it could not have been done without a confederacy. He instantly
dispatched messengers to the Tower, to give orders that the prisoners
who were still there, might be the more effectually secured. He never
forgave Lady Nithisdale; and the effects of his powerful resentment were
such, as eventually to drive her for ever from England.

Inexperienced, young, a stranger in the vast metropolis, Lady Nithisdale
was now left alone, to skulk from place to place that she might avoid
the effects of the royal displeasure. She absconded to the house of an
"honest man" in Drury Lane, where she remained in concealment until she
heard of her husband's safe arrival on the Continent. A report,
meantime, prevailed of her having been the means of Lord Nithisdale's
escape; and it was generally believed that she had gone with him. To the
surprise of the Duchess of Buccleugh, Lady Nithisdale one day appeared
before her, the object of that sudden and perhaps undesired visit being
to obtain, by the influence of the Duchess, leave to quit London; and to
disseminate, through her Grace, a belief that the safety of Lord
Nithisdale was not procured by his wife's means. It must have been one
of the most aggravating circumstances to that noble and affectionate
being, to have employed so much artifice in the conduct of this affair;
but, if ever artifice be allowable, it is when opposed as a weapon to
tyranny. Besides, Lady Nithisdale had now not only her own safety to
consider; she had to protect the interests of her son.

Those whom she had mortally offended were eager to punish her courage by
imprisonment.

The Solicitor-General, however, showed a more compassionate spirit than
his employers, and in the course of several debates in the House of
Commons, submitted that if Lady Nithisdale paid so much respect to
Government as not to appear in public, it would be cruel to make any
farther search after her. It was therefore decided that unless the lady
were seen in England or Scotland, she should be unmolested; but if she
were observed in either of those countries, she should be secured. This
might be a decision of mercy, but Lady Nithisdale could not submit to
it, unless she left her son's estate to be ruined by waste and plunder.
Hurried as she had been to London, she had found time only to make one
arrangement, which proved to be of the utmost importance.

"I had in my hands," she relates, "all the family papers, and dared
trust them to nobody. My h