Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/689

 ৮৯৩ VI. ] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 649 In the meantime some of the officers groped in the darkness of the subterranean passage, at- tempting to discover the residence of the arch- thief whose daring and ingenuity was so great as to have outwitted the whole staff of guards. They were no longer afraid of the devil dwelling in the cell, nor of snakes, since they had seen the thief entering Vidya’s apartments through it with his fine apparel, nothing soiled by the dirt of the cell. They had to go a long way before they saw the region of the sun and the moon, and it so happened that the first light they saw, discovered to their eyes a charming dxunglow which — was famuiar to them all, as forming part of the house of Hira the flower-woman. The faded beauty, whose face showed a strange combination of wrinkles and loveliness, was dragged out of her room and _be- laboured for giving shelter to a thief and helping him to dig a passage under the earth. Hira swore by all that was holy to her,—by her father’s name— by the name of Raja Vira Sinha and by the head of Sona Ray, the chief officer of the police, that all was a mystery to her and that she knew no- thing of such developments in her house and in the palace. Dhumaketu remarked :—‘‘ How could the thief have the knowledge of Vidya's apartments, if you did not draw a map for him, you old 1795 21 They bound her in chains and drove her like an animal to the palace. Raja Vira Sinha sat on his throne to pronounce his judgment on the daring thief who appeared to him to be a remarkable man, and whose per- formance sounded like a romance. Sundara was brought before him bound in chains; the courtiers 82 The flowere- woman in the trap.