Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/654

640 uncommon exertions and fortitude, by which she also preserved the family estate for her son.

On hearing that he was committed, and of his great anxiety to see her, she came to London, at a time when the snow was so deep that the stage could not set out and the roads were so extremely bad that the post itself was stopt.

On her arrival, she tried to make all the interest she could with those in place; but no hopes were given her. The earl was particularly obnoxious. A Roman catholic, upon the frontiers of Scotland, who headed a very considerable party, and whose family had always signalized itself by its attachment to the house of Stuart; it was not likely he should meet with mercy, and she determined if possible to effect his escape, communicating her intentions to a female friend only, whose fortitude and good sense seems equal to her own. In order to concert measures, she solicited to see him; but it was denied her, except she would consent to remain a prisoner with him. This she did not do; but, by bribing the guards, she contrived to see him, till the day on which the prisoners were condemned, when their friends were allowed for the last week to see and take their leave.

While she was assiduous in getting her noble friends to present petitions on his behalf to the king, she planned his escape; but, fearful of endangering her (for a wife who assists her husband's escape, in the case of high treason, is amenable to the laws) he was unwilling, and hesitated for a while; but her confidence in providence perhaps communicated itself to him, for he at length consented. And she delivered him from confinement the night before execution, by making him pass for a lady she had brought with her, whose size