Page:Life of David Haggart, who was executed at Edinburgh, 18th July, 1821, for the murder of the Dumfries jailor (1).pdf/12

12 the Nith to the public road, and never did a fox double the hounds in better style.

He then made for Annan, and getting on a mile or two on the Carlisle road, he went into a belt of planting. Watching an opportunity, he dived into a hay stack, and lay there till next day at two o’clock in the afternoon, when he heard a woman ask a boy, if that lad was taken who had broke out of Dumfries jail; the boy answered no, but the jailor died last night. On hearing this, Haggart lay insensible for a good while; he left the stack, and seeing a scare crow in a field, he took some of the old clothes and put them on to disguise himself. On the Wednesday night he slept in a hay loft; in the morning two men were feeding their horses, and he overheard them speaking about him; he started for Carlisle, and then to Newcastle, where he stopped for some days, and along with one Fleming, picked L.22 in the market from a man; here he passed close to John Richardson who was in quest of him but was not noticed. He left Newcastle for Scotland, he got upon the Berwick Coach, and then took a ticket for Edinburgh, but only went to Dunbar in the Coach, remained in Dunbar, and set off for Edinburgh next morning; met with a gentleman, and took the same lodgings