Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman (111 page)

 1
The quotations appearing in this chapter are taken from Poniatowski’s
Memoires
, translated by R. Massie

 1
“Let the boy remain”: Kaus, 176

 2
“I had rather be the mother”: Ibid., 177

 3
“the terror which the enemy”: Duffy,
Frederick
, 171

 4
“If I were emperor”: Alexander, 55

 5
“I must make room here”: Kaus, 183

 6
“the head of an angel”: Ibid.

 7
“a man of pleasure”: Dashkova, 1:3

 8
“We spoke French fluently”: Ibid., 4

 9
“I may venture to assert”: Ibid., 13

10
“She captured my heart”: Ibid., 29

11
“My child, you would do well”: Ibid., 27

12
“You are a mere child”: Ibid., 29

13
“gained me a high degree of notoriety”: Ibid., 30

14
“I saw how little”: Ibid., 31

15
“He must be mad”: Oldenbourg, 230

16
“Of an army of forty-eight thousand”: Asprey, 520

17
“What is wrong with me”: Duffy,
Frederick
, 192

18
“I intend to continue the war”: Oldenbourg, 222

19
The account of Dashkova’s nocturnal visit and conversation with Catherine is from Dashkova, 1:32–35

20
“Her Imperial Majesty, Elizabeth Petrovna”: Haslip, 108

 1
“I did not think”: Bain,
Peter III
, 40

 2
“If, my little friend, you will take my advice”: Dashkova, 1:38

 3
“The moderation and clemency”; Bain,
Peter III
, 49

 4
“I can find nobody here”: Ibid.

 5
“the chief instrument of the Prussian party”: Ibid., 56

 6
“at a dinner”: Ibid.

 7
“resolved to get free”: Ibid., 57

 8
“We must make peace”: Ibid., 63

 9
“honor of all the valiant officers”: Ibid., 74

10
“nothing was omitted”: Ibid.

11
“out of compassion”: Ibid., 77

12
“the maintenance of solemn engagements”: Ibid., 79

13
“Frankly, I distrust these Russians”: Ibid., 116

14
“If the Russians had wanted”: Ibid., 117

 1
“It does not appear”: Bain,
Peter III
, 123

 2
“The empress is abandoned”: Ibid., 130

 3
“pot-house wench”: Ibid., 126

 4
“broad, puffy, pock-marked face”: Ibid.

 5
“Dura!”:
Madariaga,
Russia in the Age
, 27

 6
“It was then that I began to listen”: Bain,
Peter III
, 192

 7
“Your Majesty can have your revenge”: Ibid., 134

 8
“You already know too much”: Kaus, 214

 9
“Matushka, Little Mother, wake up!”: Anthony, 165

10
“Matushka, forgive us”: Madariaga,
Russia in the Age
, 29

11
“Heaven be praised!”: Dashkova, 1:81

12
“like a fifteen-year-old boy”: Ibid., 1:98

13
“I go now with the army”: Alexander, 9

14
“Didn’t I always tell you”: Bain,
Peter III
, 154

15
“We no longer have an emperor!”: Ibid., 160

16
“I accept the offer”: Ibid., 161

17
“I, Peter, of my own free will”: Kaus, 233

18
“like a child being sent to bed”: Ibid.

 1
“the greatest misfortune of my life”: Madariaga,
Russia in the Age
, 31

 2
“By what right”: Dashkova, 1:89

 3
“I realized with unspeakable pain”: Ibid., 1:90

 4
“I beg Your Majesty”: Peter’s letters from Ropsha to Catherine, Anthony, 176–77

 5
“Matushka, Little Mother”: Madariaga,
Russia in the Age
, 32,

 6
“His face wore an expression”: Oldenbourg, 252

 7
“We ourselves know not what we did”: Kaus, 244

 8
“My horror at this death”: Dashkova, 1:107

 9
“On the seventh day of our reign”: Kaus, 246

10
“might spare her health”: Troyat, 139

11
“Peter III had lost the few wits”: Bain,
Peter III
, 191

12
“it teaches us to be sober”: Cronin, 156

13
“The empress was quite ignorant of this crime”: Haslip, 133

14
“What do they say in Paris”: Anthony, 180

 1
“The least soldier of the guards”: Alexander, 67

 2
“You only did your duty”: Cronin, 172

 3
“I implore Your Majesty”: Dashkova, 1:97

 4
“the Princess Dashkova played only a minor part”: Haslip, 144,

 5
The exchange between Catherine and Betskoy is from Dashkova, 1:101–2, and Kaus, 240

 6
“a woman of middle height”: Scott Thomson, 85–86

 7
“the Lord has placed the crown”: Grey, 119

 8
“I cannot go out”: Ibid.

 1
“In the Treasury”: Waliszewski, 313

 2
“an ignominious peace”: Kaus, 239

 3
“no suitable costume”: Ibid.

 4
“Concerning the peace”: Ibid.

 5
“such a vast and limitless empire”: Haslip, 137

 6
“Full reports will be brought to me”: Ibid.,

 7
“Belonging herself to the nation”: Ibid.

 8
“I cannot say that you are lacking”: Madariaga,
Russia in the Age
, 44

 9
“the eye of the sovereign”: Ibid., 40

10
“In the Senate”: Ibid., 44–45

11
“You must know”: Ibid., 58

12
“sat like dumb dogs without barking”: Ibid., 116

13
“stretch out their hands”: Kaus, 254

14
“Our present sovereign”: Madariaga,
Russia in the Age
, 116

15
“Stop his mouth!”: Ibid. 301 Andrew the Liar: Ibid., 117

16
“You are the successors”: Kaus, 255

 1
“For sale, a barber”: Oldenbourg, 285

 2
“Anyone wishing to buy”: Waliszewski, 304

 3
“For sale: domestics and skilled craftsmen”: Grey, 122

 4
“If we do not agree”: Ibid., 164

 5
“There! You have the people free!”: Cronin, 262

 6
“What has disgusted me”: Grey, 122

 7
“I punished him”: Smith,
Pearl
, 105

 8
“This is one of my fiddlers”: Ibid. 312 “a miracle of color”: Ibid., 70

 9
“I had the most tender”: Ibid., 71

 1
“The men who surround me”: Haslip, 143

 2
“Perhaps you are right”: Alexander, 74

 3
“Tell Her Imperial Majesty”: Kaus, 271

 4
“everyone should go about his own business”: Ibid., 273

 5
“If the empress wants me to lay my head”: Haslip, 149

 6
“It is my earnest desire”: Dashkova, 1:128

 7
“There would never”: Smith,
Love and Conquest
, 9

 8
“You will not be surprised”: Haslip, 178

 1
“Take care!”: Kaus, 277

 2
“If the prisoner is insubordinate”: Ibid.

 3
“The prisoner is somewhat quieter”: Ibid.

 4
“painful and almost unintelligible stammering”: Ibid., 278

 5
“The prisoner shall not be allowed”: Ibid., 280

 6
“Release us”: Ibid.

 7
“Compliance with your request”: Ibid.

 8
“Make your own career, young man”: Ibid., 282

 9
“Not long had Peter III possessed”: Madariaga,
Russia in the Age
, 35

10
“If the others agree”: Kaus, 285

11
“Where is the emperor?”: Alexander, 91

12
“See, my brothers”: Kaus, 285

13
“The ways of God are wonderful”: Madariaga,
Russia in the Age
, 36

14
“she left here with an air”: Waliszewski, 264

15
“As regards the insult”: Kaus, 287

16
“loyally performing their duty”: Ibid., 288

17
“The manifesto she has issued”: Troyat, 167

18
“It seems to me that if I were on the throne”: Ibid.

19
“I am tempted to say to you”: Ibid.

 1
“Whatever style I possess”: Haslip, 157

 2
“The victorious nation never profits”: Durant, 10:151

 3
“Oh, mighty God, I believe”: Ibid., 9:750

 4
“Tell them I am very sick”: Ibid., 10:133

 5
“the highest and coldest garret”: Ibid.

 6
“hanged, drowned, broken on the wheel”: Ibid., 9:731

 7
“It took two hours”: Ibid., 9:733

 8
“I shall be coming to Paris”: Ibid., 10:392

 9
“For my part, I am consoled”: Ibid., 10:139

10
“He governed the whole civilized world”: Ibid., 9:784

11
“Since Voltaire died”: Anthony, 229

12
“these are family matters”: Gorbatov, 70

13
“I believe we must moderate”: Ibid.

14
“Semiramis of the North”: Durant, 9:448

15
“try to persuade the octogenarian”: Madariaga,
Russia in the Age
, 336

16
“in certain ways … a hundred”: Gorbatov, 177

17
“You and M. Diderot”: Durant, 9:719

18
“Go on, brave Diderot”: Ibid.

19
“It would be cruel”: Gooch, 60

20
“I prostrate myself”: Troyat, 177

21
“we are three who would build you altars”: Ibid., 178

22
“Thirty years of labor”: Ibid.

23
“I never thought”: Gorbatov, 156

24
“That door will be opened to you”: Oliva, 119

25
“my good lady”: Troyat, 207

26
“an extraordinary man”: Durant, 9:448

27
“I have listened”: Troyat, 207

28
“Now you sit beside Caesar”: Ibid., 209

29
“Madame, I am positively in disgrace”: Reddaway, 198

30
“Live, Monsieur”: Ibid., 199

31
“returned to her in chains”: Ibid., 200

 1
“one of the most remarkable political treatises”: Madariaga,
Russia in the Age
, 151

 2
“Russia is a European state”: Ibid., 153

 3
“it is much better to prevent than to punish crimes”: Reddaway, 225

 4
“productive of nothing”: Ibid., 288

 5
“The use of torture is contrary”: Ibid., 231

 6
“without any sensible inconveniences”: Ibid., 232

 7
“What right can give anyone authority”: Ibid., 244

 8
“All punishments by which the human body”: Ibid., 227

 9
“Some judges should be of the same rank”: Ibid., 232

10
“a civil society requires a certain established order”: Ibid., 256

11
“Why should they bother to be clean”: Haslip, 162

12
“These are axioms which will bring down walls”: Madariaga,
Russia in the Age
, 158

13
“I let them erase what they pleased”: Ibid.

14
“Since the Law of Nature”: Reddaway, 256

15
“I have decked myself out in peacock’s feathers”: Grey, 147

16
“I have robbed Montesquieu”: Troyat, 179

17
“would have been capable”: Troyat, 182

18
“the finest monument of the age”: Gooch, 67

19
“A masculine, nervous performance”: Troyat, 182

20
“I must warn Your Majesty”: Madariaga,
Russia in the Age
, 151

 1
“By this institution, we give to our people”: Alexander, 102

 2
“you will receive a letter”: Ibid., 103

 3
“There can be nothing more pleasant”: Ibid., 108

 4
“These laws, about which so much has been said”: Ibid., 109

 5
“There are so many objects”: Ibid.

 6
“Here, the people along the Volga”: Ibid., 110

 7
“The town rose high on a hill”: Kerensky, 3

 8
“to glorify yourselves and your country”: Alexander, 112

 9
“I brought them together to study laws”: Troyat, 181

10
“Have they really already lost”: Alexander, 115

11
“The peasant has his feelings”: Madariaga,
Russia in the Age
, 176

12
“The majority of votes”: Ibid., 159

13
“And have their throats cut from time to time”: Ibid., 160

14
“cannot have in present circumstances”: Ibid.

15
“A general emancipation”: Alexander, 116

16
“What had I not to suffer”: Anthony, 215

17
“The idea that the principal purpose”: Madariaga,
Catherine
, 34