They took her away!

A woman is being abducted by two figures, probably two men, whose faces we cannot see as they are wearing tunics that also cover their heads. One of them is holding her around the waist while the female figure puts her arm behind her neck to show resistance. The other grabs her legs at the ankles and restrains her. The woman's head is thrown back and her expression is one of suffering.

This is taking place at night, as can be seen from the dark sky achieved through the use of aquatint. The painter has left some lighter areas such as the central part of the woman's clothes and the heads of the two figures who are abducting her, on which the artist intends the viewer's attention to be focused.

In Ayala's manuscript it is said of this engraving that "the woman does not know how to keep, she belongs to the first one who catches her". In the Museo Nacional del Prado's manuscript it is stated that "the woman does not know how to keep, she belongs to the first one who catches her, and when she is beyond help they admire the fact that she has been taken away". Quite different, however, is the explanation given in the manuscript of the Biblioteca Nacional, which states that "an ecclesiastic who has an illicit love, looks for a scoundrel who helps him in the abduction of his beloved".

It is possible that this image has several meanings and that it refers to the love affairs that some members of the Church had despite their vow of chastity. But it is probably also a warning to women to look after their own dignity and not to put themselves in the hands of just anyone.

As in other engravings in this series and in some of the prints in The Disasters of War, Goya has depicted hooded figures completely covered and with their faces hidden, reminiscent of some of the figures in the paintings of Salvator Rosa (Naples, 1615-Rome, 1673).

The hooded figures and the depiction of the violence with which the women are treated represent a clear attempt by the Aragonese painter to approximate fear. In this image, Goya has investigated the sensations of the human being that are sometimes beyond the control of reason.