William Maxwell Earl of Nithsdale is smuggled out of the Tower through the adroitness of his brave and devoted wife Winifred., on the eve of his execution on Tower Hill near the end of February 1716. The Countess is carrying out the plan, contives with he help of Mrs Mills, wife of a dull and priggish barrister, to bring three women out of the Tower, though only two had entered. Mitchell a butler, forms a strong admiration for the courageous Countess, and on joining the household of the Venetian Ambassador, brings the Earl in disguise as the second footman "Robinson". The Ambassador, officially a supporter of the Hanoverians, but also enraptured at the Countess's devotion anf valour, gueeses Robinson's identity through discovering the snuff-box, bearing the intials W.M, whcih the Earl had imprudently placed in the pocket of his Flikey's livery. Magnamiously, however, the Ambassador allows Robinson to escape unscathed, and even offers to take him in his suite as far as Dover.