lanagan did, when he found his prize safe, was to tie
a handkerchief about her mouth that she might not scream, and to secure
her hands together by the wrists. Indeed, the first of these precautions
seemed to be scarcely necessary, for what with the terror occasioned by
such unexpected and frightful violence, and the extreme delicacy of her
health, it was evident that she could not utter even a shriek. Yet, did
she, on the other hand, lapse into fits of such spasmodic violence as,
wrought up as she was by the horror of her situation, called forth all
her physical energies, and literally give her the strength of three
women.

"Well, well," observed one of the fellows, who had assisted in holding
her down during these wild fits, "you may talk of jinteel people, but
be the piper o' Moses, that same sick daughter of the Bodagh's is the
hardiest sprout I've laid my hands on this month o' Sundays."

"May be you'd make as hard a battle yourself," replied he to whom he
spoke, "if you wor forced to a thing you hate as much as she hates
Bartle."

"May be so," rejoined the other, with an incredulous shrug, that seemed
to say he was by no means satisfied by the reasoning of his companion.

Bartle now addressed his charge with a hope of reconciling her, if
possible, to the fate of becoming united to him.

"Don't be at all alarmed, Miss Oona, for indeed you may take my word for
it, that I'll make as good and as lovin' a husband as ever had a purty
wife. It's two or three years since I fell in consate wid you, an' I
needn't tell you, darlin', how happy I'm now, that you're mine. I have
two horses waitin' for us at the end of this vile road, an', plase
Providence, we'll ride onwards a bit, to a friend's house o' mine, where
I've a priest ready to tie the knot; an' to-morrow, if you're willin',
we'll start for America; but if you don't like that, we'll live together
till you'll be willin' enough, I hope, to go any where I wish. So take
heart, darlin', take heart. As for the money I made free wid out o' your
desk, it'll help to keep us comfortable; it was your own, you know, an'
who has a betther right to be at the spendin' of it?"

This, which was meant for consolation, utterly failed, or rather
aggravated the sufferings of the affrighted girl they bore, who once
more struggled with a power that resembled the intense muscular strength
of epilepsy, more than anything else. It literally required four of them
to hold her down, so dre