led all
the circumstances he had witnessed, by which it appeared unquestionable
that Kitty Lowry had been aware of Flanagan's design, and was
consequently one of his accomplices. This in one sense was true, whilst
in another and the worst they did her injustice. It is true that Bartle
Flanagan pretended affection for her, and contrived on many occasions
within the preceding five months, that several secret meetings should
take place between them, and almost always upon a Sunday, which was
the only day she had any opportunity of seeing him. He had no notion,
however, of entrusting her with his secret. In fact, no man could
possibly lay his plans with deeper design or more ingenious precaution
for his own safety than Flanagan. Having gained a promise from the
credulous girl to elope with him on the night in question, he easily
induced her to leave the hall door open. His exploit, however, having
turned out so different in its issue from that which Kitty expected,
she felt both chagrined and confounded, and knew not at first whether to
ascribe the abduction of Biddy Nulty to mistake or design; for, indeed,
she was not ignorant of Flanagan's treacherous conduct to the sex--no
female having ever repulsed him, whose character he did not injure
whenever he could do so with safety. Biddy's return, however, satisfied
her that Bartle must have made a blunder of some kind, or he would not
have taken away her fellow-servant instead of herself; and it was the
bitterness which weak minds always feel when their own wishes happen to
be disappointed, that prompted her resentment against poor Biddy, who
was unconsciously its object. Flanagan's primary intention was still,
however, in some degree, effected, so far as it regarded the abduction.
The short space of an hour gave him time to cool and collect himself
sufficiently to form the best mode of action under the circumstances.
He resolved, therefore, to plead mistake, and to produce Kitty Lowry
to prove that his visit that night to the Bodagh's house was merely to
fulfil their mutual promise of eloping together.

But there was the robbery staring him in the face; and how was he to
manage that? This, indeed, was the point on which the accomplished
villain felt by the sinking of his heart that he had overshot his mark.
When he looked closely into it, his whole frame became cold and feeble
from despair, the hard paleness of mental suffering settled upon his
face, and his brain was stunned