The Princeton union., 1892-05-26

her friends, placed in a chaise or on
horseback and carried away, with or
without her consent.
The most notable because the most
tragic case of abduction which occurred
under the auspices of the club was that
OF the Kennedy sisters. Katherine and
Annie Kennedy were the daughters Of
Richard Kennedy of Rathmeadeu
manor, in the county Waterford, a
wealthy squire OF Scotch decent. He
had been dead for some years and the
sisters lived with their mother in the
old manor house of Rathmeaden. form
erly an appanage of the Strange family.
Barons OF Dunkett Their wealth at
tracted some members of the abduction
club, AMI their names were drawn in
the usual lottery. They fell to the
share OF Gen. Byrne, grandson of Sir
Gregory Byrne, Bart, and James
Strange, of Willard, decendent of the
family which formerly owned the
Kennedy estates.
Young men of great popularity, dis
slpated, spirited and well born, whose
dispositions, however, differed widely.
Strange, of irritable, impetuous
and tyrannical temperament.
eternally brooded over the treatment
OF his ancestors. Byrne, on the con-
trary, was amiable and careless, a.
general favorite with women. He had
attached himself to Catherine Ken
nedy, while Strange had fixed his re-
CARDS on Annie. In the ordinary round
OF country fashion they had casually
met at fox hunts, races, balls and the
like.
At this time Annie was but sixteen
and her sister only fifteen years of age.
They were both very lovely young
women, but Annie was by far the more
beautiful.
On April IA, 1779, the girls accom-
panied their mother and some friends
to country house near Kilkenny to
take part in a private theatrical per-
tormance. During the play a mes
senger informed them that Strange and
Byrne had formed plan to carry
them off that night, and that hundreds
of armed farmers and peasants were
surrounding the house for that pur-
pose. In great alarm the girls fed to
a distant part of the mansion, and
party of gentlemen bolted and barri-
caded the doors. An hour later the
abducting party discovered their place
OF concealment, overpowered the owner
OF the house and his sons, who stood
with drawn swords before the door,
and rushed into the apartment.
The girls were conveyed into the
court yard, where a large bonfire had
been kindled, by the light of which
they could see about 200 men, armed
with muslzets and pixies, and wearing
white shirts over their clothes. Two
horses were ready saddled. Anne, was
forced to mount before Strange, while
her sister was placed on Byrne's sad
die, and in this way, surrounded by a
desperate body of men, they were car
ried into the open country.
To allay their terror. Strange pro-
posed to send for other females who
would accompany them. The proposal
was joyfully accepted, but the women
who joined them proved to be tenants
and servants of the Strange family,
prepared to promote the object of the
abductors.
They rode all night, surrounded by
an armed guard, until they reached a
village called, Kil-ma-hane, when a
man purporting to be clergyman was
introduced. All the way the girls had
been solicited to marry their abduc-
tors, and finally, through the medium
OF threats, a consent was extorted from
them. A short form of ceremony was
read, and the girls were told that they
had been married. Next day the Jour
ney was continued to the residence of a
clergyman of another denomination,
who again married the couples, thus
in the opinion of the abductors, making
the knot doubly secure.
For five whole weeks they were
paraded night and day, accompanied
by their lawless cavalcade, and resting
at houses belonging to members of the
abduction club, until they reached the
small fishing village of Rush, near
Dublin. Here vessel was in readi-
ness, and the party embarked with the
intention Of sailing to France, where
Strange had influential relatives.
Storms drove the ship into the port of
Wexford, and here Byrne and Strange
yentured ashore for carousal, leaving
their wives in charge of a few men,
While they were absent company of
the local yeomanry boarded the vessel
and rescued the harassed young women.
Strange and Byrne were hurried to