Mrs. Clarke's character would be the last
person to open her lips, unless it was made clear to her that it would
be worth her while to do so. Her go-between in the transaction was a
certain "Major" Dodd. Wardle gave Mrs. Clarke L100 for present
necessities, and by way of earnest of more liberal promises which seem
afterwards to have been repudiated by his employers. Through Major Dodd,
the clever, unprincipled woman secured a house in Westbourne Place,
which she furnished in a style of comfortable elegance, and succeeded by
her blandishments in swindling Wardle into becoming security for her
furniture. The inevitable result of course followed. On the 3rd July,
1809, Wright, the upholsterer, brought his action against Wardle and
recovered L1,400 damages,[17] besides costs, "for furniture sold to the
defendant to the use of Mary Anne Clarke." The colonel, like the
commander-in-chief, thus found himself not only out-manoeuvred by his
clever and unscrupulous ex-ally, but reaped the obloquy attendant on
exposure and ridicule, instead of the glorification which had at first
greeted his patriotic exertions.

Mary Anne Clarke and the Duke of York, afforded (as might have been
expected) plenty of employment to the caricaturists. The theme, however,
is treated too grossly for description, a subject to be regretted, as
most of the satires, containing as they do admirable portraits of the
principal personages, are exceedingly clever. The subject suited an
artist who delighted in delineating the immodest and full-blown beauties
of Drury Lane; and accordingly, more than forty caricatures on the
subject of "The Delicate Investigation," as it was called, are due to
the pencil of Thomas Rowlandson.

THE END OF MARY ANNE CLARKE.

In order to show the character of this infamous woman, we must follow
her progress a little farther than either Mr. Grego or Mr. Wright appear
to have done. In February, 1814, she once more made a public appearance:
this time in the Court of Queen's Bench. She seems to have got the Right
Hon. William Fitzgerald, Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer, by some
means or other into her clutches, in connection with the proceedings of
1809. By this time, however, she had descended so low, that exposure was
threatened unless a sum of money was deposited under a stone. In her
threats, she announced her intention of "submitting to the public in a
very short time _two or three volumes_, which might be followed by
other