Page:Anandamath, The Abbey of Bliss - Chatterjee.djvu/77

Rh place with a posse of sepoys. Without the slightest hesitation he put his hand on Satyananda's neck and cried out : "This rogue is a sannyasi," Another caught Mahendra at the same time ; for, in sooth, as his associate he must also be a sannyasi himself. Another again was making for Kalyani's body which was stretched on the grass; but he found that it was the corpse of a female and might not be a sannyasi for aught he knew — and left her. He left the child too, thinking likewise. Without another word they then bound up the two and prepared to carry them away, — Kalyani's body and her daughter lay there under a tree without any body to take care of them. Mahendra was first stupefied with grief and only half- conscious in his ecstasy. He could not quite under- stand what was going on and did not object to being tied up. But as he went a few steps, he suddenly real- ised that they had been taken prisoners. No sooner did the thought strike him that Kalyani's body lav- there uncremated, that his child was left behind uncared for, and that they might now be eaten up by beasts of prey, than he threw asunder his hands and the knot was snapped at a pull. Kicking the Jamadar down to the ground in an instant he threw himself upon a sepoy. The other three sepoys then rushed on him and worsted and imprisoned him again. Weighed down with sorrow, he said to Satyananda : "If you had but helped me a bit we could have killed all the five miscreants."