“In this Cause it is well known that Colonel Wardle was cast, to the satisfaction of every honest tradesman, and indeed of everybody in the Court.
“The detail of the evidence the public prints will afford: as for my testimony, these details are somewhat inaccurate, but they are sufficiently correct to have enabled the public to strengthen this verdict with an almost universal approbation.
“Colonel Wardle, inflated by a popularity the extent of which was as unexpected as it will be found to have been undeserved, had vainly flattered himself that this same popularity would protect him against the justice of his country: disappointed at the verdict, he has lost his prudence with his temper, and without giving himself time for reflection, has made an unusual Appeal to the People of the United Kingdom against the Verdict of a Jury.
“If he had been content to throw the blame of his failure upon Counsel, it would have been no business of mine, they are able to defend themselves; but to be charged with a crime so disgraceful, so low, so contemptible, and by a person who of all men best knows how abhorrent to my nature is anything like falsehood—to be charged with perjury is really too bad.
“It only remains for me to declare before God and my country that the evidence I gave was strictly true, and that my intimacy with Colonel Wardle merely related to my evidence and his promises.
“Most anxiously therefore do I look forward to the period when the futility of Colonel Wardle’s attempts to prove the contrary will recoil upon himself and others. I trust that till then the public will suspend their judgment upon Colonel Wardle’s intemperate accusation.
“Although it may not be equally proper in me, as in Colonel Wardle, to state the gratitude and respect I feel for the public approbation, yet I hope it is not denied even unto me to express the anguish of mind I should endure, if upon such an occasion, and in such a manner, I had really deserved their disapprobation.
“I have the honor to be,
“With the greatest respect,
“M. A. Clarke.”
Whether the British public really cared one way or the other was very doubtful. But the subject made lively chat at a dinner table. Hostesses—with the fish—plunged into discussion, and when the port was passed and the ladies had risen, the topic was seized on again and went well with the brandy. I wonder who’s keeping her now? made diverting debate. What with Parliament risen for the summer recess and the members scattered, it was small wonder the windows were shuttered at Westbourne Place. Has she gone out of town? I don’t know, they say she’s at Brighton. Is that so? Tubby Clifton declares she was seen at Southampton. On shore or at sea? In the Solent, a penchant for prawning… No rocks, most unlikely. What’s the betting she’s found in a frigate? Pooh! The fleet’s at Gibraltar, not so much as a pinnace at Portsmouth…
As a matter of fact, Mrs. Clarke was at Cowes with the children. The air on the Island was healthy—Spithead in the offing—and what with the yachts in the roads and in the Medina, excursions to Ventnor and picnicking parties at Wootton, the long summer days proved refreshing, except for letters.
James Fitzgerald kept pestering from Ireland. He hoped to see her in August. Was it true she had kept a few scraps of his indiscreet letters, or would she swear faithfully they’d all been returned to his son? As for Willie, the father was worried; the boy had got into some scrape, had she heard any rumors?
She had. She had spent a whole evening, before leaving town, with Willie in tears in the drawing room, begging assistance. A young lady was in trouble—her condition becoming suspicious; pills had been taken ad nauseam but nothing had happened and the young lady’s husband was due any day from abroad. Did Mrs. Clarke know of a doctor? What were his charges?
She immediately summoned the Metcalfes and swore them to silence. The young lady was offered asylum but Willie was refused, the young lady’s condition being such as commanded abstention—all this with the children arriving, and packing for Cowes.
“The things I do for my friends!” said Mary Anne, the young lady packed up in blankets and put in a post chaise, with Mrs. Metcalfe in charge—and two minutes later the girls in a carriage with Martha, their faces glued to the window and all of them waving.
“Scrape’s the word,” she wrote from Cowes to James Fitzgerald. “Forget the letters you scribbled me in 1805 and keep a watch on Willie, he merits attention.” If she cared to spill the beans on the feckless Fitzgeralds, the results would fill a volume—but no one would print it.
The repercussions from the Wright v. Wardle action continued to fill the papers. It seemed very likely, viewed from the shelter of Cowes, that the autumn would prove vindictive: no time had been lost by Colonel Wardle in filing a counteraction. An Action for Conspiracy, Wardle v. Wright and Clarke, was due to be heard on King’s Bench in early December. So it was essential to hold the right cards and to play them. Thus it was an amazing stroke of fortune that Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough suffered a rupture and sent for a physician—his own was away—and the locum turned out to be Dr. Thomas Metcalfe.
The bedside manner, with successful treatment, worked wonders in a week, and was duly reported and seized upon with glee, of course, at Cowes. Hope springs eternal… Much might be accomplished. Strings in the legal world lay between the fingers, if his Lordship was now a patron of the doctor’s.
A letter was dashed off from Cowes to Thomas Metcalfe:
“… I have hit on a plan, which if you think well of proposing to your friend and patron, might put you in the way of exercising your abilities in your profession, and otherwise make you comfortable. If put into practice or not, you will see the confidence I place in you by penning it, and of course it must ever be a secret between ourselves; but if once or twice in your patron’s company, I am certain of succeeding, for all I want is his interest in an affair of mine, and this is not to be gained without making myself very pleasant, and so on.
“Now if he, as your friend, will take you a small house and furnish it, which will not cost him more than five hundred pounds (and what is that trifle to him?), I will either be your lodger, inmate or patient, and for which I will pay you as much as will enable Mrs. M. with her economy to keep your house, and you shall have the use of my carriage, for a doctor is nothing without one.
“All he has to do, with your permission, is to call once or twice a week, when it is dusk, and play a game or two of piquet, or any other game with which His Worship is au fait!
“Think of this well, will you? And fail not writing to me tomorrow.
“Yours truly,
“M. A. Clarke.
“Your patron would not meet with such a disinterested offer every day—he is old now, you know—but it is so pleasant to have a great man or two in tow.”
It was more pleasant still to have the Judge on her side and keep the Attorney-General on his toes.
On Monday December 10th, at Westminster Hall, the action Wardle versus Wright and Clarke was held before the Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough. The parties at piquet had proved successful.
Counsel for the Defense was the Attorney-General, whose curious legal switch caused excited chatter. Those in the know said politics was the reason—the case was not Wardle v. Clarke but Whig versus Tory, and the Ministry couldn’t afford to let Wardle win. But what depressed the spectators in the gallery, who had hoped for a repetition of the scenes in July, was the fact that Mrs. Clarke was not called as a witness. She sat, discreetly veiled, beside her Counsel, and spent the day passing notes to him under her mantle.
Mr. Alley, who opened the case for the Prosecution, started off with a bang about Scylla and Charybdis, vicarious quicksands and navigators’ perils, and passed from them to a woman who, he alleged, had lived with Englishmen, Irishmen, Scotsmen, Welshmen, soldiers, sailors, agents, lords and commoners—Mrs. Clarke was observed to be counting on her fingers—and, after a lengthy reprise of past events that had taken place in England since the Conquest, he proceeded to talk of corruption, and Corsican bandits, and jugglers wh
o aspired to the highest places.
At this point the Lord Chief Justice interrupted.
“Pray, Mr. Alley, do you think this bears upon the question under consideration?”
“I really think it does, my Lord. With great deference I am endeavoring to show that this case originated in corruption.”
Lord Ellenborough sighed. “Why, Mr. Alley, if you really think that going over the history of Bonaparte and the present state of Europe has any bearing upon the issue, I shall hear you, but to my mind the connection seems somewhat remote.”
Mr. Alley continued for a further twenty minutes and ended with the words, “The safety of the British Empire is at this moment entrusted to the twelve gentlemen now in that box; I have no doubt they will act upon the dying words of our immortal hero, ‘England expects every man to do his duty.’ ”
He sat down, perspiration pouring. No applause. The Attorney-General leaped to his feet in a second.
“Before this case is gone into, I should wish my learned friend Mr. Alley to inform me whom he meant by the arch-juggler who aspires to a situation to which neither his birth nor his education entitles him?”
Mrs. Clarke was heard to whisper, “Don’t be touchy.”
The Lord Chief Justice frowned and shook his head.
“I do not think,” he said, “that I can in this state of the proceedings call upon the learned counsel for an explanation.”
The trial went on. Minutes of the action in July were read at length. Colonel Wardle was called, the same old ground was covered, the warehouse visit, the choosing of curtains and carpets—but this time the lighter side was left untouched. Sir Vicary Gibbs introduced a sterner note. The name of the Duke of Kent was constantly mentioned.
“On your first visit to Mrs. Clarke last November, did you not tell her the Duke of Kent was acquainted with the proceedings against the Duke of York?”
“Neither on my first visit nor on my second.”
“Do you swear that the name of H.R.H. the Duke of Kent was unconnected with your proceedings against H.R.H. the Duke of York?”
“I swear it was wholly unconnected.”
“Can you inform me whether Major Dodd held any situation under the Duke of Kent?”
“I believe he did.”
“What situation?”
“I believe he was private secretary.”
“Wasn’t that a very confidential situation?”
“Most certainly.”
“You and Major Dodd and Major Glennie took Mrs. Clarke with you on a visit to the Martello Towers?”
“Yes.”
“Your object then was to procure information about the Duke of York?”
“It was.”
“You had no other object in mind?”
“No.”
“Did Mrs. Clarke mention the Duke of Kent?”
“She frequently mentioned many of the royal family, but not the Duke of Kent as knowing of the enquiry.”
“The name of the Duke of Kent was not used by you as attached to any promise, or as interested in any promise, to Mrs. Clarke?”
“Never.”
“Did you ever give Mrs. Clarke money?”
“When she said she would give me some papers, I gave her a hundred pounds to pay her butcher and baker.”
“You gave her no promises besides?”
“None, but that if she would be a steady friend to the public I would be a steady friend to her.”
“Can you mean gravely to say that no other promises were held out to her but public acknowledgment as a great and public benefactress?”
“I made her none other whatever.”
Colonel Wardle was suffered to withdraw, and Major Dodd was examined in his place. He gave evidence to the effect that neither he nor Colonel Wardle had made promises to Mrs. Clarke, and that as far as he knew Colonel Wardle had never undertaken to pay for the furniture at Westbourne Place. The Attorney-General listened with folded arms and eyes closed: he did not even bother to cross-examine the witness himself, but motioned to his junior counsel to do so.
“I believe you held a high situation under His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent?”
“I was His Royal Highness’s private secretary.”
“Do you hold that situation now?”
“I do not.”
“About what time were you deprived of it?”
“I cannot say on what day I relinquished my situation, I feel it unsuitable to do so.”
“When you first met Mrs. Clarke had you not constant access to His Royal Highness? Were you not backwards and forwards from Westbourne Place to H.R.H., and from H.R.H. to Westbourne Place?”
“Yes, I was frequently with His Royal Highness, and at Westbourne Place.”
“Did you never inform His Royal Highness you were engaged on the business with Colonel Wardle?”
“No, I did not.”
“Had he not the least suspicion of it, or that you were daily consulted about the matter?”
“No, I thought it would have been indelicate to mention the subject to His Royal Highness.”
Counsel turned to the Lord Chief Justice.
“If it is thought necessary to go into an enquiry why this gentleman was dismissed from his situation we are ready to do so.”
Lord Ellenborough looked grave.
“That is a thing which I cannot permit. It cannot possibly have any bearing upon this case.”
Major Dodd withdrew and Major Glennie was called.
“You came accidentally into this business?” Counsel enquired.
“I understood Colonel Wardle wanted information from the lady. He wished to put a stop to corrupt practices in the Army.”
“Then you wished to see corruption put down also. Did you go down to criticize the Martello Towers?”
“I went to satisfy myself of their utility, not to criticize. I had published a book on dockyard fortifications.”
“You took notes when you went on this expedition?”
“Yes, I did.”
“On the Martello Towers?”
“No, on another subject.”
“On what subject?”
“Well, to put it plainly, on what Mrs. Clarke said about the royal family.”
“You did not omit to register a single thing which you thought might be offensive to those concerned?”
“They were about making baronets and peers, and different incidents which happened in the royal family.”
Major Glennie, to his own surprise and disappointment—the éclat of being a witness had rather fired him—was directed to withdraw, and after other witnesses had been examined and cross-examined, among them Illingworth the wine merchant and Sir Richard Phillips the publisher, the case for the Prosecution closed.
The Attorney-General rose to speak for the Defense, and having gone over the preceding evidence, he then produced his single witness and trump card, Mrs. Clarke’s own lawyer, Mr. Stokes.
Mr. Stokes, known to the Prosecution, the Defense and the Court in general as a lawyer of impeccable integrity, stated that during the proceedings in the House of Commons last February he had had an interview with Colonel Wardle as to the advisability or non-advisability of summoning Francis Wright as a witness on the part of Mrs. Clarke; and that he, Mr. Stokes, had strongly advised against it, as during cross-examination it would be very probable that Colonel Wardle’s having furnished a house for Mrs. Clarke would come out, which would be seized upon by the Government as bribery, and therefore heap immediate discredit on Colonel Wardle’s cause. Mr. Stokes said he had no doubt whatsoever that Colonel Wardle had undertaken to furnish and pay for the house in Westbourne Place.
A sensation was produced in Court by the lawyer’s evidence, and the Prosecuting Counsel, Mr. Alley, rose to his feet in perplexity.
“I beg to submit to your Lordship that the evidence just given by Mr. Stokes was totally unexpected, not only by myself, but I believe by the whole Court. I must entreat your Lordship’s indulgence for five minutes
that I may send for Colonel Wardle.”
The Lord Chief Justice granted the request and Colonel Wardle appeared for reexamination by his Counsel. He said he perfectly well remembered an interview with Mr. Stokes during the time of the Investigation, and that the reason why Francis Wright was not called to the bar of the House of Commons was because his evidence might have been dangerous to Mrs. Clarke, and certainly not because it might have been dangerous to him, Colonel Wardle.
The Attorney-General now addressed the Court again.
“May it please your Lordship, Gentlemen of the Jury. They have now called Colonel Wardle to contradict Mr. Stokes. Compare the manner in which these two witnesses have given their testimony. Carry in your recollection the clear and reflecting manner in which Mr. Stokes has given his evidence respecting his memory, by referring to the documents which he produced, and which certainly tended to confirm his evidence. That Colonel Wardle should have contradicted Mr. Stokes is perfectly natural. If he had not been ready to contradict him he had better have gone into Yorkshire.
“You have heard the evidence of Mr. Stokes, and after hearing that, I think it impossible that you should hesitate in believing either his evidence or the evidence of Mr. Wright, and you also carry in your recollection that all this occurred long before any dispute arose between Francis Wright and Colonel Wardle.”
Mr. Alley, for the Prosecution, made a long and impassioned address in defense of his client, ending with the following words:
“The extraordinary length to which this trial has been protracted renders me unable to say all that I might have said on the present occasion in support of the Prosecution; from that circumstance, added to the lateness of the hour, I shall decline adding more than the expression of my thanks for the patient indulgence with which I have been heard by his Lordship, and by the gentlemen of the jury. I shall only add this one observation—the eyes of the United Kingdom are upon you.”
The eyes of the Lord Chief Justice had been closed, but he opened them at the conclusion of Counsel’s speech.