The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-05-28
A PERILOUS FLIGHT.
Trials of Two British officers Who E


Trials of Two British officers Who Es-
capped from Pretoria.
The correspondent of the London
Times, writing from Lourenzo Marquee
on April g. gives the following account
of the escape from Pretoria of Captain
Haldane of the Gordon Highlanders and
Lieutenant LIE Mesurier of the Royal
Dublin Fusiliers. The narrative is Civ
en- in the words of the first of these two
officers:
The place in which we We're hidden
was about two feet six inches in height
and extended the full length and
" breadth of the room overhead. There
was no light except the faintest glim-
mer, which came through the ventila-
tor under the veranda. So damp was
the atmosphere that our boots grew
quite mouldy in single night; and the
floor consisted of nothing but hard
earth. We had provided ourselves with
sufficient food and water to last only a
few days, and we had to be very eco
nomical in the consumption of these
After we had been underneath the floor
for few days we heard those in the
room above us say-and you can mag
of removing the officers had been ADAMS
doned by the authorities Some time
previous to our disappearance we had
explored the ground underneath the
building and had made several attempts
to dig our way out into the street but
invariably struck water at about five
feet. AS soon as the news of the nom
removal of our brother officers reached
us we decided upon digging a shallower
tunnel into the hospital next door, prop
ping up the sides and roof of the eXca-
walton with timber. With the aid of
screw driver, a bayonet and a skeWer,
found in the building, we had made
some progress in the very hard soil,
when on Thursday, March Is, to our
intense delight we heard some one call
out that all the officers were to be re-
moved at nine o'clock the following
morning.
Words fail to describe our feelings on
this announcement reaching our ears.
For eighteen days and nights we lay in
that terrible dungeon without washing,
unable to sit or stand up, compelled to
creep about on hands and knees and to
subsist on very short rations. On the
departure of the officers next day the
room above us was thronged with peo-
pie, who INDUCED in considerable mer-
riment On our emerging into the fresh
air once more, about seven p. M, we
discovered that the cause of this merri-
ment was the numerous clever carlca-
lures Of President Kruger which tai
ented young officer had drawn upon the
walls. So weak were we from our pro-
longed confinement and the constrained
attitudes we had to maintain that on
regaining a certain measure of freedom
LIE Mesurier could not stand and l had !
very great difficulty for some minutes
in walking Cautiously, with our boots
In our hands, we crept out of the room
and found the building deserted; we
then climbed through a broken plate
glass panel in the back door and man
aged to scramble over the ratings into |
the street.
Our rough, unkempt appearance, seen
in the light of a bright full moon, was |
well calculated to attract attention even !
in Pretoria, and as we made our way !
out of the town one of the several spe-
cial policemen we passed stopped ana |
scrutinzed us with evident suspicion.
Thanks, however, to the fact that one
of us, as a ruse carried his arm IN a
white sling he concluded that we were !
burghers home from the front, and per-
mitted us to pass without making an |
application of force necessary. After |
proceeding some distance we got to the |
level crossing over the Delagoa Bay line |
and were buoyed up by the hope that
we might be able to jump on the night |
mail train But no trains came our