STRANGE ADVENTURE OF A SOLDIER.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XIII, Issue 546, 27 January 1868, Page 3

STRANGE ADVENTURE OF A SOLDIER.

(From tho Grantham Journal.) In the early part of last month, a soldier, named Jonathan Howard, belonging to the Military Train, stationed at Woolwich, conceived the extraordinary idea of start in'! for a run on the road, Jtla Dick Turnin and. ns will seen, he carried out his wp.llcot'difioned plans with wonderful clever" ness for a month. Being a servant of Lieutenant Crawford, of the Military Train, his peculiar duty was to look after his master’s horse and accoutrements,-and this, no doubt, offered him extraordinary facilities for obtaining a good horse and other requisites. It seems ho first of all presented himself at the military stables, and asked for his master’s horse. As he had a few papers in one hand, and his master’s sword in the other, it was thought be was duly authorised, so the animal, properly saddled and bridled, was handed over to him without question. The animal was a bay, seven years old, and worth about 50 guineas, being well made and in good condition for such a Quixotic adventure. After mounting, this hero of. a month took his way over Shooters’-hill before the trick had been discovered, and ere Police-constable Saunders of the R Woolwich division, had started in pursuit, the fugitive had made considerable way, and had time to have a glass of ale at the Elephant and Castle public house, Old-Kent-road. In a short time, however, Saunders, who had the disadvantage of being on foot with little money in his pocket, as he had followed up the chase lon first hearing of the affair, came on his track and got scent; hut so had the runaway, and to get out of the way of his pursuers he made off at once in the direction of Barnet fair, which was held at the time, arriving there in the middle of the day when all the fun and festivity was at its height. Here, however, he found it almost too hot for him : intelligence having been sent on ahead that he might bej expected there. Several were on the look-1 out for him; still, it it is said, he eluded I ■ their vigilance by riding coolly through! tli6 crowd Tvith. his drawn sword otc? his ; i shoulder as if on duty; and the police on i the look-out for him, not expecting to see I their man in that fashion let him pass, j thinking he was an orderly or perhaps also on the chase. As soon as possible, however, the fugitive clapped spurs to Jus horse, and in a short time a good many miles parted him and his pursuers, nor did he rein in till over forty miles had been run over. Constable Saunders arrived at Barnet fair the night of tho day his fox had got away ; but, nothing daunted, off he started again, thinking that by travelling all night be might steal a . march on the soldier, who would possibly put up somewhere, and so enable him to ■ fall upon him, safely earthed in the morn* . lug. Reynard was, however, too well up ! iu his business to be caught napping in’

[that way ; and for three days and nights Saunders kept on, foot-sore and wearied, upon the track—through towns and villages where a short time before it appeared Howard had ridden, not many hours in advance, in a very stately manner, with his drawn sword over his shoulder. As he had no money, it was for some time a puzzle to Saunders how Howard managed, but be found at one place that he had thej ready wit to get all that he wanted for himself and his horse, by representing Limseifj to be the scant courier of a detachment of the Military Train, who would shortly pass! through the place, and after ordering bil-i lets for the supposed detachment, he tooki care to got what he and his horse required,! telling the landlord to charge it a 1 to the! general account, which the quarter master! would pay, while in several instances he departed with an additional fee for the orders he left on behalf of the officers said; to be with the detachment following. In| this way Howard managed to prevail upon I the landlord of the Roebuck Inn, near 1 Stevenage, to allow him to run up a score of 3s for his supper, bed, and breakfast,! which he very kindly left for the “officer! of the detachment to pay with the rest,” ! At another time when his horse had] cast a shoe, Howard seems to have gone! to a blacksmith and ordered a quantity of : shoes for the horses of the imaginary de-| tachment, not forgetting to have his own! horse supplied with a shoe too, besides ac-j cepting a fee for the order. In this way! Howard, although quite without money,! managed to escape the vigilance of the police and the military authorities till he got to the north, his destination being supposed to be Yorkshire, his native place. Generally, to throw his pursuers olf the] scent, he made it a point to inform everyone bespoke to thatheintended to go to some! place directly opposite to where he really! was bound for, and by this way the police for a long time were nowhere ; though he was noticed passing through Grantham and seems to have kept pretty close to the towns aud villages abutting on the Great Northern-road. Ultimately the constable’s strength aud means became exhausted, and he was obliged to give the chase up, leaving the task of finishing the work to Inspector llawkes, of the Huntingdon constabulary. Fort unately each police constable in tliis county has a horse and cart aUowed him, for the extensive districts require them. Mr llawkes was therefore in a much better position to keep up the chase than Saunders was, so he appears to have trodden pretty close upon the fugitive’s heels by means of well planted relays of fresh horses, and it was expected that Howard would have been run down before 'Saunders readied Woolwich, which he did after being absent a week, completely ill and knocked up, to the surprise of his superiors, who wondered what had become

of him, never dreaming he would keep up the chase so far. However, in spite of all the relays and telegrams, and detectives. Howard managed to keep out of sight till Saturday night last, after having been “on the road” nearly a month, when Inspector Hawkes happened to catch sight of the delinquent, just as he was entering a village on the skirts of Wakefield, and had succeeded in apprehending him before he was prepared to offer that resistance which he certainly had the power to do. It appears that Howard is a native of Wakefield, and was making for home. He had absconded once before, and was found “ at home but this time was disappointed when within hailing distance of it, and now he awaits court martial at Aldershot. Both horse aud man were in pretty good condition considering the journey they had had, and the affair caused no little amusement in military circles, in some of which the denouement may not yet bo known.