Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/365

 IV.] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 329 Lahana, of his grand-mother, and of every other person and object associated with his dear home, and tears which he could not check, streamed down his cheeks. On the scaffold he clasped his Prays to f | Chandi. hands, and cried ‘‘Chandi, Chandi, O divine mother! look at your child! O Chandi, I would by your grace find out my father,—I am now going to be taken away from both my parents.’ He collected himself in a moment,—the growing emotions were checked, and he named all the names of Chandi, beginning with each of the 34 characters of the Bengali Alphabet, and offered hymns to the goddess. There, like a statue, he sat and looked like a yogi, though a mere lad. In his distress the boy attained the resigned spirit of an old man, and God being both father and mother to us, comes to man when he is thus re- signed; when we know that we are mere tools in the divine hand, and that He is the main actor on this stage, and knowing so cling unto Him as a helpless child does tothe mother, then the divine grace becomes unfailing. Chandi appeared on the scaffold. The divine cCpanai mother took Crimanta in her arms and the execu- না tioner was overawed by her presence. Information Army. was sent to king Calivahana that a mysterious woman was protecting Crimanta, and the king ordered that the boy should be taken from her by force, if necessary, and executed without delay. But the men who tried to apply force, were killed on the spot. Others were sent to their succour. They also shared the same fate, and a vast army, belonging to the king, came to the 42