es; the law being in this, as the Lord High
Steward declared, deaf to all distinctions of rank, "required that he
should pronounce them." But his Grace intimated the most ignominious and
painful parts of the sentence were usually remitted.

Lord Nithisdale, unlike Lord Widdrington and Lord Kenmure, who had
referred in terms of anguish to their wives and children, had made no
appeal on the plea of those family ties, to which few of his judges
could have been insensible. He returned to the Tower, under sentence of
death, to be saved by the heroism of a woman; according to some
accounts, of his mother;[26] but actually, by the fearless, devoted
affection of his wife.

Winifred, Countess of Nithisdale, appears, from her portrait by Kneller,
to have conjoined to an heroic contempt of danger a feminine and
delicate appearance, with great loveliness of countenance.[27] She was
descended from a family who knew no prouder recollection than that
their castle-towers had been the last to welcome the unhappy Charles the
First in the manner suited to royalty. Her mother was the Lady Elizabeth
Herbert, daughter of Edward, the second Marquis of Worcester, and author
of "The Century of Inventions." Lady Nithisdale was therefore the
great-granddaughter of that justly honoured Marquis of Worcester whose
loyalty and disinterestedness were features of a character as excellent
in private life, as benevolent, as sincere, as it was conspicuous in his
public career. Yet, so universal, so continual has been the popular
prejudice against Popery in this country, that even the virtues of this
good man could scarcely rescue him from the imputation, as Lord
Clarendon expresses it, of being "that sort of Catholics, the people
rendered odious, by accusing to be most Jesuited."

The maternal family of Lady Nithisdale were, therefore, of the same
faith with her husband, and, like his family, they had suffered deeply
for the cause of the Stuarts; and it is remarkable that, with what some
might deem infatuation, many descendants of those who had seen their
fairest possessions ravaged, their friends and kindred slain, should be
ready to suffer again. It is impossible for any reasoning to dispel the
idea that this must be a true and fixed principle, independent, in many
noble instances, of the hope of reward,--a far less enduring motive, and
one which would be apt to change with every change of fortune.

Lady Nithisdale, on her father's side, was descende