and added, that something more than usual must have happened to make Evans negligent, on this important occasion, who had always been so punctual in the smallest trifles; that I saw no other remedy than to go in person; that if the Tower was then open, when I had finished my business, I would return that night; but that he might be assured I would be with him as early in the morning as I could gain admittance into the Tower, and I flattered myself I should bring more favourable news. Then, before I shut the door, I pulled through the string of the latch, so that it could only be opened on the inside. I then shut it with some degree of force, that I might be sure of its being well shut. I said to the servant, as I passed by (who was ignorant of the whole transaction), that he need not carry in candles to his master, till my lord sent for them, as he desired to finish some prayers first.” What an admirable wife was Lady Nithsdale, and what a devoted maid to her was her “dear Evans.” [Illustration: _The Tower from Tower Hill_] Lord Nithsdale got safely out of London in the suite of the Venetian Ambassador,—whose coach and six were sent some days after his escape to Dover,—disguised in the livery of one of the Ambassador’s footmen. From Dover he succeeded in getting to Calais, and later on to Rome. Although Lady Nithsdale had succeeded in rescuing her lord from the scaffold, her self-devotion did not end there, her task, she thought, was still incomplete. In spite of the personal peril she herself ran if found in England or over the border, for the King was mightily annoyed at the ruse by which she had snatched her husband from the jaws of death, Lady Nithsdale determined to protect her son’s estates, which, owing to the attainder of his father, were now Government property. Her first step was to recover the papers she had hidden in the garden at Torreglas. “As I had hazarded my life for the father,” she writes, “I would not do less than hazard it for the son.” Attended by the faithful Evans and her groom, who had accompanied her upon the memorable ride from York to London, Lady Nithsdale returned to Dumfriesshire. Having arrived safely at Torreglas, she put a brave face upon her errand, and invited her neighbours to come and see her as if she had been sent by the Government itself. On the night before these invitations were due, this most astute and courageous lady dug up the family papers in the garden, sending them off at once to a place of safety in the charge of a trusty retainer. Before day broke she had again started on her return journey to the south, and while the Dumfries justices were laying their wise heads together, and consulting whether they should or should not give orders for the seizure of Lady Nithsdale, she had put many miles between herself and them. When the good folk of Dumfries arrived at Torreglas, they found that the lady they sought in the name of the law had given them the slip.