Page:Anandamath, The Abbey of Bliss - Chatterjee.djvu/143

Rh Han." At this time the famous Warren Hastings, the rising sun of the British in India, was the Governor- General. Seated on his guadee at Calcutta, he was forging an iron chain by which he thought he would bind the whole of India. God from his heavenly throne, no doubt, said ; "Amen, but that day is distant yet." Now, at any rate, even Warren Hastings had to shudder at the grim halloos of the Children, He first tried to suppress the rebellion with the Foujdari sepoys. But they were so grossly demo- ralised that they would fly as soon as they would hear the name of Hart uttered even by an old woman. So Warren Hastings had to send a body of the Company's sepoys under an able officer, Captain Thomas, to put down the outbreak. On reaching the spot, Captain Thomas began to make active preparations for the suppression of the revolt He gathered together the State troops and the soldiery under the zemindars of Bengal and combined them with the well-equipped, well-trained and able-bodied soldiers, native and foreign, of the Company. He then divided the combined army into companies under capable officers and divided the infested country between them. Their orders were to sweep the part of the country under their charge as the fisherman drags a net and to kill the rebels like dogs. The Company's soldiers pulled up their spirits, some with hemp and others with rum, and with the bayonet on their guns marched off in quest of the Children. But the Children were innumerable