Escaping from the guard.
--A novel attempt was made yesterday morning by a member of the
Maryland company (N), attached to the
Reserve forces of
Richmond, to escape from arrest by the guard.
Mr. James Jeffries, one of the fire brigade, performing provost duty on the street, having been notified to arrest the aforesaid
Marylander as a deserter from his company, discovered him yesterday in the neighborhood of the post-office and took him into custody.
The captured deserter begged permission to get his breakfast before he was carried to prison, which was acceded to by
Mr. Jeffries, and the two proceeded to the dining-room of the
Spotswood Hotel for that purpose.
For a few minutes, while breakfast was preparing, the prisoner loitered around the room and about the windows, apparently as if to consume time till his meal was ready, and no suspicion of a meditated attempt to escape was entertained till, all at once, the fellow jumped through the trap in the floor down which the dumb-waiter passes, and rapidly descended two stories below by the rope attached thereto.
Coming to a shoulder,
Jeffries seized on to the same rope, and, squeezing his musket up to his breast, down he went also, alighting on his fleeing prisoner's head, which stunned him so severely as to prevent further flight.
He was afterwards more securely guarded and taken down to Castle Thunder.
Owing to the encumbrance of the musket,
Mr. Jeffries was unable to lower himself by the rope as carefully as he might have otherwise done, and therefore his hands were very much scraped and burnt; so much so, that some days will elapse before he can use them again.
