daughter-in-law, or to allow Peter to accede to the highest seat in the land, at great risk to Russia. She rather hoped that events would take care of themselves.
Precisely at that time, Field Marshal Apraxin fortuitously made up his mind (after she had begged him many times to take action) to launch a vast offensive against the Prussians. In July 1757, Russian troops captured Memel and Tilsitt; in August of the same year, they crushed the enemy at Gross Jaegersdorff. These victories reinvigorated Elizabeth and she celebrated with a Te Deum, while Catherine, to please her, organized festivities in the gardens of Oranienbaum. The only sad face in this rejoicing nation was the Grand Duke Peter’s. Never mind that he was heir to the throne of Russia and that this series of Russian successes should delight him; he could not get over the defeat of his idol, Frederick II.
The devil must have heard his recriminations - at the very moment when the jubilant crowds in St. Petersburg were shouting “On, to Berlin! On, to Berlin!” and demanding that Apraxin continue his conquest until the very destruction of Prussia, news came that transformed the unanimous enthusiasm into utter amazement. Couriers dispatched by the command affirmed that, after a brilliant beginning, the Field Marshal was beating a retreat and that his regiments had abandoned the occupied terrain on the
«208»
Her Majesty and Their Imperial Highnesses spot, leaving behind equipment, ammunition and weapons. This flight seemed so inexplicable that Elizabeth suspected a plot. The Marquis de l’Hopital, who (at the request of Louis XV) was assisting the tsarina to formulate her opinions in these difficult moments, was not far from thinking that the surprising defection of the Field Marshal might not be news to Alexis Bestuzhev and the Grand Duchess Catherine, both in the pay of England and favorable to Prussia.
The ambassador made comments to that effect, and his remarks were reported at once to the tsarina. In a burst of energy, she set out to punish the culprits. To begin with, she recalled Apraxin and assigned him to house arrest, naming his second lieutenant, Count Fermor, to head the army. However, she reserved her principal resentment for Catherine. She would like to prevail, once and for all, against that woman whose marital infidelities she once had tolerated but whose political scheming was beyond the pale. Elizabeth should put an end to her meddling and to all the nonsense kicked up by the comical Prussian clique that was gathered around the grand- ducal couple at Oranienbaum.
Too bad - this was not the time to strike. Catherine was pregnant again, and therefore “sacred” in the eyes of the nation.
She was off limits, for the time being. Whatever her flaws, it was better to leave her in peace until she gave birth. And again, who was the father? Surely not the grand duke who, since his little operation, had reserved all his attentions for Elizabeth Vorontsov, the niece of the Vice Chancellor. This mistress, who was neither beautiful nor spiritual, but whose vulgarity was reassuring to him, completely took his mind off his wife. And he didn’t care one bit that his wife had a lover, and that it was he who had made her pregnant. He even joked about it, in public. Catherine was nothing to him now but an annoying woman who brought him dishonor, to whom he had been married in his youth, without anyone
«209»
Terrible Tsarinas asking his opinion. He put up with her and tried to stay away from her during the day - and especially at night. She, for her part, feared that Poniatowski, the child’s natural father, would be dispatched to the end of the world by the tsarina. At her request, Alexis Bestuzhev interceded with Her Majesty to persuade her to delay Poniatowski’s “new assignment” (to Poland) until the birth of the child. He managed to convince her; and Catherine, relaxed, prepared for the event.
Significant contractions gripped her during the night of December 18, 1758. Alerted by her groans, the grand duke was first at her bedside. He was dressed in a Prussian uniform, with boots and sword, spurs at the heels and a commander’s sash across his chest. Staggering and mumbling, he declared in a wine-soaked voice that he had come with his regiment to defend his legitimate wife against the enemies of the fatherland. He quickly departed, not wishing to have the Empress discover him in such a state, and went off to ferment in his alcohol. Her Majesty arrived soon after, just in time to see her daughter-in-law delivered by the midwife.
Taking the baby in her arms, she examined it like a connoisseur.
It was a girl. Too bad - they would have to make do. This was not the end of the world, since the succession was ensured by little Paul. Catherine, seeking to sweeten up her mother-in-law, proposed naming her daughter Elizabeth. But Her Majesty was in no humor for flattery. She said that she preferred to name the child the child Anna, after her elder sister and the grand duke’s mother. Then, having had the baby baptized, she savagely took it away, as she had done four years earlier with the brother of this useless infant.
Having gotten past this family episode, Elizabeth devoted herself to settling the Apraxin affair. The Field Marshal, discredited and dismissed after his incomprehensible reversal vis-a-vis the Prussian army that he had just conquered, was struck by a
«210»
Her Majesty and Their Imperial Highnesses severe attack of “apoplexy” just at the conclusion of his first interrogation. Before dying, and while denying his culpability, he admitted having corresponded with the grand duchess, Catherine.
However, Elizabeth had formally forbidden her daughter-in-law from writing to anyone without informing those who were charged with keeping watch over her; this was, therefore, an unforgivable crime of rebellion.
Those close to the tsarina stoked her suspicions against the grand duchess, Chancellor Alexis Bestuzhev and even Stanislaw Poniatowski, who were all suspected of intelligence on behalf of Prussia. Vice Chancellor Vorontsov, whos e niece was the grand duke’s mistress and who, for a long time, had dreamed of replacing Bestuzhev, singled out Catherine - he blamed her for all of Russia’s diplomatic and military misfortunes. He constantly attacked the Shuvalov brothers (whose nephew Ivan was Elizabeth’s favorite). Even the ambassador of Austria, Count Esterhazy, and the ambassador of France, the Marquis de l’Hopital, supported the denigration campaign against Alexis Bestuzhev.
How could the tsarina fail to be impressed by such eager denunciations? After having listened to this concert of reproaches, Elizabeth made her decision.
One day in February 1759, while Bestuzhev was attending a ministerial briefing, he was accosted and arrested without explanation. During a searching of his residence, investigators discovered some letters from the grand duchess and Stanislaw Poniatowski. Nothing compromising, certainly; however, in this climate of obscure revenge, the pettiest evidence was sufficient for settling scores. Of course, in every country, anyone who meddles in high politics runs the risk of being cast down as quickly as he may have risen to the top. But, among the so-called civilized nations, the risks are limited to a reprimand, dismissal or early retirement; in Russia, the land of disproportion, culprits could be
«211»
Terrible Tsarinas condemned to ruin, to exile, torture, even death. Catherine, as soon as she felt the chill air of repression tickling the nape of her neck, burned all her old letters, rough drafts, personal notes, and lists of accounts. She hoped that Bestuzhev had taken the same precautions.
