"I too would welcome a rapprochement with the two Imperial powers," declared Pitt, "but not from the project of isolating France, and thus driving her into renewed suspicion and enmity. Rather we should strive to'win the goodwill of all. 'Tis not by secret pacts aimed at individual nations that we shall ever secure a lasting peace, but by sound commercial treaties which need cause fear to none."
"You agree though, Billy, that Mr. Brook should send us such data as he can which might assist in our gaining Russia as an ally?"
. "I do. Yet seeing that James Harris, here, and Alleyne Fitzherbert have both failed in that, I see little hope that Mr. Brook will be able to furnish us with anything to act upon. 'Twould be unreasonable to ask him to seek for a goodwill in the existence of which none of us have the least cause to believe. His function, rather, as I see it, will be to inform us as far as possible regarding Russia's intentions in the north, in order that we may take such steps as we can to put a check on her further aggrandisement."
Carmarthen then took the opportunity to press Pitt into agreeing that, as a gesture of goodwill to Russia, her fleet, which was fitting out in the Gulf of Finland, should again be allowed the freedom of the British ports on its voyage round to the Ionian Sea; and this led to a discussion on the role of Austria, as Russia's ally in her war against the Turks. Dundas joined in with his usual vigour,' leaving Harris and Roger, who were seated side by side, temporarily out of the conversation.
The thoughts of both the latter were still on St. Petersburg and, after a few minutes the ex-ambassador said: "I wish you better fortune in your mission to the Venice of the North, than I had in mine.. Tis a fine city and the Russians, although crafty and unreliable, are a gay and hospitable folk. I soon took their measure and would I think, in time, have succeeded in pinning them down; but I confess that the Czarina bested me. She is as slippery as an eel, and never seemed to tire of lending a favourable ear to my arguments, while all the time she was secretly planning to embarrass us in our war with the French, by forming the League of Armed Neutrality and leading it against us. I take it you are acquainted with her history?"
Roger shook his head. "I fear I know little very about her except that she was the daughter of a petty German Prince, and, having married the heir apparent to the Russian throne, deposed him by a successful conspiracy some six months after he had ascended it as Peter III. That was before I was born, and for the past quarter of a century she has continued to occupy the throne herself, apparently illegally, as her son is long past his majority and should be seated on it as the Emperor Paul."
"That is so. She was the daughter of Prince Christian of Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg; and her husband was also a German Princeling. His father was only a Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, but his mother, Anne, was the elder daughter of Peter the Great. It was her younger sister who became the Empress Elizabeth. She had many lovers but never married, so in due course, she selected her nephew, the little Holstein-Gottorp, as her heir, and had him brought to Petersburg at the age of fourteen. Three years later she picked Catherine, who was then sixteen, for him as a wife. He had the ill-luck to contract the smallpox just before the wedding, and it left him hideously disfigured. Added to which his parts were tied, and since he funked a small operation it was several years before he was able to consummate the marriage."
"How prodigious strange," remarked Roger, "that Marie Antoinette should have found herself in exactly the same case with Louis XVI. 'Twas eight years, I'm told, before he would bring himself to face a nick with a knife so that they could lie together."
" 'Twas a year or so more than that for Katinka."
"Such a situation must have been a sore trial for both Princesses."
"Mightily so," Harris agreed, "since through no fault of their own they became the mock of their courts from failing to produce heirs; and one could scarce blame either for consoling themselves with a lover.. 'Tis averred that the fair Austrian kept her virtue; but the beautiful little German succumbed to the blandishments of her husband's Chamberlain, a fellow named Soltikof, about a year before her spouse succeeded in co-habiting with her. By that time she had long since lost any affection she may ever have had for the boorish, pock-marked
Peter, but his having shared her bed at least saved her from any question being raised as to the legitimacy of her only son, Paul Petrovitch, who was born in October '54."
"The man who should be Czar is now thirty-four, then?"
"He is. But I'd give long odds against his ever ascending the throne while his mother is alive."
"How old is she now?"
"Nearly sixty; and for the past twenty-six years she has been the most powerful woman in the world. The Empress Elizabeth, after a long illness during, which she was drunk the greater part of the time, died early in '62. Peter succeeded her but reigned only six months, then Catherine deposed him and he died in mysterious circumstances a week or so later. Technically she assumed power as regent for her infant son, but she soon forgot that convenient fiction. Meanwhile, Soltikof had become only a memory of the past. Poniatowski, whom she afterwards made King of Poland, succeeded him in her affections; then Gregory Orlof, who arrested her husband for her during the coup d'etat. Since then she has taken scores of lovers, so she is well named the Semiramis of the North. In her youth and prime she was a great beauty and of a most lively disposition, so must have proved a fine bedfellow for many a lusty young gallant, but I pity the poor devils whose duty it is to tumble her now."
"What! She has lovers still!"
"Aye," Harris nodded. "Though she be fat, grey and toothless, I'm told she shows no decline in that respect. And an invitation from the Empress is. a command."
" 'Tis unnatural," Roger declared.
"Unusual, would be the more suitable word," commented Harris quietly. "And, believe me, little Katinka is an unusual—nay, a remarkable—woman. So arbitrary, violent and licentious has been her private life that she may well go down to history as a second Messalina; yet she is far more highly cultured and intelligent than any other monarch of our age. She is not merely absolute in theory but makes her autocratic power felt in every department of the State. In her own hand she recodified and modernised the whole of Russia's laws. She has colonised great empty spaces of her Empire with poor but hardworking Teutons, and has founded innumerable schools. She selects her own rnilitary commanders and lays down their objectives for each campaign. Her Foreign Minister is merely a cipher, for 'tis she who furnishes all her diplomats with their instructions. Despite these herculean labours she finds ample time to indulge her love of pleasure, and to carry on a vast correspondence concerning art and literature with such men as Voltaire, Diderot and d'Alembert. In her private relationships she is as capricious as a nighty minx of eighteen; yet her mind as so well balanced when it turns to affairs of State that she never allows her personal prejudices to interfere with her judgment. In her love for Russia she has become more Russian than the Russians; and at her order the most powerful army, in the world will march east, south or west as she may choose to direct it."
Harris paused for a moment, then added: "I trust that what I have said may have given you some conception of the real greatness of the wicked little old woman whose hand you may soon be privileged to kiss."