The Daily Herald

From the Buffalo Advertiser.

Abduction. An express arrived in the city this morning, from Erie, Pa., bringing intelligence of a most extraordinary outrage committed at that place on the night of the 5th inst. The particulars as stated in a handbill, published in relation to the affair, are as follows: As Miss Hamot, daughter of P. S. V. Hamot, of that place, was returning from a party, in company with a young man of Mr. H's family, about 11 o'clock at night, they were assaulted on the sidewalk by Robert C. Bristol, Captain of the steamboat James Madison, and four other persons; the young man was forcibly secured, while Miss Hamot, amid screams for aid, was forced into a hack close at hand, with the loss of her bonnet and other articles of clothing, and then driven down to the harbor, where she was put on board the Madison. That boat appears to have been in readiness for the purpose with steam up, and forthwith pushed out into the lake, with lights extinguished. Chase was immediately given in the U. S. Revenue cutter, and the steamboat Thomas Jefferson was got under way as speedily as possible; but for the darkness it was impossible to discover the course taken by the fugitive boat. The Madison was not fully in a condition for sea, having only part of her buckets in, and but little wood on board: Hence Bristol is supposed to have pushed across the lake for Canada. The affair seems to have made quite a stir at Erie, and from the respectability of the parties, and the novelty of using a steamboat of 700 tons on such an enterprise, together with the attendant circumstances, have caused it to excite some little sensation here. We can hardly credit the fact that Capt. B. would have pursued such a suicidal course as this, and incline somewhat to the opinion, that it may turn out a mere "Gretna Green" business, after all.