Page:Life of David Haggart who was executed at Edinburgh, 18th July, 1821, for the murder of the Dumfries jailor.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 Richard-onRichardson [sic] 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