she was the daughter of the Duke of Cumberland by Mrs. Payne, the
sister of Dr. Wilmot; and in 1817 she still described herself as Dr.
Wilmot's niece. It was said that she did not come into possession of
the papers until after Lord Warwick's death, but this assertion was
contradicted by the evidence of Mrs. Ryves, as to events which were
within her own recollection, and which she represented to have passed
in her presence.

The second stage of the story was contained in a letter to Mr.
Fielding, the Bow Street magistrate, in October, 1817. Having been
threatened with arrest, she wrote to him for protection, and in this
letter she represented herself as the natural daughter of the late
Duke of Cumberland by a sister of the late Dr. Wilmot, whom he had
seduced under promise of marriage, she being a lady of large fortune.
In connection with this stage of the story, he referred to another
letter which she wrote to the Prince-Regent in July, 1818, in which
she stated that Lord Warwick had told her the story of her birth in
his lifetime, but without showing her any documents; that he excused
himself for not having made the disclosure before by saying that he
was unable to repay a sum of L2000 which had been confided to him by
the Duke of Cumberland for her benefit; and then she actually went on
to say that when Lord Warwick died she thought all evidence was lost
until she opened a sealed packet which contained the documents. This
was quite inconsistent with the extraordinary story of Mrs. Ryves as to
the communication of the papers to her and her mother in 1815.

The claim of legitimate royal birth was first brought forward at a
time of great excitement and agitation, when the case of Queen
Caroline was before the public; and it was brought forward in a tone
of intimidation--a revolution being threatened if the claim were not
recognised within a few hours. The documents were changed at times to
suit the changing story, and there was every reason to believe that
they were concocted by Mrs. Serres herself, who was a careful student
of the _Junius_ MSS., who was an artist and practised caligraphist,
and who had gone through such a course of study as well prepared her
for the fabrication of forged documents. The internal evidence of the
papers themselves proved that they were the most ridiculous, absurd,
preposterous series of forgeries that perverted ingenuity ever
invented. If every expert that ever lived in the world swore t