With the enforced termination of the polling at the fortieth day, arrived the demand of Wray for a scrutiny, and the high bailiff’s unjustifiable attitude, for which he subsequently suffered severely, of declining to make a return, compelled Fox to look elsewhere for a seat, or find no place in the coming parliament, where, as Walpole said, could Fox have stood for every seat in the kingdom he would have represented the entire return in his own person, such was his influence and popularity. “The Departure,” (May 18, 1784), the day succeeding the close of the poll, shows Fox leaving behind him the palatial abode of his warm supporter, the Prince of Wales, and taking leave of his delectable champions, the Duchess of Devonshire and her sister, the fair Lady Duncannon, _en route_ for “Coventry” or “Out-in-the-cold-shire.” Fox is observing on his retreat:-- “If that a scrutiny at last takes place, I can’t tell how ’twill be, and please your Grace!” Fox’s early ally, Burke, equipped as an outrider, is prepared to drive his friend away from the scene of his triumphs; under Edmund’s arm is a “plan of economy,” suggestive of necessary retrenchments in the Whig camp. [Illustration: DEFEAT OF THE HIGH AND MIGHTY BALISSIMO CORBETTINO AND HIS FAMED CECILIAN FORCES, ON THE PLAINS OF ST. MARTIN, ON THURSDAY, THE 3RD DAY OF FEBRUARY, 1785, BY THE CHAMPION OF THE PEOPLE AND HIS CHOSEN BAND. [_Page 287._] Among the tactics of the Ministerialists may be reckoned the ominous “scrutiny,” which was threatened directly Fox’s votes began to outnumber those in favour of his rival, Wray. On Fox’s success this intention was carried out, the returning officer acting partially in order to connive at the manœuvre; a scrutiny being notoriously a tedious, lengthy, and costly affair, and hence more vexations to Fox than to the combined forces of his opponents. This circumstance is illustrated by the caricaturist, nearly a twelvemonth later; when the excitement of the protracted contest had cooled down, Fox secured another victory over his adversaries, which is commemorated in Rowlandson’s version of the affair (March 7, 1785), entitled:--