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 MEDALLION, CATHERINE II. OF RUSSIA 
 WHITE AND DARK GREEN JASPER
 
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 THE COURTSHIPS OF 
 CATHERINE THE GREAT
 
 " We can recommend it heartily as an 
 interesting and accurate account of the 
 lighter interests of the times of Elizabeth." 
 
 AtheN/*:um. 
 
 THE QUEEN'S PROGRESS 
 
 AND 
 
 OTHER ELIZABETHAN SKETCHES 
 
 BY 
 
 FELIX E. SCHELLING 
 
 Crown 8vo, Decorative Cover, with Six Photo- 
 gravure Portraits, 10/- net 
 
 This book is produced with typography and binding at- 
 tractively suggestive of the Elizabethan Period. 
 
 The volume is a collection of essays of the great age that 
 produced Spenser, Bacon, and Shakespeare. They are con- 
 cerned less with repetitions in new form of old and familiar 
 figures than with an attempt to present those spacious times 
 under some of their more interesting sidelights. From the 
 title essay, which describes the sumptuous entertainments 
 which were offered to Queen Elizabeth on her " progresses" 
 through her realm, to Ben Jonson's pedestrian Journey to 
 the North, and the grant to him by the admiring Scots of the 
 freedom of Edinburgh, the reader is in the midst of the busy 
 and multifarious Elizabethan world.
 
 ."•■i^
 
 HE 
 
 \THER II 
 
 
 
 
 
 T. V 
 
 CLIFF( 
 
 .M»«^2*\l«>V^ 
 
 . A ,aeU« lO TA390 3HT 3H.K3HTAO
 
 CATHERINE THE GREAT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 graph by N. Maur.n. FnUkfim
 
 THE COURTSHIPS OF 
 CATHERINE THE GREAT 
 
 BY PHILIP W. 
 SERGEANT, B.A. 
 
 LATE SCHOLAR OF TRINITY 
 COLLEGE, OXFORD 
 
 
 iBm 
 
 
 T. WERNER LAURIE 
 
 CLIFFORD'S INN, LONDON 
 
 i9°5
 
 First Printing . February 33, jgoj 
 Second Printing . February 24, 1905
 
 URL 
 
 i 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Preface 
 
 ourites 
 Chapter VI. The Crimean Journey . 
 Chapter VII. The Death of Patiomkin 
 Chapter VIII. The Last Years 
 Chapter IX. Catherine the Great . 
 Chapter X. Catherine the Great {continued) 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ix 
 
 Chapter I. Catherine's Girlhood ... 3 
 
 Chapter II. The Grand Duchess 33 
 
 Chapter III. The Revolution of 1762 . . 79 
 
 Chapter IV. The Orlof Ascendancy . .119 
 
 Chapter V. Patiomkin and the Minor Fav- 
 
 161 
 201 
 231 
 263 
 283 
 
 3i5 
 
 Index 335
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Catherine II. the Great of Russia. From a Litho- 
 graph by N. Maurin .... Frontispiece 
 
 Gregory Orlof 119 
 
 General Field - Marshal Prince Patiomkin 
 
 Taurida. Mezzotint by James Walker . . 161 
 
 Map of Catherine's Crimean Journey . . .201 
 
 Catherine II., Empr~ ~ of Russia. From the Origi- 
 nal Picture in the Collection of His Excellency 
 Le Comte Voronzof. Published in 1787 by 
 Boydell; engraved by Caroline Watson . 231 
 
 Statue to Catherine II. in Front of the St 
 Petersburg Theatre (Figures of some of her 
 Courtiers surround the Statue) .... 283 
 
 Vll
 
 PREFACE 
 
 In a volume published nine years ago on 
 Catherine II. of Russia and her attitude towards 
 the French Revolution, the French writer, 
 M. C. de Lariviere, classes Frederick of Prussia, 
 Maria Theresa, and Catherine the Great with 
 " King Voltaire " as the real masters of the 
 Eighteenth Century. There is a justice in this 
 verdict which makes it no matter for surprise 
 that, while interest is still taken in what Mr 
 Havelock Ellis calls " the most human century," 
 books should continue to be written about any 
 of the four. And of them all certainly Cathe- 
 rine is the most fascinating character. French 
 writers may claim to have done their duty by 
 her nobly, but, strange to say, she has been 
 much neglected in England. The following 
 book is only an attempt to look at some of 
 the aspects of Catherine, with no thought of 
 competing with the great pioneering work 
 which has been done elsewhere, notably by 
 M. Waliszewski. To that author, with his 
 tremendous wealth of quotation from sources 
 almost inaccessible, certainly not accessible in 
 
 ix 
 
 Vl
 
 Preface 
 
 England, the present writer begs to make his 
 acknowledgments for guidance on very many 
 points. Acknowledgments are also due to 
 MM. JaufFert and Rambaud for the assistance 
 derived from their writings on the policy of 
 Catherine the Great. 
 
 It should, perhaps, be mentioned that in 
 quoting from the "Life of Catherine II.," by 
 the Rev. W. Tooke, the Islingtonian who be- 
 came in 1774 chaplain to the English factory 
 at St Petersburg, no attempt has been made 
 to distinguish what is original in his work and 
 what borrowed from Castera, but quotations 
 have been made from Tooke 's third edition in 
 almost every case. These two writers adapted 
 from each other in turn so freely that it would, 
 perhaps, be fairest to attribute the " Life " to 
 Tooke-Castera or to Castera-Tooke. 
 
 Philip Walsingham Sergeant. 
 
 London, January 1905.
 
 CATHERINE'S 
 GIRLHOOD 

 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Catherine's girlhood 
 
 If Voltaire's saying be true about the happi- 
 ness of a writer who should give to the world a 
 history of Catherine the Great, it is certain that 
 the happiness would be greater had the ingeni- 
 ous minds of some authors, whose works appeared 
 soon after her death, found better scope than 
 in collecting and polishing up every scrap of 
 scandal which they could by search discover 
 concerning her. She was, it may be admitted, 
 from about her twenty-fifth year a woman 
 whose life gave scandal the fullest opportunity 
 to gather about her. But the writers to whom 
 we have alluded, not content with the scurrility 
 of a society journal in perpetuity, presented 
 Catherine with a childhood in keeping with 
 the womanhood which they distorted and the 
 old age of which they refused to see aught but 
 the evil side. So it is that whoever seeks to 
 follow the career of Catherine is compelled to 
 reject much and to choose but little that is not 
 
 3
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 established beyond doubt by the acknowledged 
 good faith of a few authors. 
 
 The known facts about the early days of 
 Catherine are not many in comparison with the 
 abundance of legends which have grown up about 
 them, but it is generally allowed to be true 
 that she was born in the Pomeranian town of 
 Stettin on the 2nd of May, 1729. Attempts 
 have been made to prove that the event took 
 place at Dornburg, where was the family seat 
 of the Anhalt-Zerbsts. There seems, however, 
 no reason for doubting the contemporary evi- 
 dence of her father, Prince Christian-August 
 of Anhalt-Zerbst, that his daughter was born 
 at Stettin on the day mentioned. The almost 
 inexhaustible conjectural ability of some German 
 writers has been lavishly employed to show 
 that not only was she not born at Stettin but 
 also she was not the child of Prince Christian- 
 August. In place of the latter some would 
 put Frederick, afterwards the Great, who was 
 only sixteen years old at the date of Catherine's 
 birth, but who was, probably, somewhere in the 
 neighbourhood of Dornburg in the previous 
 year ; others would ascribe the paternity to 
 a young Russian. The point of these conjec- 
 tures it is impossible to see ; and it may be 
 
 4
 
 Catherine's Girlhood 
 
 taken for granted that the infant Sophia 
 Augusta Frederika, who was to become known 
 to history as Catherine II. of Russia, was the 
 daughter of Prince Christian-August and of 
 his wife, Jeanne-Elizabeth, a Holstein princess, 
 who, though a friend of Frederick the Great, 
 and bearing among her contemporaries in 
 Germany a reputation for intellect as well as 
 looks, appears in a very unfavourable light in 
 her daughter's writings ; nor does the daughter 
 seem to have been unjust. 
 
 With regard to her life as a child, we must 
 take Catherine's own word for it that it was 
 not exciting. "I see nothing of interest in 
 it ' : were her words to Baron Grimm, the 
 correspondent to whom she wrote most freely ; 
 and in her Memoirs it is to be noted that she 
 says nothing about the early days beyond the 
 mention of a visit to Eutin. Yet there are 
 some biographers who have shown a perverted 
 ingenuity in the invention of a scandalous 
 career for Catherine when barely in her teens. 
 This is the mere licence of romancers, who have 
 not the slightest foundation of fact on which 
 to base their stories. The fullest history, as 
 far as such is possible, of the future Empress's 
 childhood may be found in the pages of 
 
 5
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 M. Waliszewski, 1 who pictures " Figchen " — for 
 so Sophia was called in her own family — play- 
 ing in the streets of Stettin with the neigh- 
 bours' children, being treated to occasional blows 
 by her mother out of sheer ill-temper, receiving 
 an education mainly French, travelling about 
 with her parents on visits to their numerous 
 relatives, and in most ways having the ordinary 
 life and training of German princesses of her 
 day, without displaying any exceptional qualities 
 to excite the attention of those who surrounded 
 her. She had two German teachers, for her 
 own language and for music, but the principal 
 part of her education was entrusted to a 
 Mademoiselle Cardel and to a French chaplain. 
 For Mademoiselle Cardel she retained enough 
 affection to send her furs after she had gone to 
 Russia ; but it appears that Catherine's liveliest 
 recollection of her was that she complained of 
 the excessive sharpness of her pupil's chin, 
 which she was "always sticking out so as to 
 knock into people." In justice to the French 
 governess, it must be recorded that the Prince 
 de Ligne, than whom Catherine never had a 
 more devoted partisan, describing her at the 
 age of fifty, remarks that her chin, " if not ab- 
 
 1 " Le Roman d'une lmperatrice." 
 6
 
 Catherine's Girlhood 
 
 solutely prominent, was certainly not retreat- 
 ing." But Sophia was introduced by Made- 
 moiselle Cardel to the study of Racine, Moliere, 
 and Corneille, and the taste for French literature 
 never left her. In the first profound dullness 
 of her marriage she devoted herself to novels, 
 until, tiring of these, she turned finally to 
 Voltaire, who at once became her favourite 
 author, and remained so until the outburst of 
 the French Revolution stirred up her monar- 
 chical feelings, and caused her to detest France, 
 the home of subversive doctrines. 
 
 Sophia was not quite fifteen years of age 
 when, in the New Year of 1744, an invitation 
 was received from St Petersburg for the Princess 
 Jeanne-Elizabeth to come to Russia, and bring 
 her daughter with her. The Anhalt-Zerbsts 
 had been spending Christmas at Zerbst with 
 Christian's brother, who had just succeeded to 
 the principality. The purport of the message 
 could, no doubt, easily be guessed. Though 
 it was not written by the Empress Elizabeth 
 its tone of command was plainly due to her. 
 Elizabeth, who began to rule over Russia in 
 1741, had in the next year fetched to St 
 Petersburg the young Prince Peter Ulric of 
 Holstein, her nephew, and son of the Princess 
 
 7
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 Jeanne-Elizabeth's first cousin, and had pro- 
 claimed him her heir. A bride was needed for 
 him, and it was a well-established custom in 
 Russia to seek German princesses for the Royal 
 Family. The French writer Masson, who was 
 ten years at the Russian Court, almost tearfully, 
 and at some considerable length, deplores the 
 sad lot of such princesses, and denounces the 
 mercenary conduct of their fathers. He points 
 to the unhappiness of Sophia of Brunswick, 
 wife of the Tsarevitch Alexis ; of the Regent 
 Anna, mother of the hapless Ivan III. ; of the 
 Grand Duchess Natalie of Darmstadt, first 
 wife of Catherine's son Paul. He compares 
 the young and touching victims to the maidens 
 sent by Greece to the Cretan minotaur, and 
 ends with a fervent apostrophe. Certainly the 
 indignity, not to say cruelty, of these German 
 fathers, content to send their daughters to 
 Russia on approval, can only inspire disgust. 
 
 Peter Ulric of Holstein, now Grand Duke 
 of Russia, had already been seen once by Sophia 
 in 1739, when she was ten and he was eleven 
 years old. Peter's father, the Duke of Holstein 
 (of whom Catherine's Memoirs remark that he 
 was "feeble, ugly, little, sickly, and poor"), had 
 married a daughter of Peter the Great, who 
 
 8
 
 Catherine's Girlhood 
 
 died three months after Peter Ulric's birth. 
 The Duke himself died in 1739, leaving his son 
 under the guardianship of his cousin, Augustus 
 Frederick, Prince Bishop of Liibeek. The latter 
 assembled all his family at Eutin, shortly after 
 the Duke's death, to meet his ward, and it was 
 then that the husband and wife that were to be 
 met. What Peter's impressions were we do 
 not know, but we have the future bride's. At 
 the beginning of her Memoirs she says that even 
 at the age of ten Peter had shown a fondness 
 for drink. One would hardly have thought 
 that this would have been apparent to her at 
 Eutin, but at any rate she says (writing, it is 
 true, many years later) : " It was then that I 
 heard it stated, in the presence of the assembled 
 family, that the young Duke was inclined to 
 drink, his attendants finding it difficult to keep 
 him from getting intoxicated at table ; that he 
 was restless and impetuous ; without affection 
 for those about him, and especially disliking 
 Briimmer ; that otherwise he was not wanting 
 in vivacity, but that he was of a weak and sickly 
 constitution." She goes on to say that he had 
 a pale complexion, and seemed thin and delicate, 
 and that his attendants, wishing to give him the 
 appearance of a man, tormented him with re- 
 
 9
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 straints calculated to teach him to be false in 
 character and manners alike — not an attractive 
 sketch, it must be admitted. The Brummer 
 mentioned was a Swede, who had the post of 
 Grand Master of Peter's Court both while he 
 was under his uncle's care and when he went to 
 Russia. A French wit said of Brummer that 
 he was a good trainer of horses, not of princes. 
 He was brutal in manner, and was particularly 
 hateful to his pupil. Peter's early education 
 had been scanty on account of his health, and 
 he was taught more of soldiering than of any- 
 thing else. With his uncle (who afterwards 
 became King of Sweden himself) Peter was 
 brought up with the idea of succeeding to the 
 throne of Sweden, his father having been nephew 
 to Charles XII. The story was that when 
 Peter was chosen by the Empress Elizabeth 
 as heir to herself Brummer did his best to 
 corrupt the boy's character. Catherine says : 
 " I have always doubted this atrocious tale, and 
 looked upon the education of Peter the Third 
 as a conflict of unfortunate circumstances." But 
 it cannot be denied that in Brummer Peter 
 had a most unworthy tutor. 
 
 The letter which summoned the Anhalt- 
 Zerbst ladies to Russia was written by this 
 
 10
 
 Catherine's Girlhood 
 
 Briimmer, though inspired by the Empress. 
 It urged the importance of haste, and the 
 mother was instructed not to bring her husband 
 or say anything to anyone as to the reason of 
 the journey. The letter itself said nothing of 
 this reason either. But a communication from 
 Frederick the Great immediately followed, in 
 which he at least suggested that he had selected 
 Sophia as a suitable wife for Peter. He had, 
 indeed, in 1742 brought it about that the young 
 Princess should have her portrait painted in 
 Berlin, and this had been sent to Elizabeth. 
 The Prussian representative at St Petersburg, 
 too, had been instructed to urge the alliance. 
 The Russian Vice-Chancellor, Count Bestujef, 
 whose sympathies were with Austria, Saxony, 
 and England against the present combination 
 of French, Swedish, and Prussian interests, 
 opposed the scheme most strongly ; but the 
 French and Prussian ministers together urged 
 their views on Elizabeth, warning her against 
 contracting for Peter a marriage with a princess 
 of a more important family, who might be less 
 docile than Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst. 
 
 Sophia, of course, had no voice in the matter. 
 She may have guessed the object of the journey, 
 even if her mother controlled herself so far as 
 
 11
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 not to drop a hint, for both her father and her 
 uncle were very solemn in manner when they 
 bade her good-bye, and while the latter gave 
 her a handsome piece of blue and silver stuff 
 (which was afterwards to figure unexpectedly 
 prominently in her story), her father presented 
 her with a volume by Heineccius, the great 
 professor, on the Greek faith. Catherine's 
 Memoirs do not elucidate the question whether 
 she knew what was proposed. The injunctions 
 of Brummer as to haste were obeyed so well 
 that no time was given even for the preparation 
 of a wardrobe. The Memoirs mention three or 
 four dresses and a dozen chemises — not exces- 
 sive for a journey of about a month. It was no 
 exaggeration when she wrote, late in life : "I 
 came to Russia poor " — proudly adding, " but I 
 leave her as my dower Poland and the Crimea." 
 It is recorded that when the orphan princesses 
 of Baden-Durlach were brought to Russia in 
 1795 to marry Catherine's grandsons she ex- 
 amined their wardrobes, and said to them : "I 
 was not as rich as you when I came to Russia." 
 Yet in 1796 she was vexed at the penury of the 
 Saxe-Coburg princesses, one of whom that year 
 was married to Constantine. 
 
 In the second week of January, then, the 
 
 12
 
 Catherine's Girlhood 
 
 Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst and her daughter 
 set out, and plunged into cold so intense that 
 masks had to be worn to protect the face. At 
 Memel the post-horses yielded place to peasants 
 as drawers of the carriage, which did not make 
 the journey faster or more easy. At last, on the 
 6th of February, the town of Riga was reached, 
 and all was changed. What were Sophia's im- 
 pressions of the receptions, guards of honour, 
 bands of music, and other ceremonies which 
 awaited them at Riga there is no means of 
 knowing. Her mother was charmed, and told 
 her husband that it seemed to her that she 
 must be in the suite of Her Imperial Majesty 
 or of a great princess. " It never enters my 
 head that all this can be for poor me," she wrote. 
 It was not; but she was not wont to consider 
 Sophia overmuch. The Empress Elizabeth was 
 at Moscow when they arrived ; but they stopped 
 at St Petersburg long enough to repair their 
 lack of suitable costume, and meanwhile went 
 through a great round of festivities, in which 
 "the grandeur of her surroundings," according 
 to her mother, "sustained Figchen's courage," 
 while she herself felt the fatigue far more. 
 The intentions of Elizabeth towards her guests 
 were evidently well known. 
 
 13
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 All haste was made to get to Moscow in time 
 for Peter's birthday, which was on the 21st of 
 February. Peter was now sixteen, and still very 
 childish, according to the Memoirs. His sole 
 occupation in his private apartments was to 
 make his two personal servants go through 
 military exercises, and to give them titles and 
 rank, or degrade them at his whim. " Real 
 child's play, and a constant childhood," Catherine 
 sums it up. But he seemed pleased at the 
 arrival of her and her mother, and showed her 
 much attention during the first few days. This 
 attention was certainly curious, however. " I 
 was silent, and listened, and this won me his 
 confidence. I remember his telling me, among 
 other things, that what pleased him was that I 
 was his cousin, for owing to our near kinship he 
 could open his heart to me with entire con- 
 fidence ; and he went on to inform me that he 
 was in love with one of the Empress's maids-of- 
 honour." He told her, however, that he was 
 resigned to marrying her to please his aunt. 
 She " listened with a blush to these family dis- 
 closures, and was astounded at his imprudence 
 and want of judgment." Undoubtedly, Peter 
 was frank to the point of imbecility, but what 
 Catherine says of his confidences to her does 
 
 14
 
 Catherine's Girlhood 
 
 not justify some writers in saying, as they do, 
 that Peter regaled her with stories of his low 
 intrigues. At this period at least she represents 
 him as foolish, not as disgusting. 
 
 The Anhalt-Zerbst princesses seem to have 
 made a rapid conquest. Both were decorated 
 with the Order of Catherine at once, and to 
 Sophia were assigned three masters, including 
 Simon Theodorsky, afterwards Archbishop of 
 Pleskof, who instructed her in the Greek faith. 
 In religious matters, too, she had the advantage 
 of a manuscript treatise by her father, who 
 entrusted it to her mother at the same time 
 that he gave Sophia Heineccius. Her father's 
 work was partly directed to keeping her a 
 Lutheran, if matters could so be arranged, but 
 it also inculcated the need of putting her 
 husband's good pleasure above all, and of other- 
 wise conducting herself well, notably by re- 
 fraining from meddling in the affairs of 
 government. The child wrote to thank her 
 father for his instructions ; one would like to 
 know whether the advice recurred to her in 
 1762. To the Russian language she devoted 
 herself with eagerness, so much so that she very 
 soon caught a severe cold through getting up 
 again to work after she had retired to bed. She 
 
 U 

 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 records, in one of the many intimate touches in 
 her Memoirs, that, her room being warm, she 
 neglected to put on her stockings, and so, on 
 the fifteenth day at Moscow, she was seized with 
 a pleurisy which threatened to kill her. Her 
 mother felt sure it was small-pox. The doctors 
 were all for bleeding her, which her mother, 
 sensible in this at least, forbade ; but she made 
 up for this by scolding Sophia for not bearing 
 her sufferings patiently. The poor girl was in 
 a burning fever, and the acute pain in her side 
 made her moan. The Empress had already 
 gone away to the Troitza Convent to pray when 
 Sophia fell ill, and did not return until the fifth 
 day, when she found the sufferer unconscious, 
 and at once ordered her to be bled. The 
 Memoirs add : " For twenty-seven days I lay 
 between life and death, and during that period 
 I was bled on sixteen occasions, sometimes as 
 often as four times a day." 
 
 It seems as if that must almost have happened 
 which she asked of her physician in later days, 
 when, in her desire to become a thorough 
 Russian, she bade him "drain her of her last 
 drop of German blood." But she survived, and 
 at last started to recover. The mother, pro- 
 testing against the treatment, had been kept 
 
 16
 
 Catherine's Girlhood 
 
 out of the sickroom. Sophia soon found that 
 the Princess's general conduct had lowered her 
 in everyone's esteem, as she puts it. Among 
 other things, she sent to take from Sophia the 
 piece of blue and silver stuff, her uncle's gift. 
 Sophia resigned it at once, though prizing it very 
 much. The effect of this was not lost, for 
 the Empress loaded her with superb gifts of 
 stuff, including a blue and silver piece, and 
 it was easy for the patient to tell, from 
 conversations overheard by her as she lay with 
 closed eyes in bed, what Elizabeth and her 
 ladies, who paid constant visits, thought about 
 the matter. 
 
 At last, on her fifteenth birthday, she was 
 able to appear in public again for the first time. 
 " I fancy," she writes, " that people were not 
 much edified with the apparition. I had wasted 
 away to a skeleton. I had grown taller, but 
 my face and features had lengthened out, my 
 hair had fallen off, and I was deadly pale. To 
 myself I seemed frightfully ugly. I could not 
 recognise myself. The Empress sent me a pot 
 of rouge, and told me to use it." The Grand 
 Duke, however, did not seem affected by her 
 "frightful ugliness." During her convalescence 
 he had been a frequent visitor to her mother's 
 b 17
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 apartments, which were also hers, and he con- 
 tinued his uninvited confidences. 
 
 The Empress had returned to Troitza when 
 she was assured of Sophia's recovery, and the 
 rest of the party followed her. But the relations 
 between Elizabeth and the Princess of Anhalt- 
 Zerbst became exceedingly strained, owing to 
 the fact that some letters of the French minister, 
 the Marquis de la Chetardie, which had been 
 opened and read, were found to contain reports 
 of conversations he had with the Princess about 
 the Russian Empress. The marriage scheme 
 nearly fell through in consequence. Count 
 Lestocq, of the Empress's suite, actually came 
 into the room where the two children were 
 laughing and playing on the window-seat one 
 day, and said : " This merriment must stop at 
 once." Then, turning to Sophia: "You have 
 simply to pack up ; you will return to your home 
 directly." He would tell them no reason, and 
 left them. According to the Memoirs, the girl 
 saw that Peter would give her up without regret ; 
 and for herself, the loss of him was indifferent, 
 but that of the Russian crown was not. How- 
 ever, at length the door of the next room opened, 
 and the Empress came out, red-faced and angry, 
 followed by the Princess, with her eyes red and 
 
 18
 
 Catherine's Girlhood 
 
 wet with tears. The children hastened to jump 
 down off the high window-seat on which they 
 were still sitting together, whereon Elizabeth 
 was moved to a smile, and suddenly embraced 
 them both. Thus strangely the trouble blew 
 over, and mother and daughter were sent to 
 Moscow, where they now passed a much quieter 
 time while Sophia was being prepared for her 
 conversion. This was to take place on the eve 
 of St Peter's Day, with the betrothal to follow 
 next day. She was, plainly, quite ready to 
 change her faith if the tale were true, which was 
 generally believed at the time, that when her 
 mother wished to send for a Lutheran minister, 
 thinking her at the point of death, she asked 
 rather for Simon Theodorsky. Her parents' 
 wishes could not restrain her, and at last Prince 
 Christian- August's scruples were overcome, and 
 he gave his consent to conversion and marriage 
 alike. Sophia was a far easier convert than her 
 future husband, who, having been brought up 
 a most rigid Lutheran, had given much trouble 
 before he changed. He was most difficult to 
 get to church, and, according to his attendants, 
 used to display his irreligion before Simon. He 
 was obliged, ultimately, to conform to the wishes 
 of his aunt Elizabeth, who was a pietist, at 
 
 19
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 least outwardly, and even a persecutor ; but 
 Catherine's Memoirs say : " Whether it were pre- 
 judice, habit, or the spirit of contradiction, he 
 frequently let it be seen that he would rather 
 have gone to Sweden than remain in Russia." 
 Briimmer had not made him hate Sweden, it 
 seems. 
 
 It was under the name of Catherine Alexievna 
 that the young Princess was received into the 
 Greek Church, and the betrothal duly followed. 
 After this event a regular Court was formed for 
 the Grand Duchess elect, the principal lady 
 being the Countess Rumianzof. But this in- 
 crease of her dignity did not make her position 
 any easier. In the first place, her mother and 
 the Grand Duke became on exceedingly bad 
 terms, owing, as it appears from what Catherine 
 says, to the temper of the Princess of Anhalt- 
 Zerbst, and her own situation between the two 
 was daily more "thorny." Secondly, when the 
 Court went to Moscow for the autumn she 
 learnt that the Empress was furious with her 
 because she (at fifteen !) was heavily in debt. 
 She describes the scene graphically. Elizabeth 
 chose an occasion when all were at the theatre, 
 the young Count being in a box facing the 
 Imperial box. Count Lestocq, after listening to 
 
 20
 
 Catherine's Girlhood 
 
 an angry harangue from the Empress, came over, 
 and told Catherine the cause. Wells might be 
 exhausted, the Empress had said, and she had 
 never run into debt as a princess. The Grand 
 Duke, who was sitting next her, took care that 
 his aunt should see him joining in the lecture. 
 Finally, her mother said that they had put 
 Catherine in the way of acting without con- 
 sulting her, and that she washed her hands of 
 it all. Everyone was against Catherine ; her 
 only refuge was silence and tears. She admits 
 that she was seventeen thousand roubles in 
 debt. But she had come to Russia with hardly 
 any clothes ; the Countess Rumianzof, who was 
 head of her household, was "the greatest spend- 
 thrift in Russia " ; and she had found that 
 everyone in Russia liked presents, particularly 
 the Grand Duke. Presumably, however, the 
 Empress forgave the extravagances, for Catherine 
 tells no more about them. 
 
 In December the Grand Duke suddenly con- 
 tracted small-pox, and Catherine and her mother 
 were packed off to St Petersburg, while the 
 Empress watched over the patient. Catherine 
 did not see him again until February, when she 
 found him much grown, badly marked, and quite 
 unrecognisable. She could only stammer her 
 
 21
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 congratulations ; but he had become hideous, 
 she says. He was as childish as ever, and 
 showed no desire for her company. She took 
 refuge in the society of her waiting-maids or 
 the younger ladies of her little Court ; while the 
 Countess Rumianzof, who was the terror of 
 all, happily spent all her days playing at 
 cards. Easter devotions, too, occupied much of 
 Catherine's time ; but Peter only showed a great 
 dislike of her attention to these duties. He 
 came to see her less and less often, and would 
 only take her part against her mother, who 
 treated her with querulous ill-humour, unworthy 
 suspicions, and actual unkindness. It is difficult 
 to believe that the young girl can have borne 
 her tortures with the calm which she represents 
 as having been hers. Yet occasional tears are 
 all to which she pleads guilty. 
 
 Catherine in her Memoirs writes that, as the 
 day of her marriage drew nearer, she became 
 more and more melancholy, her heart predicting 
 little happiness, and only ambition sustaining her. 
 But she speaks of a presentiment that she was 
 some day to become Empress of Russia in her 
 own right. It may be that she had this pre- 
 sentiment, though it must be remembered that 
 she is recording it many years after she had 
 
 22
 
 Catherine's Girlhood 
 
 actually become sole ruler of the country of her 
 adoption. There is no doubt that the feeling, 
 if it existed at the time, must have consoled her 
 not a little. When the 21st of August, 1745, 
 at last arrived the pomp and magnificence of 
 the ceremonies, which continued a full ten days, 
 must have brought weariness, which even the 
 arrival of wedding presents from all over Europe 
 could not dissipate. At the end of the ten days 
 the bride and bridegroom went to live at the 
 Summer Palace, where Elizabeth now was. 
 Already Peter showed signs of his unsuitability 
 for his new part. He still exercised his servants 
 regularly in his room, varying this performance 
 by changing his uniform some twenty times a 
 day. What wonder that Catherine "yawned 
 and grew weary " ? A month after the wedding 
 her mother left. Since that date Catherine had 
 not seen her daily, and her manner is reported 
 by her daughter to have softened much towards 
 her, so that at parting Catherine was sincerely 
 affected, and wept a great deal. The Empress 
 Elizabeth did not weep, it is hardly surprising to 
 learn, but told the Princess that it would have 
 been better for all had her conduct always been 
 as humble as it was at the moment of taking 
 leave. With this remark of the Empress upon 
 
 23
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 her the unamiable lady passes out of the story, 
 except for the brief allusion we have to two 
 smuggled letters to and from her daughter in 
 1748. 
 
 Poor comfort as the presence of the Princess 
 of Anhalt-Zerbst could have been, Catherine was 
 still more lonely after her departure. The next 
 act of the Empress was to remove Catherine's 
 favourite attendant, a girl called Jukof, for fear 
 that she might become too attached to one not 
 worthy of her. The girl's family were also 
 banished, and Catherine was at a loss to explain 
 the persecution except as wanton. A move was 
 now made to the Winter Palace, where the 
 Grand Duke continued to show his preference 
 for the society of his attendants, romping with 
 them when he was not putting them through 
 military exercises. Catherine, not used to spend 
 her time alone in the society of men, solaced 
 herself as best she could with billiards with 
 Peter's chamberlain, Berkholz ; but both he and 
 Bri'immer were shortly dismissed from attend- 
 ance on the Grand Duke. Briimmer, whose 
 departure, it is hardly necessary to say, delighted 
 Peter, was replaced by Prince Repnin, whose 
 frank and soldierlike character inspired Catherine 
 with confidence. But Peter invented a fresh 
 
 24
 
 Catherine's Girlhood 
 
 horror for his unhappy wife — a marionnette 
 theatre, "the stupidest thing imaginable," the 
 performances of which she was bound to attend 
 among the other spectators invited by Peter. 
 When she took refuge in religion Peter 
 grumbled. Catherine writes, rather quaintly : 
 " I was inclined to devotion at that time. I 
 saw plainly that the Grand Duke cared little 
 for me." It was only a fortnight after their 
 wedding when he confessed to being in love 
 with another of the Empress's maids-of-honour. 
 Since she also accuses him of discussing the 
 relative merits of this lady and herself with his 
 chamberlain it is not to be marvelled at that 
 she considered it impossible not to be unhappy 
 with such a man, were she to yield to sentiments 
 of tenderness requited thus. She might have 
 died of jealousy without benefit to anyone, she 
 writes. But she did not die of jealousy. 
 
 As the Grand Duke had been entrusted to 
 the care of Prince Repnin, so Catherine had 
 soon a lady set over her household by the 
 Empress. This was a Madame Tchoglokof, a 
 relative as well as maid-of-honour of Elizabeth. 
 Catherine describes her as very silly, spiteful, 
 capricious, and selfish, and entirely under the 
 influence of Count Bestujef, in the face of 
 
 25
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 whose opposition the late marriage had been 
 carried out. The barely seventeen - year - old 
 Grand Duchess wept all the day of her new 
 duenna's arrival, which caused Elizabeth next 
 day, looking at her eyes, to remark that young 
 women who did not love their husbands were 
 always crying ; that Catherine had not been 
 forced to marry Peter ; but that, being married, 
 she must cry no more. Naturally, perhaps, 
 Catherine did not take this advice, and when 
 Peter told her shortly that Madame Tchoglokof 
 had been sent to look after her because she did 
 not love him, she remarked that she could not 
 understand how they expected "that woman" 
 to increase her attachment to him. Madame 
 Tchoglokof was, indeed, placed in Catherine's 
 household as a spy. The Memoirs dryly remark 
 on the unwisdom of employing an Argus who 
 is stupid. 
 
 The question naturally arises whether Cathe- 
 rine had as early as this shown any disposition 
 requiring an Argus. The early tales, repeated 
 by French and German scandalmongers, may 
 be dismissed as foolish lies invented to please 
 a coarse age. Catherine's Memoirs are frank 
 enough about the incidents which aroused the 
 first suspicions. The Grand Duke had three 
 
 26
 
 Catherine's Girlhood 
 
 attendants of the name of Tchernichef, three 
 brothers according to most accounts, but, ac- 
 cording to Catherine's statement, a cousin and 
 two brothers, all lieutenants, and sons of two 
 grenadiers in the Empress's bodyguard. All 
 three were tall and well-built, says Catherine, 
 especially the eldest ; and this one was a great 
 favourite of Peter, who, in the period between 
 his betrothal and marriage, was always send- 
 ing Andrew Tchernichef with messages to 
 Catherine. The young man was an intimate 
 friend of Catherine's valet - hairdresser. Both 
 were devoted to her, body and soul, she wrote 
 of them afterwards, and were very useful to 
 her in getting hold of information which she 
 could not otherwise obtain. Andrew Tcher- 
 nichef one day remarked to Peter that the 
 Princess was not his intended bride but Peter's. 
 The reason of the remark is unknown ; but it 
 took Peter's fancy, and with curious humour 
 he used after this to call his young attendant 
 Catherine's "intended." After the marriage, how- 
 ever, Andrew proposed to the Grand Duke that 
 he should call Catherine matouska, and she should 
 call him her son. Peter readily agreed. But 
 Andrew's friend the valet warned his mistress 
 seriously that her attendants were talking about 
 
 27
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 her, saying that she was in love with Andrew 
 Tchernichef, and that, while the Grand Duke 
 could do as he liked in favouring Tchernichef, 
 she could not. In the innocence of her heart 
 — the phrase is Catherine's own — the warning 
 came on her like a thunderbolt. However, it 
 had its effect, for Andrew Tchernichef thought 
 it wise to fall ill, to the great concern of Peter, 
 who did not, of course, know the reason. 
 Andrew did not appear again until the next 
 spring, and then an incident occurred, the 
 circumstances of which were unlucky for 
 Catherine, seeing that there is no reason to 
 doubt that she was guiltless of offence. There 
 was a concert at the Palace, and the ordeal of 
 listening to the Grand Duke's performance— he 
 was a most indifferent violinist — had driven her 
 to her own room. As she was entering she 
 saw Andrew Tchernichef waiting about, and 
 stopped to speak to him for a few minutes. 
 But Count Devierre, one of the Empress's 
 chamberlains, a rather distinguished man to 
 act as spy, opened another door at the moment, 
 and saw Catherine at her door speaking to 
 Tchernichef. The next day Madame Tchoglokof 
 was installed in her post, and the Tchernichef 
 family were sent to regiments at Orenburg. 
 
 28
 
 Catherine's Girlhood 
 
 Moreover, Elizabeth was so offended that she 
 sent Catherine a message that she would dis- 
 pense with her daily attendance in her dressing- 
 room, and that Catherine must only communi- 
 cate with her through Madame Tchoglokof. 
 Catherine confesses to being delighted with the 
 first part of this order. Nevertheless, under the 
 petty tyranny of her new guardian, with her 
 constant references to what the Empress would 
 or would not like, Catherine spent a miserable 
 time, particularly as she was now suffering from 
 some weakness of the chest. Nor had she heard 
 the last of the Tchernichef affair, for on the 
 return of the Court from the usual summer 
 holiday both she and Peter were sent to con- 
 fession to the Bishop of Pleskof, their old 
 religious instructor, and questioned by him, 
 separately and together, on what had passed 
 between them and the Tchernichefs. "But," 
 adds Catherine, " as nothing whatever had 
 passed, he looked a little foolish when he heard 
 it asserted, with the candour of innocence, that 
 there was not the shadow of what people dared 
 to suppose." Simon Theodorsky was apparently 
 so thrown off his guard by this candour that 
 he expressed his wonder how it came that the 
 Empress was impressed to the contrary. Evi- 
 
 29
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 dently there was no little desire to trip up 
 Catherine, and the failure of the scheme seems 
 a sufficient proof of her innocence. The 
 Tchernichefs had also been closely examined, 
 and, indeed, were kept in detention of a sort 
 for some years. Towards the end of 1748 they 
 were in the fortress at St Petersburg, whence 
 Andrew managed to get a note conveyed to 
 Catherine asking for several small things, which 
 she sent him. Next year she received and an- 
 swered another letter from him, then at liberty, 
 and on his way to join a new regiment. Little 
 more is heard of Andrew after this ; it was his 
 brother, or cousin, Zahar who appears at Court 
 balls in the winter of 1750. The family had 
 been forgiven by then. 
 
 80
 
 THE GRAND 
 DUCHESS
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE GRAND DUCHESS 
 
 The first few years of the marriage passed 
 uneventfully both for Catherine and for her 
 husband, the removal of the favourite members 
 of their suite naturally making things more dull 
 than before. Catherine's story of this part of 
 her life is detailed, and the picture she draws of 
 her surroundings brings out prominently their 
 terrible oppression. The Grand Duke and 
 Duchess were like two children locked up in 
 some monstrous nursery under the care of 
 foolish and repulsive nurses. Even Prince 
 Repnin was lost to them, for he fell ill, and 
 his place was taken by Madame Tchoglokofs 
 husband, whom Catherine plainly calls an 
 arrogant and brutal fool. Here was another 
 Argus ; but there were means of soothing such 
 as him and his wife, as afterwards appeared. 
 
 The devices adopted by Peter and by 
 Catherine to relieve the irksomeness of the 
 life prescribed by Elizabeth were character- 
 istically different. Peter, in the country, tired 
 C 33
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 out every male member of the household with 
 his manoeuvres and drill, after which they joined 
 Catherine's suite in the evening to dance before 
 going to bed, weary and bad-tempered as the 
 unwilling recruits were. He amused himself 
 by training a pack of hounds — a harmless 
 pursuit until he introduced a few specimens 
 into a recess off Catherine's bedroom in the 
 Palace during the winter. He played the 
 violin, force and violence being the character- 
 istic features of his playing, which was, more- 
 over, entirely by ear. In St Petersburg his chief 
 amusement through the winter season was in 
 a large quantity of toys, which he spread over 
 the bed alter he and Catherine had retired for 
 the night. He dared not be seen occupied with 
 them in the daytime, so Catherine had to share 
 his play until one or two in the morning. Did 
 Madame Tchoglokof unexpectedly knock at the 
 door there was nothing to be done but hurry 
 the toys (some of them rather heavy, complains 
 Catherine) under the clothes, and in the comfort 
 of such a bed listen to the duenna's lectures on 
 the wickedness of not being asleep yet. 
 
 That Catherine should ill endure the dogs, the 
 violin, and the bed full of toys can easily be 
 imagined. She had two solaces, reading and 
 
 34
 
 The Grand Duchess 
 
 shooting. The latter was only possible when 
 Peter and she were at Oranienbaum. She 
 describes herself rising at three in the morning, 
 and, dressed in man's clothes, stalking wild duck 
 along the coast, accompanied only by an old 
 huntsman. The Grand Duke himself would 
 join her after he had his breakfast. Her read- 
 ing was mostly French. After one year given 
 up entirely to novels she came by accident, she 
 says, on the letters of Madame de Sevigne, and 
 next on Voltaire ; the latter produced an effect 
 on her destined to last almost to the end of her 
 life. Thenceforward she selected her reading 
 with more care, and left the novelists alone. In 
 1749 it was to Plato and to German history that 
 she devoted her attention. The Empress mani- 
 fested towards her a constant coldness, sending 
 Madame Tchoglokof to stop her mourning more 
 than a week for her father — he died in 1747 — 
 as "he was not a king " ; complaining that 
 Catherine was overwhelmed with debt ; and 
 letting her hear a remark that, " clever though 
 she might think herself, she was the only one 
 who thought so." Elizabeth went so far as to 
 forbid any visitors to the Grand Duke or 
 Duchess other than those introduced by the 
 Tchoglokofs, and the very members of their 
 
 35
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 little Court were ordered not to enter their 
 private rooms or talk in any but an audible 
 tone. It is hard to conceive at what the 
 Empress was aiming in this cruel and ridiculous 
 treatment of the young couple. It is not sur- 
 prising that Peter, on hearing in 1749 that his 
 aunt was seriously indisposed, only manifested 
 elation. 
 
 The winter seasons spent by the Court at St 
 Petersburg were more tolerable to Catherine 
 owing to the balls and other gaieties of the 
 Court. In these the Grand Duke and Duchess 
 were allowed to take part. Catherine (who was 
 now suffering the additional bitterness of seeing 
 Peter making enthusiastic love to the hump- 
 backed Princess of Courland, afterwards married 
 to Peter Saltikof), evidently determined to make 
 the most she could of these winter festivities in 
 seeking relief from the martyrdom of her married 
 life. This is plain from her Memoirs. Perhaps 
 the most interesting passage in this connection 
 is her description of herself at one of these balls 
 in the winter of 1750. Her dress was intention- 
 ally veiy simple on that occasion, she says. " I 
 put on a bodice of white gros de Tours silk (I 
 had a veiy good figure at that time), with a 
 petticoat of the same over a very small hoop. 
 
 36
 
 The Grand Duchess 
 
 I put up my hair, which was very long, thick, 
 and beautiful, at the back of my head, and tied 
 it with a white ribbon en queue de renard. I set 
 one rose with its bud and leaves, exact imita- 
 tions of nature, in my hair, and another in my 
 corsage. A ruff of very white gauze was about 
 my neck, and I wore cuffs and apron of the 
 same gauze. ... I never in my life remember 
 having been so complimented by all as on that 
 occasion. I was said to be as beautiful as the 
 day, and absolutely dazzling. To tell the truth, 
 I never considered myself very beautiful, but I 
 was pleasing, and I think that this was my strong 
 point." 
 
 In this winter of 1750-51 Zahar Tchernichef 
 made his reappearance at Court, now a colonel. 
 It was not until the following year, however, 
 that Catherine paid much attention to him. 
 The greater part of 1751 went by very quietly, 
 and in the autumn the Court season recom- 
 menced at St Petersburg. Now at last the 
 reaction from the general weariness of her life 
 in the Grand Ducal household drove her into 
 what was at least a very dangerous flirtation with 
 Zahar Tchernichef. Catherine remarks that, for 
 sake of old acquaintance, she had always treated 
 him well, and that it rested with her to give what 
 
 37
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 interpretation she pleased to his attentions now. 
 It is true he did not leave her much room for 
 doubt, as he began by telling his future Empress 
 that she had grown much handsomer. It was the 
 first time such a remark had been addressed to 
 her, and she did not take it ill. They com- 
 menced an exchange of mottoes, first printed, 
 and afterwards their own compositions, enclosed 
 in " devices " used in decoration at this festive 
 season. " We were in regular and quite senti- 
 mental correspondence " ; but the Princess 
 Gagarin, who was their intermediary for the 
 conveyance of the devices, suddenly refused to 
 take any more, doubting the nature of the cor- 
 respondence. Zahar had attempted already, on 
 the ground of the insecurity of the means of 
 communication, to obtain from Catherine an 
 appointment to see her, either in her own room 
 or wherever she would. But she refused, al- 
 though he offered to disguise himself as a 
 servant. At the end of the Christmas carnival 
 he had to rejoin his regiment, and so the danger 
 was over. 
 
 It would not have been reasonable, however, 
 to imagine that Catherine would hold out longer 
 against the temptations which assailed her unless 
 she were exceptionally strong-minded, as well as 
 
 38
 
 The Grand Duchess 
 
 of a very chaste nature. Now, strength of mind 
 undoubtedly was hers, though she had little op- 
 portunity so far of proving it ; the other quality 
 no biographer can claim for her. Of her exact 
 moral attitude at the time we have only the 
 evidence in her later writings. Taking the 
 Memoirs to be her genuine work — and there 
 is no reason whatever for believing otherwise 
 — we can only describe the outlook on the 
 subject of what, for want of a better term, we 
 must call the sex question as non-moral. The 
 life which she led between the periods of which, 
 and at which, she wrote must have produced a 
 change, but, since it did not impair her general 
 judgment, is not likely to have produced a total 
 revolution in her attitude towards the question. 
 Had she from what was originally an ordinarily 
 strict disposition in such matters descended to 
 a licence which made her name a byword in 
 Europe it would be natural to imagine that her 
 general character must have suffered. But such 
 was not the case, for she remained to the day of 
 her death clear-minded, regular, even methodical, 
 in her habits, decorous in speech, and temperate 
 in all except love. It would seem wiser to sup- 
 pose her early attitude as not at least radically 
 different from that which she manifested later. 
 
 39
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 And her position may be held to have offered 
 her what excuse can be urged in such matters. 
 A wife, hardly more than in name, of such a 
 husband as the Grand Duke Peter, whose earlier 
 childishness had merged now in a fully developed 
 sottishness, she was isolated in the most corrupt 
 Court in Europe, where intrigue was universal 
 traditionally from Empress downward. In her 
 private life she was deprived at once of the com- 
 panionship of any woman whom she might find 
 sympathetic, surrounded by spies, and plunged 
 in a weariness which only her taste for reading 
 prevented from being absolute. At Court, where 
 alone she had escape from this other existence, 
 she was, if without the Empress's favour and 
 neglected entirely by her husband, at least a 
 young and personally charming woman, who 
 would some day be the consort of the Emperor. 
 As such, she was a mark for the adventurous 
 who knew Russian history and what rewards 
 might be those of an Empress's favourite. 
 
 It was at Easter, 1752, that Catherine began 
 to notice the attentions of Sergius Saltikof, one 
 of two brothers whose mother was a great 
 favourite of the Empress, while the family was 
 one of the oldest and noblest in Russia. The 
 other brother, Peter Saltikof, Catherine calls 
 
 40
 
 The Grand Duchess 
 
 " a fool in the fullest sense of the word," and 
 she speaks of his great staring eyes, flat nose, 
 and constantly-open mouth. Sergius, on the 
 other hand, was very handsome, and also "not 
 wanting in mind, nor in the finished accom- 
 plishments, manners, and style which the great 
 world, and especially a Court, gives." He was 
 twenty-six years old, and two years before had 
 made a love-match. Now, however, as Catherine 
 wrote afterwards, he paid court to every woman 
 who was not his wife. Of this fact Catherine 
 was not yet aware, nor that his two greatest 
 faults were love of intrigue and want of principle. 
 She might, indeed, have gathered them, since, 
 after constantly ingratiating himself with the 
 Tchoglokofs, and visiting them regularly, he 
 at length revealed to Madame's ward that he 
 came to see her — " drawing," as Catherine 
 writes, " a charming and passionate picture of 
 the happiness he promised himself." She re- 
 minded him of his wife, whereon he answered 
 that he was paying dearly for a moment of 
 infatuation. In those not, like Catherine, under 
 the spell of Saltikof's beauty such a remark 
 must inspire another feeling than the pity which 
 she confesses to have experienced. 
 
 Catherine had, a little before her acquaint- 
 
 41
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 ance with Saltikof, come in contact with an- 
 other person with whom she was destined to 
 be on the closest terms of intimacy, though 
 these have, undoubtedly, been exaggerated into 
 something much worse by her detractors. The 
 Empress Elizabeth appointed as a gentleman 
 of the bedchamber in the Grand Ducal estab- 
 lishment, one Leof Alexandrevitch Narishkin, 
 of a noble Russian family. This young man 
 was a curious individual — " the most singular 
 person I have ever known, and the one who 
 made me laugh the most," Catherine declares. 
 She also describes him as a born harlequin, who 
 might have gained a handsome livelihood by 
 his extraordinary talent for humour had his 
 station been other than what it was. 
 
 The Grand Duke Peter, as might have been 
 expected, was not paying much attention to 
 his wife's doings at the time. He was, indeed, 
 engaged in making love to one of Catherine's 
 maids-of-honours — such a name as maid-of- 
 honour seems doubly inappropriate for the ladies 
 of the Russian Court in those days — and, more- 
 over, he held the opinion that Catherine was 
 fooling both Saltikof and Tchoglokof, using 
 the former to play off against the latter. The 
 Empress, however, had some ideas of the facts, 
 
 42
 
 The Grand Duchess 
 
 and Saltikof was advised by his friends to fall 
 ill for a season in order to let rumours die out. 
 This he did, and even when he recovered 
 Catherine suspected him of beginning to relax 
 his attentions. He became absent-minded, 
 arrogant, and dissipated, so that she was vexed, 
 and spoke to him about it. The intriguer re- 
 plied that she did not understand the extreme 
 cleverness of his conduct — which, she admits 
 in her Memoirs, was true. 
 
 The episode which follows is of almost in- 
 credible baseness ; but we are prepared for 
 much in this period. The idea that Elizabeth 
 might die before long could not be shirked ; 
 and the Grand Duke and Duchess were still 
 without an heir — a fact which troubled the 
 Empress. Catherine is our authority for what 
 has to be related, and it might be thought that 
 she invented the story to cover her transgression 
 with Sergius Saltikof were it not that she had 
 already admitted her fall. She says that, early 
 in 1753, Madame Tchoglokof approached her, 
 and, after dwelling on the subject of fidelity 
 between wife and husband, pointing to her own 
 case, went on to say that there were situations 
 in which a breach of the rule might be de- 
 manded by a higher interest. Catherine says 
 
 43
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 that she was surprised, and let Madame 
 Tchoglokof talk on, thinking that there might 
 be a trap. The worthy mistress of her house- 
 hold then said that, no doubt, she had already 
 " cast an eye of preference on someone " — 
 Sergius Saltikof or Leof Narishkin, probably 
 the latter. " No, no ! " exclaimed Catherine. 
 " Well then, Saltikof," said Madame Tchoglokof 
 as she left her ; " you will see that it will not 
 be I who put difficulties in your way." If the 
 tale be true the suggestion cannot well have 
 originated otherwise than in the Empress's 
 mind. Elizabeth certainly had no too high 
 opinion of her nephew — "the damned fool of 
 a nephew of mine " as she called him in a con- 
 fidential memorandum once, with the direct- 
 ness of language worthy of another royal 
 Elizabeth. And Peter about this time was 
 not likely to inspire confidence. According 
 to his wife's account, he was spending all his 
 time with his toys and with strong drink, in 
 company with his servants, Kalmucks and others. 
 One day Catherine came into his room, and 
 found him with great solemnity hanging a rat 
 which had climbed over the walls of a cardboard 
 fortress, and eaten two of his sentries, which 
 were made of pith. 
 
 44
 
 The Grand Duchess 
 
 The year 1754 was memorable for Catherine. 
 In April Tchoglokof died — "at the very time 
 when we had succeeded in making him not 
 only less ill-natured and mischievous but even 
 tractable," Catherine laments ; she had already 
 written of him and his wife as being as tame 
 as sheep. He was succeeded in the Grand 
 Ducal household by Count Alexander Shuvalof, 
 chief of the Secret Chancery, a sort of State 
 inquisition. He was a man of repulsive ap- 
 pearance, afflicted with a nervous movement of 
 the face. Catherine, now expecting motherhood, 
 complains of the unpleasantness of this man's 
 presence. She was suffering much from feelings 
 of melancholy, and was full of apprehension that 
 schemes were on foot to remove Sergius Saltikof. 
 As a matter of fact, he was sent to Sweden to 
 announce her child's birth. This occurred on 
 the 20th September according to the Russian 
 calendar. The Empress had the infant baptised 
 almost at once by the name of Paul, and carried 
 him off, and it was six weeks before his mother 
 saw him again. Meanwhile she was left in her 
 cold and draughty bedroom, ill-attended and 
 feverish, to recover as best she could. 
 
 The question of Paul's paternity has been much 
 discussed. Masson, after remarking that Cathe- 
 
 45
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 rine's subsequent conduct to her son was one 
 of her greatest crimes, goes on : " Her dislike 
 of him has been urged as a proof of his being 
 Peter's child, and the argument is of consider- 
 able weight." There was certainly a resemblance 
 of character between the Tsars Peter III. and 
 Paul. There will be an opportunity of referring 
 to this point later. Anyhow, Elizabeth now 
 sent Catherine a present of one hundred thou- 
 sand roubles ; but her treasurer borrowed it back 
 in a few days' time to give to Peter, who had 
 been annoyed at getting nothing. M. Walis- 
 zewski draws a picture of the isolation and aban- 
 donment, now much more profound and sad, of 
 the young wife and mother between the empty 
 cradle and the long-deserted marriage-bed, and 
 sees Catherine from this time entering definitely 
 on " the path leading to the most colossal and 
 cynical display of imperial licence known to 
 modern history." Catherine seems to date her 
 change of demeanour rather from after the 
 birth of her second child in 1758. For the 
 present, in her loneliness, she took refuge in 
 reading, especially history, the writings of 
 Voltaire, Montesquieu, Tacitus, and as many 
 Russian works as she could. In this manner 
 she spent the winter in her cold and narrow 
 
 46
 
 The Grand Duchess 
 
 room near the Grand Duke's apartments, 
 whence all day long, and part of the night, 
 came the noise and racket of a guardroom, 
 and the reek of tobacco smoked by Peter and 
 his associates. On the top of such trials came 
 the faithlessness of Saltikof, who on his return 
 from Sweden, and on his way to a new post at 
 Hamburg, made an appointment to see her, and 
 failed to keep it, owing to being taken off to a 
 Freemasons' meeting by Count Roman Voronzof. 
 In answer to her letter of bitter complaint he 
 came and saw her, appeasing her without diffi- 
 culty, "for I was only too ready to accept his 
 apology." By his advice she determined to go 
 out more in public, while treating the Shuvalofs, 
 now in control of the Grand Ducal establishment, 
 with sarcasm and contempt. She " drew herself 
 up, and, with head erect, stood forth rather as the 
 leader of a great party than as one humbled and 
 oppressed." Peter, inspired by the Shuvalofs, 
 made one ill-advised attempt to bring her to 
 her senses (so he put it) for being so intoler- 
 ably proud. Unfortunately for the effect of 
 his lecture, he was drunk at the time, and, 
 trying to draw his sword to enforce his argu- 
 ment, was told by her that she must have a 
 sword too if he meant to fight her. Finally, 
 
 47
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 he was persuaded to go to bed. It is curious 
 that he still, according to what Catherine writes, 
 kept up his habit of consulting her whenever 
 he was in a difficulty or his head was too bad 
 to allow him to think. He had long ago given 
 her the name of Madame la Ressource. She 
 could not, however, prevent him from showing 
 his Holstein sympathies openly, smuggling over 
 a detachment of soldiers from that State to his 
 house at Oranienbaum, and wearing Holstein 
 uniform constantly, whereby he incurred his 
 aunt's censures, as well as causing the native 
 Russians to grumble loudly about the " cursed 
 Germans." 
 
 About Whitsuntide of the year 1755 a new 
 English Minister came to St Petersburg to 
 succeed Guy Dickens, a diplomatist who made 
 no name in Russia. The new man was Sir 
 Charles Hanbury Williams, Horace Walpole's 
 friend, a satirist and wit of some distinction, 
 in spite of Johnson's sneer about " our lively 
 and elegant, though too licentious, lyric bard," 
 who " had no fame but from boys that drank 
 with him." Hanbury Williams had, as it were, 
 strayed into diplomacy in 1746, when he ac- 
 cepted temporarily a post at Dresden. He 
 thereby ultimately ruined his life ; but at first 
 
 48
 
 The Grand Duchess 
 
 everything was encouraging to him in his new 
 career. Coming to St Petersburg after Dresden, 
 Berlin, Warsaw, and Vienna, he appeared to 
 carry all before him, and, indeed, he wrote home 
 very early that he was " resolved to employ well 
 the honeymoon of his embassy." Unhappily for 
 him, his success in concluding an arrangement 
 for some fifty thousand Russian troops to be at 
 England's service in return for a handsome con- 
 sideration was coldly received by his Govern- 
 ment, which had meanwhile come to terms 
 with Frederick of Prussia. Williams never 
 got over the shock of the ingratitude, as it 
 seemed to him, of his country. But his im- 
 portance to Catherine's history was less political 
 than social. He brought in his suite a young 
 Pole, by name Count Stanislas Poniatowsky, 
 then twenty-two years of age. Williams had 
 met him when acting as English representative 
 at Dresden, and also in England, whither 
 Poniatowsky had gone on a visit, had taken 
 an interest in him, and was glad to further 
 his career by bringing him to Russia with him. 
 Poniatowsky 's maternal uncles, the powerful 
 Princes Czartorisky, welcomed an opportunity 
 of having a kinsman in Russia to support 
 their scheme for reconciling Poland and her 
 d 49
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 hereditary enemy. Of Poniatowsky we have 
 an interesting sketch from the pen of the 
 Comte de Segur. He says that Poniatowsky 's 
 father (who was a Lithuanian by birth) hoped 
 to make his son an austere philosopher and a 
 statesman ; he became only a well-informed 
 literary amateur, a witty courtier, a pleasing 
 orator, and a brilliant squire of dames. He 
 was distinguished above almost all his country- 
 men by the beauty of his countenance, the 
 majesty of his person, the elegance of his 
 manner, and the graces of his mind. In 1784 
 Segur found his conversation agreeable and in- 
 structive and happy in its versatility ; while he 
 still preserved a part of his beauty, a majestic 
 presence, a voice that touched the heart, and 
 the most attractive smile Segur had ever seen. 
 It must be admitted that the portrait of Stan- 
 islas Poniatowsky in the Louvre, painted by 
 Madame Vigee-Lebrun, fully bears out Segur's 
 encomium on his looks. Since Catherine always 
 had a fervent admiration of beauty, it is easy 
 to understand that the Pole's affected her 
 strongly, supported as it was by a charm 
 which conquered everyone with whom he came 
 in contact at all periods of his life. 
 
 Catherine recalls meeting Hanbury Williams 
 
 50
 
 The Grand Duchess 
 
 first at a supper at Oranienbaum, he sitting 
 next to her and striking her as lively and well- 
 informed, while she soon heard that she too 
 had made an impression on Williams. At this 
 time, she records with some pride, she was 
 generally well spoken of and looked on as a 
 woman of mind. Her acquaintance with the 
 English ambassador may, perhaps, be regarded 
 as the cause of her introduction to politics as 
 well as to Poniatowsky, for Williams, being 
 unable to gain the Empress's ear, and not 
 being regarded very favourably by Peter, set 
 himself to gain over the Grand Duchess. He 
 was, indeed, able to do her a great service by 
 lending her, on behalf of his Government, large 
 sums of money, of which she was much in 
 need, being considerably in debt. The Chevalier 
 D'Eon — that mystery who lived part of his 
 life as a man, part as a woman, died seem- 
 ingly a woman, but was then proved beyond 
 doubt to be a man — states that England 
 financed both Catherine and Poniatowsky ; 
 and as D'Eon accompanied the Chevalier 
 Douglas to St Petersburg in 1756 on a mission 
 from France, part of the duty of which was to 
 watch Hanbury Williams, he speaks with some 
 authority. It seems as if we must admit that 
 
 51
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 it was English gold which first induced 
 Catherine to disregard her father's advice not 
 to meddle in the affairs of government. 
 
 If it was through Hanbury Williams, first 
 of all, that Catherine made the acquaintance of 
 Stanislas Poniatowsky, it was through the Narish- 
 kin family that she turned the acquaintance into 
 an intimacy which, though it might have little 
 permanent effect on her life, completely altered 
 his, and to his country brought extinction. 
 Catherine found the Narishkin family more 
 companionable, as she puts it, than the rest of 
 the Court. Poniatowsky also soon got on the 
 closest terms with the Narishkins, acting for 
 a time as private secretary to Leof in the 
 latter's illness, and writing for him several 
 letters to the Grand Duchess, which attracted 
 her attention by their lively and graceful style. 
 Poniatowsky tells in his Memoirs that Narishkin 
 hinted more than once at his chance of success 
 in winning Catherine's affections, and repeated 
 to him a remark which he had heard her make 
 — " without intention," Poniatowsky explains — 
 as to preferring the Pole to a certain Count 
 Lehadrof. It seems that the intriguing Bestujef 
 had thought of one of the two as a possible 
 successor to Saltikof in Catherine's heart, which 
 
 52
 
 The Grand Duchess 
 
 he considered it better not to leave unoccupied. 
 But " the Pole " hung back for three months, 
 suspecting a trap. He had heard of Saltikof, 
 but was unaware that the latter had offended 
 Catherine. He judged Catherine to be very 
 different from what she really was, imagining 
 her set upon ambition, chiefly and at heart a 
 Prussian ; whereas he had been brought up to 
 look with aversion on Prussia. And, not least 
 of all, thoughts were in his mind of Siberia, 
 which might be the fate of his presumption. 
 But one day at Court the Grand Duchess in 
 passing stopped and spoke to him, repeating 
 to him a description which he had given to 
 Narishkin of one of the Court ladies, and 
 adding, with a smile : " I see that you are a 
 painter." Catherine's advance, whether " with 
 intention " or not, was not in vain. Poniatowsky 
 ventured to address a letter to her on the 
 strength of it, received a reply next day — and 
 forgot that there was a Siberia. A few days 
 later he was taken by Narishkin to see Catherine 
 in her own part of the Palace, and from that 
 time, he declares, his existence was devoted 
 to her in a sense far more sincere than usually 
 is meant by the expression. 
 
 This is how, some years later, Poniatowsky 
 
 53
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 describes his recollection of the bewitcher of his 
 heart. She was twenty-five years old, he says, 
 and it was just after the birth of her first child. 
 " Her beauty had reached that point which is 
 usually for every woman the highest she attains. 
 With her black hair, she had a dazzling white- 
 ness of skin, a vivid colour, large blue eyes, 
 prominent and eloquent, black and long eye- 
 brows, a Greek nose, a mouth that looked 
 made for kissing, perfect hands and arms, a 
 slight figure, tall rather than short, a carriage 
 that was lively yet full of nobility, a pleasing 
 voice, and a laugh as merry as the humour 
 through which she could with ease pass from 
 most playful and childish amusements to the 
 most fatiguing mathematical calculation." It 
 is interesting to compare this description 
 with those of other observers given later 
 on. It will be seen that Poniatowsky, if 
 one makes due allowance for his enthusiasm, 
 appears to picture Catherine's salient charms 
 fairly. 
 
 The intimacy of the young Pole and of the 
 Grand Duchess with the Narishkins made the 
 growth of their acquaintance rapid. Leof 
 Narishkin — the gentleman whom all at Court 
 considered as " a person of no consequence, as, 
 
 54
 
 The Grand Duchess 
 
 indeed, was the case," according to Catherine, 
 and who, when he wished to speak to her, used 
 to mew at her door like a cat until she answered 
 him in like strain and gave him permission to 
 come in — did his best to enliven Catherine's 
 tedium, and among other things planned an 
 escapade for her. This was that she should 
 disguise herself in male attire, and slip out one 
 evening to visit his sister-in-law. Catherine was 
 not permitted to go out at night, in pursuance 
 of the Empress's rule for both her and Peter. 
 Naturally, therefore, the scheme appealed to her 
 sense of fun, never very dignified. The evening 
 passed in the wildest gaiety, she was able to write 
 enthusiastically, and when the conspirators met at 
 the Court Ball next night it was all they could 
 do to look at one another without laughing. 
 Once started, they kept up these gatherings, 
 in which Narishkin, his sister-in-law, Ponia- 
 towsky, and Catherine were the chief actors, and 
 held them twice or thrice a week, visiting in 
 turn one another's houses, including Catherine's 
 room in the Palace, into which Narishkin ingeni- 
 ously smuggled them. Peter, it may be added, 
 was spending his time meanwhile in going to 
 bed drunk. Catherine's amusement certainly 
 might be considered the more innocent but for 
 
 55
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 the way in which it developed her relations with 
 Poniatowsky. 
 
 Peter's manners were not calculated to keep 
 his wife true to him. He still continued to give 
 her his confidences. Having an affair with 
 Madame Tieplof, of whom he saw much during 
 the Court season but nothing at all during the 
 summer, while he was away at Oranienbaum, 
 he was very bored at receiving letters from her 
 two or three times a week. Once he brought 
 to Catherine a four-page letter from the lady, 
 which, he complained, she expected him to read 
 and to answer too ! He thought of quarrelling 
 with her till winter came round again. That 
 would be the shortest way, agreed Catherine. 
 But she distinctly objected to his intrigues with 
 her maids-of-honour, and had to impress on him 
 what sort of view the Empress would take of 
 the matter if it came to her ears. He was 
 chiefly devoted now to Elizabeth Voronzof, who 
 had been assigned to Catherine by the Empress 
 in 1750, when she was only eleven years old, "a 
 very ugly child, with an olive complexion, and 
 excessively dirty." Peter was alarmed at Cathe- 
 rine's threats about the Empress, and was less de- 
 monstrative for a while. It was a grim comedy 
 that was played between husband and wife. 
 
 56
 
 The Grand Duchess 
 
 The political intrigues into which Catherine 
 had been drawn reached their climax towards 
 the end of 1756. The victory did not fall to 
 the side on which was Catherine, if we can con- 
 sider her of the English party. The Chancel- 
 lor Bestujef suddenly announced to Hanbury 
 Williams that Russia had acceded to the con- 
 vention signed at Versailles between France and 
 Austria. Bestujef had always been a moderate 
 partisan of the Austrian cause, but Williams 
 had apparently imagined that he had won him 
 over to the English and Prussian side. The 
 check was fatal, and in disgust the English 
 Minister applied for leave, and quitted Russia. 
 His humiliation affected his brain, and after two 
 nervous breakdowns on the Continent on his 
 way home he finally committed suicide at his 
 seat of Coldbrook, near Abergavenny, in 1759. 
 The Chevalier D'Eon alleges that Williams was 
 recalled at Elizabeth's request, owing to his 
 intrigues with the Grand Duchess, who used to 
 sit up at nights translating for his benefit all 
 such decisions of the Supreme Council as were 
 favourable to his enemies. The story, if not 
 unfounded, is at least unsubstantiated. 
 
 Poniatowsky still remained if his introducer, 
 Hanbury Williams, had gone on his way to 
 
 57
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 death. As the result of a three months' absence 
 from Russia, near the end of 1756, he was able 
 to secure for himself the post of Polish Minister 
 to Russia. He proceeded to use his influence 
 entirely in the interests of his uncles, the Czar- 
 toriskys, instead of those of the King of Poland, 
 and his tenure of the office, to which his appoint- 
 ment had been strongly opposed in Russia, was 
 therefore short. But in the meantime his posi- 
 tion was greatly improved, and he was enabled 
 to continue near her to whom he had devoted 
 himself. There was soon no secret in his rela- 
 tions with Catherine. Peter himself became 
 cognisant of them, and showed no resentment. 
 We have the lover's own extraordinary narrative 
 of how this came about. 
 
 Poniatowsky used to drive out to some point 
 near the Grand Duke's villa at Oranienbaum, 
 which he then entered by a secret staircase. 
 Sometimes Catherine would come out to meet 
 him in the male attire which she always assumed 
 with ease ; at others the sentry was apparently 
 warned not to see him. This seems to have 
 continued for two summers ; but on the night 
 of the 6th of July, 1758, when Poniatowsky had 
 called at Oranienbaum in the guise of a ladies' 
 tailor (for a freak, we must presume), Elizabeth 
 
 58
 
 The Grand Duchess 
 
 Voronzof, now definitely the reigning favourite, 
 aroused Peter's suspicions, and as the tailor left 
 the villa he was set upon by three horsemen, and 
 dragged before Peter. M. Waliszewski makes 
 the Grand Duke apprehensive only of an attack 
 on his own life, not on his wife's honour, but 
 this is not to be deduced from Poniatowsky's 
 account. On the contrary, Peter is represented 
 as asking him point-blank to confess his real 
 purpose. Poniatowsky, refusing, was rescued 
 with difficulty by Count Alexander Shuvalof, 
 who agreed with his remark that the less noise 
 about the affair the better. After waiting two 
 days in his lodgings in great anxiety Ponia- 
 towsky received a note from Catherine, from 
 which he learnt that she had brought herself 
 to make advances to Elizabeth Voronzof. He 
 went, with a lighter heart, to the Court Ball 
 that night, and, meeting Peter's favourite, whis- 
 pered to her that " she could make certain 
 people happy." "That is almost done already," 
 was the reply, and he was told to come to see 
 Peter that very night. The interview took 
 place at one o'clock in the morning, after Peter 
 had dismissed a few friends with whom he had 
 been smoking and drinking. The scene was a 
 pavilion in the Palace grounds, built by Peter 
 
 59
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 the Great, where the Grand Ducal party was 
 temporarily lodged. Peter greeted the aston- 
 ished Pole with the remark : " What a fool you 
 were not to take me into your confidence in 
 time ! It would have saved all this fuss." 
 Poniatowsky complimented the Grand Duke 
 on the excellence of his dispositions for guard- 
 ing Oranienbaum, and flattered him generally. 
 At the end of a quarter of an hour Peter said : 
 " Now that we are good friends, there's someone 
 wanting," and, hastening to Catherine's bed- 
 room, he pulled her out of bed, giving her just 
 time to put on a robe dc Batavia, and brought 
 her in, exclaiming : " Well, here he is ! I hope 
 you are all content with me." Catherine, says 
 Poniatowsky, caught the ball on the bound, and 
 answered : " We only want now a letter from 
 you to Vice-Chancellor Voronzof, asking him 
 to bring about a speedy return of our friend 
 from Warsaw." (Poniatowsky, finding his posi- 
 tion at St Petersburg very " thorny," as he says, 
 owing to the strained relations between Russia 
 and Poland, was about to leave for Warsaw, 
 hoping to return with his position strengthened.) 
 Peter wrote the letter at once, and the party 
 then continued merrily until four in the morning. 
 Poniatowsky swears to the truth of this weird 
 
 60
 
 The Grand Duchess 
 
 and sordid tale, which is not the less remarkable 
 from the fact that he was Polish Minister to 
 Russia. Catherine's Memoirs do not allude to 
 it — which does not, however, tend to disprove 
 it, for she had her reticences. Poniatowsky 
 further states that he often went to Oranien- 
 baum after this, and that the supper parties for 
 four were repeated, Peter always showing a 
 most friendly spirit. The attitudes of Catherine 
 and of Elizabeth Voronzof would have been 
 interesting to know had any record been pre- 
 served. Elizabeth, like the Prince whom she 
 pleased, had the taste for strong drink ; Catherine 
 had no such inclination. One would imagine 
 that the Grand Duchess and the maid-of-honour 
 found the situation rather trying. 
 
 Catherine's second child, Anna, who only 
 lived four months, was born on the 9th of 
 December, 1758. As had happened in the case 
 of Paul, the mother was immediately deprived 
 of her infant by the Empress, and left almost 
 entirely to herself. But, neglected as she was, 
 Catherine managed to escape the extreme dis- 
 comforts of cold and draughts to which she had 
 been exposed in 1754. The Empress sent her 
 a present of 60,000 roubles, taking the precaution 
 this time of making a similar gift to Peter. 
 
 61
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 The welcome sum did not dispose the otherwise 
 slighted Grand Duchess to accept the situation 
 as meekly as she had before. She had now, as 
 she tells us herself, made up her mind to take 
 an independent path, and to save herself, her 
 children, and perhaps the Empire, from the 
 wreck which threatened all through Peter's 
 moral and physical qualities. Peter had, before 
 his daughter's birth, expressed his doubts as to 
 the paternity, and when Catherine challenged 
 him, by a verbal message through Narishkin, 
 to express himself more definitely, his character- 
 istic answer to the envoy had been : " Go to the 
 devil ! ' : Catherine kept her room during the 
 early part of 1759, but was determined not to 
 allow solitude to oppress her. She had a kind 
 of boudoir fitted up in her bedroom, the only 
 place which she had to herself, and this was 
 cut off from the rest of the room by screens. 
 Here she entertained Narishkin, his sister-in- 
 law, and Poniatowsky, who from behind the 
 screen could enjoy the situation when unwelcome 
 visitors, such as any of the Shuvalofs, called. 
 Poniatowsky had been recalled to Poland in the 
 previous October. Catherine says that this 
 warned her to " expect nothing good," and she 
 promptly burnt all the papers which might 
 
 62
 
 The Grand Duchess 
 
 implicate her politically. She attributes the 
 recall to the scheming of the Shuvalof-Voronzof 
 faction ; others to French influence at Warsaw. 
 But Poniatowsky, on receiving his letter of 
 recall, had fallen ill, and so lingered on in St 
 Petersburg. Catherine records, with evident 
 amusement, that the Pole was in the habit of 
 wearing a fair wig when he left the Palace after 
 her parties, and, when challenged by the sentries, 
 of saying that he was a musician just come from 
 the Grand Duke. It was thought needful to 
 deceive the world, if Peter was not, and did not 
 require to be, deceived. It is doubtful even 
 whether the world was much deceived. Foreign 
 diplomatists of the period speak with familiarity 
 of M. Poniatowsky 's relations with the Grand 
 Duchess. It is difficult to believe that the 
 Empress did not know. Yet in a great scene, 
 which was shortly to be enacted, she did not 
 reproach Catherine with infidelity as a wife. 
 Possibly she recognised Peter's impossibility as 
 a husband. 
 
 This scene arose out of the fierce political 
 struggle which had long been going on, scarcely 
 below the surface, in the Russian Court. Up 
 to now the Grand Chancellor Bestujef had 
 managed to keep his position amid many 
 
 63
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 difficulties. The Voronzof and Shuvalof families 
 were using all the influence which they possessed 
 to undermine him ; while, in spite of the fact 
 that he leaned to the Austrian cause rather than 
 the Prussian, he was not warm enough to please 
 the extreme Austrian party, who enjoyed the 
 full assistance of the French representative at 
 St Petersburg. Bestujef had recognised the 
 dangers to which he was exposed, and had made 
 overtures to the Grand Duchess Catherine, of 
 whom he had been at first the most determined 
 opponent. As she seemed willing for a recon- 
 ciliation he appears to have gone the length 
 of confiding to her an idea that, on the death 
 of the Empress Elizabeth, which could not be 
 very far distant, Catherine should in some way 
 be associated with Peter in the administration 
 of the Empire — Bestujef being, of course, their 
 adviser. This scheme he confided to Catherine 
 through Poniatowsky. She took a prudent 
 course, and, while not rejecting the proposal 
 altogether, pointed out its many difficulties. 
 Suddenly a blow was struck by the anti-Bestujef 
 party which took the Chancellor, Catherine, and 
 the friends of both entirely by surprise. Bestujef 
 was arrested on the 14th of February, 1759 ; 
 while his friend, Marshal Apraxin, the conqueror 
 
 04
 
 The Grand Duchess 
 
 of the Prussians at Gross-Jagersdorf the previous 
 year, was recalled from the command of the 
 Russian troops fighting against Frederick. 
 Catherine had been in correspondence with 
 Apraxin as well as with Bestujef, though her 
 letters to the former did not betray any political 
 secrets. It was necessary that she should know 
 what had been discovered. An appointment 
 was made with Poniatowsky at the theatre, when 
 the Pole was to let her know how matters stood. 
 But Catherine, by Elizabeth's orders, could not 
 go to the theatre without her maids-of-honour, 
 and here the Grand Duke and she came into 
 collision. Peter was still favouring Elizabeth 
 Voronzof with his attentions, and objected to 
 being deprived of his chosen society. He, 
 therefore, forbade Catherine to go out. A great 
 quarrel followed, and Catherine sat down the 
 same night, and wrote to the Empress "as 
 pathetically as she could," saying that she had 
 incurred the hatred of the Grand Duke and the 
 Empress's own marked displeasure ; that she 
 was never allowed to see her children ; that she 
 suffered from ill-health (which was perfectly 
 true at the time) and constant grief; and asking 
 to be permitted to leave Russia and return 
 home. No answer came to this letter, and for 
 e 65
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 some weeks Catherine could not tell what would 
 happen. At last, through the medium of her 
 confessor, who was also Elizabeth's, she was 
 summoned to an interview in the Empress's 
 dressing-room. This meeting had a result 
 beyond all her hopes. 
 
 Catherine gives a graphic picture of the scene. 
 It was some time past midnight. She found, 
 besides Elizabeth, the Grand Duke and Alexander 
 Shuvalof present ; while she suspected, and 
 afterwards discovered, that John Shuvalof was 
 concealed behind a screen. The interview lasted 
 an hour and a half, the Empress all the while 
 walking up and down the room, addressing 
 sometimes Catherine, sometimes Peter, but 
 more often Alexander Shuvalof. In a basin on 
 the toilet-stand Catherine could see some letters ; 
 they were what she had written to Apraxin. 
 Elizabeth displayed anxiety rather than anger. 
 Peter was full of bitterness and passion against 
 his wife, whose spitefulness he several times 
 alluded to. But his stupidity, according to 
 Catherine, caused Elizabeth rather to take her 
 part, although she had begun by abusing 
 Catherine for her stiff neck and self-conceit. 
 At length the Empress said to her in a low 
 tone, looking at the other two : " I have many 
 
 66
 
 The Grand Duchess 
 
 other things to say to you, but do not want you 
 to become more embroiled." Upon Catherine 
 replying that she too could not speak, though 
 she wished to open her heart, Elizabeth's eyes 
 filled with tears, and she dismissed them all 
 about three o'clock, calling back Shuvalof, who 
 came afterwards to Catherine's room, telling her 
 not to distress herself, and that she should have 
 a private conversation with the Empress soon. 
 
 What immediately followed was the restora- 
 tion of Catherine to the Empress's favour, or 
 rather the attainment by her of a better position 
 than heretofore. She was given to understand 
 that Elizabeth had once more denounced her 
 nephew as a fool, while allowing that "the 
 Grand Duchess had a good deal of sense." She 
 was told to abandon all ideas of leaving Russia, 
 as Elizabeth would never consent to it. And, 
 finally, she was allowed to see her son, and at 
 the end of May to have a private talk with the 
 Empress. She appeared also in public after a 
 long interval, to the confusion of the enemies 
 who had thought her crushed. At this point 
 her Memoirs come to an abrupt end, leaving 
 Catherine in a position which was almost one 
 of triumph. Bestujef had fallen, indeed, but 
 his ruin had not involved hers. 
 
 67
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 The Vice-Chancellor, Michael Voronzof, uncle 
 of Peter's favourite, succeeded Bestujef in his 
 post of Grand Chancellor ; while the office of 
 tutor to the Grand Duke Paul was given to 
 Count Nikita Panin, who had been in succession 
 Russian Minister at the Courts of Denmark 
 and Sweden. Panin has been described as a 
 pupil of Bestujef, and as similarly a moderate 
 pro- Austrian. The reason for calling him the 
 latter is difficult to see, since his policy, when 
 he became Catherine's Minister for Foreign 
 Affairs in 1762, was a continuation of Peter's 
 friendship for Prussia. Panin has hardly had 
 justice done to him by the historians. It was 
 really a remarkable feat for the man only made 
 tutor to her son in 1759 to be able to obtain, 
 as the price of his support, the direction of 
 Catherine's foreign policy three years later, and 
 to keep it almost to the end of his life, although 
 it was not on the lines most welcome to her. 
 Panin seems neither to have looked nor to have 
 been considered as astute as he was. In ap- 
 pearance, he was described in 1762 as " a pale 
 valetudinarian, much beyond the middle age " 
 — in reality forty-four — "studious only of ease, 
 having passed all his life in Courts, extremely 
 precise in his dress, wearing a stately wig, with 
 
 68
 
 The Grand Duchess 
 
 three well-powdered ties dangling upon his 
 back, and altogether giving one the pasteboard 
 idea of an old courtier of Louis XIV." l 
 
 The fall of Bestujef was followed by the de- 
 parture of Poniatowsky, who could no longer 
 keep up his pretence of illness. He was not 
 destined to see Catherine again till 1787, when, 
 thanks to her, he had been King of Poland for 
 twenty-three years. He records himself that in 
 the winter of 1763-1764, when Catherine, now 
 Empress, was pressing, through her representa- 
 tive at Warsaw, his election to the Polish 
 throne, he wrote to her twice, saying : " Do 
 not make me King, but recall me to your side." 
 Catherine replied that she could not tell him 
 of all the obstacles there were to such a course, 
 that she had to be very careful, and that she 
 was frightened to death at his letters. The 
 main obstacle was, of course, Gregory Orlof. 
 It would seem from the demeanour of Empress 
 and King at their memorable encounter at 
 Kanief, twenty-eight years after their parting, 
 that Stanislas still remained a lover. It is hard 
 
 1 The Princess Dashkof's Memoirs. Count Panin and 
 his younger brother, General Panin, were first cousins of 
 the mother of Prince Dashkof — his uncles, according to the 
 Russian style — and so generally called his wife's uncles as 
 well. 
 
 69
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 to say how deep was Catherine's early attach- 
 ment to him ; she was, undoubtedly, much under 
 the influence of that charm which all found in 
 him. But she took very little time to replace 
 him now. and with a man of a very different 
 stamp. M. Waliszewski advances the singular 
 theory that Catherine acquired her love of 
 change in the affairs of her heart as she educated 
 herself to be a Russian — a process which brought 
 with it the imperious need for strong contrasts 
 felt by this people of a precocious civilisation. 
 Catherine was not Russianised for nothing, he 
 remarks. 
 
 In his entertaining Memoirs Sir Nathaniel 
 Wraxall devotes a little space to some " curious 
 facts " concerning the Empresses Elizabeth and 
 Catherine of Russia, told him by Mr (afterwards 
 Sir) Thomas Wroughton, who had gone to the 
 British Embassy at St Petersburg late in 
 Elizabeth's reign. Wroughton, who always 
 spoke of Catherine " with admiration and re- 
 spect, though with freedom," related to Wraxall 
 how, at some Court ceremony at the Winter 
 Palace in 1760, he was walking with the Grand 
 Duchess leaning on his arm, when she pointed 
 out to him an officer in the uniform of the 
 Guards, and said : " Do you see that good- 
 
 70
 
 The Grand Duchess 
 
 looking young man ? Do you know him ? 
 His name is Orlof. Would you believe that 
 he has had the boldness to make love to 
 me ? ' " He is indeed bold, madame," replied 
 Wroughton, with a smile. He told Wraxall 
 that Catherine's words made a deep impression 
 on him. The story has the appearance of truth. 
 Baron de Breteuil similarly records, when speak- 
 ing of Orlof" s elevation after the Revolution of 
 1762, his remembrance of Catherine having once 
 pointed out Orlof to him as " an absurd creature " 
 and telling of his extravagant proceedings. 
 Breteuil says that there was no doubt that 
 Catherine had found a successor to M. Ponia- 
 towsky. 
 
 Gregory Orlof first comes into notice at the 
 age of nineteen, when he was told off to attend 
 on the aide-de-camp of Frederick the Great, 
 Count Schwerin, who paid a visit to St Peters- 
 burg early in 1759. Gregory was the second 
 of five brothers, all of whom were at one time 
 in the Imperial Guards. He had particularly 
 distinguished himself in the Russian disaster at 
 Zorndorf in the previous year, being thrice 
 wounded, and he was already noted for his 
 exceeding handsomeness and his height. In 
 the latter respect he and his brother Alexis 
 
 71
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 were reputed to have but one rival in Russia. 
 The OrlofV birth and education were against 
 them, and Gregory did not, any more than the 
 others, hide such deficiencies by natural intelli- 
 gence. His only amusements in the Guards, 
 according to his contemporaries, were drinking, 
 gambling, and love-making — the usual pastimes 
 of his associates — but he excelled the rest, 
 inasmuch as he had made himself known thus 
 in St Petersburg in 1760. He got a post as 
 aide-de-camp to one of the Shuvalofs, Count 
 Peter, the Grand Master of Artillery (declared 
 by Rulhiere to have been the most vainglorious 
 man in all Russia), but he was soon in trouble 
 through his success in alienating the affections 
 of Princess Helen Kurakin, a celebrated Court 
 beauty, and Shuvalofs mistress. According 
 to the imaginative Rulhiere, Orlof was only 
 saved from Siberia by Catherine. It seems 
 probable that Catherine was really spurred by 
 curiosity at Orlof 's reputation (or by pity at 
 the disaster which had befallen him, suggests 
 Tooke) to make his acquaintance. She is said 
 to have exerted herself so far in his favour that, 
 after the death of Count Peter Shuvalof, which 
 happened very soon, Orlof was given the post 
 of Paymaster of Artillery. She may have had 
 
 72
 
 The Grand Duchess 
 
 a further design beyond the wish for the ad- 
 vancement of one who attracted her. Catherine 
 cannot have been without thought of the time, 
 soon coming, when she would want all the 
 friends whom she could make. As has been 
 seen, as early as the end of 1758 she had de- 
 termined to take an independent course, and 
 not to bind herself to stand or fall with Peter. 
 Hanbury Williams, indeed, attributes to her 
 earlier still actual designs on the throne as 
 soon as Elizabeth should die. M. Waliszewski 
 suggests that Catherine loved Orlof "not only 
 for his beauty, courage, and daring but also 
 for the four regiments which he and his brothers 
 seemed to hold in their hands." The most im- 
 portant of these brothers were Alexis, afterwards 
 the Admiral ; and Ivan, the eldest, who, though 
 we hear little of him, was generously rewarded 
 after the Revolution. Theodore and Vladimir 
 were younger, and of little account yet. But 
 the whole family were united, and were most 
 useful adherents. 
 
 Whatever, and however mixed, Catherine's 
 motives in taking up the friendship of Gregory 
 Orlof, there is no doubt that an intrigue began. 
 There seems to have been little care taken to 
 conceal the fact, and Catherine's own words are 
 
 73
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 quoted (from a letter of August 1762 to 
 Poniatowsky) to show that Orlof compromised 
 her quite recklessly. Yet, strangely enough, 
 Rulhiere, who was attached to the French 
 Embassy at St Peterburg in 1762, and was, 
 therefore, almost an eye-witness, says that 
 " never was intrigue conducted with more art 
 and reserve," and that it was only after Orlof 
 had been publicly acknowledged that the 
 courtiers recollected signs of a secret under- 
 standing before. But, whether the love affair 
 was conducted discreetly or not — and Peter 
 is not likely to have cared much — it is certain 
 that no hint was allowed to escape from 
 Catherine of a political intrigue. Plots of 
 various kinds, however, were in the air. It 
 was generally known that the death of the 
 Empress Elizabeth was near at hand. It was 
 more than suspected that the Voronzof family 
 was urging Peter, on his accession, to divorce 
 Catherine, declare Paul illegitimate, and marry 
 Elizabeth Voronzof. But Peter's fervent ad- 
 miration for Frederick the Great and love of 
 Prussia alarmed not only the pro-Austrian 
 party but a great number of others, who did 
 not wish to see the complete reversal of previous 
 policy which was bound to follow Peter's eleva- 
 
 74
 
 The Grand Duchess 
 
 tion to the throne. Some went so far as to 
 advocate that Paul should be declared Emperor, 
 with Catherine as his guardian, Peter being 
 driven into exile. Count Panin (who, succeed- 
 ing Bestujef as tutor to Paul, had already 
 succeeded to much of his political influence) 
 was supposed to be averse from extreme 
 measures against Peter and to prefer the idea 
 of an association of Catherine on the throne 
 with Peter. He is said to have brought 
 about a kind of reconciliation between Eliza- 
 beth, on her death-bed, and her nephew. 
 The Empress, at any rate, died without dis- 
 inheriting Peter in favour of Paul, for whom 
 she showed all signs of a passionate attach- 
 ment in her last years. She may have thought 
 of Catherine as regent during the child's min- 
 ority, as Catherine was in greater favour since 
 the events of 1759. But she died without ex- 
 pressing any such wish, and Peter succeeded 
 in the natural way. 
 
 75
 
 THE REVOLU- 
 TION OF i 7 6 2
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE REVOLUTION OF 1762 
 
 According to what the Princess Dashkof told 
 Diderot when in later years she visited Paris, 
 less than forty-eight hours before the death of 
 the Empress Elizabeth, the whole Court was 
 split up into four sections, all jealously watch- 
 ing one another, and all anxious to get Catherine 
 out of the way, and to marry Peter to a wife 
 of their own choice. Every avenue was 
 watched by spies ; but by rising from her 
 bed, and making her way over the snow to 
 the Palace where Catherine was sleeping, the 
 Princess managed to get a few hours' conversa- 
 tion with her. She began by asking Catherine 
 what plans she had formed. 
 
 " You are either an angel or a demon," 
 exclaimed the young Empress. 
 
 " Neither," replied the Princess Dashkof ; 
 " but Elizabeth is dead, and the question is : 
 What are your resolutions ? " 
 
 "To abandon myself to the course of events, 
 since I am unable to direct them." * 
 
 79 

 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 Diderot does not doubt the story. All that 
 could make us hesitate to accept it is that the 
 Princess was ever more of a heroine to herself 
 than she appeared to others. 
 
 The Empress Elizabeth was largely respon- 
 sible for the subsequent course of events. She 
 had completed the ruin of her nephew's initially 
 weak character by the humiliating state of 
 bondage in which she kept him, which only 
 allowed his ignobler vices free scope, while 
 debarring him from learning how to rule. Her 
 system did less harm to Catherine, but it forced 
 her into intrigue, and made the breach between 
 wife and husband irreparable. Elizabeth was, 
 indeed, ill-suited as a guardian of future sove- 
 reigns. M. Waliszewski sums her up as une 
 nevrosee. The chief marks of her character 
 were superstition — the grossest kind of super- 
 stition in her declining years ; and voluptuous- 
 ness, though she confined herself to very 
 few favourites — Alexander Razumofsky in her 
 earlier days, and the Shuvalofs towards the 
 end. She was of striking personal beauty, 
 according to all accounts ; but D'Eon finds 
 her outward appearance that of a mask. All 
 writers dwell on her heavy drinking. Wrough- 
 ton declares that she " died a victim to her 
 
 80
 
 The Revolution of 1762 
 
 own excesses, and almost with a saucer of 
 cherry-brandy at her lips." Dipsomania was 
 not unknown among monarchs of the East in 
 those days. The Princess Dashkof recalls 
 having read a letter addressed to Catherine I. 
 by the Persian Shah of her time, in which 
 he wrote : " I hope, my well-beloved sister, 
 that God has not made thee love strong 
 drink. I who write to thee have eyes like 
 rubies, a nose like a carbuncle, and cheeks 
 inflamed with burning fire ; and, owing to this 
 unfortunate propensity, I am forced to waste 
 my days and nights on a bed of misery." It 
 must be allowed to the credit of Catherine II. 
 that she was altogether free from such a re- 
 proach. 
 
 Peter's short reign of six months was marked 
 by considerable activity in the domestic affairs 
 of Russia, and that activity was all in the 
 direction of reform. This record is curious 
 from one whom most writers of the period 
 agreed in looking on as almost imbecile. Peter 
 was thirty-four years old when he came to the 
 throne, and he had spent twenty of those years 
 in the galling bondage imposed on him by his 
 aunt Elizabeth, who allowed him no more, but 
 rather less, freedom as a man than he had as a 
 F 81
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 child. She had thought him a fool, and treated 
 him as such. No one can have expected good 
 from his accession except the Voronzof party, 
 and what good they looked for was their own. 
 Yet he was hardly on the throne when he 
 commenced to carry out a series of progressive 
 measures. He freed the nobility from the 
 necessity imposed on them by Peter the Great 
 of devoting themselves to the service of the 
 State, leaving it to their " zeal and love for 
 their sovereign." He abolished the Secret 
 Chancery, that court worse than the Spanish 
 Inquisition, as it was described to be. The 
 exiles of Elizabeth's reign were recalled, includ- 
 ing Bestujef, the two Birons, Marshal Munich, 
 Madame Lapukhin, and others. Peter's re- 
 ligious changes were twofold. He continued 
 the first Peter's plan of resuming monastic 
 property, giving pecuniary compensation to 
 the dispossessed ; and he brought back the 
 raskolmks, those unfortunate heretics who for 
 their reforming zeal had been persecuted by 
 the Orthodox Elizabeth, and driven out in 
 thousands ; Peter said, in his ukase, that 
 Mohammedans, and even idolaters, were tolerated 
 in Russia, while the raskolmks were at least 
 Christians. These religious measures, however, 
 
 82
 
 The Revolution of 1762 
 
 naturally gave offence to the Orthodox party, 
 and he farther flouted their feelings by his 
 obvious contempt for the national faith. He 
 had never been a true convert from Lutheran- 
 ism, and he particularly disgusted the Russians 
 by his irreverence over Elizabeth's funeral 
 ceremonies. The Princess Dashkof describes 
 him at the lying-in-state laughing and whisper- 
 ing with the Court ladies, ridiculing the priests, 
 and abusing the sentries on duty. He could 
 not have furnished a greater contrast to his 
 wife's scrupulous attention to Orthodox duties. 
 His Prussian sympathies were still more 
 unpopular, and, indeed, damned him beyond 
 redemption. His foreign policy was what was 
 to be expected of a prince who wore in a ring 
 the portrait of Frederick, and one of his first 
 acts was to make peace with the King of 
 Prussia, who was at the time almost beaten to 
 his knees by the combination of Austria and 
 Russia against him. Frederick was said to 
 have been willing to surrender East Prussia to 
 the Russians as the price of peace, but Peter 
 generously restored to him all Prussian territory 
 held by Russia, and proceeded to form with him 
 an offensive and defensive alliance, celebrating 
 it by a grand banquet, at which he toasted 
 
 83
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 " The King, our Master," and expressed his 
 willingness, at Frederick's bidding, to " make 
 war on hell with all the Russian Empire." 
 New Prussian uniforms were introduced for 
 the Russian army, and Prussian drill methods 
 were adopted, while Elizabeth's bodyguard was 
 abolished. In the Court he made the German 
 curtsey compulsory. His private life was spent 
 in the company of beer-drinking and tobacco- 
 smoking friends (it is curious that his indulgence 
 in bouts of tobacco is so frequently alluded to 
 with scorn), while his devotion to Elizabeth 
 Voronzof, Catherine's " Madame de Pompadour," 
 redoubled. The French Minister, Breteuil, is 
 astonished at his strange taste. " She has no 
 wit, and it is impossible to imagine anything 
 uglier than her face. She is in every way like 
 a servant at a low inn." It must, however, be 
 stated that Saldern, who was Russian Minister 
 at several European Courts, and had written a 
 book specially to contradict Rulhiere's account 
 of the 1762 Revolution and to set his late 
 master right in the world's eyes, finds Elizabeth 
 Voronzof sweet and amiable, and a far fitter 
 mate for his good, noble, and generous Prince 
 than was the " vicious being, dominated by an 
 ambition beyond all measure, and abandoned to 
 
 84
 
 The Revolution of 1762 
 
 the most excessive profligacy " — Catherine. The 
 weight of authority is all against Saldern's view, 
 but it should at least be recorded. It would 
 have been hard even for Saldern to defend 
 Peter's public attitude toward his wife, since 
 he not merely neglected her but insulted her 
 before the Court, and before foreign repre- 
 sentatives, on the occasion of the Prussian 
 celebrations, openly calling her a "fool" at table. 
 Catherine bore the mortification with no more 
 than a few tears, which she could not keep back. 
 But she had not long to wait now. Her party 
 was strong, and ready as soon as she chose to 
 head it. The army, too, was ready, and the 
 public — such public as there was in Russia 
 in those days — had no sympathy for Peter in 
 spite of his reforms. His good actions were 
 outweighed by his personal character and his 
 foreign leanings. When he made up his mind 
 to go to war with Denmark over Holstein 
 affairs he precipitated his fall. 
 
 A very remarkable person comes into Cathe- 
 rine's story in the early days of 1762 — one who 
 played in the Revolution of that year a part of 
 which it is difficult to estimate the greatness. 
 In her own Memoirs the Princess Dashkof 
 assigns herself the leading role, and the French 
 
 85
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 attaches Rulhiere, whose superior, Baron de 
 Breteuil, was certainly implicated, at least 
 financially, in the plot, gives her the largest 
 share at the beginning, though stating that later 
 Gregory Orlof became the effective chief, while 
 appearing to be the Princess's agent to soothe 
 her vanity. On the other hand, Frederick the 
 Great summed up the matter by saying that 
 the Orlofs did everything ; the Princess Dashkof 
 was " nothing more than the silly fly buzzing 
 on the wheel." Catherine is scornful about the 
 Dashkof claims. " She asserted that all went 
 through her to get to me," wrote the Empress 
 in the August following the Revolution, " yet 
 for six months I was in correspondence with 
 all the leaders before she heard the first name. 
 It is true that she has plenty of spirit, but she 
 is spoiled by her monstrous ostentation and her 
 naturally meddlesome nature." Catherine heard 
 that one of the Shuvalofs had written to Voltaire 
 telling him that " a woman of nineteen years 
 had changed the government of Russia " ; she 
 desired Poniatowsky (to whom her letter of 
 August was addressed) to " undeceive the great 
 writer." Plainly there was some bitterness 
 between Catherine and the Princess by then. 
 The reason will appear. 
 
 86
 
 The Revolution of 1762 
 
 The Princess Dashkof was by birth the 
 youngest of the Voronzof sisters — daughters of 
 Count Roman Voronzof, a member of the 
 Senate, and nieces of the Grand Chancellor, 
 Count Michael, who was married to a first 
 cousin of the Empress Elizabeth. Catherine 
 the Little, as she afterwards called herself in 
 jesting distinction from her friend the Empress, 
 was not brought up with her sisters but at her 
 uncle's house — in consequence of which she 
 received a much better training, chiefly on the 
 French lines then almost universal among the 
 more educated Russians of the period. The 
 eldest sister, Mary, had married Count Buturlin. 
 The second, Elizabeth, was the favourite of 
 Peter and his wife's maid-of-honour. Catherine 
 Romanovna was born in 1744, and, owing to 
 the high standing of her family, was held at 
 the font by the Empress Elizabeth herself, while 
 the Grand Duke Peter was her godfather. She 
 seems to have been hardly more of a beauty 
 than her sister Elizabeth, for Diderot, when she 
 called on him in Paris, found her by no means 
 handsome : " little, with a high and open fore- 
 head, large puffed-out cheeks, eyes neither large 
 nor small, sunk a little in the sockets, dark hair 
 and eyebrows, a rather flat nose, a round, straight 
 
 87
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 neck of the national shape, wide chest, not much 
 figure." Her mind impressed him more favour- 
 ably, it is just to add. 
 
 Catherine Voronzofs first meeting with the 
 future Empress was in the winter of 1758-59. 
 The description in the Dashkof Memoirs is so 
 delightfully sententious that it may be quoted 
 in full. Peter and the Grand Duchess, after- 
 wards named with so great propriety Catherine 
 the Great, came to spend an evening at her 
 uncle's house, she explains. " I had already 
 been represented to Her Imperial Highness, by 
 many of my uncle's visitors, as a young person 
 who spent almost her whole time in study, and 
 was otherwise spoken of in such favourable 
 terms as their partiality suggested. The esteem 
 with which she afterwards honoured me resulted 
 from a prepossession of this nature, and inspired 
 an enthusiasm and devotedness in return which 
 carried me into a sphere of action I then so 
 little contemplated or aspired to, and more or 
 less influenced the rest of my life. At the time 
 of which I am speaking I may venture to assert 
 there were not two women in the Empire, except 
 the Grand Duchess and myself, who occupied 
 themselves at all in serious reading ; hence was 
 a point of mutual attraction ; and, as the graces 
 
 88
 
 The Revolution of 1762 
 
 of her manner were absolutely irresistible to all 
 whom she chose to please, what must have been 
 their effect on a young creature like myself, 
 scarcely fifteen years of age, and so susceptible 
 of their power ? " The " young creature," whose 
 favourite authors were Bayle, Montesquieu, 
 Boileau, and Voltaire, and who sat up reading 
 them so late at nights as to injure her health, 
 seems really to have made an impression on 
 Catherine, seeing how intimate they became 
 two or three years later. But Catherine 
 Voronzof was married, when next they met, 
 to Prince Dashkof, of whom she always writes 
 in her Memoirs with the utmost devotion. 
 Rulhiere has an absurd tale of how " the young 
 Woronsof," then fifteen, being addressed by 
 "Prince D'Ashekof, one of the handsomest 
 noblemen about the Court," in a style of gal- 
 lantry somewhat peculiar, called Count Michael, 
 and said: "Uncle, Prince D'Ashekof is now 
 doing me the honour to propose marriage to 
 me." Rulhiere adds that "the young man, not 
 daring to acknowledge to the first personage in 
 the Empire that the proposition which he had 
 made to his niece did not precisely amount to 
 this, married her, but sent her to Moscow, two 
 hundred leagues off." Rulhiere's pretty fancy 
 
 89
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 seems to have been at work again. In her old 
 age, when, at the persuasion of her young and 
 admiring English friend, Miss Wilmot, the 
 Princess Dashkof compiled her Memoirs, she 
 complains, in a dedicatory letter, of the tissue 
 of falsehoods and vile imputations fabricated by 
 French writers against the great Catherine, and 
 says : " In such works I have found your Dash- 
 kaw represented with all the vices most foreign 
 to her character — sometimes as a person of 
 the most criminal ambition, at others as one 
 abandoned to the greatest profligacy." She 
 certainly did not merit such treatment. But, 
 in spite of the enthusiastic praise by her friend 
 and editor, Mrs Bradford (formerly Miss Wilmot), 
 of the Princess's " singleness of purpose, candour, 
 and plain-dealing," " absence of pretension," her 
 " honest soul," " true heart, and humour so play- 
 ful and ready to be pleased," we cannot find 
 much admiration except for the literary talents 
 of this " French-speaking Tomyris." The Comte 
 de Segur, a most acute observer, speaks of her 
 " cutting and haughty disposition, ill suited to 
 the character of Catherine," and says that "this 
 proud woman seems to have been formed by an 
 error of nature ; she partook more of our sex 
 than of her own." He was writing in 1787, 
 
 90
 
 The Revolution of 1762 
 
 when the Princess Dashkof came but rarely to 
 the Hermitage. But his verdict seems borne 
 out by Catherine's coolness to her and by the 
 opinions of others. 
 
 However, "the young creature" had not 
 developed such unpleasant traits yet, and in 
 the summer of 1761 Catherine cultivated her 
 acquaintance, meeting her regularly, and in- 
 viting her to her home to discuss literature 
 and philosophy. The bond between the two 
 Catherines became firm, and it was natural 
 that in 1762 the Princess should be ready to 
 take part in any scheme for her friend's ad- 
 vantage. It is probable, too, that a certain 
 amount of jealousy of her sister Elizabeth, 
 whom her family wished to see in the place 
 of Catherine beside Peter, contributed to her 
 attitude. The Voronzofs, apart from the Prin- 
 cess Dashkof, certainly stood to gain all by the 
 degradation of Catherine and to lose by Peter's 
 fall. And a scheme was on foot to bring about 
 the former event. Saldern does not hesitate 
 to admit that Peter had in his mind, and had, 
 indeed, confided to Elizabeth Voronzof, his in- 
 tention of making her Empress. Saldern de- 
 scribes Peter's mistress as of so open and 
 simple a nature that she thought it a pleasing 
 
 91 

 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 duty to tell her sister of the high fortune await- 
 ing her and hers. The Princess Dashkof, he 
 continues, too ambitious to bear the thought 
 of seeing her sister one day her sovereign, 
 revealed the plan to Catherine, and gladly 
 embarked with her in a plot of which she 
 thought herself the head, not knowing that an 
 Orlof had made himself the leader already. 
 Peter's apologist evidently thinks the Emperor 
 quite justified in his designs against one whom 
 he describes as concealing under an exterior 
 full of charms a soul worthy of the furies of 
 hell ; whereas the Princess Dashkof's adherence 
 to her friend's cause rather than to that of her 
 sister, with whom she had not been brought up, 
 and of whom she had seen little (and nothing 
 of that little to like), was the basest treachery. 
 
 Were there no guide as to the comparative 
 value of the numerous accounts of the Revolu- 
 tion of 1702, it would, indeed, be difficult to 
 apportion the responsibility or even make sure 
 of the details. Fortunately, there is extant the 
 letter, already mentioned, from Catherine herself 
 to Stanislas Poniatowsky. This was written 
 five weeks after the success of the plot had 
 seated her on the throne of Russia. The 
 narrative is clear, and, if we make allowance 
 
 92
 
 The Revolution of 1762 
 
 for some suppressions through a desire to stand 
 well in the eyes of him to whom she wrote, 
 seems worthy of trust. Her personal share, it 
 may be observed, appears from this to have 
 been larger than Frederick the Great imagined 
 it. He told the Comte de Segur that to 
 Catherine could be imputed neither the honour 
 nor the crime of the Revolution ; she was young, 
 powerless, isolated, and a foreigner, on the 
 point of being divorced and shut up for life. 
 Frederick (who had his agents at the Russian 
 Court from whom to draw his information) 
 assigned the work to the Orlofs, as has been 
 said. We need not, then, pay much attention 
 to the Princess Dashkof's story about the 
 original starting-point of the plot, which she 
 sees in a quarrel arising between her husband 
 and Peter over an alleged mistake made by the 
 former on parade. Prince Dashkof was per- 
 suaded to accept a mission to Constantinople 
 to get him out of harm's way. " My mind," 
 continues his wife, " had long been occupied 
 with the contemplation of those dangers which, 
 through the ruling power, seemed to threaten 
 the best interests of our country. ... One 
 prevailing idea haunted my imagination, and 
 led me, as if by inspiration, to believe that the 
 
 93
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 period of a revolution was not far distant." 
 And she resolved, she says, to share the diffi- 
 culties and danger. She began to devote her- 
 self earnestly to the matter. " As soon as 
 my ideas on the means of a well-organised 
 conspiracy became in some measure definite 
 and consistent I directed my attention towards 
 gaining over to our views, and implicating, if 
 possible, in our designs, some of those persons 
 whose consideration and influence in the State 
 might at least afford a sanction to our enter- 
 prise." It should be added that, though there 
 is no hesitation in the Princess's claim here to 
 the foremost place in starting the plot, she 
 gave a more modest account to Diderot. 1 The 
 
 1 Diderot says that the Princess Dashkof, as far as any 
 merit was concerned in producing the Revolution, "disclaimed 
 every pretension to it, both on her own part and on that 
 of others. It was brought about, she said, by an impercep- 
 tible clue, which she and all had imperceptibly followed, 
 and, if there were anyone who could be named as giving a 
 positive impulse to this adventure, it would be no other 
 than Peter the Third himself through his extravagances, 
 his vices, his incapacity, and the scorn and disgust which 
 his low-lived and scandalous habits had excited throughout 
 the nation. Everyone was hurried on towards the same end 
 by the general voice ; and so little was there of concern in the 
 proceeding that the affair was very far advanced before she, 
 or the Empress, or any other person had any suspicion of 
 the result which was at hand." We must, however, allow 
 her the credit of influencing some of those implicated in the 
 
 94
 
 The Revolution of 1762 
 
 Dashkof Memoirs were not written until she 
 was sixty-three, and had grown, perhaps, to dwell 
 more fondly on her achievements in the past. 
 We may turn to what Catherine herself has 
 to say. 
 
 In her letter of the 2nd of August she tells 
 Poniatowsky that it was on the day of the 
 celebration of the peace with the King of 
 Prussia — i.e. the 22nd of May — that she first 
 lent ear to the proposals made to her ever 
 since the death of the Empress Elizabeth. By 
 whom these proposals had been made she does 
 not say ; it is reasonable to guess the Orlofs. 
 Peter had already lost what wits he had. 
 He was scheming to change his religion to 
 Lutheranism once more, as well as to marry 
 Elizabeth Voronzof after repudiating and im- 
 
 plot or aware of it at least. Count Panin and Prince Repnin 
 were both connections of hers with whom she had weight. 
 Panin, her husband's uncle by Russian reckoning, was at- 
 tached to her, and so, by the amiable scandal of the day, was 
 variously accused of being her lover or her father ; Rulhiere 
 seizes on the latter suggestion, willing to clear the Princess, 
 but not to miss a chance for an insinuation against someone. 
 Both accusations are apparently quite groundless. " This 
 really respectable old uncle," as the Princess Dashkof calls 
 him once, seems to have already contemplated the idea 
 of Peter's deposition in favour of Paul, with Catherine as 
 regent and himself as chief adviser. But he wished to be 
 sure of success. 
 
 95
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 prisoning Catherine. On the day of the peace 
 celebration, however, he publicly insulted his 
 wife, and, further, gave directions for her arrest 
 in the evening. Through the influence of 
 Prince George of Holstein, Peter's uncle, the 
 order was countermanded. Catherine could 
 waver no longer. There was a plan, of which 
 she was cognisant, to seize the Emperor in his 
 private rooms, and shut him up, as had been 
 done to the Empress Anne and her children. 
 But Peter went off to Oranienbaum with Eliza- 
 beth Voronzof, leaving Catherine at Peterhof. 
 This gave the conspiracy time to develop, 
 though its actual coming to fruit was forced 
 by an accident. Catherine writes : 
 
 " The fate of the plot was in the hands of 
 the three brothers Orlof, the eldest of whom 
 Osten remembers seeing follow me everywhere, 
 and commit a thousand follies ; his passion for 
 me was public property, and he did everything 
 to that end. They are very determined people, 
 and much loved by the common soldiers, having 
 served in the Guards. I am under the greatest 
 obligation to these people ; all Petersburg is 
 witness to this. The minds of the Guards were 
 prepared, and, finally, there were thirty or forty 
 officers and about ten thousand men in the 
 
 96
 
 The Revolution of 1762 
 
 plot. In all this number there was not one 
 traitor during a period of three weeks. There 
 were four separate factions, whose leaders were 
 united by us for the execution of the plan, and 
 the real secret was in the three brothers' hands. 
 Panin wished it to be in favour of my son, 
 but they would never consent to it. I was at 
 Peterhof; Peter the Third was living and 
 drinking at Oranienbaum. It was agreed that 
 in case of treachery his return should not 
 be awaited, but that the Guards should be 
 called together, and I proclaimed. Their zeal 
 for me did what treachery would have brought 
 about. A rumour was current on the 27th 
 that I had been arrested. The soldiers were 
 thrown into tumult ; one of our officers quieted 
 them. A soldier came to one Captain Pasik, 
 the head of one faction, and told him for 
 certain that I was lost. Pasik assured him 
 that he had news of me. The soldier, in his 
 concern for me, went to another officer, and 
 told him the same story. This officer was not in 
 the plot and, alarmed at hearing that an officer 
 had sent the soldier away without putting him 
 under arrest, went to the Major, who arrested 
 Pasik, and sent a report during the night to 
 Oranienbaum. All the regiment was up, and 
 g 97
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 the alarm was spread among our conspirators. 
 They resolved at once to send the second of 
 the brothers Orlof to bring me into the town, 
 while the other two went about everywhere to 
 say that I had come." 
 
 Catherine goes on to say that she was almost 
 alone at Peterhof with her waiting- women, for- 
 gotten, to all appearance, by the world. But 
 she was kept informed of what was going on, 
 both for and against her, and was, therefore, 
 in a state of great anxiety. " On the 28th, at 
 six in the morning, Alexis Orlof entered my 
 room, woke me, and said very calmly : ' It is 
 time to get up ; all is ready for your proclama- 
 tion.' 1 asked him for details. He said: 
 ' Pasik is arrested.' I dressed myself as quickly 
 as possible, without making a toilet, and got 
 into the carriage which he had brought. An- 
 other officer was at the door, disguised as a 
 valet, and a third rode in front to some versts' 
 distance from Peterhof. At five versts from 
 the town I met the eldest Orlof with young 
 Prince Baratinsky. The latter gave me his 
 place, for my horses were finished, and we pro- 
 ceeded to the barracks of the Ismailofsky 
 regiment. Here were only twelve men, and a 
 drummer, who started to beat the alarm. Then 
 
 98
 
 The Revolution of 1762 
 
 the soldiers arrived, and began to kiss me, to 
 embrace my feet, my hands, my dress, and to 
 call me their saviour." A priest was brought, 
 and the men swore allegiance to their new 
 sovereign at once, after which all proceeded to 
 the Simeonofsky regiment's barracks, where a 
 similar scene was witnessed. Catherine drove 
 on to the Kazan Church, followed by the 
 two regiments shouting Vivat! and here the 
 Preobazinsky regiment joined them, shouting 
 like its comrades, and begging Catherine's 
 pardon for being the last to arrive. Its officers 
 had tried to hold the men back, but the latter 
 had brought four of them under arrest. The 
 Horse Guards had already risen in her favour, 
 making a prisoner of their hated commander, 
 Prince George of Holstein, and pillaging his 
 house. Catherine saved his life, and later sent 
 him to administer his native Holstein for her. 
 Assured of her military supporters the Empress 
 proceeded to the new Winter Palace, where 
 she met the Synod and the Senate, and 
 arranged for the hasty drawing up of a mani- 
 festo and the oath of allegiance. Once more 
 back with the troops, she passed round, on foot, 
 more than forty thousand men, received with 
 cries of joy everywhere, which were echoed by 
 
 99
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 the crowds standing round, according to Cathe- 
 rine. A meeting followed at the old Winter 
 Palace, at which it was decided that the troops, 
 with Catherine at their head, should march to 
 Peterhof, where Peter was expected to dine 
 that day. Before they started the Vice-Chan- 
 cellor Voronzof arrived to reproach Catherine 
 for her flight from Peterhof that morning, 
 and Prince Trubetzkoi and Count Alexander 
 Shuvalof to secure the troops, and to put her 
 to death, she says. Her answer was the same 
 to all three ; they were taken to the church, and 
 the oath of allegiance was administered. No 
 violence was used, not even to their feelings, 
 it would appear. 
 
 It was ten o'clock at night when Catherine 
 started for Peterhof, having proclaimed herself 
 Colonel of the Guards amid a scene of great 
 enthusiasm, and having attired herself in their 
 uniform — the old uniform introduced by Peter 
 the Great, it is to be noted, for the Guards 
 had already cast aside the new uniforms copied 
 by Peter III. from Frederick's army. She 
 rode on horseback at the head of the troops, 
 the Princess Dashkof, according to her account, 
 riding beside her, also in Guard's uniform, and 
 looking like a boy of fifteen. Catherine rode 
 
 100
 
 The Revolution of 1762 
 
 astride, as she always preferred to do, and had 
 done for years at Oranienbaum, when she could 
 do so without attracting the notice of the Em- 
 press Elizabeth. 1 The march continued all 
 night. On the way two messages arrived from 
 Peter — one, " very flattering," by the hands of 
 Prince Alexander Galitzin, which Catherine 
 ignored ; the second brought by General 
 Michael Ismailof, who promised to secure 
 Peter's abdication. Catherine sent him to do 
 so. The task was accomplished in the morn- 
 ing. Catherine comments thus : 
 
 " Peter the Third renounced his Empire at 
 Oranienbaum in full liberty, surrounded by 
 five hundred Holsteiners, and came with 
 Elizabeth Voronzof, Gudovitch, and Michael 
 Ismailof to Peterhof, where I assigned him a 
 bodyguard of five officers and a few soldiers. 
 It was noon on the 29th of June, St Peter's 
 Day." Catherine's dates are Old Style, it must 
 be noticed. 
 
 After an interval for a meal, during which, 
 she says, the soldiers grew so alarmed at not 
 seeing her that they began to imagine she was 
 being persuaded into a reconciliation with Peter, 
 and insisted on her coming out and reassuring 
 
 1 Catherine rode "like a true gentleman," the Memoirs say. 
 
 101
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 them, Catherine decided to send the late Em- 
 peror to Ropsha, which she describes as " a 
 remote but pleasant place " twenty-seven versts 
 from St Petersburg, until suitable apartments 
 could be prepared for him at Schliisselburg, on 
 Lake Ladoga. Alexis Orlof, with four other 
 officers and a detachment of men, was sent to 
 look after him. What followed is narrated by 
 Catherine, in her letter to Poniatowsky, in a 
 cold-blooded manner, to excuse which it is 
 necessary to keep in mind the bitterness caused 
 by his treatment of her. After telling how she 
 designed to send Peter to Schliisselburg she 
 remarks that le bon Dieu en disposa autrement. 
 Peter had a violent attack of colic for three 
 days, which stopped on the fourth. On that 
 day he drank heavily, for he had all he wished 
 for except liberty. Still, he had asked her for 
 nothing except his mistress, his dog, his negro, 
 and his violin, but, fearing scandal and an in- 
 crease in the fermentation d'esprits, she only 
 sent him the three last. Violent colic recurred, 
 with a determination to the head. He was two 
 days in this state, after which great weakness 
 followed, and, despite medical assistance, he 
 gave up the ghost, asking for a Lutheran priest. 
 She feared the officers might have poisoned 
 
 102
 
 The Revolution of 1762 
 
 him, so much was he hated, and she had an 
 examination of the body made. There was no 
 trace of poison. ... A stroke of apoplexy had 
 carried him off. His heart was of extremely 
 small size, and was withered (Jietri). 
 
 In the proclamation which she issued when 
 Peter's death was made public Catherine gives 
 the same cause, adding medical details which 
 we may omit. But the almost universal belief, 
 both at the time and in later writers' works, 
 was that the deposed Emperor was assas- 
 sinated. Alexis Orlof was generally accused of 
 the crime, some associating with him Pasik and 
 Baratinsky. Others made Tieplof the culprit. 
 If the death was unnatural probabilities point 
 to Alexis Orlof as the author of it ; a story 
 which may be true in this connection is men- 
 tioned at the end of the next chapter. But 
 all elaborate accounts of a piteous strangling 
 or poisoning scene, such as a few writers 
 furnish, may be dismissed as fictitious. If 
 Orlof or another did kill Peter the deed was 
 accomplished without witnesses. Peter was a 
 weakling, whom it could not be difficult to 
 put out of existence. 
 
 If there was murder done Catherine's know- 
 ledge or ignorance becomes of great importance 
 
 103
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 in an estimate of her character. Only those 
 could make the deed her design who held with 
 Saldern's editor that she was aptly described in 
 Voltaire's line : 
 
 " Le del est dans ses ycux, Uenfer est dans son occur." 
 
 But this does not seem to have been the view 
 at the time, and there was less popular out- 
 cry than over the death of Ivan two years 
 later. Peter's image remained in the hearts of 
 the peasantry, as Pugatshef, the false Peter, 
 found to his advantage in 1773. They did not 
 rise, however, in indignation against Catherine 
 in 1762 or denounce her as her husband's 
 murderess. The Prince de Ligne took pains 
 to establish Catherine's complete innocence, 
 and questioned the Emperor's old servants 
 at Oranienbaum, whose perfect liberty to tell 
 what occurred strikes him as the best possible 
 proof of Catherine's total ignorance of the deed. 
 Apparently, he writes, she does not know that 
 the crime is imputed to her (this could hardly 
 be quite correct) ; and, after mentioning how 
 her detractors added crime on crime as hers, 
 such as the deaths of Ivan, of Paul's first wife, 
 of Patiomkin, he concludes : " The lies of 
 lackeys, or of souls as base, have endeavoured 
 
 104
 
 The Revolution of 1762 
 
 to dim the lustre of that immortal reign. . . . 
 One only needed to see the Empress, to listen 
 to her, to know her life-story, to be sure of 
 her goodness, justice, and unvarying kindness." 
 This is excessive ; but the Prince de Ligne, 
 though a partisan, is anything but a simpleton. 
 His view in the matter of Peter's death is in 
 effect that of every trustworthy judge con- 
 temporary with Catherine. The accusation 
 against her of ordering her husband's assassina- 
 tion is only put forward by the scandalous, 
 the disreputable, or the utterly prejudiced. 
 
 The possibility still remains that Peter was 
 slain entirely without her knowledge but that 
 she condoned the deed when it was done. Cer- 
 tainly she made no attempt to punish anyone. 
 She was satisfied with the post-mortem examina- 
 tion which she mentions to Poniatowsky, and 
 took no steps to reassure a hesitating public, 
 while she forbade any discussion of the event. 
 Her manner on receipt of the news, which 
 Alexis Orlof brought to St Petersburg as fast 
 as he could ride on the day the death occurred, 
 was against her. She was just about to make 
 her appearance at Court. She appeared there 
 with a tranquil air, but immediately after shut 
 herself up with Orlof, Panin, and others, to 
 
 105
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 deliberate whether the Senate and people 
 should be told at once. It was determined to 
 wait a day, and Catherine, after dining as usual, 
 held an evening Court. Next day the news 
 was made known as Catherine sat at table, 
 whereon she rose, with her eyes full of tears, 
 as though she had but just heard, dismissed 
 those sitting at the meal with her, shut her- 
 self up, and for several days showed signs of 
 profound grief. This is Tooke's or Castera's 
 account, and there seems no reason to doubt 
 its correctness. In the proclamation announcing 
 Peter's death from violent colic she bade her 
 people pray sincerely to God for the repose of 
 Peter's soul, but asked them to consider this 
 unexpected and sudden death as "an especial 
 effect of the providence of God, whose im- 
 penetrable decrees are working, for us, for our 
 throne, and for our country, things known only 
 to His holy will." 
 
 The natural conclusion from the evidence 
 appears to be that Catherine did not either 
 order or consent to Peter's removal, but that 
 when he died, probably by foul means, she 
 accepted the situation, and did not institute too 
 minute an inquiry, which, though it would 
 clear her of all suspicion, might necessitate the 
 
 106
 
 The Revolution of 1762 
 
 punishment of one or more whom she could 
 not afford to punish. She published a version 
 of her husband's end which could not be dis- 
 proved (and cannot now be demonstrated false), 
 made a decent show of a grief which we cannot 
 expect her to have felt, and for the rest, imposed 
 a silence, as far as possible, on discussion. 
 Thereby she gave the scandalmongers a handle, 
 but preserved her throne. If we cannot con- 
 sider Voltaire's verdict sufficient : " I know 
 that she is reproached with some trifles about 
 her husband, but these are family affairs with 
 which I do not meddle" — we must allow full 
 weight at least to all arguments from her 
 position. Her strategy was the only strategy 
 which could insure her victory in a situation of 
 immense difficulty and danger. 
 
 Peter's body was exposed to public view 1 
 for three days in the monastery of Saint 
 Alexander Nefsky, and was buried on the 21st 
 of July, the day on which he intended to 
 march against Denmark. Neither proper tomb 
 nor inscription was his until the accession 
 of his son Paul, who exhumed the body, 
 and rendered to it the same honours as to 
 his just dead mother. He, further, crowned 
 
 1 According to some it was black, pointing to poison. 
 
 107
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 the coffin, as Peter was never crowned in his 
 lifetime. 
 
 It is only a devotee like Saldern, or the friend 
 who edited Saldern 's work after the deaths of 
 both the writer and Catherine, who can see in 
 Peter III. "a monarch worthy of being loved" 
 and " a prince full of goodness and humanity." 
 It is not hard for them to demolish the stories of 
 the untrustworthy Rulhiere, who would make 
 Peter an utter imbecile. Saldern's editor points 
 to the way in which Peter successfully threw off 
 his wife's domination, as soon as the Empress 
 Elizabeth died, to prove that he could not be 
 merely imbecile. And, indeed, the opening acts 
 of his reign were not those of a madman, but he 
 was certainly " streaked with insanity." The 
 combination of a sickly constitution, education 
 under a brutal and ignorant tutor, the treatment 
 of a child applied to a grown man, and a taste 
 for strong drink, acquired at the age of ten and 
 developed into almost daily drunkenness from 
 twenty-five onward — such a combination could 
 but produce one result if it did not bring death. 
 His insanity might have taken more serious 
 forms than a devotion to toys after his mar- 
 riage, executions of rats for eating his sentries, 
 absurd military exercises for his household, or an 
 
 108
 
 The Revolution of 1762 
 
 appearance at his wife's bedside, just before her 
 second child-birth, drunk, in Holstein uniform, 
 booted, spurred, and girt with a huge sword. It 
 might have driven him to worse than the court- 
 ship of very unprepossessing ladies, and beer- 
 swilling all day till he was carried to bed drunk. 
 As it was, his orgies completed his ruin slowly, 
 and he showed vestiges of intelligence at thirty- 
 four. When his wife declared that he lost what 
 wits he had after his accession she was referring 
 chiefly to his political measures. Her language, 
 on the whole, betrays remarkably little bitterness 
 at the long martyrdom of her marriage with him. 
 For a high-spirited woman she showed great 
 toleration of a constant series of outrages, and 
 she never refused to be for him Madame la 
 Ressource ; she was merely callous over his 
 death. His other relations were not so sparing 
 of Peter in their speech. To Anna Ivanovna he 
 was le diablotin; to his aunt Elizabeth "my 
 damned fool of a nephew." His aunt's Court 
 followed their mistress's example : they ridiculed 
 or hated him. The Voronzofs made all the use 
 they could of him, but only Elizabeth was 
 with him until Catherine sent her away. Old 
 Marshal Munich was prepared to fight for him. 
 But Peter " let himself be dethroned as a child 
 
 109
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 is sent to bed," in the words of Frederick the 
 Great. His poor, degraded life seemed to have 
 served for little but to introduce Catherine to 
 the throne of Russia. 1 
 
 The news of Peter's death reached Catherine 
 at St Petersburg on the 18th of July. After 
 arranging on the 10th for his conveyance from 
 Peterhof to Ropsha she had started for the 
 capital once more, travelling with the troops, and 
 snatching a little over two hours' sleep on the 
 way, on a bed in the Kurakins' country house, 
 fully dressed except for her boots, which one of 
 the soldiers removed for her. Arriving in St 
 Petersburg she went to the Summer Palace to 
 receive the Court, the Synod, with her young 
 son and others, and thence to the cathedral to 
 hear mass and a Te Deum service. " Then," 
 she writes, " they came to congratulate me, who, 
 since six on Friday morning, had hardly drunk, 
 eaten, or slept. I was, indeed, glad to get to bed 
 on Sunday night." But scarcely had she sunk 
 
 1 The Princess Dashkof sums up as follows the character 
 of " this ill-fated Prince, whom nature had formed for the 
 lowest walks of life, and whom fortune had placed on a 
 throne" : — "Although not positively vicious, his weakness of 
 parts, his want of education, and his natural bias to every- 
 thing base and demeaning, might have proved in their 
 consequences, had he continued to govern, no less pernicious 
 to his people than habits of the most deliberate vice." 
 
 110
 
 The Revolution of 1762 
 
 to sleep at midnight when Captain Pasik ap- 
 peared at her bedside, and woke her, saying that 
 the men were drunk, and believed that three 
 thousand Prussians were on their way to carry 
 off their " mother." They were on their way to 
 the Palace, and must see her, listening neither 
 to their officers nor to the Orlofs. The weary 
 " mother " arose, and went out to meet them. 
 She assured them that she was well, that they 
 must sleep and let her sleep, as she had not slept 
 for three days, and that they must listen to their 
 officers in future. They began to talk about 
 " the cursed Prussians " and to protest their 
 willingness to die for her. " Well, I thank 
 you," she replied ; " but go to bed ! " Catherine 
 showed an admirable grasp of the situation. The 
 men went like lambs, she writes, and next day 
 they came and apologised for having disturbed her. 
 In this manner was consummated what the 
 Princess Dashkof calls a "glorious revolution 
 brought about without a plan." She could but 
 see the hand of Divine Providence in it. Here 
 she followed the lead of her Imperial mistress. 
 Catherine, after confessing to Poniatowsky that 
 all took place under her own particular direction, 
 adds : " God has brought all to the end which 
 He proposed ; and it was more like a miracle than 
 
 111
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 a foreseen and prearranged affair, for so many 
 lucky combinations cannot come together save 
 by the orders of the Almighty." The actual 
 revolution was, indeed, startlingly brief. Keith, 
 the English Minister at St Petersburg at the 
 time, says that it was over in two hours, without 
 a drop of blood shed. 
 
 The victory was not abused, apart from the 
 treatment which Peter received. Among those 
 who appeared at Catherine's first levee were the 
 Voronzof family, who had planned her ruin. 
 " Madame, pardon my family ! " cried the 
 Princess Dashkof as she saw them kneeling 
 before the Empress. " You know I have 
 sacrificed them to you." Catherine extended 
 her hand for them to kiss. While she pardoned 
 all Peter's adherents she was lavish in rewards 
 to her own, giving titles, honours, and money 
 broadcast. It was estimated that she paid out 
 800,000 roubles in cash alone in five months, 
 50,000 going to Gregory Orlof. It was not to 
 be expected that she could satisfy all. The 
 Princess Dashkof, in particular, is said to have 
 pressed for the reward of a colonelcy in 
 the Preobazinsky Guards, whereon Catherine 
 answered, with an ironical smile, that the 
 Academy would suit her better than a military 
 
 112
 
 The Revolution of 1762 
 
 corps. She did, in fact, appoint the Princess 
 president of the Academy of Arts and Sciences 
 in 1782 — an appointment of which Casanova 
 remarks that the members of the Academy 
 recognised in their president another Minerva 
 or they would have blushed to have a woman 
 at their head. 
 
 But a sudden shock befell the Princess 
 Dashkof in the midst of her hopes. This is 
 how she describes it. On the evening of Peter's 
 deposition she entered the Palace, looking for 
 Catherine, and proceeded to the Empress's own 
 apartments. " What was my astonishment at 
 beholding Gregory Orlof stretched at full length 
 on a sofa in one of the rooms (having hurt his 
 leg, it appeared) with a large packet of letters 
 before him, which he was in the act of opening, 
 and which I recognised to be some State papers. 
 ... I asked him, in amazement, what he was 
 about. ' The Empress has ordered that I should 
 open them,' was his answer." It was useless 
 her protesting that this was impossible, and 
 she received a worse shock when, having been 
 invited by the Empress to dinner, she perceived, 
 " with extreme disapprobation," the dining-table 
 which was laid for three, drawn towards the couch 
 where Orlof lay. 
 
 h 113
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 It may be observed in passing, as an example 
 of Rulhiere's trustworthiness, that his version 
 of this story makes the Princess, entering the 
 apartments of the Empress with a liberty rather 
 too familiar, perceive with astonishment " Orlof 
 on a long chair, with his leg uncovered, and the 
 Empress herself dressing a contusion on that 
 leg." The Princess thereon used her freedom 
 to expostulate with Catherine on such an ex- 
 cess of kindness, and soon afterwards, on see- 
 ing clearly how the case stood, assumed the 
 tone of a severe censor. 
 
 The Princess Dashkof, though she did not 
 use her freedom to expostulate, as Rulhiere says, 
 at least showed her feelings on her countenance, 
 and had to put off the Empress's question what 
 was the matter by replying that it was only 
 " loss of sleep for fifteen nights." When 
 Catherine further pressed her to join in remon- 
 strances against Orlof's expressed wish to give 
 up military service, she dryly observed that, 
 Catherine having as sovereign so many means 
 of rewarding him besides promoting him in the 
 army, there was no need to do violence to his 
 wishes. " A conviction now for the first time 
 forced itself on my mind," say her Memoirs, 
 "fraught with every idea that was painful and 
 
 114
 
 The Revolution of 1762 
 
 humiliating. It was evident that there was 
 a liaison between them." And, in fact, what 
 the Princess Dashkof had witnessed was, in 
 M. Waliszewski's words, the inauguration of 
 favouritism. 
 
 Gregory Orlof was the first official favourite 
 of the Empress Catherine's reign, and it was 
 in this reign that the position of favourite 
 acquired a new character. There was not, per- 
 haps, so much difference, as historians would make 
 out, between the positions of Biron under Anna 
 Ivanovna and of such as Patiomkin under Cathe- 
 rine. Russia, indeed, felt the Bironovstchina 
 more than the influence of the most political 
 of Catherine's favourites. But where Catherine 
 made a new departure was that she gave the 
 favourite a definite status, with salary, and rooms 
 in the Palace, not hiding the fact in any way 
 from her Court or subjects — which makes 
 Masson say that she must, indeed, have known 
 and despised the Russians. But the Russians 
 were accustomed to the sight of the vremienst- 
 chik, "the man of the moment," for had not, 
 since the death of Peter the Great in 1725, a 
 succession of women occupied the Russian 
 throne ? What was new to them was the 
 number of favourites and the candour which 
 
 115
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 the Empress showed about their position. The 
 mere fact of her laxity of morals could hardly 
 shock her subjects much. The age was cer- 
 tainly not one of close attention to outward 
 decency, and Russia was, among European 
 countries, the last rather than the first in such 
 respects. For a scathing picture of the Slav 
 woman of his day — and the Slav lady, be it 
 observed — the reader may be referred to the 
 pages of Masson's "Memoires Secrets." Masson, 
 if sensational and as fond of scandal as most of 
 his contemporaries, had at least excellent oppor- 
 tunities of seeing Russian life during his long 
 exile from France. 
 
 116
 
 THE ORLOF 
 ASCENDANCY
 
 GrREGOin OkLOI
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE ORLOF ASCENDANCY 
 
 Catherine, when her reign began, found her- 
 self in a very difficult position. She was sur- 
 rounded by those to whom she owed her position 
 on the throne, who had risked their lives for 
 her, and who looked to her to reward them 
 handsomely. The nobles, jealous of the sudden 
 rise of the Orlofs and the other new men, and 
 disgusted at the arrogance displayed by them, 
 kept aloof from the Court. The late con- 
 spirators were not in themselves, for the most 
 part, persons to inspire much confidence in a 
 discerning ruler. The French Minister, Baron 
 de Breteuil, sums them up as a poor lot, with 
 the exception of Count Panin and the hetman 
 Razumofsky. They were stupid, he says, and, 
 though stupidity was common enough in those 
 around her, and was apparently tolerated by her 
 easily enough, he could not persuade himself 
 that Catherine would not thin them out in 
 time. So, indeed, she did, but with no undue 
 haste ; and the Orlof influence, which was little 
 
 119
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 used on the side of enlightenment, was destined 
 to last long. At first Gregory Orlof was practi- 
 cally master ; had he been a man of stronger 
 will-power he might have made himself so as 
 decidedly as Patiomkin afterwards. As it was, 
 those whom he disliked, such as the Princess 
 Dashkof (who in her turn cordially hated him), 
 were soon out of favour with Catherine. Only 
 the most powerful could hold their ground 
 against him, such as Cyril Razumofsky, who, 
 in reply to Orlof s boast to Catherine that it 
 would only take him a month to dethrone her, 
 said : " That may be, but we should have you 
 hung in a week." Orlof presumably recognised 
 the truth of this. 
 
 The question has been much discussed what 
 were Catherine's real sentiments towards Gregory 
 Orlof. How she could write of him we have 
 already seen. It may be added that, in a 
 letter to her philosopher friend Zimmermann, 
 she spoke of " this unique and truly great 
 man," and complained of the way in which 
 his contemporaries misunderstood him. M. 
 Waliszewski maintains that, on the contrary, 
 these contemporaries were only too prone in 
 judging him to let their verdicts be echoes of 
 Catherine's passionate infatuation. The Rev. 
 
 120
 
 The Orlof Ascendancy 
 
 W. Tooke — who did not, however, go to 
 St Petersburg until 1774, 1 when Orlof had 
 been supplanted — maintains that, even at the 
 beginning of her reign, Catherine's attachment 
 to Orlof arose more from policy than from 
 affection. Tooke's evidence, of course, is only 
 second-hand at the best on Catherine's early 
 days, and he speaks several times elsewhere of 
 her great attachment to Orlof. Of her early 
 infatuation there can be no doubt. Breteuil 
 gives a marked instance of it at some Court 
 theatricals at the beginning of 1763, when 
 Orlof was taking, rather unsuccessfully, the 
 leading part in some play. Catherine was 
 charmed at the performance, and constantly 
 praised the beauty and dignity of the actor 
 to the French and Austrian Ministers, her 
 neighbours. Nor does the way in which she 
 received the news of his death, nearly twenty 
 years later, really seem to bear out M. Walis- 
 zewski's theory of an affectation of grief on 
 her part. 
 
 Nevertheless, whatever may have been the 
 strength of Catherine's love for Orlof, she was 
 hardly infatuated enough to listen to a sugges- 
 tion that she should marry him. Of ambition 
 
 1 He was chaplain to the English factory at St Petersburg. 
 
 121
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 to take part in the government of Russia Orlof 
 showed little — too little according to his Em- 
 press. But his scheme of marriage was too 
 bold, and Catherine could not fail to see its 
 dangers. Still, in her affection, and partly, no 
 doubt, as M. Waliszewski contends, in fear 
 of Gregory and the power of his united and 
 reckless family of brothers, she put the question 
 seriously before her Cabinet. Though only one 
 adviser had courage to speak his reply was 
 unhesitating. " The Empress can do as she 
 pleases," said Panin, " but Madame Orlof can 
 never be Empress of Russia." Panin was ob- 
 viously right, 1 and Catherine had no desire to 
 become Madame Orlof on the terms. Bestujef, 
 however, who was, apparently, the original in- 
 spirer of Orlof s scheme (which he hoped would 
 be to his own advantage, since Panin was a 
 pronounced opponent of the Orlofs), was not 
 beaten yet. An attempt was made to discover 
 a precedent for Catherine, and the Grand 
 Chancellor Voronzof was sent to Alexander 
 Razumofsky, brother of the hetman, and the 
 
 1 A note in Poniatowsky's Memoirs says that the Orlof 
 marriage was opposed by the hetman Razumofsky, Voronzof, 
 and others. These names he must have got from Catherine. 
 It is strange Panin is not mentioned. 
 
 122
 
 The Orlof Ascendancy 
 
 former favourite of the Empress Elizabeth, 
 who now lived a retired life, devoting himself 
 to religion. He was supposed to have docu- 
 ments proving his marriage to Elizabeth. The 
 story is that, when Voronzof approached him, 
 he took out a roll of parchment from his desk, 
 thrust it in the fire, and answered that he had 
 never been other than the very humble servant 
 of Her Majesty the Empress Elizabeth, and 
 desired to be no less than the very humble 
 servant of the reigning Empress. Bestujef 
 was reduced to his last resource. He organised 
 a petition to Catherine, praying her to marry, 
 in view of the danger to the succession through 
 the ill-health of the Grand Duke Paul. The 
 Princess Dashkof, ignoring the rest of the tale, 
 makes Bestujef commence with a petition, which 
 he took to Panin for signature ; whereon, after 
 an indignant protest, Panin drove off at once 
 to Catherine, and warned her of her danger. 
 Catherine, she says, disowned the authority of 
 " the intriguing old man " Bestujef, and thanked 
 Panin for his frankness and loyalty. The effect 
 of the "piece of quackery," as the Princess 
 Dashkof calls the petition, was rapid, at what- 
 ever period it was got up. Popular disturbances 
 broke out against the marriage scheme, and even 
 
 123
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 went so far that Catherine's image was torn 
 down from a triumphal arch in Moscow. Traces 
 were discovered in May, 1763, of a conspiracy, 
 supposed to implicate a number of people op- 
 posed to the Orlof family. Among these was 
 the Princess Dashkof. A man named Hitrof 
 or Hitrovo was arrested, and on examination 
 gave as the names of his associates those of a 
 number of the revolutionists who had but a 
 year ago put Catherine on the throne. Tooke 
 alleges that Catherine now wrote to the Princess 
 Dashkof (who had for a time almost been in 
 exile at Moscow through the Orlof influence), 
 "lavishing on her the most tender epithets, 
 the most advantageous promises, and the most 
 seducive [sic] flatteries, conjuring her in the 
 name of their long-standing friendship to reveal 
 to her what she knew of the recent conspiracies, 
 and assuring her of a free pardon for all con- 
 cerned." The Princess's reply was : " Madame, 
 I have heard nothing ; but if I had heard any- 
 thing I should take good care how I spoke of 
 it. What is it that you require of me ? That 
 I should expire on a scaffold ? I am ready 
 to mount it." Catherine was astonished at so 
 much haughtiness, Tooke adds. The Princess 
 Dashkof herself does not bear out this version 
 
 124
 
 The Orlof Ascendancy 
 
 of the affair. According to her, Hitrof, who 
 was " one of the most disinterested of the 
 conspirators against Peter the Third," was, like 
 others, indignant at the insolence of Orlofs 
 pretensions, and consequently anxious to see his 
 downfall. The extent of his conspiracy was 
 to plan a counter-petition to Bestujef's, urging 
 Catherine not to marry Orlof. He had, as he 
 confessed, called on the Princess three times 
 to ask her advice, but without success as she 
 was expecting the birth of a child, and was 
 seeing no one. Nevertheless, Catherine wrote 
 a letter, and sent it by the hand of Tieplof to 
 Prince Dashkof, himself lying ill at the time, 
 saying that she understood that his wife was 
 using menacing language about her. Prince 
 Dashkof tore the letter up, and sent the 
 Empress a reply written "with the utmost 
 spirit." To show that she was innocent and 
 undismayed the Princess wrote to Catherine 
 after the birth of her son, and reminded her of 
 her promise to stand godmother to the infant. 
 Catherine was present at the christening, and 
 the incident ended, Hitrof alone suffering 
 banishment. 
 
 Though the conspiracy succeeded to the ex- 
 tent of alarming the Orlofs sufficiently to induce 
 
 125
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 them to give up the marriage scheme, there 
 was no visible lessening of their influence over 
 Catherine, and Gregory, if he had not the title 
 which he coveted, had the position as far as 
 he chose to occupy it. The Empress heaped 
 honours upon him until he was not only supreme 
 over practically every department of the army, 
 but also the head of the Colonisation Bureau, 
 while receiving ten thousand roubles a month, 
 and gifts of houses and of estates, with peasants 
 to work upon them. He was, too, privileged 
 always to wear in his button-hole a diamond- 
 studded miniature of his mistress — a favour 
 only conceded to Patiomkin and Zubof among 
 his successors, and up to his time unheard of 
 as an Empress's gift. The way in which he 
 accepted Catherine's treatment of him did no- 
 thing to prove him the truly great man that 
 she declared him. Indeed, he did little but 
 squander his money, including that given him 
 for use in the various offices which he held, 
 and pass his time in idleness, putting aside all 
 public duties which might be thrust on him. 
 Towards the Empress personally his familiarity 
 of manner was such that it was declared un- 
 paralleled in any country since the foundation 
 of monarchy, and a French attache at St Peters- 
 
 126
 
 The Orlof Ascendancy 
 
 burg described him as " publicly taking liberties 
 with his sovereign which, in polite society, a 
 self-respecting mistress would not tolerate in 
 her lover." If Catherine's love of contrast was 
 strong, the difference between the manners of 
 Stanislas Poniatowsky and Gregory Orlof must 
 have had an undeniable piquancy for her. 
 
 It was probably the Orlof supremacy which 
 kept alight the sparks of discontent which, 
 during Catherine's early reign, continued to 
 break out into the fire of actual revolt. In 
 the year following the Hitrof attempt there 
 occurred an incident, the origin of which was 
 attributed to conspiracy, though the mystery 
 of it remains unsolved to this day. Ivan, the 
 son of Anna Leopoldovna, was still a prisoner 
 at Schlusselburg. Peter, when he came to the 
 throne in 1762, had brought the unhappy youth, 
 then twenty-one years of age, to St Petersburg ; 
 but Catherine recognised the danger of the 
 presence, even as a half-witted captive, of one 
 who had, if only for a few months during 
 babyhood, been recognised as Tsar of Russia, 
 and she accordingly sent him back to Schliissel- 
 burg. A plot in his favour had been discovered 
 in the October after her accession, and those 
 implicated had been transported before their 
 
 127
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 plans could mature. She designed to put 
 Ivan himself into a monastery. 1 But she was 
 saved the trouble. In the month of September, 
 1764, Ivan was killed. It was said that an 
 officer named Mirovitch, in the garrison at 
 Schlusselburg, induced some of his men to 
 attempt to "free the Tsar." Ivan's personal 
 guards thereon put him to death, having had 
 instructions on no account to permit his escape. 
 Mirovitch was promptly arrested, and executed, 
 without having uttered a word implicating 
 anyone. No effort was made to trace any 
 accomplices, and all discussion of the affair was 
 forbidden. Nevertheless, there was a great deal 
 of popular comment, and a wide circulation 
 was found for a pamphlet entitled " Innocence 
 Oppressed ; or, The Death of Ivan," and others 
 of a similar character. An allusion will be 
 found in Casanova's Memoirs to the excite- 
 ment caused at the time. Casanova was then 
 at Riga in the company of Prince Charles 
 Biron, son of Anna's favourite, and Catherine 
 happened to visit the town in the course of 
 a tour in Livonia. On the day after her 
 arrival, writes Casanova, the news came of 
 
 1 " Not too near and not too far," she writes in a mem- 
 orandum ; ** it will suffice if it does not become a shrine." 
 
 128
 
 The Orlof Ascendancy 
 
 Ivan's death. " The affair made such a sensa- 
 tion that the prudent Panin sent courier after 
 courier to beg the Empress to come back." 
 She went back, but found all quiet. " It was 
 reported," Casanova continues, "that she was 
 in connivance with the assassins, but I believe 
 this to be a calumny. She was strong-minded, 
 but not perfidious or cruel." Wroughton, whom 
 we have already mentioned, is quoted in Sir 
 Nathaniel Wraxall's Memoirs as considering 
 Catherine's knowledge of Ivan's destruction as 
 "problematical" — that is to say, apparently, 
 he thinks she may have been more implicated 
 in it than in the death of Peter, in which 
 he says that Catherine's participation was "in- 
 voluntary, reluctant, and the result of an 
 insurmountable necessity." Wraxall himself 
 seems to lean more to the opinion of Catherine's 
 actual guilt in the case of Ivan ; but his know- 
 ledge of the affair was second or third hand, 
 and he is willing to believe that Catherine had 
 a part in the death of her daughter-in-law, the 
 former Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, in 1776, 
 and possibly in that of the Princess Augusta 
 of Wurtemburg in 1789. Such crimes, how- 
 ever, were really alien to the character of 
 Catherine. She was ready to make full use 
 i 129
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 of the opportunities offered her by what she 
 calls " His Sacred Majesty Chance." But the 
 cruelty necessary to plan a murder, even in de- 
 fence of her throne, was never hers. Of course, 
 she was accused of such crimes. She was much 
 hated, as well as much loved ; and she offered 
 such an easy target for the malevolent. 
 
 The removal of Ivan was lucky for her. 
 But false Ivans and false Peters continued to 
 give her trouble. The most dangerous pre- 
 tender did not appear until late in 1773, when 
 Pugatshef, claiming to be Peter III., and stamp- 
 ing on coins struck by him the words Redivivus 
 et ultor, caused a really formidable revolt, in 
 which all the raskolniks, and many Tartar tribes, 
 joined. After Pugatshef s betrayal and de- 
 capitation in 1774 Catherine thought it advisable 
 to show herself in Moscow, where she spent 
 some time, to complete the impression caused 
 by her victory. After that date internal 
 troubles ceased. Catherine's reversal of Peter's 
 policy of abolition of the Secret Chancery and 
 of resumption of monastic property caused 
 some regrets for the brief reign which preceded 
 hers. On the other hand, her efforts to check 
 the abuses of the existing administration, and 
 to give Russia an enlightened code, told in her 
 
 180
 
 The Orlof Ascendancy 
 
 favour. Her Instructions for the arrangement 
 of the new code might be all pillaged, as she 
 confessed, from Montesquieu, Beccaria, and 
 other Western writers ; and she might find it 
 necessary, on the outbreak of the Turkish War, 
 to suspend the meetings of the Commission of 
 six hundred and fifty deputies drawn from all 
 classes and races of her Empire to discuss the 
 code. Nevertheless, she allowed at the two 
 hundred sittings of those deputies in 1776-17C8 
 a freedom of speech never heard before or since 
 in Russia ; and she did, as she averred, gather 
 hints for all the Empire. The Economical 
 Society, which she had founded, and over which 
 she had made president that politician in spite 
 of himself, Gregory Orlof, even proposed to 
 the Commission the question of the emancipa- 
 tion of the serfs— without any practical result, 
 it is true. 1 The various departments of State, 
 corrupt and inefficient in the extreme, were 
 in her early reign purified and improved, if 
 
 1 M. Rambaud in his " History of Russia " points out that 
 Catherine, in spite of a few generous impulses, finally ex- 
 aggerated the existing state of affairs for the serfs. More 
 than 150,000 Crown peasants were turned by her into serfs 
 by being distributed among her favourites ; and as early as 
 1767 an edict forbade serfs to make complaints against their 
 masters, who, on their part, could send their serfs to Siberia, 
 or into the army, at will. 
 
 131
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 they relapsed into their former state as she 
 grew old. With regard to foreign countries, 
 she marked her accession to the throne by a 
 declaration of peaceful principles ; and, though 
 she lost no time in denouncing Frederick, she 
 did not, until Panin's death, actually depart 
 from Peter's policy of friendship with Prussia. 
 For this Panin was responsible, as he was a 
 steadfast supporter of this course for Russia, 
 and it was only when Panin had retired to 
 die that Patiomkin was able to carry out his 
 ideas of closer relations with Austria. 
 
 Catherine could not fail to be a popular 
 sovereign, in some senses of the word. Casa- 
 nova gives a striking picture of her accessibility 
 to people in general. He tells how he went 
 to a masked ball in St Petersburg in 1764- 
 a ball which lasted sixty hours, and at which 
 everyone ate and drank freely, and gaiety and 
 licence were visible on every face. " All at 
 once someone cried ; ' Here comes the Tsarina ! ' 
 and we caught sight of the tall figure of Gregory 
 Orlof following a masked figure, draped in a 
 domino which might have been worth five 
 copecks at the most. The masked figure moved 
 in and out of the crowd, getting jostled by 
 persons who really did not know her. Some- 
 
 132
 
 The Orlof Ascendancy 
 
 times she sat down by people who were very 
 likely talking about her. She probably heard 
 many remarks which were not meant for her 
 ears and might wound her pride ; but the ex- 
 perience must have been extremely useful to 
 her." Again he tells of her at the concerts 
 given in the Palace after dinner every Sunday, 
 to which all. had access. Catherine would walk 
 about, stopping to speak to anyone whom she 
 wished to honour. Casanova talked with her 
 but three times ; but he was immensely im- 
 pressed by the kindness and gentleness of her 
 demeanour, which gave her so much advantage 
 over her opponents, and by her imperturbable 
 good-humour. 
 
 Gregory Orlof, however, was not one who 
 would be restrained by feelings of tenderness 
 for the general amiability of character, or by 
 gratitude for the proofs of particular affec- 
 tion for him, in the Empress who maintained 
 him in his position against the attacks of 
 his numerous enemies. His attitude changed 
 gradually from that of excessive, even vulgar, 
 familiarity to one of coldness. He seemed 
 inclined, in the words of one of the biographers 
 of the time, to seek his amusement in the 
 company of other ladies ; another writer puts 
 
 133
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 it more strongly, and says that he had affairs 
 in every town. The experiment would surely 
 have been dangerous had Catherine been as 
 cruel as some of her traducers would make her. 
 But indications must have presented them- 
 selves at last to Orlof that he had nearly 
 exhausted his Empress's patience and worn out 
 her love, for he showed a sudden flash of energy 
 after so many years of sloth. Plague had 
 broken out in Southern and Central Russia. 
 It had attacked the Russian army in winter 
 quarters at Jassy at the end of 1770, and killed 
 thousands. In South Russia the doctors were 
 at a loss how to meet it, mistaking it, to begin 
 with, for other diseases. About Christmas it 
 had spread to Moscow. Here, too, the doctors 
 were helpless, and incurred the wrath of the 
 people, who handled them violently, and broke 
 into general rioting. Their icons alone inspired 
 any confidence in the mob, and the Archbishop 
 Ambrosius, who tried to persuade them that 
 reliance on such alone would not save them, 
 was cruelly butchered. The panic made mat- 
 ters worse, and it was calculated that fifty 
 thousand succumbed in Moscow before the 
 epidemic ceased. The disturbances had been 
 raging furiously for about two months, when 
 
 134
 
 The Orlof Ascendancy 
 
 Gregory Orlof, recalling his old courage, asked, 
 and obtained, the Empress's permission to go 
 to Moscow. She allowed him one hundred 
 thousand roubles for expenses. He met with 
 wonderful success. He took vigorous steps at 
 once : prohibited for the time all assemblies of 
 the inhabitants, visited the afflicted personally, 
 made the doctors and officers attending him 
 burn the clothes of the victims, and finally, 
 when winter's severity began to be felt, had 
 the epidemic under control and all panic allayed. 
 Catherine was delighted. In recognition of his 
 deed she not only erected a triumphal arch of 
 marble at Tsarsko Selo, bearing the inscription : 
 " Moscow delivered from plague by Orlof," but 
 also caused a medal to be struck, showing 
 Orlofs head on one side and on the other a 
 figure of Quintus Curtius, with the legend : 
 " Russia also has such sons." 
 
 Orlofs pretensions were naturally not dimin- 
 ished by the fame of his exploits, and as his 
 brother the Admiral had also covered himself 
 with glory at the battle of Tchesme the Orlof 
 rule seemed more firmly established than ever. 
 The family, however, was not one to treat a 
 situation diplomatically, and Gregory resumed 
 his former habits of unfaithfulness to the 
 
 135
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 Empress and arrogance towards the Court. 
 The Court might have to tolerate his treat- 
 ment, but Catherine was only long-suffering up 
 to a certain point. It is suggested that her 
 affection for Bobrinsky, Orlof's son and hers, 
 delayed an open rupture. But Orlof must have 
 felt his position precarious once more, for he 
 seized the opportunity of the weariness felt, 
 on both the Russian and the Turkish sides, 
 over the war and the sufferings of the two 
 armies on the Danube from plague, to ask for 
 the mission of negotiating a peace. Catherine 
 granted the request. The result for Orlof, 
 and for the prestige hitherto enjoyed by his 
 family, was remarkable. For Catherine her- 
 self, too, a new era opened. 
 
 Orlof left St Petersburg on the 18th of 
 August. Catherine, in a letter written at the 
 time, speaks of him as her "angel of peace." 
 The name was most inappropriate. Orlof had 
 no sooner arrived at Foksani than he quarrelled 
 with Rumianzof, and, conceiving the idea of 
 outdoing the Marshal's exploits, and attacking 
 Constantinople itself, broke off negotiations with 
 the Turks. In the meantime he proceeded to 
 give entertainments on a startling scale at 
 Jassy, appearing at times in a costume which 
 
 136
 
 The Orlof Ascendancy 
 
 Catherine had presented to him, which was so 
 covered with diamonds that its value was esti- 
 mated at a million roubles. A rude shock drove 
 him from these revelries. The news reached 
 him that two weeks after he had quitted the 
 Russian capital a young lieutenant in the 
 Horse Guards, called Vassiltshikof, had been 
 installed in his rooms in the Palace, and was 
 enjoying the position of favourite. All the 
 energy that had been his returned to Orlof 
 once more. Abandoning both his mission and 
 his entertainments, he sprang into a carriage, 
 and started, without another thought, on a 
 journey of a thousand leagues. The fame of 
 the exploit rang over Russia ; but it was all in 
 vain. He had almost reached St Petersburg 
 when an Imperial messenger stopped him, and 
 told him that he must go into quarantine. 
 Plague was again prevalent in the South, and 
 St Petersburg must be protected. His house 
 at Gatshina was suggested as a suitable place 
 at which to stay, and Orlof accepted this 
 ignominious termination of his meteoric journey. 
 Catherine prepared to strip him of his honours, 
 and wrote to demand the diamond-studded 
 miniature. With a touch of chivalry hardly 
 to be looked for in him, Orlof sent back the 
 
 137
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 frame, but refused the portrait to any but the 
 actual hands of her who gave it to him. At 
 last Catherine was softened a little — though, as 
 a matter of fact, she appears, while refusing his 
 entreaties to see her, to have written to him 
 constantly at Gatshina — and a compromise was 
 effected. He was allowed to bear the title of 
 Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, the patent 
 of which had already been conferred on him by 
 the Emperor Joseph, but was condemned to a 
 course of European travel. He was permitted 
 to visit St Petersburg in the winter, and he 
 certainly showed no signs there of embarrass- 
 ment, either before Catherine or before the 
 Court. He even insisted on friendship with 
 the new favourite. For the story of Vassilt- 
 shikof's installation had been perfectly true. 
 This was the doing of Count Panin, aided by 
 Zahar Tchernichef, who hated the Orlofs. 
 Panin foresaw danger if Catherines affections 
 should be disengaged — and he had, of course, 
 never been a friend of the Orlofs. He took 
 advantage of the angels absence on his mission 
 of peace to supplant him in the Palace by one 
 who was no more than a good-looking young 
 man. 
 
 From the point of her acceptance of Vassilt- 
 
 138
 
 The Orlof Ascendancy 
 
 shikof as a lover may be dated Catherine's 
 starting out on the career which made her 
 name notorious in Europe. Had she remained 
 content with Orlof — to assume for a moment 
 the possibility of contentment with one so 
 faithless — she would have done nothing that 
 her predecessors on the Russian throne had 
 not done before, save in according the favourite 
 more public recognition than had been usual. 
 Had she even taken up Patiomkin now, to 
 rule her during the rest of her reign, she would 
 have given little offence to her contemporaries. 
 But in taking for her companion Panin's choice, 
 and by following him with a succession of others, 
 even though one of them was a Patiomkin, she 
 passed the bounds of what the not usually 
 censorious eighteenth century thought decent. 
 What excuse there was before was now wanting. 
 Gregory Orlof had, more than any other man, 
 gained her crown for her, at the risk of his life, 
 and Catherine persuaded herself that she found 
 in him other attractions than those of the 
 senses. Vassiltshikof had no claims known to 
 history. He came of a very good family — was, 
 in fact, of old boyar descent. The Prussian 
 Minister, writing to his master, found him of 
 medium height, very dark, and rather good- 
 
 139
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 looking, but not distinguished. He notes, too, 
 Yassiltshikof's politeness, amiability, and retiring 
 manners, and his slight embarrassment at the 
 position which he occupied, and Catherine's 
 good spirits and gaiety since Orlof s departure 
 and the new favourite's accession. A less 
 harmful choice could hardly have been made. 
 When Catherine appointed him one of her 
 chamberlains he was said to have been at a loss 
 how to comport himself until he received the 
 encouragement of Prince Baratinsky, who, how- 
 ever, was glad, like Panin and Tchernichef, to 
 help in the downfall of the Orlofs, whose yoke 
 the old nobility bore with difficulty. But he 
 filled the position to which he was called. He 
 did not abuse it. He accepted the situation, 
 occupied the rooms assigned to the favourite, 
 and enjoyed the emoluments of the office. He 
 did not justify the fears of those who looked 
 for a second Orlof, and he never attempted 
 to interfere in the affairs of State. He was a 
 nonentity without a record, and, after his period 
 of favour, relapsed into the obscurity from which 
 he came. The rising of the star of Patiomkin 
 eclipsed what little light had been his. It was 
 Patiomkin, really, who conquered the Orlofs ; 
 it almost seems that they might, but for him, 
 
 140
 
 The Orlof Ascendancy 
 
 have regained their old sway. Such seemed, 
 indeed, to be the case early in 1774. 
 
 Catherine, having obtained for the time peace 
 in the matter of her love affairs, was able to 
 turn her attention to a project of considerable 
 importance to Russia. The Grand Duke Paul 
 was eighteen years old at the beginning of 
 1773, and it was advisable to think of the suc- 
 cession to the throne. Catherine followed the 
 old plan of sending to Germany. The Hesse- 
 Darmstadt family was selected, and the mother 
 and her three daughters came to Russia to be 
 inspected. It is an extraordinary proof that 
 the Orlof influence was by no means dead yet 
 that Catherine's first meeting with them was at 
 Gregory's house at Gatshina, where the Hesse- 
 Darmstadts were invited to break their journey 
 to St Petersburg, though the master was still 
 nominally in disgrace. The ex-favourite con- 
 siderably complicated matters by his presence, 
 and by actually making love to one of the 
 young princesses himself, so as to alarm 
 Frederick the Great (again the marriage-broker 
 for Russia) with the notion that he had designs 
 of marrying into the family. But it was only 
 a passing fancy. Finally Paul, or Catherine 
 for him, chose the eldest of the three daughters, 
 
 141
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 Wilhelmina. Wraxall unkindly remarks that 
 her two sisters must have been very deficient 
 in personal attractions, as he had rarely beheld 
 a young person less favoured by Nature than the 
 Princess Wilhelmina. " She had a scorbutic 
 humour in her face, nor did her countenance 
 indicate either intelligence or dignity, but she 
 was said to be amiable and pleasing in her 
 manners." This unfortunate young woman was 
 doomed to a short but miserable career at the 
 Russian Court. Without believing Wraxall's 
 wild tale of Catherine putting her out of the 
 way in 1776, we must admit that Wilhelmina's 
 treatment was as ungenerous as that of any of 
 the young German princesses imported into 
 Russia. 
 
 The marriage of the Grand Duke in October 
 involved the cessation of Count Panin's duties 
 as tutor, and it was hoped by his enemies, 
 especially the Orlofs, that he would at the 
 same time lose his other office as director of 
 foreign affairs. Catherine is said to have in- 
 tended to dismiss him, but to have been dis- 
 suaded by the earnest entreaties of Paul. In 
 the end Panin was confirmed in the Foreign 
 Office, and presented with large sums of money, 
 as a recognition of his services to the Grand 
 
 142
 
 The Orlof Ascendancy- 
 Duke. This did not suit the Orlof s at all ; 
 and Gregory, whose exile had, for a time at 
 least, been terminated by himself, reproached 
 the Empress keenly for her retention of Panin. 
 She represented the necessity of his services, 
 and did her best to soothe Orlofs feelings. 
 Celebrations during the winter of Russia's suc- 
 cesses against Turkey brought additional marks 
 of her favour to the family in the person of 
 the Admiral Alexis. But Gregory was not to 
 be appeased, apparently, for he left St Petersburg 
 once more, with the docile Vassiltshikof still 
 reigning favourite, and, after a riotous and os- 
 tentatiously magnificent series of festivities at 
 his house at Reval, paid the Continent a visit. 
 After spending a few months in European 
 travels, during which he created quite a sen- 
 sation by his extravagant living and heavy 
 gambling, Gregory Orlof suddenly reappeared 
 in Russia. His enemies had hoped that his 
 absence would last much longer, and would 
 give time for his influence to be forgotten. 
 Catherine herself appeared disconcerted by his 
 return. She had already confided to a friend 
 her intention of making a stand, and, "after 
 eleven years of suffering, living according to 
 her pleasure, and in entire independence." She 
 
 143
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 tried to confine him to his mansion at Reval, 
 but in vain. He found banishment there in- 
 supportable, and insisted on coming to St 
 Petersburg. Catherine could not be consistent 
 in her attitude towards him. Even while he 
 was waiting at Reval she had loaded him with 
 presents and his friends with honours. " What, 
 then," asks Tooke, " could be the motive of 
 such a singular conduct ? Catherine had no 
 longer any regard for Orlof. She no longer 
 stood in awe of him ; but she dreaded, she 
 hated, a faction which she conceived might be 
 forming — namely, that of the Grand Duke." 
 Tooke may be partly right ; he was in St 
 Petersburg at the time. But it is hardly true 
 that Catherine " had no longer any regard " for 
 Orlof. She was never wont to dismiss all re- 
 gard for a former favourite from her heart, 
 even when so great a strain was put upon 
 her loyalty as his marriage with someone else. 
 And, with reference to Gregory Orlof, she never 
 forgot his share in her elevation to the throne. 
 Consequently it is not surprising that, when 
 he now came to St Petersburg, she not only 
 did not reject him but rather seemed to wel- 
 come him with joy. 
 
 Alexis Orlof was also back in St Petersburg 
 
 144
 
 The Orlof Ascendancy 
 
 again, and in high favour. There seemed, to 
 outside observers, every probability of the Orlof 
 domination becoming as strong as it ever had 
 been before. Gregory asked for the restora- 
 tion of all his former posts, and pressed again 
 for the dismissal of Panin. Catherine still re- 
 fused to abandon the old minister ; but she 
 yielded in other respects, and removed the out- 
 ward tokens of Gregory's disgrace by granting 
 him his former dignities. Even the not very 
 important obstacle of Vassiltshikof was removed, 
 though really for another reason, as will be seen, 
 than to gratify Orlof. The favourite was in- 
 vited to retire to Moscow, having received 
 numerous consolatory presents, in addition to 
 the million or more roubles which he had al- 
 ready drawn from the Russian exchequer. He 
 retired, and ultimately married. Orlof might 
 well think to himself that he stood again where 
 he did before. Once more he treated his 
 Empress as familiarly as an equal, and was 
 thoroughly at ease with himself. Probably, 
 however, Catherine tolerated his freedom with 
 more difficulty than before. Tooke rather 
 quaintly writes : " Gregory Orlof had been 
 reinstated in the place of favourite" — it is not 
 certain to what extent this was the fact — " only 
 k 145
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 from motives of policy. Policy may feign a 
 passion, but cannot command it. . . . The in- 
 corrigible coarseness of his manners, formerly 
 palliated by the warmth of his attachment, 
 became insufferable when united with decayed 
 affection." 
 
 We have said that it is not certain to what 
 extent it was the fact that Orlof was actually 
 reinstated in the place of favourite, because it 
 is difficult to see how, between the dismissal of 
 Vassiltshikof and the appearance on the scene 
 of the greatest of all Catherine's lovers, there 
 was any time in which Orlof could be in pos- 
 session of his old position at the Palace. Even 
 if, with M. Waliszewski, we make Vassilt- 
 shikof "s departure take place in March, 1774, 
 (though twenty-two months are commonly as- 
 signed to him, which would bring his term 
 down to June in that year), Patiomkin was in 
 St Petersburg at Catherine's request in January, 
 and was made her aide-de-camp next month. 
 That Orlof really returned to the Palace seems 
 difficult to reconcile with Patiomkin's rise so 
 early in 1774. 
 
 Catherine had, indeed, another reason for 
 getting rid of Vassiltshikof than the desire of 
 pleasing Gregory Orlof, and this reason also 
 
 146
 
 The Orlof Ascendancy 
 
 impelled her to destroy the Orlof ascendancy 
 beyond a chance of its restoration. The appear- 
 ance is now made on the scene of one who was 
 certainly the most remarkable Russian of his 
 time, and the only one of Catherine's favourites 
 who influenced his country's place in European 
 politics. The antecedents of Gregory Alex- 
 androvitch Patiomkin may be left to be related 
 in the next chapter. He had figured to a very 
 small extent yet in Catherine's history. After a 
 subordinate, but not altogether insignificant, part 
 in the Revolution of 1762 he was one of 
 Catherines chamberlains, but afterwards seems 
 to have been forgotten, while he devoted himself 
 to soldiering. He quarrelled with the Orlofs, 
 to his own discomfiture, and, after nearly 
 abandoning the world for a monastery, resumed 
 his military career until, in 1773, we find 
 Catherine making what could hardly be inter- 
 preted otherwise than as an advance to him. 
 At the beginning of 1774 Patiomkin was back 
 in St Petersburg. Vassiltshikof left for Moscow, 
 and the post of favourite was open. A period 
 may have followed during which Gregoiy Orlof 
 filled it in the eyes of the world and Patiomkin 
 in reality ; it is generally so stated. But, if so, 
 that period must have been brief. The beginning 
 
 147
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 of Patiomkin's term is universally placed in the 
 year 1774, and at the commencement of 1775 
 Patiomkin is found in complete triumph over 
 the Orlof opposition, and installed before the 
 sight of all as favourite of the Empress. All 
 efforts to displace him ended in failure. Orlof 
 is reported to have had a long explanation with 
 Catherine, in which he recalled his services to 
 her, and said that she could only reproach him 
 with being less young than his rival. She 
 answered kindly, assured him she was always 
 his friend, but remained unshaken. 
 
 The earlier favourite did not completely cut 
 himself off from Catherine until 1777, 1 when, 
 at the age of forty-three, he married his nineteen- 
 year-old cousin, the Countess Zinovief. This 
 was a sudden love match. Owing to the close 
 consanguinity of the two — according to Russian 
 custom they were counted as uncle and niece — 
 the marriage was against religious and civil 
 laws alike, and the Senate promptly annulled it. 
 Catherine, however, stepped in at last, and had 
 
 1 He remained in the Council, it seems. Tooke tells a 
 story of him being summoned to a meeting one day when 
 in the middle of a game of cards, and refusing to come, 
 only giving the messenger, who pressed for an answer for 
 the Empress, the quotation, Psalm i. 1 : Beatus vir qui non abiit 
 in consilio impiorum. 
 
 148
 
 The Orlof Ascendancy 
 
 the Senate's decision upset. The young wife 
 was one of her maids-of-honour, and Catherine 
 may well have been glad to see her former 
 lover safely disposed of. M. Waliszewski will 
 have it that Catherine never forgave Orlof the 
 insult of this marriage. His reasons for thinking 
 so are obscure. In addition to forwarding the 
 union, Catherine showed not the slightest resent- 
 ment. Patiomkin's influence had quite driven 
 out that of Orlof, and what more convenient 
 means of disposing of the earlier ruler of her 
 heart could there be than that which he found 
 himself? Catherine was relieved of a great 
 anxiety. The Princess Orlof's health became 
 delicate, and in 1780 she was taken abroad by 
 her husband in search of a cure. She got worse, 
 however, and died at Lausanne in June 1782. 
 Orlof completely broke down through grief, 
 and was hardly responsible for the actions which 
 followed. He returned to St Petersburg, and 
 reappeared at the Court, only to present to his 
 former friends the sad spectacle of his insanity. 
 This took the form of extravagant fits of gaiety, 
 alternating with bursts of bitter reproaches 
 against Catherine, who had at length to take 
 notice of the unfortunate man, and to make 
 him retire to Moscow. There he grew worse 
 
 149
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 still up to the moment of his death in April, 
 1783. The French Minister at St Petersburg 
 at the time, the Marquis de Verac, writes that 
 Orlof's illness had its terrible details, of which 
 he dared not write even in cypher. Tooke says 
 that the "bleeding shade of Peter III. pursued 
 Orlof into every retreat," and that he expired 
 in the agony of despair. 
 
 On hearing of Orlof's death Catherine mani- 
 fested every appearance of extreme grief. She 
 wrote to one correspondent that, during the 
 night after receipt of the news, she was in such 
 a delirium that she had to be bled ; to another 
 that she was suffering terribly. M. Waliszewski 
 maintains that Catherine was only anxious to 
 appear deeply affected, but was not really so. 
 This view is, of course, in harmony with his 
 contention that she never forgave him for his 
 marriage, with its implied insult to her. The 
 attitude, however, does not seem characteristic 
 of Catherine. Revengefulness and the bearing 
 of malice were vices singularly absent from her 
 disposition. It is more satisfactory to believe 
 her sincere when she professed great sorrow. 
 No strong argument against this supposition 
 can be deduced from the fact that she was able 
 to write to Grimm soon after the deaths of 
 
 150
 
 The Orlof Ascendancy 
 
 
 Orlof and Panin (whose decease took place not 
 many days before that of his great opponent) 
 of " the boldness and spirit of the one and the 
 backward prudence of the other, and your most 
 humble servant performing a canter between 
 the two." It is true that such an expression 
 does not betray grief. But she was writing to 
 Grimm humorously on Russian politics, and 
 not talking of her personal feelings. 
 
 The long mastery over Catherine of Gregory 
 Orlof might seem difficult to explain in com- 
 parison with her record of ten favourites during 
 a reign of thirty-four years. But many reasons 
 combined to give him so strong a hold upon 
 her. His personal beauty, though it may have 
 exceeded that of his successors (except, perhaps, 
 Zoritch), was but one appeal to her. Her 
 admiration of his reckless courage was another, 
 and, as all that courage was devoted to her, 
 it was very powerful. The gratitude inspired 
 by the position which he won for her was, as 
 she always showed, a never-ending claim upon 
 her. Then she professed to see aspects of Orlof s 
 character which it is hard for us to discern. She 
 could talk of Nature's extraordinary liberality 
 to him in face, in mind, in heart, and in soul. 
 To us his leading trait is excess ; moderation 
 
 151
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 was unknown to him. He was extravagant in 
 his daring ; he took no heed how he risked his 
 life to seduce the wife of his future Emperor 
 and to put her on the throne afterwards. He 
 was extravagant in love ; he cared not how 
 he compromised Catherine the Grand Duchess 
 nor how he brought censure on Catherine the 
 Empress by public familiarities. He was 
 extravagant in his living ; he astonished Russia 
 by his entertainments at Jassy and Reval, and 
 the world by his dress and his high play on his 
 European tour. He was extravagant in his 
 very indolence, for he long had the power to 
 rule Russia had he willed. His most amiable 
 points were his affection for his brothers (they 
 were united as no brothers had ever been, 
 declared Catherine), and his devotion, later in 
 life, to his young wife. One contemporary 
 French writer, Sabatier, professed to see in him 
 simplicity, affability, good-humour, honesty, 
 and lack of pretension. Others, too, speak well 
 of him in his earlier days. But there is a strong 
 consensus of opinion as to his arrogance, 
 stupidity, and coarseness, which it is hard to 
 reconcile with some of the eulogies, though 
 such qualities may well have gone with frank- 
 ness. The wav in which Catherine lavished 
 
 152
 
 The Orlof Ascendancy 
 
 
 gifts and honours upon him, and her carelessness 
 of his want of decency, were well calculated to 
 foster arrogance and coarseness. But it is 
 difficult to believe in his original simplicity or 
 honesty when we consider how, having attained 
 his wish of ruling her who ruled the Empire, 
 he proceeded to flout her love and pursue 
 intrigues in the Court and outside. Perhaps 
 this, however, is a proof of his openness. In 
 the eyes of his country it must stand to his 
 credit that he did not meddle in its affairs, or 
 only to the smallest extent. Yet not much 
 praise can be his for this, since it was due to 
 his want of ambition that he did no harm. 
 Sabatier assigns to him " a direct good sense " 
 in public affairs. Catherine strenuously main- 
 tained his possession of intellect, and did her 
 best to develop it, reading books with him 
 which she thought would fit him to take part 
 in Russia's government. Orlofs unwearying 
 thirst for pleasure soon checked his spasmodic 
 efforts at study. Nevertheless, it is impossible 
 to dismiss the idea that there was in him some 
 fund of power which was shown to Catherine 
 alone, and which gave her the support which 
 she always craved, and afterwards found in 
 Patiomkin (who resembled Orlof in that he also 
 
 153
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 was indolent, extravagant, and excessive). 
 Catherine told the truth to Grimm, if to anyone 
 in the world ; and she wrote to him in 1776 
 that she always liked to be carried along by 
 those more disposed to action than herself, if 
 only they concealed their purpose, and that, of 
 all who indulged her in that liking, Orlof was 
 the most able — " He instinctively leads, and 
 I follow him." Here must be the secret of 
 Orlof's character. It was well hidden, it must 
 be confessed. 
 
 Catherine's son by Gregory Orlof, Bobrinsky, if 
 he strongly resembled his mother in looks, was 
 more like his father in character. Catherine's affec- 
 tion for him is supposed to have had much to 
 do with her toleration of the father's infidelities 
 in the early seventies. She sent him to Leipsic 
 and to Lausanne to be educated, and brought 
 him to St Petersburg in 1782 — the time when 
 Gregory appeared for the last time, broken down 
 and demented. The son promptly distinguished 
 himself by the looseness of his living, and was 
 sent away. When Paul came to the throne 
 he recalled Bobrinsky, recognised him as a 
 brother, in one of his odd fits, and made him 
 a major in the Horse Guards. Bobrinsky soon 
 disgraced himself again, and was dismissed from 
 
 154
 
 The Orlof Ascendancy 
 
 his post. He had two sisters, whom Catherine 
 had brought up, by her chief waiting-woman, 
 Mademoiselle Protasof, as her nieces. 
 
 As to Catherine's relations with Gregory's 
 brother, Alexis Orlof, the scandalous put the 
 worst interpretation upon them, and attributed 
 to her a son by him, a youth called Tchesmensky, 
 who was in the Corps des Cadets at one time. 
 Alexis had almost as strong a claim to Catherine's 
 gratitude as his brother. He ably seconded 
 Gregory in preparing the Guards to rise in 
 1762. It was he who brought the anxiously 
 waiting Grand Duchess the news in the early 
 morning of the 9th of July. And it was to him 
 that the care of the unhappy Peter was con- 
 fided after his abdication. The murder of Peter 
 was almost universally attributed to him, or to 
 him, Pasik, and Theodore Baratinsky together. 
 The story is well known of the Tsar Paul, after 
 his accession, finding among his mother's papers 
 a document signed by Alexis Orlof, which ac- 
 knowledged that he was responsible for the deed, 
 and exclaiming : " Thanks be to God ! " — for his 
 mother was thus cleared. There is another tale 
 of Alexis Orlof, at supper with the Russian 
 Minister at Vienna, on his way to Italy to 
 resume command of the Russian fleet in 1771. 
 
 155
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 Orlof began to talk about Peter's deposition. 
 None of the other guests ventured to speak of 
 the tragedy ; but Orlof related the facts of his 
 own accord, and, perceiving shudders of horror 
 in his listeners, added that " it was a lament- 
 able thing for a man of so much humanity as 
 he possessed to be forced to do what he had 
 been commanded." If such stories be true, it 
 is indeed curious that Paul took no more active 
 step against the murderer than making him 
 walk in the procession with his father's exhumed 
 coffin, and carry the crown which was to be 
 placed on the coffin before re-burial. 
 
 Whether he was or was not responsible for 
 Peter's death, Alexis Orlof was prominently 
 decorated and rewarded when Catherine was 
 firmly seated on the throne. He devoted him- 
 self to naval matters, and towards the end of 
 1769 took two Russian squadrons round from 
 the Baltic into the Mediterranean to deal with 
 the Turkish fleet. The credit of the crushing 
 victory of the Russians at Tchesme was all 
 given by Catherine to Admiral Orlof, though 
 Tooke alleges that it was really due to his 
 three English lieutenants — Elphinstone, Greig, 
 and Dugdale. When he returned in triumph 
 to St Petersburg Alexis had a position not 
 
 156
 
 The Orlof Ascendancy 
 
 second even to his brother Gregory's in Russia, 
 and Sabatier describes Catherine as venerating, 
 loving, and fearing him. Fear was, probably, 
 more her attitude than love, for he seems 
 always to have shared his brother's periods of 
 disfavour instead of standing entirely on his 
 own merits. After Gregory's death Alexis, who, 
 as may be imagined, did not get on well with 
 Patiomkin, the man whom he had half blinded, 
 found it prudent to retire from St Petersburg. 
 Catherine, it is true, granted him the honours 
 held by his late brother, including the wearing 
 of her miniature set in diamonds ; but an open 
 quarrel with Patiomkin in the Empress's private 
 apartments rendered his position insupportable, 
 and he yielded to necessity. His figure lacks 
 what attractions that of Gregory has. He was 
 as much a giant as the latter, but a scar 
 received in a pothouse brawl in his youth 
 marred his looks, and his brute force seemed 
 to his contemporaries his leading character- 
 istic. According to that enemy of the 
 Orlof family, Princess Dashkof, le balafre 
 was one of the biggest scoundrels on earth ; 
 this was the character she gave him in 
 conversation with Diderot. But he was a 
 scoundrel who escaped his deserts. Though 
 
 157
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 his language concerning Catherine is said to 
 have exhibited at times outrageous licence she 
 allowed his services to her to outweigh all, 
 and Paul's gentle treatment of him is simply 
 incomprehensible. 
 
 158
 
 PATIOMKIN AND THE 
 MINOR FAVOURITES
 
 I'KIM K Poi [03d K I v.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 PATIOMKIN AND THE MINOR FAVOURITES 
 
 Catherine's first allusion to Patiomkin is con- 
 tained in her letter to Stanislas Poniatowsky 
 describing the Revolution of 1762. In her as- 
 signment of praise to the various conspirators, 
 at the end of that letter, she remarks that "in 
 the Horse Guards, an officer named Chitron, 
 aged twenty-two, and a subaltern of seventeen, 
 called Patiomkin, directed everything with 
 courage and activity." Patiomkin's first meet- 
 ing with Catherine was, according to the 
 commonly accepted story of the day, on the 
 occasion of her review of the troops after the 
 drawing up of the manifesto and form of oath 
 at the new Winter Palace on the famous 9th 
 of July. Catherine's account is that she was 
 on foot, and she does not say she was in the 
 Guards' uniform at the time ; she was not pro- 
 claimed Colonel of the Guards until later in 
 the day. The more ornate version of the 
 affair is that she was mounted and in uniform, 
 and that Patiomkin, perceiving that she had 
 l 161 

 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 no plume in her hat, rode up, and offered her 
 his own, and that it was with difficulty he 
 could persuade his horse to leave the side of 
 the Empress's mount again — a fact which im- 
 pressed Patiomkin's appearance on Catherine's 
 mind. The details are not of much importance, 
 however, as the story is probably apocryphal. 
 
 The age assigned by Catherine in 1762 is most 
 certainly wrong ; but this does not disprove the 
 identity of the subaltern with the afterwards 
 celebrated Prince Patiomkin, for Catherine, 
 writing at the actual time of the events, may 
 well have erred about the age of quite a minor 
 participant in the plot which made her Empress 
 of Russia. 1 The date of Patiomkin's birth is 
 variously given as 1736 and 1739. The latter 
 seems probably right. He was born near 
 Smolensk, his family being Polish in origin, 
 and his father, Alexander Patiomkin, being an 
 officer in the Russian army. Gregory Alex- 
 androvitch, according to his biographers, was 
 sent to Moscow at an early age to study for 
 the Church ; but his character, as might, indeed, 
 be imagined from his later history, was thought 
 by his teachers to show in him more aptitude 
 
 1 The fact that Segur makes Patiomkin eighteen in 1 762, how- 
 ever, is strange. Was Patiomkin optimistic about his own age? 
 
 162
 
 Patiomkin and the Minor Favourites 
 
 for a military than for an ecclesiastical career, 
 and accordingly he entered his father's pro- 
 fession in 1754, when, had Catherine's early 
 estimate of his age been correct, he would 
 have been but nine — scarcely old enough, 
 perhaps, to have proved his unsuitability for 
 the Church. No certain record exists of his 
 early days. His anonymous German historian 
 states that his propensity to pleasure frequently 
 led him into bad company, where he contracted 
 that "dissoluteness of manners and depravity 
 of mind of which he could never completely 
 divest himself afterwards, and which constantly 
 influenced his conduct during his extraordinary 
 career." This may have been so. All that we 
 know is that he was a subordinate officer in the 
 Horse Guards under Prince George of Holstein 
 in 1762, and that he belonged to the party of 
 the Orlofs previous to the Revolution of that 
 year. 
 
 Patiomkin's immediate reward for the part 
 he played in the plot was a colonelcy and a 
 mission to Stockholm to inform the Russian 
 Minister there of Catherine's accession ; but 
 very soon afterwards he was attached to the 
 Court as chamberlain. How he came to be 
 given this post is unknown. There is an absurd 
 
 163
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 story of the Orlofs praising him to the Empress 
 as being an excellent mimic, and introducing 
 him to her, whom he immediately captivated by 
 an imitation of her own voice. Thereon she 
 admitted him to the inner circle of her acquaint- 
 ance, continues the tale. This inner circle was 
 that society to which the more favoured of the 
 foreign ministers were afterwards admitted, and 
 where Catherine dispensed with formalities and 
 became simply the hostess. We have no sure 
 evidence as to its composition in the early days 
 of her reign. Catherine seems to have taken 
 a sufficient interest in Patiomkin to procure 
 him an office in connection with the Senate in 
 the following year. But in 1769 he is found 
 engaged in military service again, and away 
 from the Court, so that her interest can no 
 longer have been strong enough to make her 
 keep him about her. At some time in this 
 period, though the exact date is impossible to 
 fix, Patiomkin came into violent opposition to 
 the Orlofs. The ordinary account of the quarrel 
 is that Patiomkin, presuming on the favour 
 which he had succeeded in obtaining (which 
 many of the writers make out to have been 
 far greater than we have any warrant for sup- 
 posing correct), boasted, in the presence of the 
 
 164
 
 Patiomkin and the Minor Favourites 
 
 brothers, of his influence with the Empress. 
 This happened one day at Gregory Orlof's 
 house in St Petersburg, when Alexis and 
 Patiomkin were playing billiards together. 
 Patiomkin's indiscretion aroused the Admiral's 
 anger, an altercation ensued, and Patiomkin 
 received a blow in the face, in consequence of 
 which he lost the sight of one of his eyes. In 
 mortification at this, and unable as yet to over- 
 throw the Orlof influence, Patiomkin retired to 
 the neighbourhood of his native Smolensk. 
 Here he lived in retirement for a whole year, 
 entertaining serious thoughts of retiring from 
 the world and becoming a monk. His early 
 theological training, in spite of the unsuitability 
 which he had shown for a priestly career, had 
 left in him a permanent, if intermittently mani- 
 fested, leaning towards religion. He announced 
 repeatedly throughout his life his intention of 
 abandoning a secular for a monastic calling. 
 On the present occasion, however, he contrived 
 to let the Empress hear that it was through 
 despair over his love for her that he was throw- 
 ing up his career. This did not fail to appeal 
 to Catherine. " Where," Patiomkin's anony- 
 mous biographer is made by his English 
 translator to ask, " where is the female that 
 
 165
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 does not feel for the pangs oceasioned by the 
 passion she inspires ? " A message was con- 
 veyed to Patiomkin that he need not give up 
 all in despair, and he did not fail to listen to 
 the hint. His services in the Turkish war 
 under Marshal Rumianzof were rewarded by 
 promotion to the rank of lieutenant-general, 
 and it was not long before he received a com- 
 munication which promised still more. Vassilt- 
 shikof's influence over Catherine was small, if 
 any, and Gregory Orlof's was now unwelcome, 
 and against her will. In the middle of the 
 year 1773 Patiomkin, while away on foreign 
 service, received an extraordinary letter from 
 the Empress, in which, after expressing her 
 assurance that all his acts were prompted by 
 zeal for her and for his country, she told him 
 that she was anxious to keep zealous, brave, 
 intelligent, and able men out of danger, and 
 begged him not to run into risks if he could 
 help it. " In reading this letter you will per- 
 haps ask why it was written," she concluded. 
 " I can only say : in order to prove to you how 
 I think of you, for I always wish you all that 
 is good." Patiomkin did not misunderstand 
 the letter. He took it to be what it must have 
 been intended to be — an invitation to return to 
 
 166
 
 Patiomkin and the Minor Favourites 
 
 Court. At the beginning of 1774 he was 
 in St Petersburg, in February he was aide- 
 de-camp to Catherine, and a few months 
 later he was favourite. Gregory Orlof is 
 said to have been absent at a hunting-seat 
 at the exact time of Patiomkin's installation. 
 When he returned he found the new lover 
 installed in the Palace. "Cyclops," as Orlof 
 had nicknamed his rival, had proved too much 
 for him. 
 
 Patiomkin proved also too much for all his 
 enemies, and they at first were numberless. 
 His ascendancy over Catherine herself very 
 early became almost absolute, and with the 
 support of that he crushed opposition. It 
 speaks much for the hold which Catherine had 
 over her Court, and her subjects generally, that 
 an interloper with such a contemptuous dis- 
 regard for the feelings of others as Patiomkin 
 ever showed should have been able, in reliance 
 on her favour, to establish himself firmly on the 
 necks, as it were, of those who hated him. 
 They had, moreover, to bring themselves to 
 be civil to him, though he cared not to be so 
 to them. Even the Orlofs were outwardly 
 reconciled. Catherine brought this about her- 
 self. Tooke says that she wished to use 
 
 167
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 Gregory Orlof as a check upon Patiomkin, as 
 Panin had been on Orlof; but the cases are 
 not parallel, for Panin was not a lover. Some 
 opponents Patiomkin got rid of summarily. 
 Zahar Tchernichef was too powerful as head of 
 the War Office, so Patiomkin insisted on being 
 made vice-president, whereon the minister soon 
 resigned. The favourite had already been 
 raised to the rank of a field-marshal, but he 
 was greedy of all the title/> which he could 
 obtain. He was unwilling that any of Orlof 's 
 former dignities should be lacking for him, 
 and within a year of his elevation he had 
 secured a portrait of the Empress set in 
 diamonds, similar to that worn by Orlof. Only 
 Plato Zubof, of his successors, was similarly 
 honoured ; Alexis Orlof wore his brother's 
 after the latter's death. For the title of 
 Prince of the Holy Roman Empire Patiomkin 
 had to wait until 1776, but he obtained 
 the patent readily enough from Joseph II. 
 He was suspected of aiming, as Gregory 
 Orlof had done, at actual marriage with 
 Catherine. But Panin still remained, and 
 even Patiomkin could not carry such a 
 scheme through against Panin's opposition. 
 Nor was Catherine herself any longer pre- 
 
 168
 
 Patiomkin and the Minor Favourites 
 
 pared to risk her throne by marriage with 
 a favourite. 1 
 
 Though he could not persuade her to mar- 
 riage, Patiomkin retained his power over her 
 easily enough. Much of his success in this 
 was due to the similarity of their ideas. They 
 might well be in love, wrote the Frenchman 
 Durand, for they are exactly alike. This was 
 so both in internal and in foreign policy, as 
 became more evident later, but the schemes 
 were no doubt in the minds of Empress and 
 minister already. At present Catherine ap- 
 peared to the outward world as the originator 
 of reforms and plans ; Patiomkin's rule was 
 more subtle, but his power at Court he took 
 pains to display, and to display in the most 
 extraordinary way. He is represented as 
 flouting ceremony in a way in which the 
 far from ceremonious Orlof had never ventured 
 to do so. Receiving crowds of courtiers in 
 his rooms at the Palace, dressed in his night 
 
 1 M. Waliszewski narrates the story of Patiomkin's en- 
 deavour to break down her resistance by the aid of the 
 priests and by alarming her conscience as to her manner 
 of life. But her conscience was equal to the occasion. 
 Patiomkin in vain threatened to devote himself to God, 
 abandoning all for a monastery. Catherine put no obstacle 
 in the way of that; she knew him too well. 
 
 169
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 attire, he would suddenly leave them, and pro- 
 ceed, just as he was, by the private staircase 
 to the Empress's apartments. He never 
 scrupled to appear before her, when consulting 
 on State affairs, with bare legs, loose gown, 
 and uncombed hair ; nor did she resent it. 
 The highest dignitaries Patiomkin delighted to 
 treat with contempt, and this habit grew worse 
 as time went by. On the other hand, he 
 allowed much familiarity from subordinates, 
 who had no such reason to dread him as those 
 of higher rank ; it was from very few indeed 
 of his equals that he would brook familiarity. 
 
 The exact manner in which the position of 
 official favourite passed from Patiomkin to the 
 succession of lesser men, who came after him, 
 without really taking from him his power, is 
 not easy to make out. There were two theories 
 commonly held : one that Patiomkin was de- 
 sirous of resigning the Palace privileges of 
 favouritism, while maintaining the power which 
 he had built up, and so took advantage of a 
 partiality which he observed Catherine feeling 
 for another ; and the other that Patiomkin's 
 enemies, chiefly Panin, played upon Catherine's 
 love of change, and ousted him by means of a 
 new lover, only to be defeated by Patiomkin's 
 
 170
 
 Patiomkin and the Minor Favourites 
 
 extraordinary strength of character. According 
 to the supporters of the former view, Patiomkin 
 had early recognised that Catherine might well 
 tire of him as she had tired of others, and, there- 
 fore, took steps to insure her favour in such a 
 way that, when her love failed, her interest 
 might keep him in his place. Noticing that 
 Catherine's attention had been attracted by a 
 young secretary who had lately come to her, 
 he left the field clear ; and when he returned 
 after a short absence, for which he had asked 
 Catherine's consent, and found the favourite's 
 apartments in the Palace occupied, he put on 
 a reasonable appearance of sorrow, which in- 
 duced the Empress to pour fresh honours on 
 him and to confirm him in all he wanted — that 
 is, his power in the State. The others say that 
 Catherine had wearied of Patiomkin after two 
 years, and that her eyes had fallen on Zavadofsky, 
 a secretary engaged by her after he had been 
 in the service of General Rumianzof, a steadfast 
 enemy of the reigning favourite. Patiomkin 
 was unwise enough to go on a tour of inspec- 
 tion in his new government of Novgorod, pre- 
 sented to him by his mistress, when Panin, 
 aided by Orlof, secured the victory of Zava- 
 dofsky. Patiomkin was given a hint that he 
 
 171
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 should travel for a while — an ominous invitation, 
 which he could not mistake. According to one 
 account, he made preparations ostensibly to 
 obey, but the next evening appeared with the 
 utmost composure just as the Empress was 
 sitting down to a party at whist. Catherine, 
 without any sign of displeasure, dealt a card 
 to him out of the pack, told him that he 
 always played luckily, and spoke no more of 
 his departure. The same account makes Gregory 
 Orlof, away from St Petersburg at the time, 
 hurry back on hearing of Patiomkin's disgrace, 
 appear in Court, see Patiomkin at the Em- 
 press's side, kiss her hand, and leave at once 
 for Moscow. 
 
 Possibly truth lies between the two accounts. 
 Both Catherine and Patiomkin had many at- 
 tachments afterwards, but their mutual affec- 
 tion allowed them to discuss these calmly, in 
 fact intimately. To Patiomkin his position as 
 keeper of Catherine's will was the important 
 point ; to Catherine the support of Patiomkin's 
 mind. Both secured what was essential to 
 them, while getting rid of what was proving 
 irksome. 
 
 Zavadofsky, who was the first to occupy 
 the position of what Tooke calls " subaltern 
 
 172
 
 Patiomkin and the Minor Favourites 
 
 favourite " to Catherine, was in brains the 
 superior of most of those whom Catherine 
 elevated. But his term of office left little 
 mark on history, owing to the fact that he 
 was vastly inferior to Patiomkin. He was born 
 in the Ukraine district, and was a secretary to 
 Rumianzof, the conqueror of the Turks, before 
 he entered Catherine's service in a similar 
 capacity. From secretary he rapidly became 
 favourite, yet little is known of his personality 
 beyond that it pleased the Empress. Masson 
 can only say of him that "he was young, 
 vigorous, and well-built, but Catherine's inclina- 
 tion for him was soon at an end. He had been 
 secretary ; his disgrace made no noise. He con- 
 tinued to be employed in his affairs of the 
 Cabinet, and was made a Privy Councillor." 
 He fell out of favour in 1777 after little more 
 than a year at the Palace. 1 His downfall was 
 attributed to Patiomkin, who, seeing in Zava- 
 dofsky a distinct ambition to follow in his own 
 steps and indulge in political ideas, decided 
 that he must be supplanted. This was only 
 to be done by finding a successor, for Patiomkin 
 
 1 He was still living, and a rich man, in 1800. As he had 
 received 90,000 roubles, besides a pension and an estate, it is 
 not surprising that he was rich. 
 
 173
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 was too wise to wish to resume his former 
 position. 
 
 The conduct of Patiomkin in discovering an 
 object on which to engage Catherine's affections 
 for the time will not commend itself to the 
 moralists. Catherine, however, thought it right 
 to reward him with a present of one hundred 
 thousand roubles. Patiomkin probably asked 
 for it. The favourite also made him a gift. 
 The Prince had an unlimited thirst for money, 
 and it became a custom, with the accession 
 of a new favourite, for Patiomkin to be 
 given some mark of the Empress's continued 
 esteem. She also found it necessary, apparently, 
 to remind him of this esteem on other set oc- 
 casions, such as his birthday. The story is told 
 that on one birthday she was out of humour 
 with him, and only sent him a toothpick-case 
 set with diamonds, worth about thirty thousand 
 roubles. Patiomkin became so highly indignant 
 that Catherine ended by sending him his usual 
 hundred thousand in addition. " So that the 
 resentment which she wished to show," says 
 the teller of the story, " cost Her Majesty thirty 
 thousand roubles above what she had been used 
 to give on those occasions." 
 
 The choice of Patiomkin was an officer in 
 
 174
 
 Patiomkin and the Minor Favourites 
 
 a hussar regiment, by name Zoritch. Though 
 in the Russian service he was a Servian by 
 birth, and so was the only foreigner whom 
 Catherine ever made favourite. He had an 
 odd individuality among the holders of that 
 post. He admitted himself to be a barbarian, 
 he was without education, he had been some 
 years a prisoner in the galleys in Turkey, and 
 he was about forty years of age in 1777 — seven 
 years younger than Catherine, it is true, but 
 many years older than any other favourite of 
 hers. But he had a strong point in his looks. 
 He dazzled the world by his beauty, and the 
 old ladies still talked of him as an Adonis, 
 wrote Masson at the end of the century. An- 
 other writer, Mehee de la Touche, could de- 
 scribe him at fifty as made to be painted, with 
 charming eyes and graceful manners. Catherine 
 took some pains with him, trying to supply the 
 deficiencies in his education, but apparently 
 without success, for the general verdict was 
 that she found him too uncultured. " I was 
 fond of him yesterday, to-day I am not," she 
 is said to have observed finally. She dismissed 
 him, at any rate, after eleven months. He 
 seems to have got on bad terms with his intro- 
 ducer and patron Patiomkin, whose supremacy 
 
 175
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 he found arduous, and whose honours he is said 
 to have envied. Patiomkin refused a duel which 
 Zoritch would have forced upon him, and the 
 Servian was obliged to be content with a retreat 
 with spoils to the extent of nearly a million and 
 a half roubles ; one hundred and twenty thousand 
 of them he received at the start. He was given 
 an estate at Shklof, in the Mohilef district of 
 White Russia, with two hundred thousand roubles 
 a year on which to keep it up. After a visit to 
 Paris, where he stayed with the Russian Minister, 
 he retired to Shklof, ruling as a sort of amiable 
 prince, receiving travellers at his court, giving 
 gorgeous entertainments, maintaining a theatre, 
 and gambling. Yet he was bored with his 
 kingdom, nevertheless, according to report. He 
 entreated Catherine — his lady, as in his gratitude 
 he called her — to allow him to return to St 
 Petersburg, but in vain. The accession of Paul 
 gave him the opportunity, and he came back to 
 Court, to die in the last year of the century. 
 
 Zoritch, though not a very notable personage 
 in most ways, honourably distinguished himself 
 by one return which he made for the many 
 roubles with which the Russian Treasury was 
 called upon to supply him in his year of success. 
 He founded at his own expense a military 
 
 176
 
 Patiomkin and the Minor Favourites 
 
 school at Shklof, where he brought up two 
 hundred young officers, in spite of the fact 
 that he was so extravagant otherwise. The 
 school became a very useful institution, and 
 left him not altogether a debtor to the country 
 of his adoption. This seems to give one touch 
 of merit to an otherwise purely picturesque 
 figure. 
 
 Catherine, after dismissing Zoritch for his 
 ignorance, if that was her reason, as alleged, 
 might have been expected to fill his place with 
 someone more gifted with brains than him 
 whom she selected. Prince Patiomkin is said 
 to have turned his mind immediately after 
 the Servian's departure to the question of how 
 to occupy the Empress's heart in a manner 
 which would threaten no danger to himself or 
 his schemes. To his surprise Catherine antici- 
 pated him. He saw one day standing behind 
 her chair a chamberlain whom he had never 
 seen before. He may well have felt alarmed. 
 So far he had duly kept the favourites in sub- 
 jection, and had seen them go as soon as they 
 had shown inconvenient ambitions, but there 
 was no warrant that he would continue to do 
 so. However, it was really unnecessary to 
 feel apprehensions in the present case. The 
 m 177
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 new choice turned Catherine's thoughts in the 
 unusual direction of music, of which she was 
 not naturally fond. The Princess Dashkof gives 
 a curious picture of her as a singer in the early 
 days just after the Revolution. The Princess 
 herself was an enthusiast ; her husband, though 
 he had some taste for it, was as poor a per- 
 former as the Empress. The latter, neverthe- 
 less, was fond of hearing the Princess sing, and 
 sometimes, when she had done, would make a 
 sign to Prince Dashkof and gravely propose a 
 duet, which she used to call " the music of the 
 spheres." Catherine and the Prince, neither of 
 them knowing how to sing a note, would then 
 perform in concert. "A sudden burst of the 
 most exalted and ridiculously discordant tones 
 was the consequence, one seconding the other, 
 with scientific shrugs and all the solemn self- 
 complacent airs and grimaces of musicians. 
 From this, perhaps, she passed to a cat-concert, 
 and imitated the purring of poor puss in the 
 most droll and ludicrous manner, always taking 
 care to add appropriate, half- comic, half-senti- 
 mental words, which she invented for the 
 occasion ; or else spitting like a cat in a passion, 
 with her back up, she suddenly boxed the first 
 person in her way, making up her hand into a 
 
 178
 
 Patiomkin and the Minor Favourites 
 
 paw, and mewing so outrageously that, instead 
 of the great Catherine, nothing but the wrongs 
 of a grimalkin remained upon one's mind." A 
 striking example, it must be admitted, of the 
 playful and childish amusements to which 
 Poniatowsky found her addicted a few years 
 earlier ! For orchestral music she had no 
 taste at all. She could not endure it between 
 the acts of a play, Masson says, and would 
 commonly silence it. So she must have made 
 some sacrifice to the tastes of Rimsky Korsakof. 
 A later favourite also, Mamonof, persuaded her 
 to spend no little time in listening to the 
 concerts of which he was fond. 
 
 But Korsakof "delighted in all sounds of 
 harmony," as Catherine wrote to Grimm. He 
 was an excellent singer, and to gratify his 
 tastes musical experts were brought from Italy, 
 to accompany his voice and to assist in the 
 concerts to which the Court of St Petersburg 
 was now regularly given over. It was, indeed, 
 a strange development. The favourite, how- 
 ever, had, except as a musican, little to recom- 
 mend him but the looks which first attracted 
 Catherine's notice to him. He was of Polish 
 origin, and his name was Korsak, until it was 
 changed into the more pleasing form of Rimsky 
 
 179
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 Korsakof. He was a non-commissioned officer 
 in the Guards before being elevated to the posts 
 of aide-de-camp, chamberlain, and favourite to 
 his Empress. Masson dismisses him as a fop 
 (espece de petit-maitre russe). He was more 
 ostentatious in his dress than any of his pre- 
 decessors, apparently even more than that hero 
 of the diamond-decked coat, Gregory Orlof, 
 and he received more presents of jewelry 
 from Catherine. His general ignorance was a 
 laughing-stock of a not too intellectual Court. 
 The story was current of his ordering a library 
 of volumes of assorted sizes when he was 
 elevated to his position. The books were to 
 be like those of the Empress, he told the 
 bookseller ; large ones for the bottom shelves 
 and smaller and smaller as the shelves went 
 up. No doubt the tradesman was delighted 
 at this opportunity of getting rid of the " re- 
 mainders " of the day. Apart from the amuse- 
 ment which they derived from his simplicity, 
 Catherine's subjects were chiefly stirred with 
 indignation at the drain on the national finances 
 to please the young man. One hundred and 
 fifty thousand roubles were presented to him 
 at the start. It was computed at this time 
 that favouritism in Catherine's reign had already 
 
 180
 
 Patiomkin and the Minor Favourites 
 
 cost the country about forty-eight millions. 
 This sum was to be nearly doubled before 
 Catherine died. 1 It is remarkable that she 
 succeeded in preventing the discontent at this 
 particular form of extravagance from breaking 
 out into open revolt. 
 
 Patiomkin had, of course, to receive his 
 usual consolation over the installation of the 
 new favourite. This time it took the form 
 of an advance of seven hundred and fifty 
 thousand roubles on his pension, which was 
 to be one-tenth of that sum a year. His 
 power was more absolute than ever, and every 
 department of State was really under his control. 
 Catherine lent herself readily to that adulation 
 by which he made her see in him the devoted 
 minister, and so suffered him to treat as he 
 wished her Court and subjects. Among his 
 aversions was Marshal Rumianzof, for whom he 
 had contracted a dislike in the Turkish war, 
 where Patiomkin won the rank of general. 
 Rumianzof's sister was the Countess Bruce, 
 Catherine's chief confident among her Court 
 ladies. Patiomkin's enmity seems to have ex- 
 
 1 Altogether, Rimsky Korsakof received from Catherine 
 about a million roubles during his fifteen months. Tenors 
 do not, as a rule, cost so much even now, remarks M. 
 Waliszewski. 
 
 181
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 tended from her brother to her, so that he was 
 suspected of being concerned in the Countess's 
 fall, which involved the disgrace of Korsakof 
 also. Catherine discovered an intrigue between 
 her favourite and her friend, and required the 
 retirement of both from Court, refusing even 
 to see either again. The only thing that makes 
 Patiomkin's participation in their dismissal im- 
 probable is that he could hardly have hoped 
 for a less objectionable " subaltern favourite " 
 than Korsakof. The tenor retired to Moscow, 
 and ultimately settled on an estate near his 
 predecessor Zoritch, with whom he seems to 
 have lived on the terms of a friendly neighbour 
 and fellow gambler. 
 
 In 1780 Catherine reached the fairly mature 
 age of fifty-one, and might, perhaps, have been 
 expected to adopt a quieter and more decorous 
 manner of life. Her political importance was 
 now greater than it had ever been before. 
 Even the Emperor Joseph was persuaded in 
 this year to pay a visit to his sister sovereign 
 at St Petersburg. An amusing story is told of 
 this visit. Catherine and Joseph met in May 
 at Mohilef, in accordance with the schemes of 
 Patiomkin to cultivate Austrian friendship 
 rather than Prussian, and to secure an Austrian 
 
 182
 
 Patiomkin and the Minor Favourites 
 
 alliance against Turkey. Joseph was a notorious 
 hater of ceremony, and would only accept 
 Catherine's invitation to the capital on condition 
 that he was allowed to put up at an inn instead 
 of the Palace. Catherine agreed, but outwitted 
 him by converting the lodge of her English 
 gardener in the Palace grounds into an inn by 
 hanging out a catherine-wheel and the inscription 
 " The Falkenstein Arms." Count Falkenstein 
 was the Emperor Joseph's name when incognito. 
 He was obliged after all to tolerate a round of 
 festivities, and his visit was considered a distinct 
 success for Russia. It was noted that the 
 warmth of the welcome on this occasion was 
 greater than during the visit four years earlier 
 of Prince Henry of Prussia, Frederick's brother. 
 Catherine had taken advantage, however, of the 
 Prussian visit to secure a second wife for 
 Paul, the Grand Duchess Natalie (Wilhel- 
 mina) having died in childbirth early in 1776. 
 Frederick this time suggested the Princess 
 Sophia of Wiirtemburg, and to her accord- 
 ingly Paul was married. 
 
 Catherine was now, under the influence of 
 Patiomkin, being led not unwillingly towards an 
 Austrian alliance. But, despite her political 
 ambitions, she could not dispense with a 
 
 183
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 favourite to succeed the disgraced Korsakof. 
 The new choice was of one who gained the 
 most kindly verdict of all who held the post. 
 He was the most romantic figure in Catherine's 
 disreputable romance. Lanskoi was but twenty- 
 two when she took him into the Palace. He 
 was one of the Cavalier Guards, a body of fifty 
 men, all of captain's rank, whose only duty was 
 to keep watch in turn over the Sovereign's 
 apartments. They were selected for their 
 appearance, and had a magnificent uniform, of 
 which the silver armour alone cost a thousand 
 roubles. Lanskoi was, like several other 
 favourites, of a family by origin Polish. Masson, 
 who is not gentle in his treatment of the 
 favourites generally, admits Lanskoi to have 
 been not only the one she loved the most but 
 also the one who most deserved her love. " Full 
 of sweetness and grace, amateur of the arts, 
 friend of all the talents, humane and kindly, all 
 the world seemed to share his Sovereign's fancy 
 for him." He adds that the qualities of his 
 mind might win him as much credit as those 
 of his heart won him friends had he lived. 
 Here Masson's unwonted enthusiasm is not 
 supported by the evidence of others. No one 
 denied his charm (except the Princess Dashkof, 
 
 184
 
 Patiomkin and the Minor Favourites 
 
 who did not like him), but his intellectual gifts 
 were not remarked. Catherine, however, in her 
 infatuation, saw in him every promise, and she 
 spent both time and money in developing his 
 mind and tastes. His education had been poor ; 
 indeed, he had been so poor himself before his 
 adoption by Catherine that one of his friends 
 wrote of his fortune as consisting of five shirts. 
 He had the inclination, however, to culture, 
 and, as Catherine proudly told Grimm, read 
 all the poets in one winter, and began on the 
 historians the next. His fondness for pictures, 
 cameos, prints, and coins cost Catherine — or 
 rather Russia — dear, and it was at a time when 
 she was talking about the need for retrenchment. 
 About seven millions of roubles were heaped 
 on him, and all the usual honours which fell 
 to the favourites. He made no enemies because 
 he had no political pretensions and shrank from 
 affairs of State. With Patiomkin he was on the 
 best of terms. It is said that at first the elder 
 man was annoyed at the selection of a Cavalier 
 Guard, he being the head of the corps ; others 
 make Lanskoi his discovery. He received two 
 hundred thousand roubles at the time. But 
 from the Prince's point of view there could not 
 be a more suitable object for Catherine's love 
 
 185
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 than this unassuming and gentle person, who 
 absorbed the Empress's thoughts in one direction 
 and left them entirely without interference in 
 the others. This was particularly useful to him 
 at the time when he was in the last round of 
 his struggle with Panin over the foreign policy 
 of Russia, and was developing his scheme for 
 the acquisition of the Crimea. Masson makes 
 Patiomkin fear and ultimately poison Lanskoi ; 
 this is one of the most reckless statements of 
 that reckless Court chronicler. In reality 
 Lanskoi's removal was a distinct misfortune for 
 Patiomkin, who was first called upon to arouse 
 Catherine out of the profound despair into which 
 she fell over her loss, and next to combat the 
 unwelcome successor who followed Lanskoi. 
 His peace of mind and freedom of action would 
 have been best served by Lanskoi surviving to 
 the end of Catherine's reign. 
 
 The death took place at the end of June, 
 1784, when Lanskoi was but twenty-six, and 
 had spent four years as Catherine's favourite. 
 He was not of a strong constitution, and the 
 life of the Palace had utterly exhausted him. 
 He was said to have, in addition, a weakness 
 for drink. He finally succumbed to a compli- 
 cation of ills, including quinsy and angina 
 
 186
 
 Patiomkin and the Minor Favourites 
 
 pectoris, apparently ; some say scarlet fever. 
 Catherine was absolutely prostrated. She would 
 not leave him during his last days, in spite of 
 the doctors' fears that she might contract ill- 
 ness herself. Her throat was actually affected. 
 When the death occurred her collapse was 
 total. She ordered herself to be put to bed, 
 where she remained, indifferent to life or death, 
 and touching no food. She refused to see the 
 Grand Duke and Duchess, who had hurried 
 to Tsarsko Selo as soon as they heard the news. 
 On the 2nd of July she managed to write a 
 letter to Grimm, attempting to find relief from 
 her intolerable pain. She told him : 
 
 "lam plunged in the depths of sorrow, and 
 my happiness has fled ; I thought that I should 
 die from the irreparable loss, a week ago, of my 
 best friend. I hoped that he would be the 
 support of my old age. He was attentive, he 
 learnt much, he acquired all my tastes. He 
 was a young man whom I was educating, 
 grateful, kind, and good, who shared what 
 sorrows I had and rejoiced in my joys. In 
 a word, it is my unhappiness to tell you that 
 General Lanskoi is no more. . . . Yesterday I 
 got up from bed, but I am so feeble and 
 sorrowful that at present I cannot look on a 
 
 187
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 human face without being choked with tears. 
 I cannot sleep or eat ; to read wearies me, 
 and writing is too much for me. I do not 
 know what will become of me ; but I know 
 that never in my life have I been so unhappy 
 as when my kind, my best friend left me." 
 
 There is no assumption of grief in this. It 
 was not until a fortnight had passed that she 
 would see anyone. Many in her Court imagined 
 that she would not survive the shock. The 
 doctors were frightened, and, as for State busi- 
 ness, it was at an entire standstill. Patiomkin 
 at last induced her to see him, and his visit 
 was beneficial. He joined in her tears, and so 
 persuaded her of his sympathy. She took to 
 reading Zimmermann's new work on " Solitude." 
 The title is suggestive of her state of mind. 
 She planned a mausoleum for Lanskoi's body, 
 and this was actually erected in the grounds 
 of Tsarsko Selo, within sight of her windows. 
 Three months passed before she left the Palace 
 at all. Then suddenly, on a visit from Patiom- 
 kin, she reappeared in public, gave audience to 
 the diplomatic body, and was to be seen by 
 all — a widow indeed, but outwardly calm and 
 collected. Had she but stopped so, or had 
 she succumbed to the shock, as she seemed 
 
 188
 
 Patiomkin and the Minor Favourites 
 
 likely to, her reputation would have been im- 
 measurably greater. We might like to think 
 that it was through her brain being turned 
 with grief that in her last eleven years, from 
 fifty-six to sixty-seven, she took three more 
 favourites, rather below than above the average 
 in merit. But the balance of her mind, well 
 maintained to the very end, forbids this 
 supposition. 
 
 Tooke alleges that, at this very time when 
 Catherine was bowed down by the agony of 
 her grief, she consented to marry Patiomkin. 
 He produces no evidence, but says : " It is 
 affirmed by a person highly worthy of credit 
 that the nieces of Prince Patiomkin were in 
 possession of the certificates of the event, and 
 that one of them told him so." Whoever this 
 "person highly worthy of credit" may have 
 been, he may be dismissed. Other writers of 
 the period who know of the report will have 
 none of it. Were it true it would make the 
 subsequent conduct of both Catherine and 
 Patiomkin particularly repulsive, and neither 
 had aught to gain by it. Patiomkin had once 
 entertained the idea, but since 1775 his position 
 had become impregnable. His only strong 
 opponent, the one whom he had never entirely 
 
 189
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 defeated, Count Panin, had died in 1783. A 
 marriage with his Empress could do no more 
 for him by increasing his power, as it could not 
 be made public l ; and it will hardly be argued 
 that love prompted such an idea. Patiomkin 
 had abundant love affairs since he ceased to be 
 Imperial favourite, and they continued until 
 his death. 
 
 Tooke also makes the accusation against the 
 Princess Dashkof that she wished her son to 
 succeed Lanskoi. This was the son who was 
 born in 1763. The Princess herself records 
 that Gregory Orlof had actually made a similar 
 suggestion to her before Lanskoi's rise, and in 
 her son's presence. Sending her son out of 
 the room she bade Orlof remember that she 
 neither knew nor acknowledged such persons 
 as favourites. "The reply he made me was 
 with his characteristic coarseness, and conse- 
 quently unworthy of repetition." Tooke's idea 
 
 1 " Is it to be credited," asks Patiomkin's German bio- 
 grapher, " that the bold, the ambitious, the haughty, the 
 despotic Patiomkin, on becoming her husband, should have 
 made no use of the ascendancy which this most striking 
 proof of affection and weakness gave him over her ? that 
 there should not have been any change in his conduct ? that 
 he should not have availed himself of his rights ? and that 
 he should, on the contrary, have hastened to choose her a 
 new favourite ? " 
 
 190
 
 Patiomkin and the Minor Favourites 
 
 is the more to be rejected in that young Dash- 
 kof had already married clandestinely and below 
 his station, to his mother's intense disgust. But 
 it may be true, as Tooke and others say, that 
 the Princess Dashkof, who was now in fair 
 favour with Catherine and considered Patiomkin 
 her friend, asked him to secure a post of aide- 
 de-camp to the Empress for one of her nephews, 
 and received the reply that the post had just 
 been filled by M. Yermolof. 
 
 Yermolof may have been introduced by 
 Patiomkin, seeing signs of an end approaching 
 of Catherine's period as veuve decente et affligee, 
 as Masson styles her. It is sad that her afflic- 
 tion could not keep her faithful to a memory 
 even for a year. For all the intensity of her 
 feeling for Lanskoi she was able to spend the 
 summer of the year following that of his death 
 in gaiety and apparent happiness. As to 
 Yermolof's character there is a conflict of 
 evidence. Masson declares him least amiable 
 of all the favourites ; Segur, though not liking 
 him, did not think him seriously dangerous ; 
 Bezborodko, who had a large share in public 
 affairs since Panin's death, thought him modest, 
 refined, and fond of serious study ; Tooke 
 describes him as "tall, fair-complexioned, and 
 
 19]
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 of a figure declarative of a soul that could not 
 be roused from apathy " — a curious figure, in 
 truth — but "jealous to an extreme." Yermolof 
 made the error of presuming on Catherine's 
 newly-grown regard for him, and matching it 
 against the hold which Patiomkin had over her. 
 He set himself to undermine the latter, and 
 this proved as fatal an attempt to him as to 
 others before him. Yermolof, in conjunction 
 with Bezborodko and Alexander Voronzof, is 
 said to have urged Catherine that she ought to 
 visit the new territory which Patiomkin had 
 been adding to Russia in the south, and for 
 which he had drawn immense sums from the 
 Treasury. This suggestion was made in order 
 that she should see how Patiomkin had mis- 
 appropriated the public money for his private 
 use. The Prince, however, persuaded Catherine 
 to let him draw another three million roubles, 
 which he promised to repay very soon, admitting 
 he had not spent all before on the purposes for 
 which the grants had been intended. The con- 
 spirators then represented that the pension to 
 the deposed Khan of the Crimea had somehow 
 passed into Patiomkin's hands. Catherine's 
 faith appeared shaken, and there were rumours 
 of the impending downfall of the great minister. 
 
 192
 
 Patiomkin and the Minor Favourites 
 
 Once more, however, Patiomkin played his 
 cards well. He left St Petersburg for a few 
 days, then suddenly reappeared, when his enemies 
 had begun to triumph, and, forcing his way 
 into Catherine's presence, told her she must 
 choose between him and Yermolof. " So long 
 as you keep that white negro I will not set 
 foot in the Palace." Catherine could not dis- 
 pense with Patiomkin. Yermolof received 
 orders to travel, and his brief reign was ended. 
 The Empress would not even see him before he 
 left, in spite of his appeals to her. The Court, 
 interested spectators of this curious struggle, 
 saw with astonishment Catherine abandon a 
 favourite of whom she had had no time to grow 
 tired, and who had offended her in no way. 
 The hopelessness of attempting to oust Patiom- 
 kin from his position must have struck all. It 
 was not given to any man to do so. 
 
 Whether it was the fact or not that the 
 idea of visiting the Crimea was originally sug- 
 gested to Catherine by Patiomkin's enemies, 
 Patiomkin saw in the idea a magnificent 
 opportunity of developing his plans. But it 
 is necessary to state briefly how it had come 
 about that the Crimea was by now sufficiently 
 incorporated in Russia for the Empress to 
 N 193
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 visit it as part of her dominions. By the 
 successes of the Russians against the Turks 
 in the early 'seventies the Crimea was lost 
 to Turkey, who by the treaty of Kutchuk 
 Kainardji in 1774 allowed the country's in- 
 dependence, while ceding Kinburn and Azof 
 to Russia. But this independence did not 
 debar Russia from using her influence in the 
 Crimea to a large extent, building towns near 
 the frontiers and attracting settlers to them 
 from the Crimea, and intriguing generally 
 against Turkish interests. Patiomkin, in pur- 
 suance of the idea of himself and the Empress 
 of driving the Turks completely out of Europe 
 and setting up a Russo-Greek throne at Con- 
 stantinople, wished as a preliminary to establish 
 Russia firmly on the Black Sea. For this it 
 was necessary to annex the Crimea. But first 
 an assurance of Austria's benevolence was 
 essential ; and Panin's policy, initiated in the 
 brief reign of Peter, and continued in Catherine's 
 reign, in spite of her anti-Prussian declaration 
 at the beginning, had kept Russia aloof from, 
 and even actively hostile to, Austria. All three 
 countries had been united for the first partition 
 of Poland in 1771, but the question of the 
 Bavarian succession was the cause of another 
 
 194
 
 Patiomkin and the Minor Favourites 
 
 war between Austria and Prussia seven years 
 later. A combination between Russia and 
 France, which was facilitated by Catherine's 
 indignation at England over the matter of 
 English naval pretensions (which led to Russia 
 joining the Armed Neutrality a little later), 
 was followed by a Franco-Russian mediation 
 between Austria and Prussia, which resulted 
 in the Peace of Teschen. Patiomkin now 
 pressed his views with regard to the Crimea 
 on Catherine, who strongly approved. Panin, 
 apparently recognising that a longer struggle 
 was vain, and that Russia and Austria would 
 be drawn together and Prussia alienated, re- 
 tired in disgust. He lived three years longer, 
 but had no more influence on affairs. The 
 actual work which he had performed fell 
 now to the Vice-chancellor Osterman, while 
 Bezborodko was introduced into the Cabinet. 
 This change was all in favour of Patiomkin. 
 A meeting of the Tsarina and the Emperor 
 Joseph was brought off at Mohilef, and the 
 succeeding visit of Joseph to St Petersburg 
 was so far satisfactory to Russia that an 
 understanding was arrived at against Turkey. 
 Austria, however, was unwilling to make war 
 yet. This did not deter Patiomkin. In 1783 
 
 195
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 Russian troops entered the Crimea on the pre- 
 tence of marching through against Turkey, and 
 the annexation of the country followed at once. 
 Turkey protested in vain, and next year signed 
 a treaty recognising the conquest. The Porte 
 was weakened by the lessening of French 
 support, consequent on the drawing nearer of 
 France and Russia. 
 
 Patiomkin had triumphed indeed, and his 
 rewards included the government of the new 
 province of Taurida, which enabled him to 
 proceed with his further plans. He was also 
 presented with the title of Taurishefsky and 
 a new mansion at St Petersburg, built for him 
 by the Empress, to which the name of the 
 Tauric Palace was given. Large grants of 
 money were also made to him for the purpose 
 of improving his government, and this was 
 the money which his enemies accused him of 
 diverting. No doubt he did divert it. He had 
 no more scruples about being in debt to the 
 Imperial treasury than to his creditors ; and 
 he drew no line between debt and embezzle- 
 ment. But he did actually proceed to settle 
 the Crimea. Part of the process consisted in 
 massacres of the Tartars who did not submit 
 by his cousin, General Paul Potemkin. By 
 
 196
 
 Patiomkin and the Minor Favourites 
 
 the massacre of some, and the flight of more, 
 the Tartar population of the peninsula was 
 reduced by half, it was calculated. Prince 
 Potemkin followed this step by introducing 
 more desirable settlers, inviting them from 
 other parts of Europe beside Russia ; and by 
 building towns, or at least laying their founda- 
 tions. His measures were justified to the 
 world by the success which attended them ; 
 but at the time they were denounced and 
 ridiculed by his foes. Patiomkin awaited an 
 opportunity of demonstrating to the Empress, 
 to Russia, and to Europe in general, what he 
 had done. It came when the Crimean journey 
 was decided on. 
 
 19^
 
 THE CRIMEAN 
 JOURNEY
 
 MAP TO ACCOMPANY "THE COURTSHIPS OF CATHERINE THE GREAT"
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE CRIMEAN JOURNEY 
 
 The journey which Catherine made in the first 
 half of the year 1787, to the Crimea and back, 
 was of so remarkable a nature that it deserves 
 a section to itself. We are fortunate in hav- 
 ing two accounts of the adventure, from the 
 pens of two of the most accomplished writers 
 of the period, the Comte de Segur, who was 
 present all through, and the Prince de Ligne, 
 who attended Catherine the greater part of the 
 time. If there was ever any design against 
 Patiomkin in the first suggestion of a trip to 
 his Government, the plot signally failed. The 
 effect of the journey was an overwhelming 
 victory for Patiomkin himself, as well as a 
 success for Catherine in the eyes of her subjects. 
 It had, too, not really perhaps more by accident 
 than by design of Patiomkin, a momentous 
 political result. Segur in his Memoirs writes : 
 " None of us foresaw that this triumphal march 
 of the Cleopatra of the North would mark 
 
 201
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 the epoch of nearly as great fortunes as did 
 the voyage of Cleopatra of Egypt. . . . This 
 tremendous future was hidden from us by a 
 thick veil." He refers to the Russo-Turkish 
 war which followed and, to some extent, arose 
 out of the Russian Empress's tour to her new 
 possessions. We cannot but suspect this to 
 have entered into the dreams of Patiomkin, 
 however little anyone else may have thought 
 of such a sequel. And, without a doubt, 
 Patiomkin well considered what impression 
 would be made on the Austrian Emperor, who 
 was to meet Catherine and accompany her to 
 the Crimea, by all that he would see. 
 
 Preparations for the long excursion were 
 made well in advance, and on a great scale. 
 Not the least important were the provisions for 
 the warmth of the travellers during their plunge 
 through the frost. We find Catherine writing 
 to the Prince de Ligne not long before the 
 start : " Far from resembling in my course the 
 brilliant image of the sun which you sug- 
 gest, we are taking all possible precautions to 
 appear like heavy clouds. Each star that ac- 
 companies me is provided with a good thick 
 black pelisse, and, as like all stars my com- 
 panions desire their furs to have the same cut 
 
 202
 
 The Crimean Journey 
 
 as mine, that model has been made the affliction 
 of all." The foreign "stars" whom she invited 
 to accompany her were the French, English, 
 and Austrian Ministers, while of her Court she 
 took Mamonof, the indispensable buffoon and 
 Grand Equerry Narishkin, Count Shuvalof, 
 the Grand Chamberlain, and others, including 
 a number of her maids-of-honour. Her grand- 
 sons, Alexander and Constantine, she would 
 have taken but for the latter developing 
 measles ; their father, of course, she did not 
 invite. The train, which started from Tsarsko 
 Selo on the 18th of January, 1787, was com- 
 posed of fourteen carriages and close on two 
 hundred sledges ; and at every stage five 
 hundred and sixty horses were waiting. The 
 most unpleasant part of the journey was the be- 
 ginning. Quite seventeen degrees of frost pre- 
 vailed, and daylight only lasted six or seven 
 hours. " But," writes Segur, " in the midst of 
 darkness, we were not left in want of light. 
 At short distances from each other, and on both 
 sides of the road, enormous piles of fir, cypress, 
 birch, and pine, had been raised, and these were 
 set alight ; so that we posted along through a 
 range of fires more brilliant than the rays of 
 daylight. It was thus that the proud Empress 
 
 203
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 of the North, in the midst of the deepest night, 
 commanded that there should be light." Segur 
 proceeds to describe the scene around them : 
 the vast plains covered with snow, and the 
 forests of firs, whose icicle-clad branches glittered 
 like crystals or diamonds in the sun by day. 
 The blazing road along which they journeyed 
 was, in spite of cold so great that men's beards 
 were stiff with ice, crowded with innumerable 
 citizens and villagers, full of curiosity to see 
 their sovereign and saluting her with acclama- 
 tions. Through such surroundings they pro- 
 gressed at the rate of about forty miles a day, 
 starting at nine o'clock each morning, halting 
 for a meal in the middle of the day, and stop- 
 ping for the night at seven o'clock. In the 
 towns they were well lodged, and took their 
 dinner with the Empress ; in the villages they 
 had to put up with the accommodation of peasants' 
 houses, in which Segur complains of heat so 
 great as to render sleep impossible, and of the 
 presence, frequently, of the owner, his wife and 
 family, sleeping on the stove itself. The country 
 through which they passed was not, in truth, pros- 
 perous ; but, Patiomkin's biographer remarks, 
 the crowds, the bustle, and appearance of pros- 
 perity kept Catherine in ignorance of the real 
 
 204
 
 The Crimean Journey 
 
 state of things. Of this we shall hear again 
 later. The outward show, at least, was impos- 
 ing. At the boundary of each successive 
 government the Empress was met by the 
 governor, who escorted her to his farthest 
 limits ; and everywhere fresh crowds were to 
 be seen. But Catherine's wish was not more to 
 see, perhaps, than to be seen. " The eye of the 
 master fattens the horse," she quoted to Segur. 
 In her care for the entertainment of her party 
 — and the tedium of the journey would certainly 
 have been great without relief — Catherine in- 
 vited her friends from time to time into her 
 own carriage, to discuss all manner of subjects, 
 including the affairs of her " little household," 
 as she called Russia. Verse-writing, too, was 
 a frequent amusement ; of this the Empress 
 was fond, though she was not remarkably pro- 
 ficient at it. Segur says that her mind seemed 
 to sink under the fatigue of the weary search 
 for rhyme and metre, and tells how Fitzherbert 
 consoled her one day with the remark that 
 none should aim at every distinction, and that 
 she should content herself with those two fine 
 lines composed by her on her dog and her 
 physician (both British, it will be noted) which 
 ran: 
 
 205
 
 Courtships ot Catherine the Great 
 
 C:-git la dvc k eue Anderson, 
 Qui mordlt Monsieur Rogenon. 
 
 The " Duchess Anderson." it appears, had once 
 bitten Dr Ro^erson : so she has won immor- 
 tality. 1 A few months later, however, in the 
 Crimea, Catherine made a serious attempt to 
 add to her poetical fame. She shut herself in 
 her room for some hours and finally produced 
 the two following lines : — 
 
 Sur le sopha du khan, sur des coussins bourres, 
 Dans un kiosque d'or, de grilles entoures. 
 
 There is little but local colour to recommend 
 the verses. We must, however, acquit Cathe- 
 rine of being a poetaster ; she wrote too little. 
 The three ministers whom Catherine honoured 
 by taking them in her suite on this unique 
 journey were an instructive contrast. Alleyne 
 Fitzherbert (afterwards Lord St Helens), is de- 
 scribed by the Prince de Ligne as the most 
 amiable of Englishmen. He was noted in St 
 Petersburg for that phlegm which was regarded 
 then as the great English characteristic. He 
 
 It was, perhaps, on the same dog that Segur wrote the 
 following verse : — 
 
 " Pour prix de sajidelite 
 
 Le del, temoin de sa tendresse, 
 Lid devoit F immortalitc 
 
 Pour quelle Jut toujours aupres de sa maitresse." 
 
 206
 
 The Crimean Journey 
 
 had been sent to St Petersburg in 1783, and 
 left soon after the Crimean journey. He was 
 there at a critical time, for England was 
 strongly supporting the policy of Prussia, 
 whereas Russia was drawing steadily closer to 
 Austria. One of Fitzherbert's duties was to 
 arrange a commercial treaty with Russia ; but 
 Catherine's growing resentment against England 
 induced her to put delays in the way of this, 
 while commercial treaties with both France and 
 Austria were signed readily. But, in spite of 
 her anti-English policy now, Catherine appears 
 to have had a regard for Fitzherbert, and she 
 was not offended at his habit of saying what 
 he thought. At Kief she asked the three 
 diplomatists what they thought of her town. 
 Count Cobentzel, the Austrian, replied : "Madam, 
 it is the most beautiful, imposing, and magnificent 
 city I ever beheld." " It is a dull place," said 
 Fitzherbert, " with nothing but ruins and shabby 
 houses." Segur, who tells the story, said : 
 " Madame, in Kief I recognise both the presence 
 and the promise of a great city." He was 
 satisfied that his remark pleased Catherine most. 
 Count Cobentzel was sent to St Petersburg 
 by Maria Theresa, and confirmed in his post by 
 her two successors, being very popular at the 
 
 207
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 Russian Court. He is described as of an un- 
 attractive and unwieldy figure, but of a witty 
 disposition. His great passion was the stage, 
 and dramatic entertainments were constant at 
 his house, wherein he took part with credit. 
 During the Franco- Austrian War which broke 
 out in 1792 he refused to stop his theatricals on 
 account of unfavourable despatches. Catherine, 
 somewhat annoyed, remarked : " You will see 
 he is keeping his best piece for the news of the 
 French entry into Vienna." 
 
 To the Comte Louis Philippe de Segur 
 Catherine's biographers are under a debt of 
 gratitude ; for his Memoirs contain some of 
 the most interesting information there is about 
 her. He was an enthusiast touching her, it is 
 true, but it is precisely on such testimony as his 
 that we must rank her so much higher than 
 the chroniclers of scandal would allow if we 
 listened to them alone. We cannot read Scgur 
 without recognising that he was an honourable 
 gentleman, who related the truth as it appeared 
 to him. He might be blind to Catherine's 
 failings, but he did not lie about them. Catherine 
 treated him with a full measure of her friendship 
 — he came originally to St Petersburg with an 
 introduction from her confidant Grimm in 1784 
 
 208
 
 The Crimean Journey 
 
 — and her attitude toward France grew much 
 warmer while Segur represented that country. 
 The French Revolution, unfortunately, altered 
 her opinion of France entirely, and also estranged 
 her from Segur, who, to her disgust, accepted 
 the Republican form of Government. 1 Segur 
 is an able and fascinating writer, and to his 
 personal character his friend the Prince de 
 Ligne bears witness. The Prince describes him 
 in an amusing and amiable passage. He had 
 a touch of genius, he said, and looked like a 
 sylph. He had " very little human nature, no 
 desires, no passions, and, I fear, no pleasures, 
 though he suffers pain." When Segur first 
 went to Paris from his home there was a phen- 
 omenon observed, but not an alarming one. 
 " It was not a comet, for instead of a tail it had 
 a rather ill-made queue ; it was not an aurora 
 borealis, for it shone by day as well as by night ; 
 not an ignis-fatuus, for it was much too wise to 
 lead, or to be led, astray ; not a planet, for it 
 did not revolve round anyone ; nor a star, 
 because, fortunately for the nations of Europe, 
 it was not fixed to its own spot." 
 
 1 He went further than his brother, the Vicomte Joseph 
 de Segur, who complained pathetically that " the Revolution 
 had spoilt his Paris." 
 
 o 209
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 The route lay by way of Porkhof and Smolensk, 
 to Kief, which was reached on the 9th of February, 
 and where preparations were made for a stay of 
 a month or so. At this capital of the old Tsars 
 of Russia there was awaiting a crowd of visitors 
 from all parts of Europe, and deputations arrived 
 from every quarter of Catherine's Empire — Cos- 
 sacks, Tartars, Khirghiz, Calmucks, Georgians, 
 Crimeans, and others. " It was," Segur declares, 
 " the whole East congregated to see the modern 
 Semiramis receiving the homage of all the 
 monarchs of the West." Little time was free 
 for inspection of the place, for balls, dinners, 
 and Court ceremonies generally kept all fully 
 occupied. Prince Patiomkin had not yet ap- 
 peared ; he was still preparing to make the 
 entry of his Sovereign into his own government 
 something which should surpass all she had yet 
 seen. But his nieces, the Princesses Branitsky 
 and Skavronsky, who had both married Polish 
 nobles, were at Kief to receive Catherine, and to 
 introduce to her numbers of the Polish nobility. 
 Poles, indeed, were there in crowds ; certainly 
 more from fear than from affection, remarks 
 Segur. The Russian Viceroy of Poland, Count 
 Stackelburg, was also present, to remind them 
 of their fall, and Suvarof, the " hero of des- 
 
 210
 
 The Crimean Journey 
 
 potism." At length Patiomkin arrived, bring- 
 ing with him the Prince of Nassau-Siegen, who 
 had just entered the Russian service. The ap- 
 pearance from Vienna of the Prince de Ligne 
 completed the party. Like the Comte de Segur, 
 the last-named, if he were to receive a due 
 return from a biographer of Catherine for the 
 services which he conferred, would demand far 
 more space than can be given to him in this 
 book. To this brilliant cosmopolitan (French- 
 man in Austria, Austrian in France, and either 
 in Russia, he says himself) we owe the most 
 charming sketches of his contemporaries. If 
 his pen ran away with him, as his friend Segur 
 complained, and his enthusiasm for his subjects 
 biassed him, the vividness and modernity of his 
 work is ample compensation. Grimm found 
 him insincere, but Sainte-Beuve's high estimate 
 of him seems juster. There is no more delight- 
 ful writer of the time than this man who would 
 never be more than twenty, and who seemed 
 to live up to his own saying that " the happiest 
 days are those which have a long morning and 
 a short evening." 1 
 
 1 We have Catherine's testimony that the Prince de 
 Ligne's letters were among the few that she considered "as 
 good to read as to receive " — that is, we may presume, they 
 had a permanent value. 
 
 211
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 From the day of his arrival Patiomkin took 
 up a position to which even Catherine was but 
 second. Before he joined the assemblage at 
 Kief his numerous enemies had been busy trying 
 to undermine his position — an attempt little likely 
 to succeed with Catherine. From the moment 
 of his appearance on the scene, however, all was 
 changed. Nothing but praises could be heard, 
 nothing seen but obsequious homage. Assuming 
 the part of host he began a series of entertain- 
 ments, which continued all the time of the halt 
 at Kief. At one he is said to have exhibited a 
 single firework which cost forty thousand roubles. 
 Catherine could, indeed, see that her favourite 
 spent lavishly the money which she so lavishly 
 bestowed on him. She let herself easily enjoy 
 the spectacle of what the extraordinary man of 
 her choice, the " Force of Nature," ! could do. 
 But entertainments in her own name were plenti- 
 ful. Full Courts were held once or twice a week, 
 with grand balls and concerts alternately. On 
 other days the favoured visitors passed the even- 
 ings with Catherine, who then no longer allowed 
 either restraint or etiquette. " The Empress 
 disappeared," says the French chronicler of the 
 Crimean journey, " and only an amiable woman 
 
 1 So M. Waliszewski aptly calls Patiomkin. 
 
 212
 
 The Crimean journey 
 
 was seen ; we told stories, played billiards, and 
 talked on literature." And here again verse- 
 making was eagerly practised. The Prince de 
 Ligne was a great acquisition, according to 
 Segur, for he excelled at anecdote and ex- 
 tempore songs. 
 
 Nothing is more characteristic of Patiomkin's 
 violently mingled character than his conduct at 
 this period of Catherine's stay at Kief. While 
 outwardly his life was all ostentatious magnifi- 
 cence, in the midst of which he was a dazzling 
 figure, the most splendidly uniformed and be- 
 jewelled, in his own house he was, if not less 
 the centre of all, at least a very different object 
 to the eye. Fortunately we have a minute 
 description of him at such times by the Comte 
 de Segur. At Patiomkin's palace at Petchersky, 
 says the French writer, you might think yourself 
 present at an audience of the Vizier of Constanti- 
 nople, Bagdad, or Cairo. Silence and fear of a 
 kind reigned. Patiomkin, who had but recently 
 been resplendent in the grand uniform of a 
 Marshal, smothered in decorations and diamonds, 
 covered with lace and embroidery, and with his 
 hair all powdered and curled, was now to be seen 
 in a dressing-gown, with neck bare, legs half- 
 naked, feet in large slippers, hair ill combed, 
 
 213
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 lying effeminately stretched on a vast sofa. 
 Around him would be a crowd of officers, high 
 dignitaries of the Empire, and foreign visitors. 
 Patiomkin, playing chess perhaps, would not 
 notice them, and might not even invite them to 
 be seated. Segur, anxious to maintain the 
 dignity of the representative of France, was 
 wont to treat him with the greatest familiarity, 
 to the astonishment of the others present ; but 
 the treatment was evidently right, for Patiomkin 
 not only took no offence but admitted Segur to 
 the greatest intimacy. And in his immediate 
 circle, with the crowd of courtiers no longer 
 there to be impressed or disdained, Patiomkin, 
 if not mending his dress, at least mended his 
 manners, talking on all sorts of subjects with 
 wit and originality. 
 
 Patiomkin's friendliness to the French Minister 
 was in keeping with Catherine's graciousness to 
 the same diplomatist, which she manifested freely 
 before and during most of the journey. The 
 Empress and her great adviser, or inspirer, both 
 desired a good understanding with France, as 
 well as Austria. The foreign policy of the 
 early part of Catherine's reign, which, under 
 the management of Count Panin, had been 
 hostile to those two countries, had since altered 
 
 214
 
 The Crimean Journey 
 
 entirely, and was now more to Catherine's own 
 taste. Patiomkin was dreaming of an alliance 
 with France, and hinted as much to Segur. 
 Austria was quite willing to assist Russian 
 aspirations to set up a Christian State centred 
 at Constantinople — the " Greek project," as 
 some historians call it. But France, for com- 
 mercial reasons, desired the continuance of 
 Turkey's independence. The Prince de Ligne 
 records that he asked Segur at this period what 
 was the reason of France's " mania for protect- 
 ing such ignorant people and such bad company 
 as the Turks " ; whereon Segur replied : " The 
 balance of Europe ; justice, since the Turks give 
 no real ground for complaint ; French commerce 
 with Smyrna ; the Levant ports — good enough 
 reasons, it seems to me." It was useless for 
 Patiomkin to argue that a Christian government 
 or Greek republic would suit French traders 
 better than Turkish rule. Segur detected a 
 sudden coolness toward him on the part of 
 Catherine now. He suspected English influ- 
 ence being at work against France, but he had 
 nothing to say against Fitzherbert. The influ- 
 ence in question seems rather to have been used 
 at Constantinople than in Russia. 
 
 The winter was now over, and a change was 
 
 215
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 co be made in the character of the journey. A 
 grand cannonade announced the breaking-up of 
 the ice on the Dnieper, and a flotilla lay ready 
 to convey Catherine and her Court to the Black 
 Sea. On the 1st of May, 1787, she started south- 
 ward on her galley, followed by over eighty 
 vessels. At the head of this stateliest fleet that 
 a great river had ever borne Segur describes 
 seven galleys of elegant form and majestic size, 
 beautifully painted, and manned by uniformed 
 crews. A band of twelve musicians was on 
 each ship. The cabins are depicted, by both 
 Segur and the Prince de Ligne, as splendidly 
 upholstered. The money showered on him by 
 Catherine had not been spared by Patiomkin. 
 He did not forget, either, that the travellers had 
 eyes for the shore. " There appeared on the 
 banks of the river curious and admiring crowds, 
 from all parts of the Empire, to gaze at the 
 splendid retinue, and to present to their Sovereign 
 the products of their various climes. On the 
 plains Cossacks manoeuvred, while here and 
 there stood triumphal arches, and garlands and 
 architectural decorations beautified villages, 
 houses, and cottages until they were trans- 
 formed into superb cities and palaces." Such 
 is Segur's florid description, abbreviated. Pati- 
 
 216
 
 The Crimean Journey 
 
 omkin was accused, by his contemporaries and 
 by later writers, of practically manufacturing 
 the scenery, with intent to deceive. His 
 anonymous biographer (who allows that many 
 of the houses and villages had but just been 
 built, that the distant buildings were said to be 
 merely fronts, that parks were laid out for the 
 occasion, and that the population was moved on 
 from place to place) thinks that Catherine was 
 probably the confidante, not the dupe, of Patiom- 
 kin. The Prince de Ligne suggests that the 
 Russians who were vexed at not being invited 
 on the journey pretended that the travellers 
 were both deceived and deceiving, and that 
 " cardboard villages had been set up along the 
 route, that the ships and cannons were painted 
 models, the cavalry horseless, and so on." He 
 adds : " I know very well what is trickery. For 
 instance, the Empress, who cannot run about on 
 foot as we do, is made to believe that towns for 
 which she has given the necessary money are 
 finished, whereas they are often towns without 
 streets, streets without houses, houses without 
 roof, door, or window. The Empress sees 
 nothing but the shops built with free-stone, and 
 the colonnades of the Governor- General's palaces." 
 The Prince testifies, however, to seeing with his 
 
 217
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 own eyes superb establishments in their infancy, 
 growing industries, villages with regular streets, 
 surrounded with trees, and well watered. It is 
 impossible not to conclude that Catherine was 
 but partly deceived, that there was a solid sub- 
 stratum of reality under all that she and her 
 guests saw, and that Patiomkin had used some 
 of the enormous revenues which were his for 
 the purposes for which he had received them. 
 But at the same time, with a magnificent kind 
 of effrontery, he filled in or covered up all the 
 deficiencies, as though he had been dealing with 
 a theatre instead of a country. The Force of 
 Nature made use of all the resources of art. It 
 was a splendidly picturesque achievement, but 
 it was not to be expected that it would appeal 
 to his enemies' imaginations. 
 
 The voyage continued without incident to 
 Kanief, where the Polish King Stanislas 
 Augustus was expecting them. Catherine's 
 former lover had been waiting three months, 
 and had expended three million livres, it was 
 symmetrically remarked, to see her for three 
 hours. They had not met since Poniatowsky, 
 the recalled ambassador, left St Petersburg in 
 1759. Since that date Catherine had secured 
 him a crown : it was probably about the pre- 
 
 218
 
 The Crimean journey 
 
 servation of that crown, and the realm attached 
 to it, that he chiefly desired the meeting now. 
 Intrigues against him were busy, and it was 
 only by Russia's favour that he could hope to 
 keep his throne for himself, and for his country 
 that vestige of independence which was left. 
 His task was at least partly successful. He 
 counteracted, for a time, the plots against him. 
 As a solace, perhaps, for his patient waiting, he 
 also received from Catherine's treasury a present 
 of one hundred thousand roubles. 
 
 The meeting of the King and Empress was, 
 indeed, a curious affair. Stanislas, to avoid the 
 restrictions of etiquette, was incognito. The 
 Prince de Ligne speaks of the inexpressible 
 charm of his beautiful face, and the soft tones 
 of his voice, as he stepped on board the Em- 
 press's galley, and said to the courtiers awaiting 
 him : " Gentlemen, the King of Poland has 
 charged me to present to you Count Ponia- 
 towsky." Half-an-hour's private conversation 
 with Catherine followed, at the end of which 
 they rejoined the company. Segur noticed em- 
 barrassment and unusual restraint on the part 
 of Catherine, and in the eyes of the King a 
 certain sadness, which was not entirely concealed 
 by an affected smile. A banquet followed, on 
 
 219
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 a sumptuous scale, which doubtless relieved the 
 Empress of her embarrassment ; such entertain- 
 ments are poor aids to sentiment. The scene 
 at the end, when Stanislas seized the only oppor- 
 tunity which was offered him, became famous. 
 He had mislaid his hat. Catherine saw it, and 
 had it brought to him. He turned to her to 
 whom he owed his crown, and said : " Ah ! 
 madame, you once give me a much better one." 
 Catherine's Court went ashore to attend a ball, 
 but Catherine was not present, nor could 
 Stanislas persuade her to stay twenty-four hours 
 longer at Kanief. The time for favours was 
 gone by with him, says Segur ; and he adds : 
 " Thus terminated an interview which, for all 
 its theatrical magnificence, will better occupy a 
 place in history than in romance, since assuredly 
 it was not embellished by any excess of tender 
 feeling." Catherine, at least, had given no 
 ground for the grief and jealousy displayed by 
 the favourite Mamonof at the thought of the 
 meeting of Catherine and her lover of twenty- 
 seven years ago. Mamonof's outburst caused 
 great amusement to Segur and the Prince de 
 Ligne ; for was not Catherine at least thirty- 
 five years his senior? 
 
 Apart from her unwillingness to revive an 
 
 •220
 
 The Crimean journey 
 
 old passion, she had another reason for hasten- 
 ing. There was to come the meeting with the 
 Emperor Joseph, to which she and Patiomkin 
 attached great importance. But first the great 
 minister had a few more sights for his mistress 
 to see. At Krementchuk she found a house 
 specially built to please her, surrounded by one 
 of her favourite English gardens, with trees of 
 enormous size, transplanted at great expense. A 
 large gathering of the nobility and merchants 
 of the neighbourhood received her. Moreover, 
 twelve thousand cavalry were drawn up for her 
 to review, including a new regiment of cuirassiers, 
 raised by Patiomkin. Catherine did not conceal 
 her satisfaction ; and a letter is extant from her 
 to the Governor of St Petersburg in which she 
 desires him to stop the cavils of Patiomkin's 
 enemies, who accused him of spending otherwise 
 the money destined for the troops. Patiomkin 
 had indeed an ascendancy now which was little 
 to be wondered at. Segur pays a tribute to 
 his inconceivable address, and to his " ability, 
 as if by a miracle, to cope with every obstacle, 
 to overcome nature, shorten distances, to deceive 
 the eye as to the dulness of sandy plains, and 
 the mind as to the tedium of a long journey, 
 and to give a semblance of life and fertility to 
 
 221
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 the barren desert." The fleet only anchored in 
 picturesque situations, where could be seen 
 groups of peasants on the banks, and herds and 
 flocks on the plains, while boats full of young 
 men and girls entertained the travellers with 
 song. Though the Empress and her party may 
 have been but half deceived by the invariable 
 aspect of prosperity and industry, the sensation 
 of lending themselves to the spells of the 
 magician Patiomkin was doubtless agreeable. 
 
 Though it had been arranged that Joseph 
 and Catherine should meet at Kherson, near 
 the mouth of the Dnieper, the Austrian Em- 
 peror had hastened on to Kaidak, where he fell 
 in with Catherine on the 18th May. He was 
 travelling again as Count Falkenstein, and had 
 no retinue with him when they met. Catherine 
 had come ashore attended by Patiomkin, his 
 nephew Branitsky, and the Prince of Nassau. 
 In consequence, when the meeting took place, 
 at the solitary house of a Cossack, those three 
 nobles had to turn cooks ; the repast was said 
 to have been as detestable as might have been 
 expected. When they had been joined by their 
 attendants and the rest of the party the voyage 
 continued to the site of Catherine's intended 
 city of Ekaterinoslaf, whence the journey to 
 
 222
 
 The Crimean Journey 
 
 Kherson was made overland. At Kherson, again, 
 was a great assemblage to see Catherine, both 
 of her own subjects and of foreigners drawn by 
 curiosity. Patiomkin had prepared the place 
 well to dazzle the visitors. He is recorded, in 
 particular, to have seen that the shops were 
 kept fully stocked with merchandise and all that 
 could give the impression of flourishing trade. 
 The port, too, was crowded, and it was arranged 
 that the launching of three Russian warships 
 should take place while the Empress was there. 
 And in pursuance of his plan Patiomkin took 
 care that Catherine should see an archway over 
 which was written the inscription : " This is the 
 way to Byzantium." 
 
 Patiomkin never lost sight of one great object 
 which he had in this Crimean excursion of the 
 Empress, to bring about the expulsion of the 
 Turks from Constantinople. As far as the 
 effect on Catherine, already long a supporter 
 of the scheme, was concerned all fell out 
 excellently. Especially appropriate, though 
 unrehearsed, was the incident which occurred 
 when the Russian fleet reached the mouth of 
 the Dnieper. Catherine would have liked to 
 inspect the Turkish shore, but a dozen Turkish 
 war-vessels came out and stationed themselves 
 
 223
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 " very uncivilly," as the Prince de Ligne com- 
 ments, across the river. Catherine could not 
 conceal her annoyance. She called for a map, 
 and flicked with her finger-nail at the name of 
 Otchakof, the stronghold of the Turks, not 
 speaking, but smiling an ominous smile. Pati- 
 omkin would have no difficulty in gaining her 
 assent to a war. But it was important to have 
 the co-operation of Austria, even if the sym- 
 pathy of France was unobtainable. Nothing 
 was left undone to impress the Emperor Joseph. 
 And personally Joseph could not have made a 
 more amiable return to the advances. His 
 subject, the Prince de Ligne, enthusiastically 
 declares that "the monarch enchanted all who 
 saw him " and that, " free from the cares of his 
 Empire, he made the happiness of his friends by 
 his social qualities." Nevertheless, it was a 
 grave step to undertake a war against Turkey 
 in conjunction with the Russians, for the brunt 
 of the fighting must fall on the country which 
 bordered on Turkey. Segur, who had many 
 intimate conversations with the Emperor, 
 gathered that he was little disposed to second 
 Catherine's ambitions. He did not refuse, nor 
 did he leave her company, in spite of the fact 
 that he now received news of the revolt in the 
 
 224
 
 The Crimean Journey 
 
 Netherlands. He could not be brought to 
 engage himself definitely to make war; yet 
 next year he was found fighting on Russia's 
 side, as Patiomkin wished. 
 
 The actual visit to the Crimea itself was now 
 beginning, and the travellers proceeded by way 
 of Perekop to Baktshi- Serai, the capital of the 
 late khans of the Crimea. Catherine is said to 
 have been anticipating with proud delight the 
 opportunity of seating herself on a Mussulman 
 throne conquered by her arms. The pleasure 
 was at last hers ; and the whole party lodged 
 in the Khans' Palace, a splendid building, whose 
 mixture of Moorish, Arabic, Chinese, and Turk- 
 ish styles, paintings, gildings, inscriptions, foun- 
 tains, and gardens impressed the Prince de 
 Ligne greatly. He records the haughty boast 
 in the great audience hall, inscribed in letters 
 of gold : " In defiance of envy, the whole world 
 is told that there is naught as rich as this in 
 Ispahan, Damascus, or Stamboul." Five days 
 were passed at Baktshi-Serai, and then a 
 journey was made to Inkerman, that Catherine 
 might review Patiomkin's Euxine fleet, built 
 and equipped in the space of two years. Segur 
 says that it seemed quite incomprehensible that 
 Prince Patiomkin should have been able in this 
 P 225 

 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 time, at a distance of eight hundred leagues 
 from St Petersburg, and in a country so recently 
 conquered, to build a town, raise a fleet, make 
 forts, and get together so many inhabitants. 
 " It was a prodigious display of activity." 
 
 This activity was continued throughout the 
 stay in the Crimea. Describing the travelling 
 in that region, the Prince de Ligne says that 
 for days they crossed vast solitary tracts, from 
 which the Tartar tribes had been driven. Every- 
 where were furnished magnificent tents for meals 
 and as bedrooms. Deserts had been trans- 
 formed already into fields, groves, and villages, 
 and all that was wanted was that their present 
 military inhabitants should give place to peaceful 
 peasants. These latter Patiomkin had begun 
 to attract to his government. Even an English 
 farmer had been induced to come out, and 
 his daughters, "two heavenly figures," were 
 met by, and gave breakfast to, the Prince de 
 Ligne. Nor did Patiomkin leave his guests to 
 admire only his mastery over nature ; he enter- 
 tained them with military spectacles, Tartar 
 evolutions, and with firework - displays on a 
 vast scale. Of these last named the most 
 magnificent was shown at Karasu Bazar. It 
 is described as taking Catherine by surprise as 
 
 226
 
 The Crimean Journey 
 
 she strolled out to take the air after dinner. 
 The sun was just disappearing, when suddenly 
 all the hills for five miles around were lighted 
 up by three lines of coloured fire ; while on a 
 conical hill in the centre appeared Catherine's 
 cypher, surmounting which was a huge firework, 
 crowned with an explosion of one hundred 
 thousand rockets. 
 
 In spite of the splendour and excitement we 
 feel bound to sympathise with the Prince de 
 Ligne and his companions on one point. The 
 fault was not Patiomkin's. The Austrian 
 Prince cannot speak well of the meals at 
 Catherine's table in the Crimea. He wrote to 
 his friend, the Marquise de Coigny (to whom 
 all his descriptions of the journey are addressed) : 
 " I am dying of hunger, for everything is cold 
 and detestable at the Empress's table. She 
 never sits long there, and if she has anything 
 agreeable or useful to say she says it so slowly 
 that nothing is hot except the water we drink." 
 With reference to the last remark, it may be 
 explained that summer was coming on. 
 
 After a visit to the eastern Crimea Catherine 
 was warned that the unhealthiness of the season 
 made further stay inadvisable. Moreover, she 
 was wanted at St Petersburg again. The party, 
 
 227
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 therefore, turned northward, and on the 22nd 
 of July Tsarsko Selo was reached, by way 
 of Krementchuk, Pultava, Kursk, Orel, and 
 Moscow. The Emperor Joseph left them on the 
 outskirts of the Crimea, on the best of terms. 
 At Pultava Patiomkin bade farewell to his 
 guests, who stopped for some fetes in Moscow 
 before the journey finished. To all who ac- 
 companied her Catherine presented a medal, 
 with her profile on one side and a map of the 
 tour on the reverse. 
 
 So ended this " long and singular journey," 
 according to Segur ; " one of the most beautiful 
 dreams of his life " the courtier Prince de Ligne 
 called it, writing to Catherine. 1 
 
 1 The journey cost Patiomkin seven million roubles. 
 
 228
 
 THE DEATH 
 OF PATIOMKIN
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE DEATH OF PATIOMKIN 
 
 Dmitrief Mamonof, the favourite whom 
 Catherine had taken with her on the Crimean 
 journey, was about twenty-four years of age 
 when he was assigned the post from which 
 Yermolof had been so summarily removed. He 
 had been thought of as a possible candidate 
 when Yermolof was chosen. Patiomkin seems 
 to have selected him as one who promised no 
 danger to his own position. The story is that 
 he sent Mamonof to the Empress with some 
 pictures, her verdict on which was to convey to 
 him her opinion about the bearer. She sent 
 the answer that "the outlines were good, but 
 the colouring poor." M. Waliszewski makes 
 her apply a similar remark to a portrait of 
 Mamonof. The two versions come to much the 
 same. Contemporaries agree that the description 
 suited well enough : that there was something 
 lacking about his beauty. Catherine, however, 
 accepted him, and soon became enthusiastic about 
 
 231
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 his mind. He was a second Lanskoi to her, 
 and he had started with a better education. He 
 came of a very good family, and even the Prince 
 de Ligne admitted him to be well bred. The 
 Emperor Joseph, who, like the Prince, met 
 Mamonof on the Crimean journey, is kinder to 
 his looks than to his brains, for he thought him 
 destitute of any particular intelligence, and out 
 of his element in the Court. Yet the Comte 
 de Segur, who was among the cleverest men at 
 that Court, had a better opinion of him. His 
 tastes were at least refined. He was fond of 
 the arts, particularly music, and he even wrote 
 plays, in whose non-survival he is, perhaps, 
 fortunate. But he was extremely extravagant, 
 and the drain of his exactions and Patiomkin's 
 combined was soon felt. Catherine had given 
 both permission to draw on her private treasurer 
 when they desired. The result was that the 
 imperial coffers were shortly five million roubles 
 in debt. Catherine reprimanded the treasurer, 
 who produced a heap of drafts from Patiomkin 
 and Mamonof. Mamonof, remonstrated with, 
 treated the affair as a joke, and nothing further 
 was said about it. 
 
 The Russian finances had, however, been 
 reduced to a desperate state by various causes, 
 
 232
 
 The Death of Patiomkin 
 
 of which the upkeep of the favourite was no 
 small item. Patiomkin's war against Turkey 
 was costing heavy sums, whose size was increased 
 by the Prince's peculiar method of dealing with 
 his country's money. On the top of all came 
 a declaration of war from Sweden, where 
 Gustavus III., unable to tolerate Russian 
 intrigues any longer, seized the favourable op- 
 portunity in 1788, when all Russia's troops were 
 engaged in the south, to march into Russia. 
 St Petersburg was terribly alarmed. This war 
 was at its doors. Catherine wrote to the Prince 
 de Ligne at the time : " It is to the sound of 
 cannon, which shakes the windows of my home, 
 that your Imperturbable writes to you." Yet 
 she showed that the Prince de Ligne had made 
 no mistake in giving her that name of " Im- 
 perturbable." Eight thousand men, however 
 badly armed, were sent into Finland ; and 
 disaffection was produced in the ranks of the 
 Swedish army, where many of the officers were 
 of the Diet's party, and hostile to the King. 
 The Russian fleet, too, more than held its own 
 in the Baltic. " Have I done well, my master ? " 
 wrote Catherine to Patiomkin. 
 
 Patiomkin was far from agreeing that it was 
 well. He was indignant against Catherine and 
 
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 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 her councillors for undertaking a second war, 
 even though it might be "an old woman's war," 
 as he contemptuously called it. This was not 
 a reference to Catherine's age but to the quality 
 of the troops needed to keep back the Swedes. 
 He had, however, the gratification of seeing 
 now one of the fruits of the Crimean journey 
 of the previous year — Austria declaring war 
 against the Turks, and joining Russia on the 
 Danube. Thus reinforced, Russia maintained 
 the two wars successfully. But the Austrian 
 alliance, which practically meant a triple alliance 
 between Russia, Austria, and France, led Prussia, 
 now under Frederick William II., to form 
 a Germanic counter-league, which included 
 Holland and England, the latter partly because 
 the English King was elector of Hanover and 
 partly in continuance of the long alliance with 
 Frederick the Great. What Panin feared, 
 therefore, had come to pass — but it was as 
 Patiomkin willed. 
 
 Catherine now received a personal blow, which 
 affected her far more than the loss of Prussia's 
 friendship, for which there were, after all, com- 
 pensations. The wound inflicted on her pride 
 by Mamonof was the worst she ever suffered 
 except that dealt by Rimsky Korsakof. Her 
 
 234
 
 The Death of Patiomkin 
 
 two musical lovers were alike in their unfaith- 
 fulness. In the autumn of 1788 Catherine 
 noticed a growing aloofness on the part of 
 Mamonof. He talked to her of his bad chest, 
 made excuses for withdrawing from her company, 
 and even alleged religious scruples about the 
 life which he was living. But the rupture did 
 not occur until the summer of the next year. 
 It was on the 18th of June that Mamonof came 
 to the Empress and complained of her coldness. 
 This attack did not take her by surprise. 
 According to her own story, which she confided 
 to her private secretary, she answered him that 
 he knew well how it was since September 
 last, and how much she had suffered. " You 
 have for a long time now paid no attention to 
 what I say. But, since a separation is necessary, 
 I will look after your future." She followed 
 this up by sending him a note, which assured 
 him on his retirement a brilliant position, and 
 at the same time the idea occurred to her of a 
 marriage with Count Bruce's daughter. (She 
 was a child of thirteen, but, says Catherine, 
 already mature.) Mamonof at once came to 
 Catherine, trembling, and told her that he was 
 in love with the Princess Sherbatof, one of her 
 maids-of-honour, and had promised her marriage 
 
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 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 half- a- year ago. "Imagine my feelings!" 
 appealed Catherine to her secretary. 
 
 Catherine's Court, too, might imagine her 
 feelings, but it was at a loss to explain her 
 conduct towards the favourite who had thus 
 insulted her. She had shown so great an at- 
 tachment to him that all thought that he had 
 stepped into the unfortunate Lanskoi's place, 
 and that Sasha's ! rule would last her lifetime, 
 for she was sixty years old now. Masson says 
 that her pride and generosity were sufficient to 
 make her grant Mamonof s desire. At any rate 
 she arranged for his marriage with the Princess 
 Sherbatof to take place without delay. She 
 superintended the dressing of the bride in her 
 own rooms in the Palace, and loaded the bride- 
 groom with presents. She " hoped they would 
 be happy." She only insisted that they should 
 go and live in Moscow ; at which Mamonof 
 appears to have been hurt. He had a strange 
 way of looking at things. 
 
 In spite of Catherine's high estimate of 
 Mamonof before she discovered his treachery to 
 her — and she went so far as to talk to Grimm 
 
 1 Sasha, or Sashenka, was the familiar name which Catherine 
 had given Mamonof, and by which she used to call him in 
 letters to her intimates, as to Patiomkin. 
 
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 The Death of Patiomkin 
 
 about his " uprightness " — it is impossible not 
 to regard him as among the most unpleasant 
 of all the favourites. That he could assume 
 so well the position with regard to the Empress, 
 who was more than double his age, as to 
 excite notice by his jealousy of Poniatowsky and 
 Bezborodko (towards whom Catherine's attitude 
 was solely one of esteem for his talents), was 
 hardly to his credit. For his remaining at the 
 Palace while under promise to marry one who 
 afterwards became his wife no one but Catherine 
 could find pardon. The regrets he afterwards 
 expressed for his folly made him more con- 
 temptible. His well-bred manners cannot carry 
 off the baseness of his conduct. Patiomkin, 
 after Mamonofs fall, professed not to be sur- 
 prised, and declared him " a very Narcissus, ex- 
 pecting all and giving nothing in return." But 
 Patiomkin had least reason to complain of him, 
 since he had refrained from political intrigue, 
 and had not tried to shake the position of the 
 great minister. The latter 's German biographer, 
 it is true, makes him attempt to get rid of 
 Mamonof on account of an assumption of 
 equality in position. Catherine, however, ac- 
 cording to this chronicler, refused to dismiss 
 her favourite, who, for his part, urged her to 
 
 237
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 " appease Patiomkins wrath by lavishing on him 
 the most flattering marks of approval and dis- 
 tinction." Patiomkin still refused to leave St 
 Petersburg, lingering on until May, when he 
 was obliged to rejoin the army, exacting from 
 the Empress a promise that she would not 
 make Mamonof Vice - Chancellor, as she was 
 suspected of being anxious to do. Patiomkin 
 had only been gone a month when the fall of 
 the favourite, which even his influence could 
 not procure, was brought about as stated above. 
 Such an addition to the account seems un- 
 necessary. 
 
 One story is told of Mamonof and his wife 
 after their departure to Moscow. Mamonof, 
 it was said, was so imprudent as to talk to his 
 wife about the Empress ; and the young woman 
 was more imprudent still, in that she did not 
 keep to herself what she heard. One night 
 the police entered their house at Moscow, and 
 six of them, dressed as women, soundly whipped 
 the wife, while the husband was forced to kneel 
 down and watch the proceedings. After their 
 task was done Catherine's avengers left, saying 
 to Mamonof: "This is the way the Empress 
 punishes a first indiscretion. For the second 
 there is Siberia." The tale is given by 
 
 238
 
 The Death of Patiomkin 
 
 Tooke. It does not convey a high idea of 
 impartial justice, seeing that Mamonof was only 
 made to suffer the mental, his wife the physical, 
 pain. But Catherine could not bring herself to 
 treat Mamonof as he deserved to be treated. The 
 utmost she could do was to insist on his remain- 
 ing at Moscow. She relaxed even this rule later ; 
 but by that time Zubof had been in the favour- 
 ite's rooms in the Palace for nearly four years, 
 and Mamonof declined to visit St Petersburg. 
 
 On the day of Mamonof s marriage to the 
 Princess Sherbatof a lieutenant in the Guards, 
 on duty at Tsarsko Selo at the time, was assigned 
 the rooms just vacated. Plato Zubof was twenty- 
 two years of age, and was the second of four 
 brothers, three of them soldiers, like their father. 
 The family was remotely connected with the 
 Saltikofs, by whom, according to some accounts, 
 Plato was brought to Catherine's notice. Ac- 
 cording to others it was Anna Narishkin, sister- 
 in-law of Leof Narishkin, and a close friend of 
 Catherine as early as the days of Poniatowsky, 
 who came to her Empress's assistance. The 
 young man was duly installed, and another sum 
 of ten thousand roubles was taken from the 
 exhausted Treasury as a present. Catherine did 
 not consult Patiomkin on this occasion, nor 
 
 239
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 do we hear of her sending him a consolatory 
 gift as usual. The Prince was far distant, con- 
 ducting still the operations against the Turks. 
 When the news reached him his indignation 
 was great. He may have had an unfavourable 
 opinion already of Plato Zubof, or he may not 
 have known who he was until letters from St 
 Petersburg reached him. But he knew how 
 much easier it was for a favourite to gain an 
 ascendancy over the sixty-year-old Catherine 
 than it had been ten or twenty years ago. He 
 wrote, and begged Catherine to get rid of Zubof, 
 to find some other favourite ; Catherine hardly 
 reassured him by insisting, in her replies, on 
 Zubofs childlike nature and his amiability and 
 grace. The Prince even made a pun on his 
 rival's name, which he took care should reach 
 the Empress's ears. He had a tooth (zubof), 
 he said, which was troubling him, and he would 
 not be easy until it were removed. But Catherine 
 refused to gratify his wish. Zubof was favour- 
 ite when Patiomkin came to St Petersburg a 
 year and a half later, and he held the post still 
 when Patiomkin died. He was, indeed, the last 
 of the favourites. 
 
 The war with Turkey occupied the greater 
 part of Patiomkin's attention during the four 
 
 240
 
 The Death of Patiomkin 
 
 last years of his life. M. Rambaud, in his 
 " History of Russia," says that Patiomkin was 
 taken by surprise by the Turkish declaration 
 of war in 1787, and that in his despair he was 
 ready even to abandon the Crimea, until Cathe- 
 rine inspired him with the courage to persevere. 
 It is difficult to see how he can have been 
 surprised. Everything had been done to irri- 
 tate the Turks. The Crimea had been seized 
 and absorbed. Russia had built a Black Sea 
 fleet. Russian troops were massed in large 
 numbers in the south. Some sort of under- 
 standing had been arrived at with Austria, it 
 was evident. The ambition to set up a nomin- 
 ally Greek kingdom, with Constantinople as its 
 capital, was well known, both in Patiomkin and 
 in his mistress. The Turks had only been held 
 back for some years by the growing coolness 
 of French friendship. If Patiomkin had been 
 taken aback by the tardy activity of the Porte 
 he would have had no excuse. But it is im- 
 possible to believe that he was. He appears, 
 on the contrary, to have taken every step to 
 precipitate a conflict as soon as the Empress 
 was safely back in St Petersburg. An excuse 
 was soon to hand. The Turks presented an 
 ultimatum exposing their grievances. Russia 
 Q 241
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 refused to remedy them, and the Russian 
 Minister at Constantinople was at onee thrown 
 into prison. Patiomkin proceeded without 
 delay to the siege of Oczakof, while Rumianzof 
 was sent into Moldavia. Oczakof offered a 
 desperate resistance, and was not captured until 
 December, 1788, when, in addition to the eight 
 thousand Turks who lost their lives during the 
 siege, the whole town was put to the sword, 
 regardless of sex or age. Patiomkin's reward 
 was the order of St George, the only Russian 
 order he had not yet received, and a sword set 
 with brilliants. He spent the rest of the winter 
 at St Petersburg, where he was received with 
 six miles of illuminations and a salute of guns 
 on a scale previously only accorded to sovereigns, 
 and was entertained with a continuous round 
 of Court festivities. It is now that he is 
 alleged to have made the unsuccessful attempt 
 to get Mamonof dismissed. He returned to 
 the front in May without any apparent decline 
 in influence. 
 
 The war continued in favour of Russia, 
 though the expenses demanded by Patiomkin 
 were enormous. The capture of Bender pro- 
 vided another excuse for extraordinary honours 
 to Patiomkin, who had now secured the retire- 
 
 242
 
 The Death of Patiomkin 
 
 ment of Rumianzof altogether, and was able to 
 take to himself the whole credit for successes. 
 Bender brought him a hundred thousand roubles, 
 a laurel crown made of emeralds, and an issue 
 of commemorative medals. The campaign of 
 1790 resulting in further triumphs, negotiations 
 for peace were begun at Jassy. Russia was 
 tired of the war, in which, since the death of 
 Joseph II. early in the year, she had to fight 
 single - handed. The constant demands for 
 money by Patiomkin wearied even Catherine, 
 who found it impossible to raise adequate loans 
 in Europe ; yet he showed no honest desire for 
 peace. Correspondence between Minister and 
 Sovereign became difficult, and Patiomkin de- 
 termined to come to the capital himself. He 
 appeared in St Petersburg, for the last visit 
 he was ever to pay, early in March, 1791. He 
 had again a magnificent reception — so gracious 
 and flattering, indeed, on the part of the Em- 
 press, says his biographer, that expert courtiers 
 thought they perceived some affectation in her 
 manners and expressions. The long absence 
 of Patiomkin, continues the writer, had pro- 
 duced the usual effects of absence. "Men 
 rarely stand this ordeal ; women never." But 
 Catherine's consideration for him showed no 
 
 243
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 outward signs of diminution, and Patiomkin 
 conducted himself with all his former pride 
 and contempt for others. He made no at- 
 tempt to conciliate Zubof. He lived in the 
 most reckless and extravagant manner, al- 
 though his health was now suffering severely 
 from the strain to which throughout his life he 
 subjected it. His excesses had, perhaps, really 
 brought about a weakening of that gigantic 
 will-power, by which, for nearly twenty years, 
 he had imposed himself on his country and its 
 ruler. At any rate, for five months he appeared 
 to forget entirely his ambition, and to abandon 
 himself to a carnival of pleasure. His conduct 
 was, no doubt, partly directed to proving to 
 the world that he still was as powerful and as 
 unrestrained as ever. One tremendous effort 
 which he made to eclipse his former triumphs 
 and the displays of his rivals made a deep 
 impression, as is evident from the attention 
 devoted to it by contemporaries. The Tauric 
 Palace, Catherine's present to him in memory 
 of his greatest achievement, was given up to 
 an entertainment to the Empress on a scale 
 not yet attempted. The various accounts dwell 
 on the month of preparation, the army of 
 artists, and the constant rehearsals. Besides 
 
 244
 
 The Death of Patiomkin 
 
 the Empress, the whole Court and the foreign 
 representatives were his guests. Patiomkin 
 received Catherine at the door, dressed in 
 scarlet and gold, and blazing with diamonds ; 
 so heavy with jewels was his hat that it was 
 carried by an aide-de-camp. A symphony by 
 three hundred musicians commenced the en- 
 tertainment ; a masquerade ballet followed, in 
 which the Grand Dukes Alexander and Con- 
 stantine took the lead. Next came a display in 
 the theatre, ending in an Asiatic procession, in 
 which the various costumes of the subject 
 nations were introduced. The whole Palace was 
 then thrown open, and the final act was a 
 supper to the six hundred guests, at which all 
 the table service was of gold and silver. The 
 thought strikes one, as one reads the glowing 
 descriptions, that all this brilliance was rather 
 of the pantomimic kind ; but it was well de- 
 signed to produce its effect. Catherine ex- 
 hibited her pleasure by staying until after 
 midnight, which was contrary to her usual 
 custom. As she was preparing to leave a 
 hymn in her honour was given by picked 
 musicians. She was so affected, says one of 
 the accounts, that she turned round to 
 Patiomkin to express her satisfaction. "He, 
 
 245
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 overpowered by the strong feeling of what he 
 owed to Her Majesty, fell on his knee, and, 
 seizing her hand, bedewed it with tears. It 
 was the last time he should ever, on that spot, 
 stammer out his respect and gratitude to his 
 bountiful Sovereign." 
 
 The departure of Patiomkin from St Peters- 
 burg was at length made necessary in his eyes 
 by the fact that Prince Repnin, who, com- 
 manded in his absence, had pressed the cam- 
 paign against the Turks with vigour and success. 
 Patiomkin could not see another general gather- 
 ing the fame which might have been his. 
 Moreover, the Turks now showed an inclina- 
 tion to accept terms which before they would 
 have rejected, and the preliminaries of peace 
 were actually agreed upon. There was plainly 
 no time to be lost. Though he was still in a 
 very bad state of health, Patiomkin hastened 
 south. His arrival at Jassy found his bodily 
 condition alarming. Catherine despatched 
 physicians to him ; but he would take no ad- 
 vice. He drank heavily, and would agree to 
 no diet. Finally, he determined to leave Jassy 
 for Oczakof on the 15th October, 1791, and 
 started out in his carriage at three in the 
 morning. He grew rapidly worse, and in a 
 
 246
 
 The Death of Patiomkin 
 
 few hours' time stopped the carriage, and had 
 himself taken out, gasping for breath. He 
 died under a tree on the high road, in the arms 
 of a favourite niece, the Princess Branitsky. 
 
 The effect of the news of Patiomkin 's death 
 on Catherine was sufficient to silence all who 
 thought that she had been estranged from her 
 former favourite and her minister for seventeen 
 years. She fell immediately into a faint, and, 
 after coming to, relapsed twice. She was bled 
 repeatedly, after the fashion of the day, but 
 with little effect. Her death was thought to 
 be imminent, and it was remarked that the 
 blow seemed as heavy as the death of Lanskoi 
 seven years earlier. Her recovery was quicker, 
 but the permanent effect of her loss was 
 greater. It was not to be expected that at 
 her age she should be able to do without the 
 support on which she had relied so long. 
 " Now, indeed, I must be Madame la Ressource," 
 she wrote to Grimm, recalling the name which 
 Peter had given her when she was but Grand 
 Duchess ; " again I must educate people for 
 my needs." She did not recognise that it 
 was too late, nor that the wretched Zubof was 
 not of such stuff that she could make a " pupil " 
 of him. 
 
 247
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 Two elaborate portraits of Patiomkin have 
 come down to us from the pens of the two 
 most interesting writers who were in the 
 inner circle of Catherine's Court. The Comte 
 de S^gur was on more intimate terms with 
 Patiomkin than any foreign resident, and than 
 most Russians. The Prince de Ligne was 
 with him during the Crimean journey, and 
 served under him against the Turks in 1787, 
 when, to use his own words, after committing 
 various follies in the course of his life, he now 
 was guilty of a stupidity — namely, that of 
 entering the Russian service. Both sketches 
 are rather long — indeed, Segur remarks on the 
 excessive length of the Prince de Ligne's 
 description, which was contained in a letter 
 to Segur — but both are worth quotation in 
 part. Segur says : 
 
 "In his person were combined the most 
 opposite defects and gifts of every kind. He 
 was avaricious and ostentatious, despotic and 
 popular, inflexible and kindly, haughty and 
 obliging, politic and confiding, licentious and 
 superstitious, bold and timid, ambitious and in- 
 discreet ; lavish of his bounties to his relations, 
 his mistresses, and his favourites, yet often 
 refusing obstinately to pay either his house- 
 
 248
 
 The Death of Patiomkin 
 
 hold or his creditors ; always attached to some 
 woman, yet always unfaithful. Nothing could 
 equal the vigour of his mind nor the indolence 
 of his body. No dangers could appal his 
 courage, no difficulties force him to abandon 
 his projects ; but the success of an enterprise 
 never failed to leave him disappointed. . . . 
 His singularities, though they frequently put 
 the Empress out of humour, rendered him yet 
 more interesting to her. In his youth he 
 pleased her by the ardour of his passion, by 
 his bravery, and by his masculine beauty ; at 
 a more advanced period of his life he continued 
 to charm her by flattering her pride, by calming 
 her apprehensions, by confirming her power, 
 by caressing her dreams of Oriental empire, 
 and by promising the expulsion of the barbar- 
 ians and the restoration of the Greek Empire." 
 The Prince de Ligne's sketch is written at 
 the camp at Oczakof in 1788. "I see," he 
 says, "a commander-in-chief, who looks idle 
 and is always busy ; who has no other desk 
 than his knees, no other comb than his fingers ; 
 who is always lying on his couch, though never 
 sleeping, by night or by day, because his zeal 
 for the Sovereign whom he adores keeps him 
 always restless, and because a cannon-shot, to 
 
 249
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 which he is not exposed himself, makes him 
 uneasy with the thought that it costs the lives 
 of some of his soldiers ; fearful for others, brave 
 for himself; stopping under the hottest fire of 
 a battery to issue his orders ; yet rather an 
 Ulysses than an Achilles ; nervous at the ap- 
 proach of danger, gay when it surrounds him ; 
 dull in the midst of pleasure ; unhappy in the 
 excess of fortune, surfeited with everything, 
 easily disgusted, morose, inconstant, a profound 
 philosopher, a sublime politician, or like a 
 child of ten years of age " — and so on ; the 
 Prince de Ligne, as Segur says, seldom knew 
 where to break off when his imagination 
 carried him away. " What, then, is his magic ? " 
 asks the Prince in conclusion. " Genius, natural 
 abilities, an excellent memory, much elevation 
 of soul, malice without intent to injure, artifice 
 without craft, a happy mixture of caprices, the 
 art of winning every heart in his good moments, 
 much generosity, graciousness, and justice in 
 his rewards, a refined and correct taste, the 
 talent for guessing when he is ignorant, and 
 a consummate knowledge of mankind." 
 
 The two friends agree both in assigning to 
 Patiomkin a vast number of contradictory 
 characteristics and in yet producing an in- 
 
 250
 
 The Death of Patiomkin 
 
 telligible portrait. It would be easy to multiply 
 quotations showing that his other contemporaries 
 were similarly struck by the astounding in- 
 consistencies of his nature. But the argument, 
 perhaps, does not require enforcing when his 
 whole life was one great example. If his 
 career be compared with that of the other 
 favourites since Orlof, he will be found to 
 have started with one advantage, indeed, in 
 that he took part in the revolution which put 
 Catherine on the throne, and failed not to at- 
 tract her notice in so doing. On the other 
 hand, he was certainly the least well -looking 
 of all the favourites. His German biographer, 
 it is true, can talk of " his regular and strongly- 
 marked features ; his noble countenance, in 
 which dignity was mingled with sweetness ; 
 his colossal but finely - proportioned figure." 
 Segur speaks vaguely of " his masculine beauty " 
 in the passage quoted above. But the general 
 evidence is to the effect that he was excessively 
 dark, and not at all handsome ; one relative of 
 his even described him as " dreadful and re- 
 pulsive." He was blind in one eye, thanks 
 to Alexis Orlof, which did not improve his 
 appearance. Catherine speaks once, obviously 
 in jest, of his beauty. It was when he returned 
 
 251
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 to St Petersburg in 1791. It might be said, 
 she wrote, that victory had absolutely beautified 
 him ; he returned from the army as handsome 
 as the day. It is significant that he would 
 not allow his portrait to be painted until 
 Catherine persuaded him to allow one to be 
 made in 1783. This is now in St Petersburg, 
 and might serve for any courtier of the period, 
 so little trace of realism is there in it. Yet 
 Patiomkin, without that beauty which appealed 
 so strongly to Catherine, was actual favourite 
 for two years, after the handsome Orlof, and 
 alone of the favourites became her minister 
 after he had been discarded (with or without 
 his co-operation) from the post of favourite. 
 His difficulties at Court, when he resigned 
 that post to Zavadofsky and still held to his 
 political position, were immense. Hatred and 
 contempt were the lot of " Cyclops," of " the 
 blind beggar." He met that treatment with a 
 superior insolence, and for fifteen years more held 
 the reins of government, growing in strength, 
 and giving the Empress favourites or insisting 
 on their dismissal. Every occupant of the posi- 
 tion who followed him was his subordinate. 
 Only Zubof could defy him ; and Catherine was 
 senile then, and Patiomkin away from her. 
 
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 The Death of Patiomkin 
 
 The total result of his administration to 
 Russia was considerable. He spent his country's 
 money, wasted enormous sums, largely on his own 
 luxury and display. But he added the Crimea 
 and the Caucasus to Russia, and freed her from 
 the dangers of Turkish neighbourhood in the 
 south. He also insured a future to the new 
 possessions, and a population. He commenced 
 the Russianisation of the Black Sea, and built 
 the first fleet there. He reorganised the Russian 
 army, which stood far higher in Europe after 
 his supremacy at the War Office than before, 
 and initiated the formation of the Cossacks into 
 regiments. The tendency has been far too 
 much to look on Patiomkin as the pupil and 
 Catherine as the teacher. No doubt this was 
 the position as she conceived it, and she could 
 write to Grimm just after his death of "my 
 pupil, my friend, my all but idol — Prince 
 Patiomkin of the Taurida." Segur, too, calls 
 him " a creature " of Catherine, who had " fore- 
 told his greatness, clung to her prediction, and 
 would effect the accomplishment of it, right 
 or wrong." But there is little to prove that 
 Catherine was master rather than Patiomkin. 
 She may, indeed, have dreamt of a Christian 
 empire established at Constantinople, but 
 
 253
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 Patiomkin presented to her eyes the fact of 
 the Crimea wrested from Turkey, with the 
 sign : " This is the road to Byzantium," facing 
 her at Kherson. It is possible that she had to 
 encourage him when in a fit of despair over 
 the second war with Turkey ; but it is certain 
 that her secretary wrote to him in 1788, urging 
 him to return to St Petersburg, as the Empress 
 was dejected, subject to constant terrors, and 
 vacillating from need of support. Terror, too, 
 is said to have been one of her feelings when 
 she heard of Patiomkin's death. 
 
 In those later years, when she yet leaned on 
 him so anxiously for support, she did not love 
 him, and had not done so, in the way she loved 
 her favourites, for twelve years and more. 
 Their mutual regard at all times is difficult to 
 measure. Masson seems right in saying that 
 Patiomkin was really and romantically smitten 
 at the beginning, but wrong in saying that he 
 was the first who dared to make advances to 
 her ; Gregory Orlof did that also. The early 
 ardour of his affection may have cooled in 1776, 
 as is represented by some, sufficiently to allow 
 him to wish to leave the favourite's rooms at 
 the Palace, while retaining the admiration and 
 trust of the Empress's mind. If not, and if 
 
 254
 
 The Death of Patiomkin 
 
 Catherine was the first to tire, Patiomkin 
 is the more remarkable in that his political 
 power hardly suffered a day's eclipse. The two 
 characters must, indeed, have been made for 
 each other, as their contemporaries declared, 
 for their romance did not really begin until 
 their love had ended. Catherine retained the 
 lovers' terms in addressing Patiomkin long after 
 they had ceased to be lovers ; as to whether 
 Patiomkin did the same we have no evidence. 
 Perhaps it may be said that Catherine and 
 Patiomkin always remained lovers with the head 
 to the day of his death. Patiomkin was wise. 
 The love of Catherine's heart was a possession 
 of doubtful value ; that of her head was the 
 warrant of success. 
 
 Patiomkin, as could but be the case, had a 
 profound belief in himself and in his fortune. 
 " Am I not a spoilt child of God ? " he asked 
 the Comte de S^gur once after hearing of a 
 Russian victory. His confidence stood him in 
 good stead twice notably when his position 
 with Catherine was concerned. The one oc- 
 casion was when he unexpectedly appeared at 
 her card-table the night after Zavadofsky had 
 taken his place ; the other when he gave 
 Catherine the choice between himself and the 
 
 255
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 " white negro," Yermolof. It is true that he 
 failed to force her to marry him by his threat 
 of a monastery. But the menace then was un- 
 convincing. What folly would be the silence 
 of a cell for one whose name resounded through 
 Europe and Asia, she exclaimed when he re- 
 newed the threat later. 
 
 In his belief in himself we may look for the 
 secret of his conduct towards others. One 
 critic said of him that his fixed aim was to 
 humiliate every man and make love to every 
 woman. His insolence was calculated to humil- 
 iate, indeed. Segur's description of his con- 
 duct at Kief is a good example. He delighted 
 in treating as valets the greatest of his country- 
 men — he was not so discourteous to foreigners 
 — partly through jealousy in some cases, no 
 doubt, as in those of Marshal Rumianzof and 
 Count Stackelberg, the Governor of Russian 
 Poland. The Grand Duke was to him le petit 
 Paul. But to women he was quite different. 
 Even the Princess Dashkof could say that from 
 Prince Patiomkin she never failed to experience 
 great kindness and consideration. Probably he 
 did not go so far as to make love to her ; but 
 few others were spared by him — neither the 
 wives of his generals, nor his own relatives, the 
 
 256
 
 The Death of Patiomkin 
 
 Engelhardts. He was quite willing that Cathe- 
 rine should know all about his affairs ; they 
 confided, in fact, in turn. Patiomkin's pose 
 was distinctly sultanic. There is Langeron's 
 description of him seated, in the midst of the 
 glitter of gold and silver, on a pink and silver 
 divan decorated with flowers and ribbons, dressed 
 in an elegant neglige, and at his side the Prin- 
 cess Catherine Dolgoruky, his principal favourite ; 
 while about them were five or six most beauti- 
 ful women, before whom were burning golden 
 dishes containing perfumes. Tooke speaks of 
 him, too, sitting in the midst of twenty ladies, 
 like a sultan in a seraglio, speaking to none of 
 them save in monosyllables and at long in- 
 tervals : "he wanted nothing but the Turkish 
 pipe for being absolutely the figure we see in 
 pictures of the Grand Signior." 
 
 His temper varied between sullenness, which 
 Catherine had to endure like others, high spirits, 
 and violent rage, and he changed rapidly from 
 one state to another. There is a story of him 
 talking to his nephew gaily of his good fortune, 
 how he had all he wanted, and was overwhelmed 
 with favours. Then suddenly he seized up a 
 porcelain plate, dashed it down, and smashed it, 
 and rushed off to lock himself in his bedroom. 
 R 257
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 Of his violence the most notable example, per- 
 haps, is his treatment of Prince Volkonsky. 
 Patiomkin uttered some witticism, at which 
 Volkonsky clapped his hands. Patiomkin sud- 
 denly seized him by the collar, and struck him 
 several blows, saying : " What ! You applaud 
 me as if I were a buffoon ? ' Then he turned 
 to an Austrian general, who was present, and 
 said : " There, General, that is the way to treat 
 this sort of scoundrel." Prince Volkonsky had 
 his revenge, it was said ; he did not go to call 
 on Patiomkin for a whole week. 
 
 The Comte de Segur prophesied that posterity 
 would not bestow on Patiomkin the title of a 
 great man but would call him an extraordinary 
 person. Perhaps he deserves the title of great 
 man as much as many to whom it has been 
 awarded. He was " colossal, like Russia," ad- 
 mits Segur. There was much of what is still 
 considered Russian in his diplomacy, as when 
 in 1785 he assured the French Government 
 that all who knew him would be aware that 
 he cherished no such chimerical ideas as the 
 destruction of Turkey and the establishment of 
 Paul's younger son, Constantine, on a Byzantine 
 throne. Such ideas had, undoubtedly, been his 
 and Catherine's for years. The vastness of the 
 
 2.58
 
 The Death of Patiomkin 
 
 scheme appealed to him, as did the thought of 
 conquering China. It is averred that prepara- 
 tions were actually made by him to seize control 
 of the Amur River at Nertshinsk ; but the lack 
 of timber stopped him. Patiomkin was firmly 
 of opinion that ten thousand Russians could 
 march through China. If we were to judge 
 only by the magnitude and long-sightedness of 
 his ideas we should have to admit Patiomkin a 
 great man without qualification. But his defects 
 were, in their turn, too great ; yet without 
 them he might never have ruled Catherine or 
 Russia. He was made by chance, Segur de- 
 clares, precisely such as he ought to be for 
 preserving his power over so extraordinary a 
 woman. 
 
 It is strange, but it was no doubt due to 
 the ungenerous influence of Zubof, that it was 
 in a mausoleum built by the Princess Branitsky, 
 not by Catherine, that the remains of Patiom- 
 kin were placed. This was in the church of 
 Kherson. Paul, on his accession, broke open 
 the tomb, and scattered the ashes, so that no 
 grave now marks the last resting-place of Pati- 
 omkin. 1 The little Paul was avenged. 
 
 1 Tooke gives the following list of Prince Patiomkin's 
 titles : — " Knight of the principal orders of Prussia, Sweden, 
 
 259
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 Poland, and of all the Russian orders ; field-marshal, com- 
 mander-in-chief of all the armies of Russia ; chief general of 
 the cavalry ; grand admiral of the fleets of Euxine, the Sea 
 of Azof, and the Caspian ; senator and president of the 
 college of war ; governor - general of Ekatarinoslaf and 
 Taurida ; adjutant - general and actual chamberlain to the 
 Empress ; inspector-general of the armies ; colonel of the 
 Probajensky Guards ; chief of the corps of Horse Guards ; 
 colonel of the cuirassiers of his name, of the St Petersburg 
 Dragoons, and of the Ekatarinoslaf Grenadiers ; chief of all 
 the manufactories of arms and the foundries of cannon ; 
 grand hetman of the Cossacks, etc." 
 
 260
 
 THE LAST 
 YEARS
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE LAST YEARS 
 
 It was not thought by those who surrounded 
 Catherine that, when she put the young Guards- 
 man Zubof in the place from which the unfaith- 
 ful Mamonof had retired, she had settled down 
 to an affection which would endure for the rest 
 of her life. Plato Zubof was generally looked 
 on as a mere child. Indeed, the word " child " 
 was applied to him by most of those who 
 wrote of him at the beginning of his term as 
 favourite. Catherine herself regarded him as 
 such, but claimed credit for her foresight in 
 training up such young men for the service of 
 Russia. She so defended herself against the 
 criticisms of Nicholas Saltikof when he remon- 
 strated with her about Lanskoi and Zubof, both 
 of them but twenty-two years old when brought 
 to the Palace. She made earnest endeavours to 
 establish the truth of her judgment of Zubof's 
 character, taking pains with his education, and 
 interesting him as much as she could in the 
 
 263
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 affairs of State. Unfortunately for his country, 
 he was no more competent than most of his 
 immediate predecessors, while his disposition 
 was far more mischievous. At first the 
 favourite, who was of graceful figure, dark, of 
 slight build and medium height, seemed to 
 display considerable amiability, and inspired no 
 fears except in the mind of Patiomkin. But, as 
 honours were heaped on him by the lavish hand 
 of Catherine, his real nature came out. He 
 showed himself greedy for all he could get. 
 Money and offices alike he sought both for 
 himself and for his relatives. His pride, too, 
 became intolerable. Masson, whose observa- 
 tions on the end of Catherine's reign we may 
 accept with somewhat modified suspicion, and 
 who saw Zubof also under the rule of Paul, 
 remarks that there was nothing to equal the 
 haughtiness of Zubof except the servility of 
 those who strove to prostrate themselves before 
 him ; and it must be acknowledged, he adds, 
 that the abasement of the Russian courtiers 
 always surpassed the insolence of Catherine's 
 favourites. The highest in the land thronged 
 Zubof's ante-chamber, which was more crowded 
 than Catherine's own ; while within, in his own 
 room, would lie the favourite, stretched on a 
 
 264
 
 The Last Years 
 
 sofa, talking to a fool kept for his amusement, 
 or playing with a pet monkey, which had a 
 great liking for bald foreheads, and would spring 
 at the scanty locks of outraged but unprotesting 
 old courtiers and generals. Of the Grand Duke 
 Paul, Zubof was particularly disdainful. Once, 
 when Paul ventured to express his approval of 
 one of Zubof's ideas, the favourite, almost in 
 the words of Phocion when applauded by an 
 Athenian audience, turned in astonishment and 
 remarked : " Have I said anything wrong ? " 
 The Grand Duke was, however, an easy butt in 
 Catherine's Court. 
 
 Zubofs defiance of Patiomkin was more re- 
 markable ; and, had Catherine been less old and 
 Patiomkin less absent from St Petersburg, could 
 hardly have had any result but the younger man's 
 fall. Zubof had the insight to recognise that 
 Patiomkin was a fatal obstacle to his own supre- 
 macy. He was not content to take the love 
 while Patiomkin had the power and the larger 
 share of the money. This might suffice for a 
 Lanskoi, but it could not satisfy a Zubof. He, 
 therefore, intrigued incessantly against Patiomkin, 
 and defeated the latter 's attempts to bring about 
 his dismissal. He was firmly established when 
 Patiomkin paid his last visit to St Petersburg. 
 
 265
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 Death intervened to give a complete victory to 
 Zubof, who was able thenceforth to pursue with- 
 out interruption his plans for making himself all 
 that either Orlof or Patiomkin had been. His 
 sheer incompetence in affairs did not hinder him 
 from interfering in all departments of State. 
 General Suvarof, father-in-law of his brother 
 Nicholas, could only admit of him that he was 
 "a good under - officer in the Guards." The 
 story was a commonplace at the time, that Plato 
 Zubof's direction to anyone who consulted him 
 on the conduct of business was: " Do as you have 
 been accustomed to do." The result, as may be 
 imagined, was that the offices for whose reform 
 Catherine won credit in her earlier days speedily 
 reverted to their old condition of disorder and 
 corruption. The favourite and his friends 
 were the Government. 1 Zubof s chief assist- 
 ant, and, indeed, his political guide, was 
 one Markof, who from being a peasant's 
 son had become first secretary to Prince 
 Galitzin, then Russian Minister at The Hague, 
 
 1 Writing of favouritism, with particular reference to this 
 period, Masson says that " whoever directly or indirectly 
 enjoyed the protection of a favourite exercised the most 
 undisguised tyranny, insulted his superiors, trampled on his 
 inferiors, and outraged justice, order, and the ukases with 
 impunity." 
 
 266
 
 The Last Years 
 
 and finally reached the department of Foreign 
 Affairs. 
 
 There was not wanting, of course, a party of 
 opposition to the Zubof influence. Bezborodko, 
 the Voronzofs, and Count Osterman were its 
 leaders, and they attempted to make use of the 
 Grand Duke's name. But Paul was unwilling 
 to be a figurehead, and Bezborodko, the ablest 
 of the lot, who had added to his fame by con- 
 cluding the peace with Turkey in 1792, was 
 shut out by his foes. Catherine no longer used 
 her former wise restraint, which had kept the 
 peace between Orlof and Panin, Patiomkin and 
 Panin, and even Patiomkin and Orlof. She had 
 not seldom been infatuated before, but not until 
 her last years did she allow infatuation for one 
 to cause her to be unjust to the merits of others. 
 Even Segur finds it impossible to defend her to 
 whom he is so loyal against the censures which 
 she called down on herself by her conduct now. 
 He can only write : " One would fain pass over 
 in silence these continued proofs of weakness, 
 prolonged even to a period when age left no 
 excuse for them ; but such is the fate of 
 sovereigns, that they have no private life. Their 
 friendships and their sentiments too frequently 
 exercise an influence over politics to escape 
 
 267
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 public attention. It would not be too much 
 to say that each day of their existence is a page 
 in their history." 
 
 Still less creditable to Catherine or to the 
 Zubofs was the fact of her affection for Plato's 
 younger brother, Valerian. It seems impossible 
 to refute the statement of contemporaries that 
 Valerian, who had distinguished himself in 
 Poland in 1792, and was permanently lamed 
 in an outpost affair, for a time shared the 
 honours of favouritism with Plato. Both 
 brothers were large participators in the spoils 
 of Poland after its third and final partition, 
 and in the last year of her reign Catherine 
 appointed the younger general in the war 
 against Persia. Nicholas and a fourth brother, 
 Alexander, benefited by the elevation of the 
 family, and a sister was a person of some 
 influence at Court. Catherine's various favour- 
 ites and their families made a considerable 
 addition to the aristocracy of Russia, but in 
 many cases (as in that of Plato Zubof, for 
 instance, who died childless at fifty-one, after 
 being married for one year) the addition was 
 not permanent. 
 
 The effect of the Zubof ascendancy on 
 Russia's external policy was not so marked or 
 
 268
 
 The Last Years 
 
 so disastrous as the effect on domestic affairs. 
 The negotiations with Turkey, which Patiom- 
 kin had left unfinished, were carried through 
 by Bezborodko in 1792. In the same year 
 Russia accepted the invitation of the mal- 
 content nobles to interfere in Poland and 
 upset a new Constitution which had been drawn 
 up by the Diet and agreed to by Catherine's 
 old lover Stanislas. The immediate result was 
 the second partition of Poland, Russia taking 
 Lithuania, Podolia, and Volhynia. But worse 
 was still to come for Poland, for a revolt of 
 what patriots there were in the country, under 
 the celebrated Kosciusko, led to the final 
 extinction of the nation, Russia taking over 
 more territory, including the semi-independent 
 Courland. Catherine gave the praise for these 
 territorial gains to the Zubofs, but they had 
 only stepped in to reap what others had sown. 
 Catherine's desertion of the French alliance 
 was to be expected after the French Revolution 
 had alienated her feelings. That she actually 
 agreed to join the coalition against France 
 is attributed to the Zubof influence. Zubofs 
 married sister was on the best of terms with 
 the English Minister at St Petersburg, according 
 to Tooke. The Empress, however, was deeply 
 
 269
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 moved, without any impulsion from others. 
 She had banished from her room the bust of 
 Voltaire, her idol for so long. She had cast 
 off Diderot. Segur lost her esteem for acqui- 
 escing in the overthrow of Louis XVI. Her 
 detestation of what had occurred made her a 
 remarkable reactionary after the progressive 
 sympathies which she had manifested at the 
 beginning of her reign. 
 
 In her devotion to Zubof — Platonic love her 
 courtiers called it, in allusion to the favourite's 
 name — and her concern at the threat against 
 the power of kings Catherine did not forget 
 the interests of her grandchildren. From her 
 conduct to the unfortunate Paul a total lack 
 of maternal feeling might be argued in her. 
 Yet towards his children she showed great 
 tenderness — and not only in her old age. The 
 little Alexander was not much over two years 
 old when his grandmother instituted the practice 
 of having him brought to her at half-past ten 
 every day to spend his morning in her rooms. 
 She taught him his alphabet, invented clothes 
 for him, wrote to her correspondents about his 
 sayings and doings like the fondest of mothers, 
 and composed for him and Constantine a whole 
 series of stories from Russian history. For 
 
 270
 
 The Last Years 
 
 Constantine at first she manifested less affection, 
 being, apparently, annoyed at his early delicacy ; 
 but as his health improved, and the Greek pro- 
 ject became clearer in her mind, she grew 
 devoted to him also. He had originally been 
 christened by the name which he bore with a 
 view to the possibility of his reigning one day 
 as the head of a re-established Christian empire 
 at Constantinople ; his nurses were Greeks, and 
 he was dressed in the Greek style of the period. 
 She constantly wrote to both of the children 
 when she was absent from St Petersburg, and 
 was greatly disappointed not to be able to take 
 them with her on the Crimean journey. She 
 behaved to them as if they were her own sons, 
 and alienated them gradually from their actual 
 parents. Her granddaughters, too, she treated 
 with constant affection, and similarly supplanted, 
 as far as possible, Paul and his wife in their 
 hearts. As the children became of marriage- 
 able age she set herself to secure suitable 
 alliances for them, ignoring any wishes of the 
 Grand Duke and Duchess. She managed to 
 see both the boys married ; her failure to do 
 the same for Alexandra is supposed to have 
 hastened her end. 
 
 It was in the year before her death that 
 
 271
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 Alexander's marriage with Louisa, the elder 
 of the two Baden- Durlach orphans, was carried 
 out. Catherine was very pleased, and showed 
 great fondness for the young bride, in whom she 
 discovered a strong likeness to herself when she 
 arrived in Russia. Her affection for Alexander 
 and his wife is suspected to have gone so far 
 that she contemplated their succession to her 
 in place of the despised Paul. But, like the 
 Empress Elizabeth before her, she died without 
 being able to express her wishes. Constantine, 
 who did not, as she had hoped, approve of the 
 younger Princess of Baden-Durlach (a child of 
 thirteen only in 1795), was married in 1796 to 
 the youngest of the three Saxe-Coburg prin- 
 cesses, brought, like so many others, from the 
 archipelago of princes, as Patiomkin had scorn- 
 fully termed Germany. Later in the same 
 year Gustavus IV., the seventeen-year-old King 
 of Sweden, came to St Petersburg to meet the 
 young Grand Duchess Alexandra, who was 
 fourteen. This union was ardently desired by 
 Catherine (chiefly, no doubt, from political 
 reasons, since Sweden had been shaking off* 
 the Russian influence), and she almost went 
 to war because Gustavus's uncle and guardian 
 had wished to espouse him to a Mecklenburg 
 
 272
 
 The Last Years 
 
 princess. The Swedish visit was the occasion 
 of great festivities at the Court, and Catherine 
 was so charmed with Gustavus that she declared 
 herself to be "almost in love with him herself." 
 When he would have kissed her hand, she would 
 not allow him, saying that she could not forget 
 that the Count of Haga (this was his incognito) 
 was a king. Gustavus's reply was that, if she 
 could not give him permission as an Empress, 
 she must at least do so as a lady for whom 
 he had so much respect and admiration. The 
 first meeting of Gustavus and Alexandra was 
 equally propitious, and all seemed well for the 
 desired marriage. 
 
 Unhappily, when the day of betrothal, the 
 21st of September, arrived, Gustavus was asked 
 to sign articles allowing his wife a private chapel 
 and her own priests. The whole Court was 
 assembled, Catherine being supported by Paul 
 and his Grand Duchess, by the young Alex- 
 andra dressed in bridal robes, and by the foreign 
 representatives and the nobility of Russia. 
 Gustavus was to appear at seven in the evening. 
 At six he was given the contract. As soon as 
 he saw the articles he refused to sign. In vain 
 Zubof and others urged him to yield. The 
 favourite went backward and forward from 
 s 273
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 Catherine to him. Finally, Gustavus fled to 
 his room, and locked himself in. Ten o'clock 
 arrived, and Catherine had to be told. She 
 rose from her seat, attempted to speak, but 
 could not find words. She seems to have had 
 a slight fit. She retired to the Tauric Palace, 
 which she had bought after Patiomkin's death, 
 and shut herself up nearly alone. Gustavus 
 and she had several interviews before he left 
 Russia, but he would offer no more than to 
 submit the question of his Queen's faith to the 
 Swedish Diet on his coming of age. After a 
 stay of six weeks he returned to Sweden, with- 
 out any agreement as to the future. 
 
 Catherine kept a strong control over herself 
 to prevent her chagrin and humiliation becoming 
 public, but she could not conceal her feelings 
 entirely. Her touch of apoplexy had been 
 ominous ; Masson remarks that the redness of 
 her complexion was much accentuated now. 
 The end came only six weeks later, and came 
 suddenly. On the evening of the 4th of 
 November (according to Masson, who is our 
 authority for the account which follows ; the 
 date is Russian style) Catherine was in un- 
 usually high spirits, having that day received 
 news by sea from Liibeck of the retreat across 
 
 274
 
 The Last Years 
 
 the Rhine of the French under Moreau. She 
 showed great amusement at the foolery of the 
 Grand Equerry, Narishkin, who, as usual, had 
 his pockets as full of trinkets as a cheap pedlar, 
 and drove bargains with her for them. She 
 joked with him on the terror which he always 
 had of death and, to touch him more, told him 
 of the decease of the King of Sardinia, which 
 she had just heard. Finally, she went off to 
 bed rather earlier than was her wont, saying, 
 frankly, that too much laughter had brought on 
 slight symptoms of colic. She rose as early as 
 usual on the morning of the 5th of November, 
 apparently in good humour, took her coffee, saw 
 the favourite and her secretary, and then retired 
 to her room again. After about half-an-hour, 
 either her waiting-women or her valet, not hear- 
 ing a sound, and growing anxious, went to see, 
 and found the Empress lying stretched on the 
 floor, with her feet against the door. Messengers 
 were sent at Giice to Zubof and to Dr Rogerson, 
 who on his arrival bled her twice. The Grand 
 Duke Paul was also sent for ; but he was at 
 Gatshina, and was unable to arrive until eight 
 in the evening. Catherine was still unconscious 
 then, nor did she utter a word before her death, 
 which took place at ten on the following night, 
 
 275
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 after thirty-seven hours' unconsciousness. Ac- 
 cording to some accounts she uttered one final 
 cry as she died ; but Tooke seems right when 
 he says that her good genius preserved her 
 from the pains of a lingering illness, and she 
 died fortunately, as she had lived. " His Sacred 
 Majesty Chance " favoured her for the last time. 
 Happily for Paul, remarks Masson, Catherine's 
 power of speech was gone for ever. He refers, 
 of course, to the suggestion that she intended 
 to disinherit Paul in favour of his son Alexander. 
 It is a curious thing that both this Masson, who 
 was attached to Alexander's suite by Catherine, 
 and his brother were exiled from Russia at the 
 very beginning of Paul's reign, nominally as 
 being of Jacobin sympathies, but probably, ac- 
 cording to writers of the period, because they 
 were supposed to be concerned in a scheme to 
 set Alexander on the throne. There is, indeed, 
 a tale of Paul finding in Catherine's desk a 
 will and a manifesto setting himself aside, 
 which he promptly burnt. Those who had 
 entertained the gravest fears of Paul's vengeance 
 on his accession, however, for the most part 
 found those fears groundless. Even the favourite 
 and his creatures, who had habitually insulted 
 the Grand Duke, were treated without bitter- 
 
 276
 
 The Last Years 
 
 ness. Plato Zubof had fled to his married 
 sister's home after Catherine's death, expecting 
 total ruin. Yet Paul presented him with a 
 house wherein to live, and insisted on coming, 
 with the new Empress, to take tea with him. 
 It is true that early next year he deprived 
 Zubof of his offices and estates and ordered 
 him to travel, but he took no further steps 
 against him. Alexis Orlof and others con- 
 nected with the 1762 Revolution were similarly 
 leniently dealt with, with the exception that 
 Orlof and Baratinsky, at the funeral of Peter's 
 exhumed body, were submitted to the ordeal 
 of which we have already spoken. 
 
 Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the re- 
 gret for Catherine was very general. This was 
 true in spite of the fact that the Catherine of 
 the last few years of her reign was considerably 
 changed for the worse from the Empress who, 
 with all her indifference to morals, had done 
 so much to raise Russia, and the reputation of 
 the Russian Court, in European esteem. Her 
 people had the memory of a reign of thirty- 
 four years, which, though not free from war, 
 was marked by a great advance in peace and 
 prosperity on previous reigns, and by no worse 
 upheaval than the revolt of Pugatshef, which 
 
 277
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 was not a general movement. The Court of 
 St Petersburg, and particularly that inner circle 
 to which she admitted what was best in her 
 Court, had lost one who presided over it with 
 justice, amiability, and wit. Her grandchildren's 
 affection for her has already been mentioned. 
 That of the Palace servants was almost as 
 personal and as strong. Even Plato Zubof's 
 grief is admitted to have been sincere. He 
 lamented Catherine like a mother, says Masson, 
 and it is only now that he appears interesting. 1 
 Alone of those connected with her, the Em- 
 peror Paul, her son and successor, can have 
 felt little regret at her decease. This Prince 
 was forty-two years of age when he came to 
 the throne, and all those years had been spent 
 in galling dependence on his mother. He was 
 accorded neither the privileges of a son nor, 
 after his marriage, the rights of a father with 
 regard to his own children. Neglected, ignored, 
 and humiliated, he lived a life almost apart. 
 M. Rambaud sees in him a touch of Hamlet. 
 But he had little of the spirit of the Prince of 
 
 1 The same writer describes his disappearance as like that 
 of " the ephemeron, produced by the sun, fluttering in its 
 beams, but not surviving the breeze." Zubof, it must be 
 confessed, had proved a pernicious ephemeron in his day. 
 
 278
 
 The Last Years 
 
 Denmark. His acquiescence in his treatment 
 is as mysterious as his actions after ascending 
 the throne. He had many resemblances to his 
 father, none that can be traced to his mother ; 
 yet his paternity had been questioned. For 
 his mother's dislike of him we must fall back 
 on the explanation that it was because she 
 knew him to be Peter's son. The memory of 
 what she, as well as Peter, had suffered under 
 the Empress Elizabeth might have been ex- 
 pected to soften her a little, and to make her 
 loth to apply similar treatment to Paul. But 
 this thought never appeared to weigh with 
 her at all. Undoubtedly this conduct towards 
 her son is the greatest blot on her domestic 
 character, otherwise marked by no defect of 
 affection. There is no need, however, to ac- 
 cept Wraxall's statement that, " during the first 
 ten or fifteen years of the reign of Catherine, 
 it was commonly believed that the Grand Duke 
 Paul would sooner or later disappear as Peter 
 the Third did in 1762 and as the unfortunate 
 Emperor Ivan did in 1764." Wraxall himself 
 considered the belief unwarranted ; his story 
 of its existence appears to us unwarranted also, 
 for there is no corroboration to be found. 
 
 279
 
 CATHERINE 
 THE GREAT
 
 Si vii E in (\l n EltINK 
 
 In front of the St. Petersburg Theatn
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 CATHERINE THE GREAT 
 
 As no attempt is made in this book to give a 
 complete account of Catherine's life and reign, 
 it would be inappropriate to conclude with an 
 elaborate study of her character in its general 
 aspects ; and such a study is all the more un- 
 necessary in that, within the last dozen years, 
 M. Waliszewski has treated the subject so 
 exhaustively in his two works on this Empress. 
 But we may, perhaps, look briefly here at the 
 claims of Catherine to her title of " The Great " 
 and at her principal characteristics, as illustrated 
 particularly in the relations in which we have 
 been considering her — that is, in her relations 
 with the men with whom she associated herself 
 most closely. 
 
 In the first place, it must be recognised by 
 all who have devoted any attention to her life 
 that Catherine was a woman of immense per- 
 sonal charm — a charm, not dependent on her 
 appearance, which she could exercise even over 
 those who seldom or never saw her. She could 
 
 283
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 exercise it powerfully in her correspondence 
 with men of genius or great talent — such as 
 Voltaire, Diderot, Zimmermann, or Grimm. 
 Stronger still was this power over those with 
 whom she came into actual contact — not her 
 lovers only, nor necessarily men. Examples 
 repeatedly mentioned in this book of those 
 who fell at once and always remained under 
 this influence are the Comte de Segur, the 
 Prince de Ligne, and the Princess JDashkof. 
 The Austrian Prince says, in one of his letters 
 describing the Crimean journey, that it was the 
 confiding and fascinating simplicity of Catherine 
 which captivated him, and her genius which 
 made him follow her. The Princess Dashkof, 
 whom, perhaps, Catherine treated none too well, 
 was described by Mrs Bradford as still actuated, 
 at sixty, by almost unbounded love and admira- 
 tion for the Empress. Segur's estimate of 
 Catherine, though high, is discriminating, and 
 it is worth while to quote it more fully. 
 " Catherine's genius," he writes " was vast, and 
 her mind acute. One saw in her a surprising 
 mixture of qualities which are rarely united. 
 Too fond of pleasure, and yet assiduous in 
 business, she was unaffected in private life, 
 dissimulating in politics ; her ambition knew 
 
 284
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 no bounds, but she directed it with prudence. 
 Constant not in her passions but in her friend- 
 ships, she had adopted fixed principles in her 
 policy and administration ; never did she 
 abandon a friend or a project. Dignified in 
 public, kind and even familiar in society, her 
 gravity was mixed with cheerfulness, her gaiety 
 with decorum. With an elevated mind she 
 only displayed a moderate amount of imagina- 
 tion. Even her conversation seemed by no 
 means brilliant, except in the rare case of her 
 indulging in the discussion of politics or history : 
 her character would then give dignity to her 
 words. She was, in fact, striking as a sovereign 
 and amiable as a private individual." 
 
 We may endorse what M. Jauffert says in 
 his "Catherine et Son Regne," that all who 
 approached her were carried away by the charms 
 of her wit and the grace of her manners ; but 
 the attachment which she inspired in those 
 whom she honoured with her confidence or 
 her friendship partook of the nature of a cult. 
 The simplicity which was hers was carried 
 throughout her daily life. After she came to 
 the throne she made no changes. She still rose 
 at six in the morning, lit her own fire, and set 
 to work with her secretaries. Her table was 
 
 285
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 plain, and she observed the strictest sobriety. 
 Such simplicity, which is noted by all, went 
 naturally with the amiability which was also 
 the subject of general remark, and with that 
 accessibility which so struck, for instance, 
 Casanova. It was such qualities which kept 
 her servants so devoted to her. In the " Table 
 Talk of Samuel Rogers " there is an anecdote 
 told by Lord St Helens, whom, under the name 
 of Alleyne Fitzherbert, we have seen as English 
 Minister at the Court of Catherine. Catherine 
 frequently gave small whist parties, he says, at 
 which she sometimes played herself and some- 
 times not. One night, when she was not 
 playing, but was walking about from table to 
 table, watching the different hands, she wished 
 to summon the page-in-waiting from the ante- 
 chamber, and rang the bell. No one appeared ; 
 and after she had rung twice again without 
 effect she left the room, looking daggers, and 
 did not reappear for a considerable time. The 
 company supposed that the unfortunate page 
 was destined to Siberia or at least the knout. 
 As a matter of fact, Catherine on entering the 
 ante-chamber found the page, like his betters, 
 busy at whist. When the bell rang he 
 happened to have so interesting a hand that 
 
 286
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 he could not make up his mind to quit it. 
 Now, what did the Empress do ? She de- 
 spatched the page on her errand, and then 
 quietly sat down to hold his cards until he 
 should return. 
 
 This same simplicity of character, no doubt, 
 accounts also for the curiously undignified sense 
 of humour which Catherine possessed, which 
 attracted her to the buffoon Narishkin, and 
 made her indulge in cat-concerts like that 
 described by the Princess Dashkof, and see 
 such cause for merriment in Poniatowsky's 
 yellow wig or in the boudoir fitted up in her 
 bedroom at the end of 1758. The extent to 
 which she tolerated Narishkin's horse-play is, 
 perhaps, the most surprising example. It is 
 true that she did on one occasion remonstrate 
 to some effect. It was in the year 1758, and 
 Narishkin, after being temporarily alienated 
 from her by the Shuvalof influence, had just 
 been reconciled. Catherine entered her room 
 one day, and found him "impertinently lying 
 on a sofa, and singing a nonsensical song." She 
 went out, closed the door, and fetched his 
 sister-in-law, Anna Narishkin. The two ladies 
 then armed themselves with bunches of nettles, 
 and chastised him soundly on his arms, legs, 
 
 287
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 and face, with the result that he was laid up 
 for two or three days. All passed off as a 
 jest, Catherine says, and without anger, though 
 the lesson did Narishkin good. But Narishkin 
 remained practical joker to her Court to the 
 end of her days ; indeed, on the night before 
 the fit which carried her off, his antics, as has 
 been said, caused her to laugh so excessively that 
 she confessed to feeling ill after it. In her last 
 few years Masson describes all sorts of frolics 
 as being played in Catherine's " little society " 
 — the inner circle, that is, of her friends. " Old, 
 gouty courtiers were seen making whimsical 
 attempts to caper. One day the Grand Duke 
 Constantine actually broke the arm of the 
 now feeble Count Stackelberg by jostling him 
 roughly and knocking him over." The manners 
 of the little society did not improve as Catherine 
 grew older, it is clear. 
 
 With such a development of her humour it 
 is not surprising, in spite of Catherine's reputa- 
 tion for wit, to find even the Prince de Ligne 
 writing : " Her perceptions are not quick. One 
 must never be too subtle in jest, for she is 
 liable to suppose the reverse of what is meant. 
 What one says must be as simple as she is." 
 Yet she took correction well, as from the Prince 
 
 288
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 himself, when talking on the Crimean journey 
 of what she would have been were she a man 
 and a private person. " I know my fiery 
 character," she said. " I should have risked 
 all in the pursuit of glory, and should have got 
 my brains blown out as a sub-lieutenant on my 
 first campaign." " I think not, Madame," 
 retorted the Prince, "for I still live." Catherine 
 took some time to think, he says, and then 
 laughed softly to herself. She recognised that 
 she had no monopoly of courage ; nor was she 
 offended that this should be pointed out. 
 
 She was, indeed, neither quick to take offence 
 nor malicious. " Far from revenging herself 
 even for a real offence," says the Prince de 
 Ligne again, " she merely withdraws her famili- 
 arity, and it is difficult to obtain it anew." 
 She could not have given clearer instances of 
 the truth of this than in her treatment of 
 Korsakof and Mamonof ; while a striking proof 
 of her lack of malice may be seen in her attitude 
 towards Elizabeth Voronzof, whom she only 
 sent away from St Petersburg, and whose 
 daughter, after Elizabeth had married Admiral 
 Paliansky, she accepted as a maid-of-honour in 
 1785. This absence of resentment runs through- 
 out her character. Even when a French paper 
 T 289
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 went so far as to insult her with the title of 
 " the Messalina of the North " she merely ignored 
 it, though she was extremely bitter towards the 
 French over their conduct towards their own 
 sovereign. 
 
 But, of course, these amiable characteristics of 
 Catherine would not in themselves have inspired 
 great men with the idea of her greatness. 
 Napoleon would not have declared such a 
 Catherine worthy of a beard ; l nor would 
 Diderot have seen in her "the candlestick 
 bearing the light of the age." She was clever 
 as well as charming. She was well read, 
 particularly for a monarch, and she had an 
 assimilative mind. It may be said that her 
 " Instructions " were plagarisms rather than 
 adaptations ; but she really won for herself 
 very early in her reign the reputation of being 
 liberal-minded and an admirer of the philos- 
 ophers. We may be obliged to admit that she 
 wrote, in a way, for the gallery, as M. Rambaud 
 says in his Introduction to M. de Lariviere's 
 "Catherine II. et la Revolution Francaise " ; 
 but it must be remembered that she told Grimm 
 that her pancartes must not be published for 
 
 1 According to him she was une maitresse femme, digtie 
 d'avoir de la barbe an mcnton. 
 
 290
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 a hundred years after her death. We may have 
 to allow also that Segur was correct when he 
 said that Catherine and Frederick the Great both 
 loved to be intoxicated with the incense of celeb- 
 rity, and to obtain it were lavish of themselves 
 to Voltaire, Rousseau, Raynal, D'Alembert, 
 and Diderot. But both of them had the where- 
 withal to be lavish. 
 
 Catherine was undoubtedly clever as well as 
 charming. But were these two qualities enough 
 to win her the title of " The Great," bestowed 
 on her by Voltaire, and freely used during her 
 lifetime ? She probably would have been con- 
 tent to admit that a third factor contributed to 
 gain the name for her — namely, her luck. She 
 was lucky in her ministers Panin and Patiomkin, 
 especially the latter. It has been said already 
 that these two men have been generally under- 
 rated. Of Patiomkin, Segur points out that the 
 admiration which his conquests excited was for 
 Catherine, the hatred which they raised for her 
 minister ; and he thought that posterity, more 
 equitable, would, perhaps, divide between Cathe- 
 rine and Patiomkin the glory of the successes and 
 the severity of the reproaches. But posterity 
 has been very slow to do as Segur suggested, 
 and the minister has hardly yet had his due. 
 
 291
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 This is the more remarkable, since men of talent 
 were not prominent at Catherine's Court. 
 Masson, in a comparison between Catherine 
 and Louis XIV., says that while it was the 
 French nation that made the glory of Louis it 
 was Catherine who made that of the Russians ; 
 not, he adds, that Russia lacked men of merit, 
 but Catherine feared them. 1 Hence it follows, 
 in his opinion, that all Catherine's measures were 
 her own. The argument is somewhat shallow, 
 and the conclusion not entirely true. We must 
 not forget Catherine's remarks to Grimm about 
 her liking to be carried along by those more dis- 
 posed to action than herself, if only they con- 
 cealed their purpose, and about the leading of 
 Orlof. 
 
 What, then, are we to make of Catherine's 
 continual insistence on her " education " of her 
 favourites and on the theory that they are her 
 " pupils " ; and, above all, that Patiomkin is 
 her pupil ? Her view was widely accepted by 
 her contemporaries, and by subsequent writers. 
 Segur designates Patiomkin as her creature, as 
 we have already said. M. Waliszewski accepts 
 
 1 Masson complains that, if we except the Saltikofs, no 
 family of distinction was taken into Catherine's favour. Al- 
 most everyone in office or with credit at Court was the 
 favourite of fortune. There is a good deal in this reproach. 
 
 292
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 Patiomkin, with all his genius, as Catherine's 
 pupil, even if the best and most original. 
 Perhaps we may quote on the other side 
 M. Waliszewski's own statement, when con- 
 trasting the female favouritism of Louis XV. 
 with the favouritism of Catherine, that Louis 
 simply endured the influence of his mistresses 
 and their intervention in affairs, while Catherine 
 encouraged and demanded such conduct from 
 those whom she favoured. It is not from a 
 mere pupil that such intervention would be 
 asked. We may agree that, for the most part, 
 Catherine's favourites were her pupils — and very 
 bad pupils, too. With regard to Patiomkin, 
 however, it must not be forgotten that he ruled 
 nineteen years out of Catherine's thirty-four, and 
 that the five years which followed his death were 
 the least glorious of her reign. But Catherine 
 herself was never ungenerous to her associates. 
 It pleased her vanity that she should appear 
 the inspirer ; yet, in the words of the Prince de 
 Ligne, she was not afraid of seeming to be 
 governed. The Prince is enthusiastic over her 
 modesty about her achievements. " She justifies 
 her magnificence on the ground that by giving 
 money she obtains a large return. She justifies 
 the great number of offices she has created in the 
 
 293
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 provinces by declaring that in this way specie is 
 circulated, fortunes are increased, and the nobles 
 are made to stay on their estates instead of 
 Hocking to Moscow or St Petersburg. If she 
 has built in stone two hundred and thirty-seven 
 towns it is, she says, because villages built of 
 wood are always burning, and costing her a great 
 deal of money. If she has created a splendid 
 fleet in the Black Sea it is because Peter the 
 Great loved the navy. She has always some 
 such modest excuse for her great actions." 
 
 We are reminded of the humble judgment 
 Catherine passed upon herself near the end of 
 her life : " I have guided my little ship to the 
 best of my ability." Her guidance of that little 
 ship has by no means, of course, escaped some 
 severe criticisms. Her latest historian, M. 
 Waliszewski, says plainly that from the year 
 1762 down to the date of her death there was 
 but one corrupting influence in her Empire — 
 and that was Catherine herself. She used her 
 influence, he continues, for the good of the 
 Empire, as she conceived it ; but morality 
 suffered for it nevertheless, and the influence 
 on the Russian national genius was long and 
 disastrous. The chief charge brought against 
 her government at the time, however, was in- 
 
 294
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 constancy of plan. There was no general 
 agreement with Segur's remark that she never 
 abandoned either a friend or a project. On the 
 contrary, she was seen by others deserting her 
 code for the war against Turkey, her rules of 
 provincial government for Crimean expansion, 
 and so on, until Masson says that before her 
 death the monuments of her reign resembled so 
 many ruins. Nevertheless, Segur seems juster 
 than Masson. Catherine did not abandon her 
 projects any more than her friends. A new 
 project, like a new friend or favourite, might 
 drive the predecessor from the foremost place. 
 But this did not imply that the predecessor was 
 deserted altogether, though it did bring it to 
 pass that there were many schemes left in- 
 complete at the end of Catherine's reign. Had 
 this not been so, what dimensions would not the 
 list of her achievements have attained ? 
 
 Summing up these achievements in concrete 
 form, M. Jauffert says that while Peter the 
 Great made Russia, in spite of herself and in 
 spite of Europe, an European Power, Catherine 
 made Russia recognised as such ; or as Voltaire 
 expresses it : " Peter made the man, Catherine 
 breathed the divine fire into him." Catherine 
 found Russia a nation of twenty-three millions, 
 
 295
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 with little voice in the affairs of the Continent, 
 and left behind her a nation of nearly forty 
 millions, with a position on the Continent al- 
 most of arbiter — her own word, as we shall see. 
 The territorial gains to Russia in Catherine's 
 thirty -four years were considerably more than 
 three times the size of the British Islands. The 
 changes were only brought about by most skil- 
 ful diplomacy, for which we cannot withhold from 
 Catherine a large share of the credit. The pro- 
 cess was long and laborious, but it was crowned 
 by complete success. 
 
 When she came to the throne Catherine found 
 Russia lately bound to an unpopular alliance with 
 Prussia, due to the fervid admiration of Peter 
 III. for his " master," Frederick the Great. 
 Though Russia, in combination with Austria, 
 had in Elizabeth's last years humiliated Prussia 
 to the extent of making Frederick ready to pur- 
 chase peace at the cost of territorial cessions, 
 Peter had carried his esteem for his kinsman so 
 far as not only not to take advantage of the situa- 
 tion but even to throw his weight into the scale 
 against Austria. With Catherine's accession 
 this subordination of Russia to Prussia necessarily 
 ceased. The Russian troops did not actually 
 change sides ; in fact, they stood by and watched 
 
 296
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 while Frederick inflicted defeat on Marshal Daun. 
 The result was the end of the Seven Years' 
 War by the Peace of Hubertsburg. The situa- 
 tion was now open for a rearrangement of alli- 
 ances in Europe, and Russia's friendship was 
 in the market. Speaking of the state of affairs 
 at this period, old Marshal Munich, who had re- 
 fused to betray Peter, yet succeeded in retaining 
 Catherine's esteem, compared the Empress's con- 
 duct with that of a clever coquette, provoking 
 all but yielding to none. It was necessary, 
 however, to come to a decision. Austria was 
 not at the time a convenient ally, because her 
 interests and those of Russia seemed to clash 
 both in Poland and in Turkey; moreover, the 
 personal feelings of Maria Theresa towards 
 Catherine were not friendly. Nor was France, 
 the supporter of Turkey and of the parties in 
 Sweden and Poland which were hostile to 
 Russia, a likely ally. And between these two 
 Powers, France and Austria, there was a close 
 bond already in existence. Prussia, on the 
 other hand, was isolated, and Frederick, ex- 
 hausted by his wars, and no longer subsidised 
 by England, promised to be an accommodating 
 partner. Accordingly, in 1774 a defensive alli- 
 ance with Frederick was made. This seemed 
 
 297
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 a remarkable outcome of the first two years of 
 a reign which began with a denunciation of 
 Frederick as the worst enemy of Russia. But 
 the hand of Panin was plainly visible, as it 
 was throughout the foreign policy of the earlier 
 half of Catherine's reign. And it must be 
 recognised that the new convention was no 
 repetition of that which Peter III. had made 
 with Prussia, the meaning of which was ac- 
 curately summed up in Peter's use of the term 
 " our master " for Frederick. 
 
 Why should not Catherine have thought of 
 England, it may be asked ? Peter the Great, 
 for whose counsels she always declared the 
 utmost reverence, had advised friendship with 
 England, from whom Russia might best learn 
 how to become a naval power. Catherine did, 
 indeed, cultivate good terms with England, 
 with whom a commercial treaty was arranged 
 in 176G giving English traders most favourable 
 treatment. In return, the Russian navy re- 
 ceived great assistance from English officers, as 
 Alexis Orlof found to his own great profit in 
 the war against Turkey. The fleet which he 
 then took round from the Baltic to the iEgean 
 Sea, moreover, was enabled to touch at English 
 ports on the way. England at the time viewed 
 
 298
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 Russian naval growth without apprehension. It 
 was Catherine's accession to the Armed Neu- 
 trality in 1780 which first undeceived English 
 statesmen. 
 
 But an alliance with a Continental Power 
 was necessary to strengthen Russia's position, 
 and the advantages of the union with Prussia 
 very soon became obvious. The friendship of 
 England and Denmark, too, was secured there- 
 with, Russia entering into what is sometimes 
 called "the system of the north," which was 
 directed against the combination of France and 
 Austria. The first fruits of the new policy for 
 Russia were that Catherine was able to establish 
 a supremacy over Courland, a Polish dependency, 
 by setting on the vacant throne Biron, the 
 Tsarina Anna's former favourite, and after the 
 death of Augustus of Poland to carry through 
 the election of Stanislas Poniatowsky to the 
 Polish throne. The Czartorisky family had 
 now reaped the benefit of the intrigues of 
 Stanislas at St Petersburg ; how fatal this was 
 to prove to Poland they might be pardoned 
 for not seeing. France had supported the 
 Saxon candidature in Poland. This would by 
 no means have suited Frederick, who dreaded 
 the strengthening of either Poland or Saxony, 
 
 299
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 and Prussia was, therefore, well eontent to ac- 
 quiesce in Russian policy. 
 
 Thwarted in Poland, France was still able 
 to stir up Turkey, who declared war against 
 Russia after the violation of the frontier by 
 adherents of the Confederacy, opponents of the 
 new King of Poland, flying before the Russian 
 troops. Russia was, however, more than a 
 match for the Turks, who were not only de- 
 feated on land and driven finally out of the 
 Crimea, but also annihilated at sea by the 
 fleet which Admiral Orlof had brought from 
 the Baltic. Only the extent of Russia's suc- 
 cesses checked her career. Austria could not 
 remain still and watch Russia in occupation 
 of the Danubian provinces as well as of the 
 Crimean region and some of the iEgean islands. 
 Frederick warned his ally that he was not 
 prepared to take part in a war against a 
 Franco - Austrian combination. Negotiations 
 with Turkey began at Fokshani, but, thanks to 
 Gregory Orlof, were abortive. At Kutchuk 
 Kainardji, however, two years later, peace was 
 concluded, with considerable advantage to Russia, 
 as has been stated in a previous chapter. Nor 
 were Azof and Kinburn the only territorial gains 
 by Russia at this period. Frederick had sug- 
 
 300
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 gested that consolation for what Russia did 
 not wrest from Turkey should be sought from 
 Poland— Austria being admitted with Prussia in 
 a triple partition. Catherine, though the main- 
 tenance of an undespoiled Poland under the 
 domination of Russia would have been pre- 
 ferable, yielded to the suggestion ; and, taking 
 advantage of the constant anarchy in Poland, 
 the three Powers carried out the iniquitous 
 first partition of the country in 1772. Russia 
 obtained the largest share, but she had to be 
 witness of the conquest of people of Slav race 
 by foreigners. 
 
 In two directions Russia had already profited 
 greatly by the alliance with Prussia ; and it 
 was suspected that the two Powers were con- 
 templating treating Sweden as they had treated 
 Poland, when the vigorous assertion by Gustavus 
 III. of the privileges of King and people against 
 the oligarchical Diet upset their plans, and saved 
 Sweden. But a change was gradually coming 
 over Russian policy with the growth of Patiom- 
 kin's influence and the decline of Panin's. This 
 growth, as we have seen, was slow in affecting 
 foreign affairs. Catherine would not throw 
 over Count Panin to please Patiomkin. But 
 Panin himself declined in mental vigour as he 
 
 301
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 grew older, and Russia began to draw away 
 from Prussia as his grasp of affairs relaxed. The 
 system of the north was being abandoned in 
 favour of another system of diplomacy. The 
 first notable sign was the joint mediation of 
 France and Russia between the two parties in the 
 War of the Bavarian Succession. The Con- 
 gress of Teschen in 1779 reconciled Austria 
 and Prussia, but it also was the signal of the 
 coming substitution of Austria for Prussia in 
 Russia's friendship. 
 
 There was no open breach with Prussia. 
 With England, on the other hand, Catherine's 
 rupture was complete. The American War 
 was in progress, and her indignation was 
 aroused at the claims of the British Navy 
 with regard to neutral merchantmen. In 1780 
 Russia gave her adhesion to the Armed 
 Neutrality, the principles defended by which 
 it is of some interest to recall at the present 
 time. The main points were that neutral ships 
 should be allowed to navigate freely the coasts 
 of the belligerents, that non-contraband goods 
 of subjects of the belligerents should be safe in 
 neutral vessels, that " contraband " should in- 
 clude only arms and ammunition (whereas the 
 English Admiralty would apply the term even 
 
 302
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 to grain), and that only effective blockades 
 should be recognised. Catherine's sentiments 
 towards England changed considerably at this 
 time, and it was for this reason that Fitzherbert 
 later found it impossible to obtain a renewal 
 of the Anglo-Russian commercial treaty. It 
 was only when the French Revolution had 
 aroused her anger that she reconsidered her 
 views about the revolted American colonists 
 also and became more friendly to England 
 again. 
 
 The effect of the drawing together of Russia 
 and Austria at once became plain. It involved 
 better relations between Russia and France, 
 which to Catherine, the admirer of Voltaire 
 and of the liberal ideas of his friends, could 
 only be congenial. To Russia the advantage 
 soon appeared. Tired of the constant anarchy 
 in the Crimea and of the pretence of Crimean 
 independence, the Russians in 1783 annexed 
 both the Crimea and the Kuban region, lying 
 to the east. France refused to support the 
 protests of the Porte, which was obliged, there- 
 fore, to acquiesce in the accomplished fact. 
 But this did not satisfy Patiomkin or his 
 mistress, whose ideas about the ejection of the 
 Turks from Europe and the establishment of 
 
 303
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 an Orthodox Christian Empire at Constantinople 
 had now taken definite form. For the success 
 of this plan more than mere friendliness on 
 the part of Austria was required. We have 
 seen how the co-operation of the Emperor 
 Joseph was secured, and how the Turks ac- 
 cepted the inevitable, and commenced a war 
 in which their prospects seemed very poor at 
 the outset. We have also seen how the un- 
 expected intervention of Gustavus III. appeared 
 to threaten Russia with disaster, when all her 
 best troops were away on the Danube, but 
 was met by the courage of Catherine, backed 
 by the internal dissensions of the Swedes. 
 Gustavus agreed to the Peace of Verela in 
 1790, being anxious to lead a crusade against 
 Revolutionary France. This had Catherine's 
 approval, though not her active assistance. 
 Patiomkin was not to be distracted from his 
 struggle with Turkey. The Turks, deserted 
 by Sweden, were in hard straits. Their suc- 
 cesses against the Austrians in 1788 had 
 been followed by severe defeats from the 
 Russians, and from the Russians and Austrians 
 combined. The Danubian principalities were 
 in the Allies' hands ; Bender was captured by 
 Patiomkin and Ismail by Suvarof. The death 
 
 304
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 of Joseph proved a relief to Turkey, for his 
 successor concluded peace ; but the Russians 
 continued their successes, the mouth of the 
 Danube falling entirely into their hands. The 
 Turks were quite willing to sue for terms, 
 and after the death of Patiomkin there was 
 no obstacle to the Treaty of Jassy. That 
 Russia obtained no more than Otchakof, the 
 Black Sea coast between the Bug and the 
 Dniester, and certain guarantees with regard 
 to the principalities bordering on the Danube, 
 was partly due to exhaustion from the length 
 and expensive character of the war and partly 
 to fresh troubles in Poland. 
 
 The last days of that unhappy nation were 
 approaching. The reformed constitution intro- 
 duced by the Diet in 1791 gave offence to 
 Catherine, who saw in it an echo of the French 
 Revolution. Troops were sent from Russia to 
 help the party which rebelled against the new 
 constitution. Prussia, now under the rule of 
 Frederick William II., so far from objecting to 
 Russia's action, united with her for the second 
 partition of Poland, which was duly carried 
 out in 1793, Austria having no share in this. 
 Little was left to Stanislas when Russia had 
 taken Lithuania, Volhynia, and Podolia, and 
 u 305
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 Prussia, Dantzig and Thorn. Nor was that 
 little left to him more than two years longer, 
 though Russia had guaranteed the country's 
 independence. The rising of Kosciusko was 
 but a glorious failure. Freedom may have 
 shrieked when he fell, but the three Powers — 
 Austria being admitted to the partition again — 
 divided the remains of Poland without further 
 protest. 
 
 The foregoing brief sketch of Russia's foreign 
 conquests during the reign of Catherine has 
 seemed necessary to illustrate the nature of 
 her policy. It must be admitted that the 
 diplomacy displayed was very skilful. If we 
 look at the gains in territory alone we see that, 
 by the help of the Prussian alliance, Russia 
 secured from Turkey Azof and Kinburn, with 
 the independence of the Crimea and Kuban, 
 from Poland White Russia, and in Courland 
 a kind of suzerainty. Then, with the assistance 
 of Austrian friendship, bringing with it that of 
 France, she proceeded to annex the Crimea 
 and Kuban, to extend her frontier at Turkey's 
 expense to the Dniester, and to take over first 
 three provinces and then the remainder of 
 Russian Poland, together with Courland. 
 Frederick the Great had made it a point in 
 
 306
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 his policy to play off against each other Austria 
 and Russia ; Catherine and her ministers, with 
 greater success, played off Austria and Prussia. 
 Of course, it cannot definitely be said that 
 Catherine started out with the intention of so 
 using the two Powers against one another, 
 even though, with Marshal Munich, we credit 
 her at the beginning of her reign with the 
 "strategy of the clever coquette." It is too 
 much to imagine that Catherine had, at the 
 outset of her imperial career, already formed 
 the idea of squeezing a Prussian alliance dry 
 and then turning to Austria. This would be 
 to make her principal ministers mere tools in 
 her hands, and all the evidence which we can 
 find points to the falseness of such a view. 
 
 One would naturally imagine Catherine's 
 strongest sentiments at the time of her accession 
 to have been an admiration for France and a 
 politic, but not personal, dislike of Peter's idol 
 and the Russian bugbear, Frederick of Prussia. 
 A French alliance was not of practical use to 
 Russia, even if possible, at the moment. There 
 were reasons, as has been said, against an 
 Austrian alliance. The Prussian alliance, how- 
 ever, in spite of the unpopularity of Peter's 
 devotion to Frederick, offered Russia what she 
 
 307
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 required at the moment. It found a convinced 
 supporter in the man whom Catherine had 
 chosen to direct her foreign affairs. It was 
 amply justified in a very short time, and it is to 
 be noted that it now caused no complaints 
 among the Russians, who during the few 
 months of Peter's reign had denounced it 
 vehemently. When Patiomkin arose and cap- 
 tivated Catherine's imagination with his de- 
 velopment of schemes, which she already dreamt 
 of, concerning a new Christian empire in the 
 East, the advantages of Prussian friendship had 
 mostly been gained, and as Panin gradually 
 failed the gigantic, romantic, and barbaric 
 Patiomkin ! found Catherine a willing convert 
 to his ambitious plans. The Austrian alliance 
 came about naturally. It did not involve 
 hostility to Prussia, and towards the end of her 
 reign Catherine was consciously and deliberately 
 playing with both Powers in a way that she did 
 not venture on earlier in her reign. The remark 
 which she made to her Vice-Chancellor, Oster- 
 mann, in 1791 is a proof of this. " Am I wrong ? " 
 she asked him. " For reasons which I cannot 
 give to the Courts of Berlin and Vienna, I wish 
 
 1 // 1/ a (lit gigantesque, du romanesque et barbaresque dans ce 
 caracterc-la. (The Prince de Eigne on Patiomkin.) 
 
 308
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 to involve them in these affairs, so that I may 
 have elbow-room. Many of my enterprises are 
 still unfinished, and they must be occupied so 
 as to leave me unfettered." "These affairs" 
 were the affairs of France, against whose Re- 
 publican Government Catherine wrote and spoke 
 so bitterly, without taking, however, more 
 active steps herself than the excitement of other 
 nations against France. It does not follow 
 that she was insincere in her denunciation of 
 the French Republic ; merely she did not think 
 it Russia's duty to interfere actively in the 
 West — that duty, according to her, directed her 
 farther east and south. 
 
 Soon after Catherine had ascended the throne 
 she wrote to the Russian representative at 
 Warsaw a letter in which these words occur : 
 " My aim is to be joined in the bonds of friend- 
 ship with all the Powers in armed alliance, so 
 that I may always be able to range myself on 
 the side of the oppressed, and in this way may 
 become the arbiter of Europe." Catherine is 
 not always found conspicuous on the side of the 
 oppressed ; Poland is witness against her, and 
 Count Simon Voronzof's excuse, that she was 
 led away by Prussia first, will not absolve her. 
 But that she attained, to a large extent, the 
 
 809
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 coveted position of arbiter of Europe cannot be 
 denied. This monument of her reign — a monu- 
 ment which she planned from the beginning — 
 was not left a ruin at least ; that it became one 
 afterwards was due to circumstances to which 
 no acts of Catherine conduced. 
 
 Though we make all necessary deductions on 
 the ground of the influence of her two leading 
 ministers, the first of whom cultivated the 
 friendship of Prussia and the second that of 
 Austria, and all deductions also for the assistance 
 of " His Sacred Majesty Chance," we can but 
 recognise still abundant justification for the title 
 so freely bestowed in her lifetime of Catherine 
 the Great. In her internal policy, it is true, 
 she failed to carry out the ideas of her early 
 reign to the same extent as in her foreign 
 policy. Her readiness to relegate one scheme 
 to an inferior place, to devote herself to another 
 and a newer, militated against the success of 
 many of her schemes, and caused many to be 
 left incomplete. And the baneful influence of 
 the Zubof ascendency in her old age undid not 
 a little of the reforming work which had been 
 accomplished earlier. Yet her reign of thirty- 
 four years was for Russia happier and com- 
 paratively more peaceful than those of her 
 
 310
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 predecessors, and she left the country not only 
 larger but better inhabited ' and better governed. 
 Yet it is safe to say that, without the fascination 
 of her personality, the fact that Catherine de- 
 served so well of her country would not have 
 won her the name of The Great. 
 
 1 Both Catherine and Patiomkin were eager for the colonisa- 
 tion of South Russia, and the newly-conquered lands in 
 particular. In this way alone could the dangers of the 
 wild Tartar tribes be stopped. The Volga and the Ukraine 
 were largely peopled by German immigrants, and Patiomkin 
 similarly did all he could to attract foreign settlers to his 
 Tauric government. Of Catherine's two hundred to two 
 hundred and fifty new towns a large proportion of the in- 
 habitants were foreigners. 
 
 311
 
 CATHERINE 
 THE GREAT
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 CATHERINE THE GREAT (continued) 
 
 With the subject of favouritism in Catherine's 
 reign we have already dealt very briefly earlier 
 in this book. We may consider it now a little 
 more fully. It seems sometimes to be thought 
 almost a sufficient explanation of Catherine's 
 character to quote Pope's lines : 
 
 "In men, we various ruling passions find ; 
 In women, two almost divide the kind ; 
 Those, only fixed, they first or last obey, 
 The love of pleasure and the love of sway." 
 
 Masson makes a remark of very similar import 
 on Catherine, that " she had two passions which 
 only died with her : her love for man, which 
 degenerated into libertinage, and her love of 
 glory, which degenerated into vanity." Some 
 find it hard to make Catherine's behaviour with 
 regard to favourites harmonise with her general 
 character. M. Waliszewski, after stating that 
 her shameless sensuality seems an isolated 
 phenomenon, unconnected with the rest of her 
 temperament, proceeds to say that this is so, 
 
 315
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 perhaps, only in appearance, and that there may 
 be a connection between this sensuality and the 
 intellectual culture of one who loved to call 
 herself a pupil of Voltaire. He sees a certain 
 lofty cynicism, not to be explained merely on 
 the ground of a physiological anomaly. 
 
 There is in Catherine's attitude towards the 
 institution of favouritism a constant intention 
 to treat it as a matter of fact. In her writings 
 she neither particularly defends nor yet blames 
 herself. We have said before that she seems 
 from the beginning to have been non-moral in 
 her point of view on the question. Her judg- 
 ment, or rather absence of judgment, on herself 
 in her Memoirs, though these were written at 
 a distance from the events which they described, 
 is in strict keeping with her actions therein 
 portrayed. This consistency of mental attitude 
 is not, of course, contradicted by a gradation 
 in conduct. As she advanced in life she cer- 
 tainly grew less restrained. We need not, 
 however, with M. Jauffert seek in Patiomkin 
 the corrupting influence. This writer, after 
 finding in Gregory Orlof a loyal character (!), 
 elevated spirit, and devoted affection, which 
 encouraged in Catherine a certain reserve, 
 makes Patiomkin responsible for her deteriora- 
 
 81 G
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 tion by intoxicating her with incense, surround- 
 ing her with lies, and, by his perverse genius, 
 malignity, and depravity, steeping her Court 
 in intrigues and coarse pleasures. Patiomkin 
 certainly exercised no moral restraint on 
 Catherine — no more, in fact, than Orlof. But 
 she was her own corrupter, and her conduct 
 grew worse by its own indulgence. She might 
 well have applied to herself that favourite 
 maxim of Casanova : Nemo hsditur nisi a seipso. 
 It must be noted that with Catherine's dis- 
 regard of the general ideas of propriety in her 
 system of favouritism there went a certain 
 severity on moral questions. No better example 
 of this can be found than in the story told by 
 Segur of what happened at Baktshi Serai during 
 the Crimean journey. The imperial party had 
 been paying a visit to the seraglio in the palace 
 of the former Khan of the Crimea. " It was 
 natural enough that the sight of those voluptu- 
 ous cabinets should awaken some ideas of 
 gallantry ; the Prince de Ligne's curiosity— he 
 was younger in feeling at fifty than I was at 
 thirty — led me into a folly which, fortunately, 
 was attended with less disagreeable consequences 
 than we might justly have anticipated, but 
 which drew on us a severe and well-merited 
 
 317
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 rebuke." The Prince de Ligne asked Segur 
 what pleasure there was in running through a 
 large garden without examining the flowers, 
 and the two agreed to make an attempt to see 
 at least one Tartar lady without her veil. They 
 started on a search, and very soon came across 
 three Tartar women, unveiled, washing their 
 feet in a stream. Stationing themselves behind 
 some trees they examined the unveiled faces. 
 " But, alas ! not one of them was either pretty, 
 young, or even passable. ' Egad,' exclaimed 
 the Prince de Ligne inconsiderately, ' Mahomet 
 was right in wishing them to hide themselves.' 
 The noise startled the women, who fled scream- 
 ing ; whereon a number of Tartar men appeared, 
 and began to stone them. A quick retreat was 
 the only resource. The next night at dinner 
 the gay Prince, finding the conversation dull, 
 thought fit to relate the escapade, Segur in vain 
 pinching him all the while. When he had 
 finished all laughed except Catherine, who, 
 with a stern and severe countenance, reproved 
 the ill-advised amusement and the bad example, 
 and stated that she wished the laws, religion, 
 manners, and prejudices of a people conquered 
 by her arms to be respected. " If anyone had 
 related this adventure to me without naming 
 
 318
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 the heroes," she added, "far from suspecting 
 that you were the actors, I should rather have 
 judged some of my pages the guilty persons, 
 and have punished them severely." The culprits 
 remained silent, and Catherine forgave them so 
 far that in a few days' time she allowed them 
 to conceal themselves while she was giving 
 audience to a Mussulman princess. This might 
 lead one to suspect that her indignation was 
 not so strong as it appeared. But it was a 
 well-known fact at her Court that no scandalous 
 or licentious talk, no attacks on morals or 
 religion, could find favour with the Empress. 
 Segur even annoyed her once by reciting some 
 verses which he confesses to have been a little 
 free, though they had been well received by 
 virtuous and amiable ladies in Paris. He 
 quotes, in this connection, a remark by his 
 brother on the contrast between the indulgence 
 permitted by virtuous women and the apparent 
 severity of those who are not so perfect : 
 "Where virtue reigns a show of nice decorum 
 is useless." 
 
 The behaviour of Catherine towards those 
 whom she elevated to the post of favourite has 
 been uniformly described as the most generous 
 possible. The way in which she heaped gifts 
 
 319
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 on the men of her choice from the moment of 
 their selection was an unfortunate weakness 
 from the point of view of Russia, which had to 
 provide the money. It has already been men- 
 tioned that Catherine assigned to her favourites 
 a more regular position than any of her pre- 
 decessors had given to theirs. In addition to 
 the expense of the fixed salary and the suite 
 of rooms in the Palace, the gifts of money, 
 jewelry, estates, etc., which she lavished on the 
 favourites cost Russia, according to Castera's 
 estimate, no less than ninety-two million eight 
 hundred and twenty thousand roubles. The 
 principal items were : Patiomkin, fifty million 
 roubles (of which nine millions fell to him in 
 his two years at the Palace) ; the Orlofs, seven- 
 teen millions ; Lanskoi, over seven millions ; 
 and the Zubofs, three millions and a half. This 
 expenditure of money did not represent all that 
 she did for the favourites. Titles and honours 
 were loaded on them, the most powerful re- 
 ceiving not merely Russian decorations but 
 also those of the Holy Roman Empire, bestowed 
 by the Emperor Joseph at Catherine's request. 
 Orlof, Patiomkin, and Plato Zubof were all 
 thus made princes by Joseph. The two latter 
 are described as being so covered with orders 
 
 320
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 that they looked like hawkers of trinkets and 
 ribbands at a fair. When she dismissed them, 
 even for offences like those of Korsakof and 
 Mamonof, she did so with fresh gifts, not with 
 any marks of anger. Segur is impelled by her 
 conduct after Mamonof's infidelity to write : 
 " When Catherine is drawn her weaknesses 
 are the shadows of the picture ; but at least 
 they leave the generosity of her character un- 
 darkened. Few women invested with absolute 
 power would have shown so much moderation 
 when they saw their sentiments betrayed and 
 their self-love wounded." Masson, considering 
 Catherine's generosity, is moved to remark how 
 far removed is her conduct from "that of an 
 Elizabeth of England, who cut off the heads 
 of her favourites and her rivals." Without 
 accepting this scandal about Queen Elizabeth 
 quite as Masson presents it, we must admit 
 that Catherine's behaviour was far better than 
 that of Elizabeth. Curiously enough, Sainte- 
 Beuve, also contrasting Catherine with Elizabeth 
 and with Christina of Sweden, holds that her 
 practice of heaping gifts on the discarded lover 
 rather than assassinating him really told against 
 her, since it showed openly how great was her 
 scorn of men and nations. Now, a measure of 
 x 321
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 cynicism with regard to public opinion cannot 
 be denied. But her changes in the post of 
 favourite do not appear to indicate a contempt 
 for the occupiers of the post ; her tendency lay 
 all in the opposite direction. In love, as in 
 affairs, however, she was always liable to be 
 diverted from one object to a newer, and the 
 former favourite, like the earlier plan, had to 
 sink to a secondary place. It cannot be pre- 
 tended that the parallel is exact, but there is 
 an intelligible similarity. 
 
 It was only natural that this changeableness, 
 which was yet hardly fickleness, should go with 
 the love of contrasts which has already been 
 remarked as shown in Catherine's choice of 
 favourites — the spirit which attracted her to an 
 Orlof after a Poniatowsky, a Zoritch after a 
 Zavadofsky, a Yermolof after a Lanskoi. What 
 was strange was that, in men of such very 
 different temperaments, tastes, and abilities, she 
 should have tried, with apparent success, to see 
 similar qualities of mind. Allusion has been 
 made to Catherine's enthusiasm with regard to 
 Orlof, Lanskoi. Mamonof, and Zubof. Now, 
 we have suggested that there may, indeed must, 
 have been in Orlof a reserve power which could 
 justify her in drawing for Grimm the picture 
 
 322
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 of the favourite instinctively leading and herself 
 following. Some such power, too, is necessary 
 to explain the long period of Orlof s supremacy, 
 only outdone by Patiomkin's nineteen years, 
 of which, however, only two were spent as 
 Palace favourite. But it is far more difficult 
 to explain how Catherine could be so blinded 
 by infatuation as to see great mental powers 
 in Lanskoi, Mamonof, Zubof, not to mention 
 any others of the favourites. Lanskoi was 
 found by those who met him amiable, refined, 
 and a virtuoso ; Mamonof was well bred and 
 fairly educated ; but no one except Catherine 
 discovered any marked talent in either of them. 
 Zubof was an even more striking case of 
 Catherine's lack of judgment. We have seen 
 what he was. Yet, on the testimony of one 
 of her courtiers, Rastopshin, she was constantly 
 telling everyone that Zubof was as great a 
 genius as Russia had seen. Such an estimate 
 of such a man is infinitely worse than seeing 
 in Gregory Orlof " a truly great man," and can 
 best be explained, perhaps, on the ground of 
 the impaired faculties and age of her who made 
 it. But the want of judgment runs throughout 
 her life, and it is only made the more glaring 
 because she lavished on Patiomkin, the one 
 
 323
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 outstanding personage among the favourites, 
 the same praises as on his feebler rivals. This 
 faulty power of judging and this lack of dis- 
 crimination in one whose mind is usually so 
 clear seem the penalty which Catherine paid 
 for her want of control over her heart. She 
 looked always at the romantic side of every 
 man — not only of her lovers but also of all 
 who served her, as M. Waliszewski points out 
 — and when her fancy was taken she busied 
 herself to invest the object with the qualities 
 which her brain told her would alone justify 
 her in conferring the honours which she was 
 wont to give. Russia naturally suffered for 
 Catherine's error ; that Russia did not suffer 
 more was due to the fact that at least one of 
 the idols was to some extent what Catherine 
 represented him to be. 
 
 Catherine had, indeed, cause to regret that 
 her sense of beauty, which led her mind so 
 astray, was not more under her control. She 
 made no secret of her infatuations to either 
 her confidant Grimm, the foreign represent- 
 atives at St Petersburg, or her own Court. 
 She could write to Grimm about the un- 
 worthy Korsakof as " the painters' peril and the 
 sculptors' despair," and describe him as "a 
 
 324
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 masterpiece of Nature." She caused the foreign 
 ministers to write in wonder to their home 
 Governments and her courtiers to laugh at her 
 follies. Moreover, her conduct gave oppor- 
 tunity for the most offensive libels to circulate 
 about Europe. Catherine did not appear to 
 be affected by such attacks in her lifetime, 
 though it is recorded that she ordered a few 
 of the caricatures to be burnt by the hangman 
 at St Petersburg. Yet she was not one to 
 neglect posterity's verdict, for it was to this 
 that she appealed in much of what she wrote. 
 One might almost think that Catherine trusted 
 in the justice of posterity to weigh her merits 
 against her weaknesses and to decide that the 
 former outbalanced the latter. This is what 
 posterity has done, or such portion of posterity, 
 at least, as has a judgment which it is worth 
 while to gain. 
 
 Further than this it hardly seems possible 
 to go into the mysteries of Catherine's heart. 
 Her vice — for it is more just to speak of her 
 " vice " than of her "vices" — cannot be neglected 
 by any historian of Catherine, for it is an in- 
 tegral part of her character, and greatly affected 
 her government. It cannot be said exactly 
 to add to the attraction of her character, in 
 
 325
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 spite of the curiously extravagant remark of 
 Lord Camelford that " Catherine honoured the 
 throne by her vices " ; but that character, under 
 its influence, has a special interest which it 
 certainly would not have without. And this 
 must be the excuse of one who is not a 
 scandalous chronicler for dwelling upon the 
 weakness which left Catherine still great. 
 
 About the personal appearance of Catherine 
 a considerable number of descriptions by eye- 
 witnesses have been preserved. There are 
 occasional divergences, but the main outlines 
 are in perfect harmony. In fact, few great 
 personages in history have been so well painted 
 in words. We have already given the en- 
 thusiastic portrait by Stanislas Poniatowsky of 
 her looks at twenty-live. We have given, too, 
 her own modest sketch of herself in 1750, five 
 years earlier. D'Eon and Rulhiere have also 
 described her in the days when she was still 
 Grand Duchess. The Chevalier is struck by 
 her brilliant and fascinating eyes, "like those 
 of a wild beast "(!), and her high brow, on 
 which, however, he saw a long and awful 
 future written. She was kind and affable, yet 
 when she came near him he drew back with 
 a movement he could not control. She 
 
 326
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 frightened him. In this he was singular ; but 
 he was a singular man. Rulhiere is quite 
 enthusiastic about her noble figure, majestic 
 gait, graceful deportment, and royal air. In 
 the union of her head and neck is wonderful 
 beauty. Her brow is large and open, her 
 nose aquiline, 1 her mouth set off by beautiful 
 teeth. Her hair, he says, is chesnut-coloured, 
 and her eyes brown and very fascinating, hav- 
 ing a bluish tinge in certain lights ; and her 
 complexion is of dazzling whiteness. How 
 Rulhiere comes to make her eyes brown it 
 is impossible to say. Others all make them 
 blue, and Masson calls them gris-clair ; once 
 more Rulhiere must be inaccurate. As to the 
 tint of her hair, the terms brown, chestnut, and 
 auburn are all applied to it — generally brown. 
 Yet Casanova says that "the banker Hoffman 
 of Leipsic " told him something about Catherine 
 which many Russians did not know. " They 
 are under the impression that their Empress is 
 a brunette, as they have always seen her with 
 brown, or rather black, hair ; the actual fact 
 is that she is blonde, but at the age of ten 
 years they began to comb her hair with leaden 
 
 1 Madame Vigee-Lebrun, the painter, describes her nose 
 as " quite Greek " ; so Poniatowsky. 
 
 327
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 combs and to anoint it with a certain ointment, 
 so as to darken it. . . . As most Russians are 
 fair it was decided that the reigning family 
 should be dark." An odd reason, surely, and 
 an odd tale altogether. Casanova himself 
 describes Catherine as of middle height, well 
 made, and of majestic carriage. "She knew 
 how to make herself agreeable to those whom 
 she cared to interest. She was not beautiful, 
 but pleasing, affable, and witty, devoid of all 
 pretension, which was the more remarkable, as 
 she had every reason to have a good opinion 
 of herself." 
 
 There are more portraits of her later in life, 
 and the agreement between them is a testimony 
 to their correctness. Tooke introduces the 
 criticism of one whom he describes simply as 
 "an impartial observer," who, seeing her ten 
 years after her accession, finds her " of that 
 stature which is requisite to perfect elegance 
 of form in a lady." " Her mouth is well pro- 
 portioned, the chin round, the nose rather long ; 
 the forehead regular and open, her hands and 
 arms round and white, her complexion not 
 entirely clear, and her shape rather plump 
 than meagre ; her neck and bosom high, and 
 she bears her head with peculiar grace and 
 
 328
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 dignity. She lays on, as is universally the 
 custom with the fair sex in Russia, a pretty 
 strong rouge." (Catherine herself told Grimm 
 that she "could not imitate this pretty fashion 
 of rouging." But there were others who 
 accused her of doing so.) Tooke himself, 
 writing of her at the end of her life, said that 
 she preserved a gracefulness and majesty to 
 the end. " She was of moderate stature, but 
 well proportioned ; and, as she carried her 
 head very high, she appeared rather tall." The 
 Prince de Ligne agreed that one scarcely noticed 
 that she was short. His description of her 
 was at the age of fifty, and he dwells on the 
 characteristics of her physiognomony, in which 
 it required no Lavater to find genius, justice, 
 courage, depth, equanimity, sweetness, calm, 
 and decision. " The oval of her face," he con- 
 tinues, "was not well defined, but was exceed- 
 ingly pleasing, and frankness and gaiety dwelt 
 on her lips. Her fine bust had been acquired 
 rather at the expense of her waist, once slender 
 almost to breaking ; but people generally grow 
 fat in Russia. If she had not drawn her hair 
 back so tightly she would have looked better ; 
 it should have come down more about her 
 face." 
 
 329
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 Some observers find something rather man- 
 like about her. Richardson (who was tutor to 
 Lord Cathcart's family) says that "the general 
 effect is such that one would do an injustice in 
 attributing to it a masculine air, and something 
 less than justice in calling it entirely feminine." 
 There is a pencil sketch made of her at the 
 time of the 1762 Revolution by the Russian 
 artist Tshemessof which seems to support this 
 view. M. Waliszewski calls it a sketch of 
 naif and almost gross realism, and says that the 
 hard, smiling face, the heavy, half-masculine 
 features stand out with brutal frankness. " It 
 might be thought a German vivandiere turned 
 a nun, but never Cleopatra." The artist, we 
 must suppose, if the other critics are just, has 
 exaggerated what was a side of Catherine's 
 physiognomy as of her character. It will be 
 remembered that she had a passion for riding- 
 like a man. In her Memoirs she often repre- 
 sents herself as donning man's clothes, and after 
 she had come to the throne we hear of her going 
 to masked balls and passing as a man. On one 
 occasion, indeed, the deception went so far that 
 a lady with whom she had been dancing, in a 
 sudden access of passion for her partner, tore off 
 the mask, and discovered the features of the 
 
 330
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 Empress, who was naturally not a little annoyed. 
 Catherine had a deep voice, but there must have 
 been other traits which assisted her. One may 
 recall the wonderful success of the Chevalier 
 D'Eon in concealing his sex, and remember that 
 in those days the dress and manner of wearing 
 the hair made such disguises easier. 
 
 In the dress of her own sex Catherine always 
 observed simplicity, preferring to any other the 
 Russian style, with a jacket or dolman over a 
 loose vest. As she grew stouter she found the 
 old Muscovite long-sleeved loose robe disguise 
 the fact better than other costumes. The most 
 striking point of her attire was a small cap or 
 bonnet set with particularly fine diamonds. She 
 wore her hair beneath this slightly powdered, 
 and flowing upon her shoulders. 
 
 It may seem rather unkind to the memory 
 of Catherine's beauty to close with the criticism 
 of Masson. Yet Masson, who saw her once or 
 twice a week for ten years, looked on her every 
 time with renewed admiration, and says that 
 it was no more true of her than of Frederick 
 the Great that prcesentia minuit famam. " At 
 sixty -seven she still had the remains of beauty. 
 Her hair was always arranged with an old- 
 fashioned simplicity, and with marked taste ; 
 
 331
 
 Courtships of Catherine the Great 
 
 never did a crown set off a head better than 
 hers. She was of medium height, but strongly 
 built ; and no other woman of her stoutness 
 could carry herself so becomingly and gracefully. 
 She walked slowly, and with short steps, with 
 her brow high and clear, her eyes tranquil and 
 often cast down. She would bow with a little 
 inclination, not lacking in grace, but with an 
 assumed smile, which came and went with her 
 bow." Unhappily, at this age her teeth were 
 gone and her voice broken, the lower part of 
 her face had a touch of coarseness (guclque chose 
 de rude et gi'ossier are his exact words), and 
 there was a line at the base of the nose which 
 imparted a rather sinister air. This was the 
 wrinkle which Catherine made Lainpi remove 
 in the portrait which he painted of her. Her 
 bulk, says Masson on another page, had so 
 increased towards the end of her life as almost 
 to become a deformity. Her legs had swollen, 
 and she could no longer boast the pretty foot 
 of which she had been proud. At the time of 
 the entertainments given to Gustavus of Sweden 
 in 1796 several of her courtiers at great expense 
 built specially easy staircases in their houses 
 before inviting the Empress. No longer was 
 there the taille tres fine of which she wrote in 
 
 332
 
 Catherine the Great 
 
 her Memoirs. But, as no less than forty-six 
 years had passed since the date of that ball at 
 which her appearance made such a sensation, 
 she had no cause for complaint against the 
 treatment of time. A figure proof against half- 
 a-century's wear is not an Empress's to com- 
 mand. It is to be remarked, however, that 
 Catherine did not become the painted old 
 harridan that Major Martin Hume represents 
 our own Queen Elizabeth to have been at the 
 end of her life ; yet their ages at death were 
 only three years different. Time dealt more 
 gently with Catherine than with Elizabeth. 
 
 333
 
 INDEX 
 
 Alexander, Grand Duke, 203, 270, 
 
 276 
 Alexandra, Grand Duchess, 271 
 Anhalt-Zerbst family, 4, 7 
 Anna Ivanovna, Empress, 109, 115 
 
 Baden-Durlach princesses, 272 
 
 Baratinsky, Prince, 103, 140 
 
 Bestujef, Count, II, 52, 57, 63/:, 82, 
 
 122 
 Bezborodko, 191, 267 
 Biron, 82, 115 
 Bobrinsky, 136, 154 
 Branitsky, Princess, 210, 247 
 Breteuil, Baron de, 71, 86 
 Bruce, Countess, 181 
 Brummer, 10, 24 
 
 Casanova, 128, 132 
 
 Catherine II., Empress of Russia, birth 
 and childhood, a,ff. ; goes to Russia, 
 12 ; converted to Greek Church, 19 ; 
 marriage, 23 ; treatment by Empress 
 Elizabeth, 33, 35 ; her reading, 35, 
 46, 290 ; relations with Zahar Tcher- 
 nichef, 38 ; acquaintance with 
 Narishkin, 41, 52; intrigue with 
 Saltikof, 40, 43 ; birth of her son 
 Paul, 45 ; her treatment of Paul, 46, 
 278 ; Madame la Ressource, 48, 109, 
 247 ; first political meddling, 5 1, 57 ; 
 intrigue with Poniatowsky, 53, 58- 
 70; second child, 61 ; meets Gregory 
 Orlof, 73 ; friendship with Princess 
 Dashkof, 88 ; her description of the 
 Revolution, 96^.; proclaimed Em- 
 
 335 
 
 press, 99 ; behaviour over Peter's 
 death, \02ff.; her feelings for Gregory 
 Orlof, 120, 139, 150; Orlof marriage 
 scheme, 121 ; connection with Ivan's 
 death, 127 ; her code, 131 ; takes 
 up Vassiltshikof, 139 ; confidences to 
 Grimm, 151, 154, 187, 324; her 
 family by Gregory Orlof, 154; re- 
 lations with Alexis Orlof, 155-158; 
 makes Patiomkin favourite, 167 ; 
 Zavadofsky, 171; Zoritch, 175; 
 Korsakof, 177; her attitude towards 
 music, 178 ; cultivates Joseph II. 
 and Austria, 183 ; makes Lanskoi 
 favourite, 184 ; her grief at his death, 
 187 ; alleged marriage with Patiom- 
 kin, 189; makes Yermolof favourite, 
 191 ; visits the Crimea, 201 ; as 
 verse-writer, 205 ; makes Mamonof 
 favourite, 231; Plato Zubof, 239; 
 last reception by Patiomkin, 245 ; 
 her feelings for him, 172, 247 ff.; 
 disgusted by French Revolution, 269, 
 309 ; care for her grandchildren, 270 ; 
 her apoplectic fit, 274 ; death, 275 ; 
 general regret for, 277; "Catherine 
 the Great," 283^; appearance, 36, 
 54, 326^; moral character, 39, 46, 
 116, 139, 316; accusations of cruelty 
 against, 104, 129, 134 ; treatment of 
 favouritism, 115, 138, 181, 180, 292, 
 315, 319^; education of her fav- 
 ourites, 152, 175, 185, 253, 263, 
 292; internal policy, 131, 310; 
 foreign policy, 132, 296 ff.; con- 
 trasted with other women rulers, 321
 
 Index 
 
 Christian-August, Prince, of Anhalt- 
 
 Zerbst, 4, 12, 15, 35 
 Cobentzel, Count, 207 
 Constantine, Grand Duke, 203, 270 
 Czartorisky family, 49 
 
 Dashkof, Prince, 89, 93, 178 
 Dashkof, Princess, 79, 85-94, 100, 
 
 in ff., 124, 190 
 D'Eon, Chevalier, 51 
 
 Elizabeth, Empress, 7, 16, 24, 35, 
 44, 66, 75, 80, 123 
 
 Favourites, ten official — Gregory 
 Orlof (1762-1772), 113 ff. ; Vassilt- 
 shikof (1772-1774), 137 ff.; Patiom- 
 kin (1774-1776), 161^ ; Zavadofsky 
 (1776-1777), 171/"- 5 Zoritch (1777- 
 1778), i75# ! Korsakof (1778-1780), 
 179 ff. ; Lanskoi (1780-1784), 184 
 ff. ; Yermolof (1785), 191 ff i 
 Mamonof(i785-l789), 231/". ; Plato 
 Zubof (1789-1796), 239/: 
 
 Fitzherbert, Alleyne (Lord St Helens), 
 206 
 
 Frederick the Great, 11, 93, 132 
 
 Gustavus III. of Sweden, 233, 304 
 Gustavus IV. of Sweden, 272^". 
 
 Hitrof, 124 
 
 Holstein, Prince George of, 99 
 
 Ivan III. of Russia, 127 ff. 
 
 Jeanne-Elizabeth, Princess, 5, 17, 
 
 23 
 Joseph II. of Austria, 182, 222-224, 
 
 243 
 Korsakof, Rimsky, 179^". 
 
 Lanskoi, 184^". 
 
 Ligne, Prince de, 211, 288, 317, etc. 
 
 Mamonof, 203, 220, 231 ff. 
 
 Markof, 267 
 
 Masson, 116, 276, etc. 
 
 Mirovitch, 128 
 
 Munich, Marshal, 82, 109, 297 
 
 Narishkin, Anna, 55, 239 
 Narishkin, Leof, 41, 52, 54, 62, 203, 
 
 275, 287 
 Natalie, Grand Duchess. See Wilhel- 
 
 mina 
 
 Orlof, Alexis, 73, 98, 103, 135, 
 142, 155-158, 165 
 
 Orlof, Gregory, 69; his family, 71-73, 
 96 ; place in the Revolution, 92, 96 ; 
 installed in the Palace, 113; the 
 Orlof ascendancy, 119 ff. ; the mar- 
 riage scheme, 121 ; lack of ambition, 
 122, 153 ; deals with plague at 
 Moscow, 134 ; goes to Foksani, 
 136; supplanted, 137, 148; returns 
 to St Petersburg, 144 ; relations with 
 Patiomkin, 147, 172; his marriage, 
 148; death, 150; character, 151-154 
 
 Osterman, Count, 195 
 
 Panin, Count Nikita, 68, 75, 95, 
 122, 142, 151, 168, 195, 298 
 
 Pasik, 97, 103, in 
 
 Patiomkin, Prince Gregory, first ap- 
 pearance, 147 ; date of birth, 162 ; 
 in the Revolution, 163 ; quarrels 
 with the Orlofs, 164; recalled to 
 Court, 166; similarity of ideas with 
 Catherine, 169 ; resigns position of 
 favourite, 170; pecuniary greed, 
 174, 181, 192 ; promotes Austrian 
 alliance, 183, 194 ; relations with 
 Lanskoi, 185 ; alleged marriage 
 with Catherine, 189 ; defeats Yer- 
 molof, 193 ; plans in the Crimea, 
 193, 201 ff. ; Governor of Taurida, 
 
 836
 
 Index 
 
 196 ; courts French friendship, 214; 
 allegations of trickery against, 217 ; 
 his Black Sea fleet, 225 ; indigna- 
 tion at Swedish War, 233 ; struggle 
 with Zubof, 240, 265 ; last visit to 
 St Petersburg, 243 ; death, 247 ; 
 character, 248^ ; appearance, 251 ; 
 policy, 253, 258, 308; underrated 
 by critics, 291 
 
 Paul, Grand Duke, afterwards Em- 
 peror, birth, 45 ; first marriage, 141 ; 
 attitude over his father's death, 107, 
 155, 227 ; second marriage, 183 ; 
 relations with Patiomkin, 256, 259 ; 
 with Zubof, 265, 276 ; his children, 
 270 ; accession to throne, 276 ; char- 
 acter, 278 
 
 Peter III. of Russia, adopted by Eliza- 
 beth, 7 ; at age of sixteen, 14 ; 
 conversion to Greek Church, 19 ; 
 marriage, 23 ; his infidelity, 36, 42, 
 56 ; affection for Holstein, 48, 85 ; 
 attitude towards Poniatowsky, 58 ; 
 Prussian sympathies, 74, 83 ; suc- 
 ceeds to throne, 75 ; his reforms, 81 ; 
 renounces the Empire, 101 ; death, 
 102, 155; character, 80, 94, 108- 
 110; drunkenness, 9, 47, 55, 84; 
 childishness, 14, 25, 34, 44 ; de- 
 fended by Saldern, 84, 108 
 
 Poniatowsky, Stanislas, comes to 
 Russia, 49; appearance, 50, 219; 
 forgets Siberia, 53 ; his description 
 of Catherine, 54 ; made Polish 
 Minister to Russia, 58 ; at Oranien- 
 baum, 58-61 ; leaves Russia, 69 ; 
 King of Poland, 69, 218; meeting 
 with Catherine at Kanief, 219 
 
 Pugatshef, 104, 130 
 
 Razumofsky, Alexander, 80, 122 
 Razumofsky, Cyril, 119, 120 
 Repnin, Prince, 24, 33 
 Rulhiere, 74, 86, 114, etc. 
 
 Rumianzof, Countess, 20 
 Rumianzof, Marshal, 136, 181, 243 
 
 Saldern, 84, 91, 108 
 
 Saltikof, Sergius, 40, 43, 47 
 
 Saxe-Coburg princesses, 272 
 
 Segur, Comte de, 208, 213, 284, 317, 
 
 etc. 
 Sherbatof, Princess, 235, 238 
 Shuvalof, Alexander, 45, 66, 100 
 Sophia Augusta Frederika of Anhalt- 
 
 Zerbst. See Catherine. 
 Sophia, Princess of Wiirtemburg, 183 
 Stanislas Augustus of Poland. See 
 
 Poniatowsky 
 
 TCHERNICHEF, ANDREW, 26^. 
 
 Tchernichef, Zahar, 26, 37, 138, 168 
 Tchoglokof, 33, 45 
 Tchoglokof, Madame, 25 ff., 43 
 Theodorsky, Bishop Simon, 15, 29 
 Tooke, Rev. W., 121, 144, etc. 
 Tschemensky, 155 
 
 Vassiltshikof, 137^ 
 
 Voronzof, Elizabeth, 56, 59-61, 84, 91, 
 
 289 
 Voronzof, Count Michael, 68, 100 
 Voronzof family, 87, 112. See also 
 
 Dashkof, Princess 
 
 WlLHELMINA, PRINCESS, of Hesse- 
 
 Darmstadt, 142, 183 
 Williams, Sir Charles Hanbury, 48 ff. 
 
 57 
 Wraxall, Sir Nathaniel, 70, 129, 142 
 Wroughton, Sir Thomas, 70, 129 
 
 Yermolof, 191^ 
 
 Zavadofsky, 171^ 
 Zoritch, \JSff. 
 Zubof, Plato, 239, id^ff. 
 Zubof, Valerian, 268 
 Zubof family, 239, 268 ff. 
 
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