Oh, Madge, darlin', but I'm the lonely and heartbroken man widout you this night!" "Come, come," said the priest, "have firmness, poor man; other people have these calamities to bear as well as yourself.

Be a man." "Oh, are you a priest, sir?
bekase if you are I want consolation if ever a sorrowful man did." "I am a priest," replied the unsuspecting I man, "and any thing I can do to calm your mind, I'll do it." He had scarcely uttered these words when! Reilly felt his two arms strongly pinioned, and as the men who had seized him were | powerful, the struggle between him and them was dreadful.

The poor priest at the same moment found himself also a prisoner in the hands of the bereaved widower, to whom he proved an easy victim, as he was incapable of making resistance, which, indeed, he declined to attempt.

If he did not possess bodily strength, however, he was not without presence of mind.

For whilst Reilly and his captors were engaged in a fierce and powerful conflict, he placed his fore-finger and thumb in his mouth, from which proceeded a whistle so piercingly loud and shrill that it awoke the midnight echoes around them.
[Illustration: PAGE 65--Dashed up to the scene of struggle] This was considered by the dragoons as a signal from their friends in advance, and, without the loss of a moment, they set spurs to their horses, and dashed up to the scene of struggle, just as Reilly had got his right arm extricated, and knocked one of his captors down.