The Sun.
London, England, 1825-02-11 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY ESCAPE.

Thursday last, James Lestar, the youngest Qt.
the three lads who were lately apprehended for robbing a
chant's shop in Sanquhar,. effected his escape from the 1311`,,,
well attached to the gaol here, in a manner that rivals the e"
ploits of the famous Baron Trenk. First, he burst open ."4
main force the door of his night or :sleeping cell, anal hanis
thus found access to one of the day rooms, he squeeze(' $
body through the iron bars of a grating scarcely four an ed
half inches wide, and decended head or feet foremost--Ttthig
or covered, into the chapel, or central part of the huilte%
—a height of about 12 or 13 feet. As silence was a ne'vt
sary part of his plan, he took especial care to alight on a blan
which he had previously dropped into the area below, and
net
ascending the pulpit stair, he attached the blanket to a slerl,ll,
cord used for pulling down the window—lowered the sat'hi
climbed to the top, tossed the cord and its appendage to
outside, and partly by trusting to the slender support the 04.
afibrded him, and partly by pressing his knees against the s'ilP,o
landed on a stair-case two goodly stories beneath. Still lie loft
within the " the four walls" of the prison, and his next eslyo
was to ascend the stair that leads to the street, and which of
strongly secured by two doors, the one of iron and the other t,
wood, driven fall of ponderous nails. The first is surrunlino
ed by a revolving chevaux de frile, and here again hems" 0
excellent use of his blanket, by wrapping it round the le
ugly-looking machine, in such a manner as to sheath its sln die
and impede its motion. This done, he vaulted nimbly t°.seil
top, and by some means, which we cannot ,comprehend• p°i,he
himself upon an axle of rusty spears, which seems liable t°
put in motion by the weight of a feather. But still 10 Pcsi,"st
was incomplete. Above the lintel of the outer door, an the
die
least four and a half feet higher than the iron guardl c.v
inner one (even counting perpendicularly,) a row of P'
are inserted in the wall, in a slanting direction, and °n top
these it was necessary to seize before be could reach the ad
of a parapet, still several feet overheard. But he, w11°,1,-er
done so much, was willing and able to essay more ; stl°' of
spring and the pike was seized—another pull and exertio%o
the muscles, and he was fairly on the summit of the Pr''es
wall,..from which the descent, though 11 or 12 feet, is by tn,e7-die
of a lamp-post comparatively easy. And all this lie acconllni;lo
ed. The pike he hung by is strongly bent, while the wall otee",:
side bears strong marks of the pressure of his feet and la I,v,
and, indeed, the wonder is, that he was not impaled on the fi`ive
vanz-de;frise,oz: dashed to pieces on the granite stair below-
have ourselves examined the whole scene of these exploits.
to,
we must say that every step of the lad's progress seemed
raculous-in the extreme.. .To all appearance, the bars of it,
Bridewell grating would do little more than admit a cat ; a 54 tile
ref can scarcely scale the, window above the pulpit, whiletiti
tiny. cord suspended from the top hardly seems fitted to sv; o
the weight of an ordinary infant.. Again, the scaling
iron door, the muffling of the iron pikes, with the power eVit'i
necessary to lift a lad of fifteen up a perpendicular heig",l4
fi,,e feet, imply so much danger and difficulty, that we wftis;
really have laughed in any man's face that would have Klue
a priori, that such things were possihle. As yet no trace °g
tis,
culprit has been found, though a reward is offered by the i"
gistrates for his apprehension.—(Duetfries Courier. )