Page:Life of David Haggart, who was executed at Edinburgh, 18th July, 1821, for the murder of the Dumfries jailor (1).pdf/11

11 taken before he ran ten yards, and Haggart had the mortification to see his fellow adventurer secured; he once thought of bolting among them to rescue him, but the mob was too great for him; he went up through the yard of the King’s Arms without meeting any body, crossed the High Street, and ran down the vennel to the Nith. He kept along the waterside till he got away to the east of Cumlungan wood, having run nearly ten miles in less than an hour. He then got on the high road to Annan, when he saw a post-chaise at full gallop almost within twenty yards of him. Upon this he buttoned his coat, and leapt a hedge into a field where some people were raising potatoes. They all joined the policemen, who had got out of the chaise in pursuit of him; he crossed the field at a slapping pace, and made for Cumlungan wood; he bolted over a very deep ditch covered with briers, and ran a few steps along the side of the hedge to make the police-men think he was going into the wood; he then wheeled round, louted, and when they went up the one side of the ditch he ran dawn the other: little did they know he was so near them, he could have breathed upon John Richardson as he passed him. In this way he came to the cross road which leads from