Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/277

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ISVAR CHANDRA VIDYASAGAR.

apathetic about the occurrence, and is engaged in sports; what sort of a man is he?' At this, one of his subordinates came forward and cautioned him, that he was not an ordinary, vulgar man, that the Deputy Magistrate of Jehanabad paid him visits and showed him due respect, and that he had an intimate friendship with the Governors. The Daroga was now greatly terrified. He was a coward. Cowards are apt to show courage, where there is no fear of danger, but they have no true courage and are always afraid to approach a bold man. As soon as he heard that Vidyasagar was a great man, connected with most influential bodies, all his arrogance and wrath vanished in an instant. He precipitated his retreat, and soon left the field of action.

When he returned to Calcutta, after the vacation, Vdiyasagar had an interview with Halliday, the then Deputy Governor of Bengal. In course of conversation, he introduced the story of the robbery. The Governor accused him of his cowardice in leaving the house to the robbers and flying for life with his family. In reply Vidyasagar said to the following effect:—'Your Honour may now accuse me of cowardice. But supposing, I had faced the numerous armed robbers single-handed, I was sure to give my life. In that case, your Honour would have been the first to say, what a fool Vidyasagar was to meet rashly so many robbers and sacrifice his life for the sake of trifles. Now that I have