"Let me home this minnit, you villin," she continued; "now that you find yourself on the wrong scent--boys, don't hould me, nor back that ruffin in his villany."

"Hould her like h.e.l.l," said Bartle, "an' tie her up wanst more; we'll gag you, too, my lady--ay, will we. Take away your name--I'll take care you'll carry shame upon your face from this night to the hour of your death. Characther indeed!--ho, by the cra.s.s I'll lave you that little of that will go far wid you."

"May be not," replied Biddy; "the same G.o.d that disappointed you in hangin' Connor O'Donovan--"

"d.a.m.n you," said he, "take that;" and as he spoke he struck the poor girl a heavy blow in the cheek, which cut her deeply, and for a short time rendered her speechless.

"Bartle," said more than one of them, "that's unmanly, an' it's conthrary to the regulations.'

"To perdition wid the regulations! Hasn't the vagabone drawn a pint of blood from my nose already?--look at that!" he exclaimed, throwing away a handful of the warm gore "h.e.l.l seize her! look at that--Ho be the--"

He made another onset at the yet unconscious girl as he spoke, and would have still inflicted further punishment upon her, were it not that he was prevented.

"Stop," said several of them, "if you wor over us fifty times you won't lay another finger on her; that's wanst for all, so be quiet."

"Are yez threatenin' me?" he asked, furiously, but in an instant he changed his tone--"Boys dear," continued the wily but unmanly villain--"boys dear, can you blame me? disappointed as I am by this--by this--_ha anhien na sthreepa_--I'll----" but again he checked himself, and at length burst out into a bitter fit of weeping. "Look at' this,"

he proceeded, throwing away another handful of blood, "I've lost a quart of it by her."

"Be the hand af my body," said one of them in a whisper, "he's like every coward, it's at his own blood he's cryin'; be the vartue of my oath, that man's not the thing to depind on."

"Is she tied an' gagged?" he then inquired.

"She is," replied those who tied her. "It was very asy done, Bartle, afther the blow you hot her."

"It wasn't altogether out of ill--will I hot her aither," he replied, "although, boys dear, you know how she vexed me, but you see, the thruth is, she'd a' given us a great dale o' throuble in gettin' her quiet."

"An' you tuck the right way to do that," they replied ironically; and they added, "Bartle Flanagan, you may thank the oaths we tuck, or be the cra.s.s, a single man of us wouldn't a.s.sist you in this consarn, afther your cowardly behaver to this poor girl. Takin' away the Bodagh's daughter was another thing; you had betther let the girl go home."

Biddy had now recovered, and heard this suggestion with joy, for the poor girl began to entertain serious apprehensions of Flanagan's revenge and violence, if left alone with him; she could not speak, however, and those who bore her, quickened their pace at his desire, as much as they could.

"No," said Bartle, artfully, "I'll keep her prisoner anyhow for this night. I had once a notion of marryin' her--an' may be--as I am disappointed in the other--but we'll think of it. Now we're at the horses and we'll get an faster."

This was indeed true.

After the journey we have just described, they at length got out of the boreen, where, in the corner of a field, a little to the right, two horses, each saddled, were tied to the branch of a tree. They now made a slight delay until their charge should be got mounted, and were collected in a group on the road, when a voice called out, "Who goes there?"

"A friend to the guard."

"Good morrow!"

"Good morrow mornin' to you!"

"What Age are you in?"

"The end of the fifth."

"All right," said Bartle, aloud; "now, boys," he whispered to his own party, "we must tell them good-humoredly to pa.s.s on--that this is a runaway--jist a girl we're bringin' aff wid us, an' to hould a hard cheek (*To keep it secret) about it. You know we'd do as much for them."

Both parties now met, the strangers consisting of about twenty men.

"Well, boys," said the latter, "what's the fun?"

"Devil a thing but a girl we're helpin' a boy to take away. What's your own sport?"

"Begorra, we wor in luck to-night; we got as party a double-barrelled gun as ever you seen, an' a case of murdherin' fine--pistols."

"Success, ould heart! that's right; we'll be able to stand a tug whin the 'Day' comes."

"Which of you is takin' away the girl, boys?" inquired one of the strangers.

"Begad, Bartle Flanagan, since there's no use in hidin' it, when we're all as we ought to be."

"Bartle Flanagan!" said a voice--"Bartle Flanagan, is it? An' who's the girl?"

"Blur an' agres, Alick Nulty, don't be too curious, she comes from Bodagh Buie's."

Biddy, on hearing the voice of her brother, made another violent effort, and succeeded in partially working the gag out of her mouth--she screamed faintly, and struggled with such energy that her hands again became loose, and in an instant the gag was wholly I removed.

"Oh Alick, Alick, for the love o' G.o.d save me from Flanagan! it's me, your sisther Biddy, that's in it; save me, Alick, or I'll be lost; he has cut me to the bone wid a blow, an' the blood's pourin' from me."

Her brother flew to her. "Whisht, Biddy, don't be afeard!" he exclaimed.

"Boys," said he, "let my party stand by me; this is the way Bartle Flanagan keeps his oath!" (* One of the clauses of the Ribbon oath was, not to injure or maltreat the wife or sister of a brother Ribbonman.)

"Secure Bartle," said Biddy. "He robbed Bodagh Buie's house, an' has the money about him."

The horses were already on the road, but, in consequence of both parties filling up the pa.s.sage in the direction which Bartle and nis followers intended taking, the animals could not be brought through them without delay and trouble, even had there been no resistance offered to their progress.

"A robber too!" exclaimed Nulty, "that's more of his parjury to'ards uz.

Bartle Flanagan, you're a thraitor, and you'll get a thraitor's death afore you're much oulder. He's not fit to be among us," added Alick, addressing himself to both parties, "an' the truth is, if we don't hang or settle him, he'll some day hang us."

"Bartle's no thraitor," said Mulvather, "but he's a thraitor that says he is."

The coming reply was interrupted by "Boys, good night to yez;" and immediately the clatter of a horse's feet was heard stumbling and floundering back along the deep stony boreen. "Be the vestment he's aff," said one of his party; "the cowardly villin's aff wid himself the minit he seen the approach of danger."

"Sure enough, the bad dhrop's in him," exclaimed several on both sides.

"But what the h--l does he mane now, I dunna?"

"It'll be only a good joke to-morrow wid him," observed one of them--"but, boys, we must think how to manage him; I can't forgive him for the cowardly blow he hot the poor colleen here, an' for the same rason I didn't dhraw the knot so tight upon her as I could a' done."

"Was it you that nipped my arm?" asked Biddy.

"Faix, you may say that, an' it was to let you know that, let him say as he would, after what we seen of him to-night, we wouldn't allow him to thrate you badly without marryin' you first."

The night having been now pretty far advanced, the two parties separated in order to go to their respective homes--Alick taking Biddy under his protection to her master's. As the way of many belonging to each lodge lay in the same direction, they were accompanied, of course, to the turn that led up to the Bodagh's house. Biddy, notwithstanding the severe blow she had got, related the night's adventure with much humor, dwelling upon her own part in the transaction with singular glee.

"There's some thraicherous villin in the Bodagh's," said she, "be it man or woman; for what 'id you think but the hall-door was left lying to only--neither locked nor boulted. But, indeed, anyhow, it's the start was taken out o' me whin Ned M'Cormick--that _you_ wor to meet in our kitchen, Alick--throth, I won't let _Kitty Lowry_ wait up for _you_ so long another time." She added this to throw the onus of the a.s.signation off her own shoulders, and to lay it upon those of Alick and Kitty.

"But, anyhow, I had just time to throw her clothes upon me and get into her bed. Be me sowl, but I acted the fright an' sickness in style. I wasn't able to spake a word, you persave, till we got far enough from the house to give Miss Oona time to hide herself. Oh, thin, the robbin'

villin how he put the muzzle of his gun to the lock of Miss Oona's desk, when he couldn't get the key, an' blewn it to pieces, an' thin he took every fardin' he could lay his hands upon."