Page:Life of David Haggart, who was executed at Edinburgh, 18th July, 1821, for the murder of the Dumfries jailor (2).pdf/14

 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 20 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 police-men, 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 down 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 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 in-