CATHERINE II.
SURROUNDINGS OF ST. PETERSBURG -- PATRIARCHAL UNCONVENTIONALITIES
-- AN ARTILLERY REPAST -- THE GREATNESS OF THE SECOND CATHERINE
-- WHO LIT HER OWN FIRE AND MADE HER OWN COFFEE -- AND WAS SWORN
AT BY A CHIMNEY SWEEPER -- OTHER DOMESTIC AMENITIES IN THE CAREER
OF AN EMPRESS -- THE SUIT OF GUSTAVUS IV. -- CATHERINE'S DEATH --
HUMILIATING FUNERAL INCIDENTS.
I experienced a great joy when, after breathing frosty air outdoors
and air heated by stoves indoors for several months, I witnessed the
arrival of summer. I took a great delight in the walks, and hastened
to enjoy the beautiful surroundings of St. Petersburg. I very often
went to the Lake of Pergola alone with my Russian man-servant to take
what I called an air-bath. I enjoyed the contemplation of its limpid
water, which vividly reflected the trees on its banks. And then I
would mount to the heights adjacent. On one side the horizon was
bounded by the sea and I could distinguish the sails lit up by the
sun. Here a silence reigned that was disturbed only by the song of a
thousand birds, or sometimes by the sound of a distant bell. The pure
air and the wild, picturesque place enchanted me. My faithful Peter,
who warmed up my little dinner or picked flowers of the field for me,
made me think of Robinson on his island with Friday.
The heat being considerable, I often went with my daughter for early
walks on the island of Krestovski. The extreme point of this island
seemed to merge into the sea, on which large vessels were navigating.
Sometimes we went there in the evening to see the Russian peasants
dance, their national dress being very picturesque. I remember, on the
subject of the excessive heat often prevailing at St. Petersburg, a
certain day in the month of July of some year in which that month was
hotter than in Italy. On this day I saw Princess Dolgoruki's mother,
Princess Bariatinski, who was once as lovely as an angel, and whose
clever and spontaneous wit rendered her one of the most fascinating
women of St. Petersburg, established in her cellar, with her lady's
companion seated on the bottom step, very quietly reading to her from
a book.
But to return to the island of Krestovski. Taking a row in a boat one
day, we came upon a crowd of men and women all bathing together. We
even saw from a distance young men naked on horseback, who were thus
bathing with their horses. In any other country one would have been
shocked by this, but the Russian people are really primitively
ingenuous. In the winter husband, wife and children sleep together on
the stove; if the stove is not large enough, they lie on wooden
benches lining their hut, wrapped up simply in their sheepskins. These
good people have kept the customs of the ancient patriarchs.
A walk which pleased me particularly was one on the island of
Zelaguin, which, though it had once been a very handsome garden, was
now deserted. However, there remained some lovely trees, charming
avenues, a temple surrounded with magnificent weeping willows, flowers
to please the eye, little running streams, and bridges after the
English fashion. In order to enjoy this walk to the full, I took a
little house opposite on the bank of the Neva. The advantageous
situation of my cottage was combined with pleasing diversion, due to
the fact that most of the boats, of which there was an unceasing
procession up and down the river, gave me a continuous concert of
vocal music or wind instruments.
The artillery general, Melissimo, lived in a pretty house close to
mine, and I enjoyed having him for my neighbour, since he was the best
and most obliging of men. As the General had spent much time in
Turkey, his house was a model of Oriental comfort and luxury. There
was a bathroom lighted from above, in the middle of which was a basin
large enough to hold a dozen people. One went down into the water by
steps. Linen to be used for drying the body after bathing was hung on
a golden balustrade circling the basin, and consisted of large pieces
of Indian mull worked at the bottom in flowers and gold, so that the
weight of this embroidery caused the mull to adhere to the skin, which
appeared to me an elaborate refinement. Round the room ran a broad
divan on which one could stretch oneself and rest after taking a bath,
and one of the doors opened from a sweet little sitting-room. This
sitting-room, again, overlooked an odorous flower-bed, and some of the
stems grew to the height of the window. It was in this room that the
General gave us a breakfast of fruits, cream cheese and excellent
Mocha coffee, on all of which my daughter regaled herself royally.
Another time he asked us to a very good dinner, and had it served
under a Turkish tent brought back from one of his journeys. The tent
was put up on the lawn facing the house. There were twelve of us, all
seated by the table on splendid divans. We were served with delicious
fruits at dessert. The whole dinner was quite Asiatic, and the
General's courtesy added to the savour of all the good things. I wish,
however, that he had omitted firing off cannon shots in our immediate
proximity just as we were sitting down at table, but I was informed
that such was the custom with all generals. I took my little house on
the Neva for one summer only. The next, young Count Strogonoff lent me
one at Kaminstroff, where I was very well suited. Every morning I
walked alone in a neighbouring wood and passed my evenings with
Countess Golovin, my neighbour. There I met young Prince Bariatinski,
Princess Tarent, and various other congenial people. We would chat or
have readings until supper time. In fact time was speeding by for me
in the most agreeable manner.
The Russian people lived very happily under the rule of Catherine; by
great and lowly have I heard the name of her blessed to whom the
nation owed so much glory and so much well-being. I do not speak of
the conquests by which the national vanity was so prodigiously
flattered, but of the real, lasting good that this Empress did her
people. During the space of the thirty-four years she reigned, her
beneficent genius fathered or furthered all that was useful, all that
was grand. She erected an immortal monument to Peter I.; she built two
hundred and thirty-seven towns in stone, saying that wooden villages
cost much more because they burned down so often; she covered the sea
with her fleets; she established everywhere manufactories and banks,
highly propitious to the commerce of St. Petersburg, Moscow and
Tobolsk; she granted new privileges to the Academy; she founded
schools in all the towns and the country districts; she dug canals,
built granite quays, gave a legal code, instituted an asylum for
foundlings, and, finally, introduced into her empire the boon of
vaccination, adopted by the Russians solely through her mighty will,
and, for the public encouragement, was the first to be inoculated.
Catherine herself was the source of all these blessings, for she never
allowed any one else real authority. She dictated her own
despatches to her ministers, who, in effect, were but her secretaries.
I am much annoyed that the Duchess d'Abrantes, who has recently
published a work on Catherine II., has either not read what the Prince
de Ligne and the Count de Segur have written, or has not given
credence to those irrefutable witnesses. If she had, she would have
more justly appreciated and admired the qualities distinguishing that
great Empress, considering her as a ruler, and she would have paid
more respect to the memory of a woman in whom our sex ought to take
pride for so many reasons.
[Illustration: THE DUCHESS DE POLIGNAC.]
Catherine II. loved everything that was magnificent in the arts. At
the Hermitage she built a set of rooms corresponding to certain rooms
in the Vatican, and had copies made of the fifty pictures by Raphael
adorning those rooms. She enriched the Academy of Fine Arts with
plaster casts of the finest ancient statues and with a large number of
paintings by various masters. The Hermitage, which she had founded and
erected quite near her palace, was a model of good taste in every
respect, and made the clumsy architecture of the imperial palace at
St. Petersburg appear to worse advantage than ever by the contrast. It
is well known that she wrote French with great facility. In the
library at St. Petersburg I saw the original manuscript of the legal
code she gave the Russians written entirely in her own hand and in the
French language. Her style, I was told, was elegant and very concise,
and this reminds me of an instance of her laconic manner of expression
which seems to me quite delightful. When General Suvaroff had won the
battle of Warsaw, Catherine at once sent him a messenger, and this
messenger brought the fortunate victor nothing but an envelope on
which she had written with her own hand, "To Marshal Suvaroff."
This woman, whose power was so great, was at home the simplest and
least exacting of women. She rose at five in the morning, lit her
fire, and then made her coffee herself. It was even said that one day,
having lit the fire without being aware that the sweeper had climbed
up the chimney, the sweeper began to swear at her, and to shower the
coarsest revilements upon her, believing he was speaking to a
stove-lighter. The Empress hastened to extinguish the fire, though not
without laughing heartily at having been thus treated.
After breakfast the Empress wrote her letters and prepared her
despatches, remaining in seclusion until nine o'clock. She then rang
for her men servants, who sometimes did not answer her bell. One day,
for instance, impatient at waiting, she opened the door of the room
they were in, and, finding them settled down at a game of cards, she
asked them why they did not come when she rang. Thereupon one of them
calmly replied that they wanted to finish their game--and so they did.
On another occasion the Countess Bruce, who was allowed in the
Empress's apartments at all hours, came in one morning to find her
alone at her toilet. "Your Majesty seems to be without assistance,"
said the Countess. "How can I help it?" answered the Empress. "My
maids all went off. I was trying on a dress which fitted so badly that
I lost my temper over it, and so they left me to myself. Not one of
them stayed, not even Reinette, my head maid, and I am waiting for
them to cool off."
In the evening Catherine would gather about her some of the people of
her court she liked best. She sent for her grandchildren, and blind
man's buff, hunt the slipper and other games were played until ten
o'clock, when Her Majesty went to bed. Princess Dolgoruki, who was
among the favoured, often told me with what good spirits and jollity
the Empress enlivened these gatherings. Count Stachelberg and the
Count de Segur were invited to Catherine's small parties. When she
broke with France and dismissed the Count de Segur, the French
Ambassador, she expressed deep regret at losing him. "But," she added,
"I am an autocrat. Every one to his trade." Many persons have
attributed Catherine's death to the keen sorrow brought her by the
failure of the marriage arranged between her granddaughter, the
Duchess Alexandrina, and the King of Sweden. That Prince arrived at
St. Petersburg, with his uncle, the Duke of Sudermania, in August,
1796. He was only seventeen years old, but his tall figure and his
proud and noble bearing made him respected in spite of his youth.
Having been very carefully brought up, he showed a most unusual
politeness. The Princess whom he had come to marry, and who was
fourteen, was lovely as an angel, and he speedily fell deeply in love
with her. I remember that when he came to my house to see the portrait
I had done of his bride elect, he looked at it with such rapt
attention that his hat fell from his hand.
The Empress wished for this marriage more than anything, but she
insisted that her granddaughter should have a chapel and clergy of her
own religion in the palace at Stockholm, but the young King, all his
love for the young Duchess Alexandrina notwithstanding, would not
consent to anything that would violate the laws of his country.
Knowing that Catherine had sent for the patriarch to pronounce the
betrothal after a ball in the evening, the King remained absent from
the ball despite M. de Markoff's repeated calls urging him to come. I
was then doing the portrait of Count Diedrichstein. We went to my
window several times to see if the young King would yield and go to
the ball, but he did not. In the end, according to what Princess
Dolgoruki told me, when every one was assembled, the Empress half
opened the door of her room and said in a very subdued voice, "Ladies,
there will be no ball to-night." The King of Sweden and the Duke of
Sudermania left St. Petersburg the next morning.
Whether or no it was the grief arising from this occurrence that cut
short the days of Catherine, Russia was soon to lose her. The Sunday
preceding her death, I went to Her Majesty after church to present her
with the portrait that I had made of the Grand Duchess Elisabeth. She
congratulated me upon my work and then said: "They insist that you
must take my portrait. I am very old, but still, as they all wish it,
I will give you the first sitting this day week." The following
Thursday she did not ring at nine o'clock as was her wont. The
servants waited until ten o'clock, and even a little later. At last
the head maid went in. Not seeing the Empress in her room, she went to
the clothes-closet, and no sooner did she open the door than
Catherine's body fell upon the floor. It was impossible to discover at
what hour the apoplectic shock had touched her; however, her pulse was
still beating, and hope was not entirely given up. Never in my days
did I see such lively alarm spread so generally. For my part I was so
seized with pain and terror when apprised of the dreadful tidings that
my convalescing daughter, perceiving my state of prostration, became
again ill.
After dinner I hastened to Princess Dolgoruki's, whither Count
Cobentzel brought us the news every ten minutes from the palace. Our
anxiety continued to grow, and was unbearable for everybody, since not
only did the nation worship Catherine, but it had an awful dread of
being governed by Paul. Toward evening Paul arrived from a place near
St. Petersburg, where he lived most of the time. When he saw his
mother lying senseless, nature for a moment asserted her rights; he
approached the Empress, kissed her hand, and shed some tears.
Catherine II. finally expired at nine o'clock on the evening of
November 17, 1796. Count Cobentzel, who saw her breathe her last
sigh, at once came to inform us that she had ceased to live.
I confess that I did not leave Princess Dolgoruki's devoid of fear, in
view of the general talk as to a probable revolution against Paul. The
immense mob I saw on my way home in the palace square by no means
tended to comfort me; nevertheless, all those people were so quiet
that I soon concluded, and rightly, we had nothing to fear for the
moment. The next morning the populace gathered again at the same
place, giving vent to its grief under Catherine's windows in
heartrending cries. Old men and young, as well as children, called to
their "matusha" (little mother), and between their sobs lamented that
they had lost everything. This day was the more depressing as it
augured so sadly for the Prince succeeding to the throne.
The Empress's body was exposed six weeks in a large room at the
palace, lit up day and night and gorgeously decorated. Catherine was
laid out on a bed of state and surrounded by shields bearing the arms
of all the towns in the empire. Her face was uncovered, her beautiful
hand resting on the bed. All the ladies--of whom some took turn in
watching by the body--bent to kiss that hand, or pretended to. I, who
had never kissed it in her lifetime, did not dare to kiss it now, and
even avoided looking at Catherine's face, which would have left too
bad an impression on my memory.
After his mother's death, Paul at once had his father Peter
disinterred; he had been buried for thirty-five years in the convent
of Alexander Nevski. Nothing was found in the coffin but bones and a
sleeve of Peter's uniform. Paul desired the same honours rendered to
these remains as to Catherine's. He had them exhibited in the middle
of the Church at Kazan; the watch service was performed by old
officers, friends of Peter III, whom his son had pressed to come, and
whom he loaded with honours. The day of the funeral having arrived,
Peter III.'s coffin, on which his son had placed a crown, was put with
great ceremony beside Catherine's, and both were conveyed to the
Citadel, Peter's preceding, it being Paul's wish to humble his
mother's ashes. I saw the marvellous procession from my window as one
sees a play from a box in the theatre. Before the Emperor's coffin
rode a horseman of the guard, clad from top to toe in golden armour;
but the man riding in front of the Empress's coffin wore only steel
armour. The murderers of Peter III. were, by order of his son, obliged
to act as pall-bearers. The new Emperor walked in the procession on
foot, bareheaded, with his wife and the whole court, which was very
numerous, and attired in deep mourning. The women wore long trains and
enormous black veils. They were obliged to walk in the snow, at a very
low temperature, from the palace to the fortress, where Russia's
sovereigns were laid to rest, a long distance on the other side of the
Neva. Mourning was ordered for six months. The women's hair was
brushed back, and their headgear came to a point on the forehead,
which did not improve their looks at all. But this slight
inconvenience was insignificant compared to the deep anxiety to which
the Empress's death gave rise throughout the whole empire.