Page:Singular life, adventures, and depredations of David Haggart, the murderer.pdf/16

16 of the prisoners informing the jailor of his designs.

Next day the whole of the prisoners were called out into the court-yard, and in a few minutes John Richardson from Dumfries made his appearance, and began his examination. He passed him once, but upon a second look over he recognized him, and said, Davie, do you ken me; Haggart turned to the jailor, and in a master piece of Irish brogue, said, What does the man say? Don't you know him, was the answer; he said he did not; but John persisted that he did. On the second day he was put in irons, and conducted by John and an Irish Officer to Dumfries. They were three days and three nights on the road, and he experienced great kindness from the officers. On their approach to Dumfries, thousands of people met them with torches in their hands. From Dumfries he was conveyed to Edinburgh jail, and placed under the care of Captain Sibbald, who, he said, was the kindest jailor in the world. He was tried on the 11th of June, and the jury gave in a verdict of guilty. When the judge was passing the, he said he grew dizzy and gasped for breath. He was carried back jail, where he behaved in the most penitent manner, and wrote a history of his life for the benefit of his father, from which this narrative is a faithful extract.