When the Civil War broke out between Charles I. and the Scots, the Earl of Nithsdale zealously supported the royal cause, and he garrisoned his castles of Carlaverock and Thrieve, furnishing them with a large quantity of arms, ammunition, and provisions, in order that they might sustain a protracted siege. Carlaverock, which had been greatly injured by the English invaders in 1570, was restored by him to more than its original strength. The Estates hearing of his preparations, sent a strong body of troops under Colonel Home to besiege that stronghold. It held out for thirteen weeks, though powerful batteries were brought to bear upon it; but as no relief could be sent, the Earl, with the approval of the King, surrendered on very favourable terms. The inventory of the household furniture of the castle, preserved at Terregles, gives an interesting account of the splendour and elegance of the establishment, and throws much light on the domestic condition of the great baronial families of Scotland at that period. Carlaverock was shortly after dismantled by order of the Committee of Estates, as was the castle of Thrieve, which was also surrendered to the Covenanters. The Earl complained bitterly that faith had not been kept with him in this matter, and that the losses which he had suffered in violation of the terms of the capitulation amounted to not less than £15,000 sterling.

The ill-fated nobleman was sequestrated in the year 1643, and his whole rents, amounting to £3,000 sterling, were seized by the dominant party. In the following year he was not only forfeited by the Estates, but also excommunicated by the Church. With the exception of two brief intervals, the Earl remained in exile from the year 1639 till the time of his death. He died and was buried in the Isle of Man in 1646. His wife survived him a quarter of a century.

ROBERT, second Earl of Nithsdale, the only son of the first Earl, was, like his father, a steadfast supporter of the royal cause during the Great Civil War. He was taken prisoner on the 12th of October, 1644, when the town of Newcastle was stormed by General Leslie. and was imprisoned in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh till after the defeat of the Covenanters at Kilsyth by Montrose, on 15th August, 1645. An Act of Parliament was passed in 1647, restoring him against his father's forfeiture, but the estates of the family were so heavily burdened in consequence of the losses sustained during the Civil War, that he was compelled to sell the barony of Mearns to Sir George Maxwell of Pollok, and Langholm to the curators for the Duke of Buccleuch and Monmouth. On the restoration of Charles II. the Earl was persuaded by the urgent advice of his friends to go up to London, and submit to the King a statement of the injuries which had been inflicted on him and his father in consequence of their exertions in the royal cause, and to press on his Majesty his claims for compensation. The amount spent on maintaining the castle of Carlaverock, the destruction of the 'haill moveables and plenishing' of that stronghold, the College of Lincluden, and the castles of Dumfries and Thrieve, together with the rents uplifted during the disturbances, amounted, he alleged, to more than £40,000 sterling. But with the characteristic ingratitude of the Stewarts, the claims of the Earl were neglected, and no compensation appears ever to have been made to him. Earl Robert was commonly designated 'The Philosopher.' Among other pursuits he was said to have been addicted to the study of astrology. He died in the Isle of Carlaverock, unmarried, 5th October, 1667, and was succeeded by his kinsman, JOHN MAXWELL, seventh Lord Herries, the eldest of eight sons of the sixth Lord Herries by his wife, a daughter of John, seventh Lord Maxwell and Earl of Morton.

JOHN, third Earl of Nithsdale, like his predecessors, suffered heavy losses for his adherence to the royal cause during the Great Civil War. Detachments of the Parliamentary troops were quartered no less than seven times on him and his tenants, and destroyed and plundered his effects. Large fines also were imposed upon him, and considerable sums were exacted from him to maintain the forces raised by the Committee of Estates. His life and estates were forfeited by the Parliament, and he was excommunicated by the Church for supporting the King. After the Restoration he presented a petition to the Parliament in 1661, 'humbly praying that they would appoint some of their number to cognosce upon his sufferings for his loyalty and obedience to the King, in his person, means, and estate.' The committee nominated for this purpose reported that the Earl's losses were estimated to amount to the sum of £77,322 12s. Scots, 'besides the insupportable burden of cess and quarterings to which he was liable, with the rest of the kingdom, during the late unhappy troubles.' But it does not appear that he obtained any compensation for his sufferings and losses in the royal cause. The Earl, however, continued through life a steady supporter of the Government, and was repeatedly required by the Privy Council to take an active part in the suppression of conventicles, and the apprehension and punishment of the Covenanting ministers and their adherents. He died in 1677, having enjoyed the title and estates of Herries for thirty-five years, and afterwards the earldom of Nithsdale and the Maxwell estates for eleven years. He had by his wife, a daughter of Sir Robert Gordon of Lochinvar, three sons, the eldest of whom-

ROBERT MAXWELL, became fourth Earl of Nithsdale. Like his father, he was a staunch supporter of the arbitrary and oppressive Government of Charles II. and his brother James, and a persecutor of the Covenanters. He received repeated commissions from the Privy Council to apprehend outed ministers, or preachers who kept conventicles, or substantial persons who had been present at them, and various communications passed between him and the notorious persecutor, John Graham of Claverhouse, regarding the measures which they adopted in carrying out the instructions of the Government. Lord Nithsdale was rewarded for his services with a grant from King Charles of £200 a year, which was subsequently exchanged for a grant of as much land out of the forfeited estates of the Covenanters, within the county of Wigton and the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, as would yield a free yearly rent of 4,000 merks Scots (£228 14s. sterling) besides the payment of such a portion of his annual rent as was then in arrears. The forfeited estates of Alexander Hunter of Colquhasben, in the parish of Old Luce, was given to the Countess of Nithsdale, and not less than seventeen other forfeited estates of Covenanting lairds were gifted to the sons of Lord Nithsdale, and retained by them until the Revolution of 1688. The Earl died in 1683. It appears that notwithstanding the royal pension and the gifts of the lands of the Presbyterians, he was through life in embarrassed circumstances. When called on to visit Edinburgh to settle his accounts, as Steward of Kirkcudbright, with the Exchequer, he had to obtain protection from his creditors, who had taken out captions against him. After Earl Robert's death his widow, a daughter of the Marquis of Douglas, obtained a pension of £200 a year, on the ground of 'the low condition of the family of Nithsdale and the great burdens that lay on the estate.' 'She skilfully managed not only the household affairs at Terregles, but other pecuniary and property transactions, doing all in her power to retrieve the fortunes of the family, and to liquidate the debts and incumbrances with which the estate was burdened.' The Earl was succeeded by his eldest son-

WILLIAM MAXWELL, fifth and last Earl of Nithsdale. His sister Mary became the wife of Charles, fourth Earl of Traquair, and proved a most generous and forbearing friend to her brother, who was only seven years. of age at the time of his father's death. His mother and other curators, evidently fearing that a change of Government might deprive them of the forfeited lands of the Covenanters, of which the late Earl and his son had received a gift from the Crown, made repeated efforts to obtain authority to dispose of them; but the Lords of Council and Session refused their consent, and these lands were ultimately restored to their rightful owners. On attaining his majority, the Earl repaired to St. Germains and did homage to the exiled Prince, whom he continued to regard as his lawful sovereign. He there fell in love with Lady Winnifred Herbert, fifth and youngest daughter of the Marquis of Powis, whom he married in the spring of 1699, and brought to his house at Terregles. Earl William, like his predecessors, was a member of the Church of Rome, and like other Roman Catholics at that time, seems to have suffered a good deal of annoyance from the over-zealous and intolerant Presbyterians of the district. Upon the 24th of December, 1703, a fanatical mob of upwards of a hundred persons, headed or instigated by the ministers of Irongray, Torthorwald, Kirkmahoe, and Tinwald, attacked the house of Terregles, under cloud of night, armed with guns, and swords, and other weapons, and under pretence of searching for priests and Jesuits, broke open the gates, violently entered the house, and searched all the rooms. All this was done while the Earl was absent, and the Countess indisposed and confined to her bed-chamber. Criminal letters were raised by the Earl against the ringleaders in these outrageous and disgraceful proceedings, and they were summoned to appear before the Court of Justiciary to answer for their conduct. On the other hand, the minister of Irongray and his accomplices raised criminal letters against the Earl. of Nithsdale and Maxwell of Kirkconnell, whom they accused of hearing mass in secret, and harbouring 'Jesuits, priests, and trafficking Papists.' In the end the case was compromised, and both actions were withdrawn.

It is well known that even before the death of Queen Anne the leading Jacobites in Scotland had resolved to take up arms for the restoration of the exiled Stewarts to the British throne, and some of them had adopted measures to secure their estates, in case the enterprise should fail. The Earl of Nithsdale was one of this class, and on the 28th of November, 1712, he executed a disposition of his estates to his only son, reserving, however, his own life rent and that of his wife, with power to make some provision for their younger children. This prudent precaution saved the family estates from forfeiture, when the Earl was tried and condemned for his share in the rebellion of 1715, though it did not prevent him from contracting heavy debts, which rendered it necessary that his affairs should be placed in the hands of trustees.

In the year 1715, when Mar raised the standard of rebellion in the Highlands, and the Northumbrian Jacobites took up arms under Mr. Forster and the Earl of Derwentwater, the adherents of the Stewart cause in Dumfriesshire and Galloway joined them on the Borders. As the Earl of Nithsdale was a Roman Catholic, it was deemed inexpedient to place him, as would otherwise have been done, at their head, and the chief command was given to Viscount Kenmure, the representative of the Galloway Gordons, who was a Protestant. The remembrance of the cruel persecutions of the Covenanters was too strong in the district to permit the great body of the people to show any zeal on behalf of the son of James VII. Even the tenants of the Jacobite leaders took up arms in support of the Government, and the Earl of Nithsdale, as he himself stated, was attended by only four of his own domestics when he joined the insurgents. The insurrection was so wretchedly mismanaged that it never had the slightest chance of success. The combined force advanced as far as to Preston, and was there surrounded by the royal troops, and compelled to surrender at discretion. The noblemen and principal officers were conveyed to London, and committed to prison. The Earl of Nithsdale and the other lords were sent to the Tower, and were brought to trial on January 19th, 1716, before the House of Lords, on a charge of treason. They pleaded guilty, no doubt with the hope that a confession of guilt might possibly incline the King to grant them a pardon. Sentence of death was pronounced upon them by the Lord Chancellor Cowper, who acted as High Steward at the trial, and their execution was appointed to take place on the 24th of February.

The Countess of Nithsdale remained at Terregles while the insurrection lasted; but on hearing of the surrender and imprisonment of the Earl in London, she resolved at once to join him, though it was the depth of winter, and a season of unusual rigour. Leaving her infant daughter in the charge of her sister-in-law, Lady Traquair, and burying the family papers in the garden, she set out, attended only by her maid, Cecilia Evans by name. A heavy snowstorm had stopped the coaches, but she made her way on horseback across the Border, and then from Newcastle to York. There she found a place on the coach for herself alone, and was obliged to hire a horse for her maid. She wrote from Stamford, on Christmas Day, to Lady Traquair, mentioning the troubles she had experienced in her journey. 'The ill weather,' she says, 'ways, and other accidents, has made the coach not get further than Grentun (Grantham), and the snow is so deep it is impossible it should stir without some change of weather; upon which I have again hired horses, and shall go the rest of the journey on horseback to London, though the snow is so deep that our horses yesterday were in several places almost buried in it. To-morrow I shall set forward again. I must confess such a journey I believe was scarce ever made, considering the weather, by a woman. But an earnest desire compasses a great deal with God's help. If I meet my dear lord well, and am so happy as to be able to serve him, I shall think all my trouble well repaid.'

Lady Nithsdale reached London in safety, but on her arrival she was thrown, by her great anxiety and the hardships she had undergone on her journey, into 'a violent sickness,' which confined her for some days to her bed. With considerable difficulty, and under some restrictions, she obtained admission to her husband in the Tower. 'Now and then, by favour,' she wrote, 'I get a sight of him.'

The Countess had no hopes that the King would relent, but to satisfy her husband, who did not despair of pardon, she consented to make an effort to present a petition to his Majesty, who she knew had taken precautions to prevent any one from obtaining access to him, on behalf of the condemned lords. Knowing that he must pass through a public room between the royal apartment and the drawing-room, she waited for him there. As he passed she knelt down and presented the petition, telling him in French that she was the unhappy Countess of Nithsdale. King George, who was a coarse and brutal man, passed on, taking no notice of her. She laid hold of the skirt of his coat, pathetically appealing to his mercy, and was dragged by him, upon her knees, from the middle of the public apartment to the door of the drawing-room. One of the royal bodyguard put his arms round her waist and pulled her back, while another of them disengaged the skirt of the King's coat from her hand.. The poor lady was left, almost fainting, on the floor. The petition which she tried to put into the King's pocket was picked up by a bystander and given to the Earl of Dorset, who was the Lord of the Bedchamber then in waiting. He contrived to get the petition read more than once to the King, and to make his Majesty aware that the King of England never used to refuse a petition from the hands of the poorest woman, and that it was a gratuitous and unheard-of brutality to treat as he did a person of Lady Nithsdale's quality. As might have been expected from his character and habits, the ex-Hanoverian Elector, so far from feeling sorry for his behaviour, was only embittered against the Countess by the manner in which his treatment of her was condemned, So far did he carry his resentment, that when the ladies whose husbands had been concerned in the insurrection put in claims for their jointures, he declared that Lady Nithsdale did not deserve, and should not obtain hers, and to this determination he obstinately adhered.

The noble-minded lady, however, still persevered in her efforts to save the life of her husband. On the 21st of February, the Rev. J. Scott wrote to Lady Traquair, 'I must needs doe my Lady the justice of assuring your ladyship that she has left no stone unturned, that she has omitted nothing that could be expected from the most loving wife on earth.' He adds that she presented her petition to the King in such a manner that 'the whole Court was moved to a tender compassion. The whole town applauds her and extolles her to the skyes for it, and many who thirst after the blood of the others, wish my Lord Nithisdaill may be spared to his Lady.'

A petition craving the intercession of the House of Lords was presented by the wives of the condemned noblemen, and an address to the King, praying that he would reprieve such of them as should deserve his mercy, was carried, on the 22nd of February, by a majority of five. The Ministers, at a meeting of Council held the same evening, resolved to comply with the feeling of the House, so far as to respite the Earls of Carnwath and Nithsdale, and Lords Widdrington and Nairne; but to prevent any further interference, the Earl of Derwentwater and Viscount Kenmure were ordered for execution next morning. The Countess of Nithsdale had, however, given up all hope of a reprieve, for she was aware that the proviso attached to the address to the King meant that those only should be recommended for pardon who would give information respecting their friends that had taken part, though less openly, in the insurrection.. But she well knew, as she says, that her lord would never purchase life on such terms. 'Nor,' adds the high-minded woman, 'would I have desired it.'

As the execution of the condemned lords was appointed for the 24th, there was no time to lose in carrying out the project she had secretly formed of effecting the Earl's escape in woman's clothes. To further her design, she says in the account which she gave of the enterprise, after the Lords had agreed to petition the King, she hastened to the Tower, and putting on a joyous air she went up to the guards at each station, and told them that she brought good news. There was now, she said, no fear of the prisoners, as the motion that the Lords should intercede with the King had passed. She rightly judged that the sentries, believing that the prisoners were on the eve of being pardoned, would become, of course, less vigilant. At each station she gave the guards some money, bidding them drink the health of the King and the Peers. But she was careful, as she says, not to be profuse in her gifts, in case they should suspect that she had some design on foot in which she wished to obtain their connivance.

Lord Nithsdale was confined in the house of Colonel D'Oyly, Lieutenant-Deputy of the Tower, in a small room which looked out on Water Lane, the ramparts, and the wharf, and was sixty feet from the ground. The way from the room was through the Council Chambers. The door of his room was guarded by one sentinel, that floor by two, the passages and stairs by several, and the outer gate by two. Escape under such circumstances seemed to be impossible, and Lady Nithsdale mentions that 'her chief difficulty lay in persuading the Earl to take advantage of the means she had planned for his escape. It would have seemed to him a more likely means of escape to force his way, sword in hand, through the guard.' Lord Nithsdale was still ignorant, on the 22nd, of his lady's design for his deliverance; and on that day he wrote a farewell letter to his brother-in-law, the Earl of Traquair, and the Countess, his own sister. He also prepared a dying speech, which he intended to read on the scaffold, stating the reasons why he had taken part in the rebellion, and expressing his regret that he had pleaded guilty at his trial.

The morning of the 23rd, the last before the intended execution, was spent by Lady Nithsdale in making preparations for her attempt, especially in securing the assistance of a Mrs. Morgan, a friend of her maid, Mrs. Evans. When she was ready to go, she sent for Mrs. Mills, at whose house she was lodging, and said: 'Finding now there is no farther room for hope of my lord's pardon, nor longer time than this night, I am resolved to endeavour his escape. I have provided all that is requisite for it, and I hope you will not refuse to come along with me, to the end that he may pass for you. Nay, more, I must beg you will come immediately, because we are full late.' Lady Nithsdale had very judiciously delayed this request till the last possible minute, so that Mrs. Mills might decide on the impulse of the moment, out of sympathy for the condemned nobleman, and she at once gave her consent. Lady Nithsdale then desired Mrs. Morgan, who was tall and slender-her height not unlike Lord Nithsdale's-to put under her own riding-hood another which the Countess had provided to put on Mrs. Mills, who was to give her own to the Earl. All three then stepped into the coach which was waiting for them, and 'not to give them leisure to think of the consequences,' as they drove to the Tower 'her ladyship continued without ceasing to talk with them.'

On arriving at their destination, Lady Nithsdale took in Mrs. Morgan, as she was allowed to take in only one person at a time. Within the Earl's chamber Mrs. Morgan took out and left the riding-hood which she had brought beneath her clothes, and then Lady Nithsdale conducted her out again, going with her partly down-stairs, saying to her at parting, 'Pray do me the kindness to send my maid to me, that I may be dressed, else I shall be too late with my petition.' Having thus sent away Mrs. Morgan, the Countess took Mrs. Mills into the room, who came in holding her handkerchief to her face, as though in tears, intending that the Earl should go out in the same manner, in order to conceal his face from the guards. The two ladies when alone with the Earl set about disguising him. His eyebrows were black and thick, while those of Mrs. Mills were somewhat yellow, but some yellow paint on his eyebrows, and ringlets of the same coloured hair, which the Countess had brought, put this to rights. He had a long beard, which there was not time to shave, but the Countess covered it with some white paint, and put a little red upon his cheeks. Mrs. Mills next took off the riding-hood in which she came, and put on instead that which Mrs. Morgan had brought. They then equipped the Earl in the riding-hood which the guards had seen on Mrs. Mills as she came in, and completed his disguise by the aid of some of Lady Nithsdale's petticoats.

These arrangements having been made, Lady Nithsdale opened the door and led out Mrs. Mills, saying aloud, in a tone of great concern, 'Dear Mrs. Catherine, I must beg you to go in all haste and look for my woman, for she certainly does not know what o'clock it is, and has forgot the petition I am to give, which should I miss is irreparable, having but this one night. Let her make all the haste she can possible, for I shall be upon thorns till she comes.' There were nine persons, the sons and daughters of the guards, in the anteroom through which she passed with Mrs. Mills while uttering these words, who all seemed to feel for the Countess, and readily made way for her companion. The sentinels at the outer door opened it immediately and let Mrs. Mills out, who did not go out as she had come in, with a handkerchief at her eyes, as if weeping. Lady Nithsdale then returning to the Earl, 'and having got him quite ready, now she thought was the time for action.' It was growing very dark, and afraid lest the keepers should bring in the candles, which would have defeated her pains, she without longer delay came out of the room, leading by the hand the Earl, who was clothed in the attire of Mrs. Mills, and held a handkerchief about his eyes, as if in tears, which served to conceal his, face. To prevent suspicion she spoke to him, apparently in great grief, loudly lamenting that her maid, Evans, had been so neglectful, and had ruined her by her long delay. 'So, dear Mrs. Betty,' she added, 'run and bring her with you, for God's sake! You know my lodgings, and if ever you made haste in your life do it now, for I am almost distracted with this disappointment.' The guards believing that a reprieve was at hand, had not taken much heed of the ladies coming and going, nor had exactly reckoned their number. They quickly opened the door, without the least suspicion, to Lady Nithsdale and her disguised lord, ['From the woman's cloak and hood,' says Allan Cunningham, 'in which the Earl was disguised, the Jacobites of the north formed a new token of cognizance: all the ladies who favoured the Stewarts wore "Nithsdales," till fashion got the better of political love.'-Songs of Scotland, iii. p. 188.] and both accordingly went down-stairs, she still conjuring him, as 'dear Mrs. Betty,' to make haste. As soon as they had passed the door, Lady Nithsdale stepped behind the Earl, lest the sentinels might have noticed that his gait was far different from a lady's. At the foot of the stairs she found Mrs. Evans, to whom she committed her companion, and having then seen him safe out of the Tower, she returned to his room.

It had been arranged that the husband of Mrs. Mills was to wait for them in the open space before the Tower. He had come accordingly, but on seeing Mrs. Evans and the disguised nobleman he completely lost his head, and, instead of assisting them, ran home. Mrs. Evans, however, retained her presence of mind, and conducted Lord Nithsdale to a house near Drury Lane belonging to a friend of her own, in whom she could confide. Thence proceeding to Mrs. Mills's house, she learnt from her where the place of concealment was which she had provided. It was a house just before the Court of Guards, belonging to a poor woman who had but one little room up a small pair of stairs, and containing one little bed.

Meanwhile, Lady Nithsdale was engaged, in the chamber lately occupied by the Earl, in keeping up appearances to make the guards believe that he was still there. 'She affected to speak to him and to answer as if he had spoken to her, imitated his voice, and walked up and down the room as if they had been walking and talking together, till she thought he had time enough to be out of reach.' 'I then began to think,' she adds, 'it was fit for me to get out of it also.' Then opening the door to depart she went half out, and holding it in her hand, so that those without might hear, she took what professed to be an affectionate and solemn leave of her lord for that night, saying that something more than usual must have caused the delay of Mrs. Evans in coming to her, and adding that she must go herself in search of her. She promised that if the Tower were still open after she had done she would see him again that night, but that otherwise she would see him in the morning, and hoped to bring him good news. Before shutting the door she drew to the inside a little string that lifted up a wooden latch, so that it could only be opened by those within, and she then shut the door with a flap, so that it might be securely closed. As she was passing out she told the Earl's valet de chambre, who knew nothing of the plan of escape, that his lordship was at prayers, and did not wish the candles brought till he called for them.

On leaving the Tower Lady Nithsdale took one of the hackney coaches waiting in the open space, and drove first to her own lodgings. There she dismissed the coach for fear of being traced, and went in a sedan-chair to the house of Anne, Duchess of Buccleuch, who, as the widow of the unfortunate Monmouth, could sympathise with Lady Nithsdale in her anxieties. The Duchess had promised to accompany her when she went to present her petition. She did not go up to the Duchess, as she had company, but left a message at her door, with her 'most humble service,' to say that her Grace need not give herself any further trouble, as it was now thought fit to present a general petition in the name of all the condemned lords. Again changing her conveyance and calling another sedan-chair, Lady Nithsdale went to the house of the Duke of Montrose. His Grace was a supporter of the Government, but the Duchess, a daughter of the Earl of Northesk, was her personal friend. Lady Nithsdale being shown into a room up-stairs, the Duchess quickly joined her. 'There,' as she wrote, 'as my heart was very light, I smiled when she came into the chamber, and ran to her in great joy. She really started when she saw me, and since owned that she thought my head was turned with trouble till I told her my good fortune.'

The Duchess recommended her to go to a place of safety, as the King was greatly incensed against her on account, of the petition which she had presented to him, and declared that she would go to the Court, and see how the news of the Earl's escape was received. She went accordingly and found that that 'the Elector', as she termed him, 'had stormed terribly,' and said 'he was betrayed, for such an event could not have happened without connivance;' and he immediately despatched two of his suite to the Tower to see that the other prisoners were well guarded. At a later time, when his anger had subsided, he is said to have remarked that 'for a man in my Lord's situation it was the very best thing he could have done.'

On leaving the Duchess of Montrose, Lady Nithsdale went to a house which Mrs. Evans had previously found for her, and was informed by that clever and trusty domestic of the Earl's hiding place, to which she immediately repaired. Referring to the 'poor little bed,' in the room, she says: 'Into this bed we were forced to go immediately, for feare they should heare more walking than usual. She [Mrs. Evans] left us a bottle of wine and some bread, and Mrs. Mills brought us some more the next day in her pocket; but other things we gott nott, from Thursday evening to Saturday evening, that Mrs. Mills came when it was dark, and cary'd my Lord to the Venetian Ambassador's. She did not communicate the affair to his Excellency, but one of his servants concealed him in his own room till Wednesday.' On that day a servant of the ambassador, Mitchell by name, was ordered to go down to Dover with a coach and six horses to bring the ambassador's brother to London. The Earl put on a livery coat and travelled as one of the train to Dover, where, hiring a small vessel, he crossed without suspicion, and, accompanied by Mitchell, landed safe at Calais. The passage across was made so quickly that the master of the vessel remarked that the wind could not have served better if his passengers had been fleeing for their lives-little thinking that this was really the case.

The escape of Lord Nithsdale delighted not only the Jacobite friends of the family, but even many of the supporters of the Hanoverian dynasty. Lady Cowper, the wife of the Lord Chancellor, thus notes the event in her Diary :-'It is confirmed that Lord Nithesdale is escaped. I hope he'll get clear off. I never was better pleased at anything in my life, and I believe everybody is the same.'

Part Four

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