At this point the story began to grow logically, and the whole scheme
to expand cohesively. Her genius as a writer of fiction was being
proved; and with the strengthening of the intellectual nature came
the atrophy of the moral. She began to look higher; and the seeds of
imagination took root in her vanity till the madness latent in her
nature turned wishes into beliefs and beliefs into facts. As she was
imagining on her own behoof, why not imagine beneficially? This all
took time, so that when she was well prepared for her venture things
had moved on in the nation and the world as well as in her fictitious
romance. Manifestly she could not make a start on her venture until
the possibility vanished of witnesses from the inner circle of her
own family being brought against her; so that she could not safely
begin machinations for some time. She determined however to be ready
when occasion should serve. In the meantime she had to lead two lives.
Outwardly she was Olive Serres, daughter of Robert Wilmot born in 1772
and married in 1791, and mother of two daughters. Inwardly she was
the same woman with the same birth, marriage and motherhood, but of
different descent being (imaginatively) grand-daughter of her (real)
uncle the Rev. James Wilmot D. D. The gaps in the imaginary descent
having been thus filled up as made and provided in her own mind, she
felt more safe. Her uncle--so ran her fiction--had early in his college
life met and become friends with Count Stanislaus Poniatowski who later
became by election King of Poland. Count Poniatowski had a sister--whom
the ingenious Olive dubbed “Princess of Poland”--who became the wife
of her uncle (now her grandfather) James. To them was born, in 1750,
a daughter Olive, the marriage being kept secret for family reasons,
and the child for the same reason being passed off as the offspring of
Robert the housepainter. This child Olive, according to the fiction,
met His Royal Highness Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, brother
of the King, George III. They fell in love with each other and were
privately married--by the Rev. James Wilmot D. D.--on 4 March 1767.
They had issue one daughter, Olive, born at Warwick 3 April 1772. After
living with her for four years the Duke of Cumberland deserted his
wife, who was then pregnant, and in 1771 married--bigamously, it was
alleged--Lady Anne Horton, sister of Colonel Luttrell, daughter of Lord
Irnham, and widow of Andrew Horton of Catton, Derbyshire. The (alleged)
Royal Duchess died in France in 1774, and the Duke in 1790.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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