The Princeton union., 1892-05-26
NUMBER %.

have forgiven them were it not for a,
1eud between their uncles, the famous
! duelist Hayes, and Strange. Hayes in
duced them to make accusations
against Byrne and Strange before the
lord chief justice, and the two young
men were tried in Kilkenny on March
a, l7sO. The evidence of abduction
was overwhelming; they were found
guilty and condemned to death.
THE SENTENCE EXECUTED.
IL was supposed that the sentence
would not bes executed. The high
birth OF both men, their actual mar
rage to the girls, and the frequency
OF the act OF abduction created strong
feeling in their favor. Intercessions
OF powerful kinsmen poured in from
every side. Ministers at the court of
Vienna, grandees of Spain and France.
peers and generals implored their par
don. A petition signed by thirty lords
and l4O gentlemen of property were
sent to the judges asking for a mitiga-
tlon OF the sentence. But ATTORNEY
General Scott was relentless in his
prosecution. He declared that an ex-
ample must be made to check the
growth OF the abduction evil, and
called upon the government to carry
out the sentence. Pardon or reprieye
was refused, and the unfortunate men
were executed on the 4th day of May.
A rescue had been planned by the ab-
duction club, and four troops of cavalry.
with two regiments of foot, were
stationed around the Jail. To prevent
interference the execution took place
during the night. Strange and Byrne
met their fate without an apparent
tremor, and marched to the scaffold
with portraits of Anne and Katharine
Kennedy pinned upon their breasts.
Such was the extraordinary senti-
ment in their favor that for days after
their death the gentry, farmers and
peasantry of five counties wore mourn
ing; and when the girls appeared in
the streets of Dublin or Kilkenny they
were assailed by the mob, who followed
them with execrations through the
streets. The hatred of the people mar
red their subsequent life, and they
were entirely excluded from fashion
able society,",
An even more tragic catastrophe oc-
CURED about the same time in the
North of Ireland. John McNaghtan, a
graduate of Trinity college, Dublin,
and a young man of small property,
fell in love with the beautiful daughter
OF Mr.. Knox of Prehen, wealthy coun-
try squire. He induced Miss Knox to
go through an imitation of the mar.
riage ceremony with him, but this
marriage was set aside by the spiritual
court. Finally he became member
of the abduction club, and secured a
band of mercenaries. Hearing that
Miss Knox was about to make Journey
to Dublin with her father, he lay in
wait for the travellers at the head of
his swordsmen. When the Knox
coach, attended by few servants,
reached his ambush McNaghtan leaped
forth and attempted to drag Miss
Knox into the road. A struggle en-
sued, during which McNaghtan dis
charged his pistol at Mr.. Knox's head,
but killed the girl he loved instead.
Overcome with horror, he at once re-
linquished the fight and retreated, but
not before two shots had taken effect in
his body. The countryside was
aroused, and as the abduction club had
not so many friends in the north as in
south Ireland, Monaghan was soon
arrested, tried and executed.
These events did much to break the
spirit of the abduction club; but even
after the deaths of Strange, Byrne and
McNaghtan abductions continued to be
perpetrated in Ireland.
In ITO the club had been introduced
into England by a member of the
''mad'' Beresford family; but few peo-
pie of position joined it, and it soon
collapsed for want of funds. A like
attempt in Scotland met with ill suc-
cess, and it soon became apparent that
only in the disorganized elements of
Irish social life could so rank a weed
exist.
Even in Ireland, however, the days of
the club were numbered, because the
spread of revolutionary sentiment and
the operations of the United Irishmen
soon gave these restless younger sons
and adventurers something even more
dangerous to think about Thus the
fortunes of the abduction club rapidly
declined, and in 1902 it was formally
disbanded by its remaining twenty
nine members.
Very many of the marriages made
through it's efforts resulted happily,
the maidens carried off becoming re-
! ~. - a