
them to. Finding you unresisting he may tie you to a
post and make you witness the rape of the victim. If you
have the will you will so exert yourself that you will
break the bonds or break yourself in the attempt. In
either case, you will open the eyes of the wrong-doer.
Your armed resistance could do no more, while if you
were worsted, the position would likely be much worse
than if you died unresisting. There is also the chance of
the intended victim copying your calm courage and im-
molating herself rather than allowing herself to be
dishonoured."
It was probably for the first time that anybody had
spoken to them in that strain and dared to present to
them the gospel of non-violence in its completeness. The
very fact that Gandhiji found it possible to do so consti-
tutes a new era in the history of the Pathan race. As
one watched these rough soldiers listening to Gandhiji's
strange message of peace under the watchful eye of their
chief, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, one could not help
recalling to oneself the immortal lines of the poet describ-
ing " stout Cortez " and his men that looked at each other
£t with mild surmise, silent, upon a peak in Darien."
" Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken,
Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific, and all his men
Looked at each other with a mild surmise,
Silent, upon a peak in Darien."