Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/276

Rh pleasure, everything they could lay their hands on. When they had departed with their booty, Vidyasagar sent information of the occurrence, that very night, to the neighbouring Police Station of Ghatal, his sub-district.

On the next morning, the Daroga of Police (a most notorious department of the Government of India even to the present day), arrayed in his best uniform, appeared on the scene. When he heard that there was no chance of blackmail there, he lost his temper, and began to display annoyance at matters most trivial. Vidyasagar's father, old Thakurdas, approached him, and said:—'As you are the son of a Kulin Brahman, I may give you something as a token of respect on that account, but I cannot pay you a single pice in this affair (meaning, the enquiry of the robbery).' With this, Thakurdas left him, and went out to make purchases of necessary plates and clothes. His eldest son (Vidyasagar), in company with his younger brothers and some youths of the village, engaged himself in athletic sports in front of his house. The Police Officer waxed wrathful at what seemed to him to be nothing short of insolence on the part of Vidyasagar. He thus expressed himself:—'How is it that the Brahman (meaning Thakurdas) is so bold as to declare openly before my presence, that he will not pay me a single pice; and how strange is it, that his unknown eldest son, (pointing to Isvar Chandra), 'that young fellow, is