ounsel was, that although, in other
circumstances, a wife cannot be prosecuted for saving her husband, yet
in cases of high treason, according to the rigour of the law, the head
of a wife is responsible for that of a husband. Since the King was so
incensed against Lady Nithisdale there could be no answering for the
consequences, and he therefore earnestly besought her to leave the
kingdom.

Lady Nithisdale, conscious of the wisdom of this recommendation, and
wearied, perhaps, of a life of apprehension, determined to adopt the
plan recommended.

It is evident that she joined Lord Nithisdale at Rome, whither he had
retired; for the statement which she has left concludes in a manner
which shows that the devoted and heroic wife had been enabled to rejoin
the husband for whom she had encountered so much anxiety, contumely, and
peril. Her son, it appears, also accompanied her, from her reference to
"our young Master," meaning the Master of Nithisdale; since, when she
wrote, the Prince Charles Edward could not be endowed with that
appellation, his father being then alive. Her narrative is thus
concluded:[34]--

"This is the full narrative of what you desired, and of all the
transactions which passed relative to this affair. Nobody besides
yourself could have obtained it from me; but the obligations I owe
you, throw me under the necessity of refusing you nothing that is in
my power to do. As this is for yourself alone, your indulgence will
excuse all the faults which must occur in this long recital. The
truth you may, however, depend upon; attend to that and overlook all
deficiencies. My lord desires you to be assured of his sincere
friendship. I am, with the strongest attachment, my dear sister,
yours most affectionately,

"WINIFRED NITHISDALE."

Little is known of the Earl of Nithisdale after his escape to Rome,
where he died in 1744. He thus lived through a period of comparative
quiet, till his native country was again on the eve of being embroiled
in a civil war, more replete with danger, sullied by greater crimes, and
more disastrous to his native country, than the short-lived struggle of
1715. An exile from his Scottish possessions, Lord Nithisdale possibly
implanted in the mind of his own son that yearning to establish the
rights of the Stuarts which appears not to have been eradicated from the
hearts of the Scottish Jacobites unt