prudence, she had none; her dearest friend, if she had any, was
just as likely to be made the object of her ridicule as the most
obnoxious person of her acquaintance.

Her narrative of her first introduction to the Duke of York has often
been repeated; but, as all her stories were considered apocryphal, it
is difficult to arrive at a real history of her career. Certain
however, is it that, about the age of sixteen, she was residing at
Blackheath--a sweet, pretty, lively girl--when, in her daily walk
across the heath, she was passed, on two or three occasions, by a
handsome, well-dressed cavalier, who, finding that she recognised his
salute, dismounted; pleased with her manner and wit, he begged to be
allowed to introduce a friend. Accordingly, on her consenting, a person
to whom the cavalier appeared to pay every sort of deference was
presented to her, and the acquaintance ripened into something more than
friendship. Not the slightest idea had the young lady of the position
in society of her lover, until she accompanied him, on his invitation,
to the theatre, where she occupied a private box, when she was
surprised at the ceremony with which she was treated, and at observing
that every eye and every lorgnette in the house were directed towards
her in the course of the evening. She accepted this as a tribute to her
beauty. Finding that she could go again to the theatre when she
pleased, and occupy the same box, she availed herself of this
opportunity with a female friend, and was not a little astonished at
being addressed as Her Royal Highness. She then discovered that the
individual into whose affections she had insinuated herself was the son
of the King, the Duke of York, who had not long before united himself
to a lady, for whom she had been mistaken.

Mrs. Mary Anne Clarke was soon reconciled to the thought of being the
wife of a prince by the left hand, particularly as she found herself
assiduously courted by persons of the highest rank, and more especially
by military men. A large house in a fashionable street was taken for
her, and an establishment on a magnificent scale gave her an
opportunity of surrounding herself with persons of a sphere far beyond
anything she could in her younger days have dreamt of; her father
having been in an honourable trade, and her husband being only a
captain in a marching regiment. The duke, delighted to see his fair
friend so well received, constantly honoured her dinner-tabl