Two things principally occupied the Romans during the next weeks and
months, offering them rich material for conversation. In talking of
these they had forgotten all other events; they spoke no more of the
giant fish which had destroyed the friendship of France and Spain; they
no longer entertained each other with anecdotes in connection with the
festival of Cardinal Bernis, at which the _entree_ of that fish upon his
long silver platter was hailed with shouts and _vivats_--yes, even that
Russian princess, who had momentarily shown herself on the horizon of
society, all these were quickly forgotten, and people now interested
themselves only about the extirpation of the order of the Jesuits, which
Pope Clement had now really effected, and of the arrival of the Russian
ambassador-extraordinary, the famous Alexis Orloff, whose visit to Rome
seemed the more important and significant as they well knew in what near
and confidential relations his brother, Count Gregory Orloff, stood with
the Empress Catharine, and what participation Alexis Orloff had in the
sudden death of the Emperor Peter III.
The order of the Jesuits, then, no longer existed; the pious fathers of
the order of Jesus were stricken out of the book of history; a word of
power had annihilated them! With loud complaints and lamentations they
filled the streets of the holy city, and if the prayer of humility and
resignation resounded from their lips, yet there were very different
prayers in their hearts, prayers of anger and rage, of hatred and
revenge! They were seen wringing their hands and loudly lamenting, as
they hastened to their friends and protectors, and besieged the doors of
the foreign embassies. With them wept the poor and suffering people to
whom the pious fathers had proved themselves benefactors. For, since
they knew that their existence was threatened, they had assiduously
devoted themselves to works of charity and mercy, and to strengthening,
especially in Rome, their reputation for piety, benevolence, and
generosity. Prodigious sums were by them distributed among the poor;
more than five hundred respectable impoverished Romans, who had been
accused of political offences, were secretly supported by them. In this
way the Jesuits, against whom the cry of denunciation had been raised
for years in all Europe, had nevertheless succeeded, at least in the
holy city, in gaining for themselves a very considerable party, and
thus securing protection and support in the time of misfortune and
persecution. But while the people wept with them, and many cardinals and
princes of the Church secretly pitied them, the ambassadors of the great
European powers alone remained insensible to their lamentations. No one
of them opened the doors of their palaces to them, no one afforded
them protection or consolation; and although it was known that cardinal
Bernis, in spite of the horror which had for years been felt of this
order in France, was personally favorable to them, and had long delayed
the consent of the court of France to their abolition, yet even Bernis
now avoided any manifestation of kindness for them, lest his former
friend, the Spanish ambassador, might think he so far humiliated himself
as to favor the Jesuits for the sake of recovering the friendship and
good opinion of the Duke of Grimaldi. But Grimaldi himself now no longer
dared to protect the Jesuits, however friendly he might be to them,
and however much they were favored by Elizabeth Farnese, the Spanish
queen-mother. King Charles, her son, had finally ventured to defy her
authority, and in an autograph letter had commanded the Duke of Grimaldi
to receive no more Jesuits in his palace. And while, as we have said,
the whole diplomacy had declared against the order of the holy fathers
of Jesus, it must have been the more striking that this Russian
Count Orloff had compassion upon them, and lent a willing ear to the
complaints of the unfortunate members of the order.
This Russian count gave the good Romans much material for reflection and
head-shaking; the women were occupied with his herculean beauty, and
the men with his wild, daring, and reckless conduct. They called him a
barbarian, a Russian bear, but could not help being interested in him,
and eagerly repeating the little anecdotes freely circulated respecting
him.
They smilingly told that he had been the first who had had the courage
to defy the powerful republic of Venice, which, for recruiting sailors
for his fleet in their territories for the war against the Turks, wished
to banish him from proud and beautiful Venice. But Alexis Orloff had
laughed at the senate of the republic when they sent him the order to
leave. He had ordered the two hundred soldiers, who formed his retinue,
to arm themselves, and, if necessary, to repel force with force; but to
the senate he had answered that he would leave the city as soon as he
pleased, not before! But, as it seemed that he was not pleased to leave
the city, he remained there, and now the angry and indignant senate
sent him the peremptory command to leave Venice with his soldiers in
twenty-four hours. A deputation of the senate came in solemn procession
to communicate to the Russian count this command of the Council of
Three. Alexis Orloff received them, lying upon his divan, and to their
solemn address he laughingly answered: “I receive commands from no one
but my empress! It remains as before, that I shall go when I please, and
not earlier!”
The senators departed with bitter murmurs and severe threats. Count
Alexis Orloff remained, and the cowardly senate, trembling with fear
of this young Russian empire, had silently pocketed the humiliation of
seeing this over-bearing Russian within their walls for several weeks
longer. This evidence of the haughty insolence of Count Orloff was
related among the Romans with undisguised pleasure, and they thanked
him for having thus humiliated and insulted the proud and imperious
republic. But they suspiciously shook their heads when they learned that
he seemed disposed to display his pride and arrogance in Rome! They
told of a _soiree_ of the Marchesa di Paduli which Alexis Orloff had
attended. As they there begged of him to give some proof of the very
superior strength which had acquired for him the name of “the Russian
Hercules,” he had taken one of the hardest apples from a silver plateau
that stood upon the table and playfully crushed it with two fingers of
his left hand. But a fragment of this hard apple had hit the eye of the
Duke of Gloucester, who was standing near, and seriously injured it. The
sympathies of the whole company were excited for the English prince, and
he was immediately surrounded by a pitying and lamenting crowd. Count
Orloff alone had nothing to say to him, and not the slightest excuse to
make. He smilingly rocked himself upon his chair, and hummed a Russian
popular song in praise of his empress.
And was it not also an insult for Alexis Orloff now to show himself a
friend to the Jesuits, whom the decree of God’s vicegerent had outlawed
and proscribed? Was it not an insult that he loudly and publicly
promised to these persecuted Jesuits a kind reception and efficient
protection in Russia, and invited them to found new communities and new
cloisters there?
But Alexis Orloff cared little for the dissatisfaction of the Romans,
He said to his confidant Stephano: “There is no greater pleasure than to
set at defiance all the world, and to oppose all these things which the
stupid people would impose upon us as laws. The friend and favorite of
the Empress Catharine has no occasion for complying with such miserable
laws; wherever I set my foot, there the earth belongs to me, and I will
forcibly maintain my pretensions whenever they are disputed! In Russia
I am the serf of the empress, in revenge for which I will, at least
abroad, treat all the world as my serfs. This gives me pleasure, and
wherefore is the world here but to be enjoyed?”
“A little also for labor,” said Stephano, with a sly smile.
“For that I have my slaves, for that I have also you!” responded Orloff,
laughing. “There is only one labor for me here in Rome, and that is to
create as much disturbance as possible in the city; to set the people
at odds with the government, so that they may have their hands full, and
find no time for observing our nice game with our little princess, or
to interfere with it. We must have freedom of action, that is the most
important. Hence we must protect these pious Jesuits, and offer support
to the enemies of this too-enterprising pope, by which means we shall
ultimately attain our own ends, and that is enough for us!”
“We have not yet advanced a step with our Princess Natalie,” said
Stephano, shrugging his shoulders; “that, it seems, is an impregnable
fortress!”
“It must, however, yield to us,” laughingly responded Alexis Orloff,
“and she shall yet acknowledge us as conquerors. We are undermining,
Stephano, and when the building crushes her in its crashing fall, will
she first discover that she has long been in danger. And what said
you--that we have not yet advanced a step? And yet Rasczinsky is gone,
and we have known how to keep Cardinal Bernis, who would have interested
himself for the little one, so very much occupied with the affair of the
Jesuits, that he has yet had no time to think of the princess. Ah, these
Jesuits are very useful people. We strew them like snuff in the faces of
these diplomatists, and, while they are yet rubbing their weak eyes and
crying out with pain, we shall quietly draw our little fish into our
net, and take her home without opposition!”
“And if the fish will not go into the net?”
“It must go in!” impatiently cried Orloff. “Bah! have I at the right
time succeeded in towing our emperor, God bless him! into eternity, and
shall I doubt in the fulness of time of enclosing this beautiful child
in my arms! Look at me, Stephano--what is wanting for it in me? Are not
all these beautiful women of Rome enraptured with the Russian Hercules?
How, then, can it be that a woman of my own country can withstand me?
The preliminaries are the main thing, and if we only had some one to
prepare her for my appearance, all would then go well. And such a one we
will find, thanks to our rubles! But enough of politics for the present,
Stephano. Call my valet. It is time for my toilet, and that is a very
important affair.”