Page:Anandamath, The Abbey of Bliss - Chatterjee.djvu/180

154 " Do one thing ; you keep a few of them with you. From the courage and tact which you have shown in the fight, I am sure, nothing would be impossible for you. You may keep the enemy engaged with this small force, and, under the cover of your force, I may take the rest across the river. Those who stay with you are sure to die. Those who come with me may be saved. 1 ' ft Very well, I shall do so." So saying Bhavananda again charged the English artillery with two thousand soldiers with great energy, lustily shouting, " Hail, Mother." A fierce fight raged there, but the small army of Children could not stand long before the artillery. The gunners mowed them down like ripe crop. In the meantime Jivananda, with the rest of the Children turned slightly to the left and rounding the wood marched on to the bridge. Lieutenant Watson, an assistant of Thomas, saw from a distance that a body of Children were slowly retiring. He therefore quickly followed them with a company of Foujdari sepoys and a company of Pergunnah sepoys. Captain Thomas saw this. Seeing that the main body of Children were flying away, he said to an officer named Captain Hay : " With two or three hundred sepoys I shall slay these rebels here, you just follow them there with the guns and the rest of the force. Lieutenant Watson goes by the right, you attack them from the left ; but the access to the bridge must be blocked first ; when that is done we can surround them on three sides and kill them like birds in a net.