Years passed--famous and glorious years for Russia. Peace within
her borders, and splendid victories gained over foreign enemies,
particularly over the Prussians. In songs of jubilee the people praised
and blessed their empress, whose wisdom had brought all to such a
glorious conclusion, and had made her country great, triumphant, and
happy.
The good Elizabeth! What had she to do with the victories of her
soldiers, with the happiness of her realm? She knew nothing of it, and
if peace prevailed throughout the Russian empire, it was absolutely
unknown in the imperial palace, where there was eternal war, a
never-ending feud! There the young Catharine contended with her husband,
whom she hated and abhorred; with Elizabeth, who saw in her a dangerous
rival. But it was an unequal struggle in which these two women were
engaged, for Elizabeth had on her side the power and dominion, while
Catharine had only her youth, her beauty, and her tears!
Elizabeth hated Catharine because she dared to remain young and
handsome, while she, the empress, saw that she was growing old, and her
charms were withering; and Catharine hated Elizabeth because the latter
denied her a right which the empress daily claimed for herself--the
right to choose a lover, and to love him as long as he pleased her.
She hated Elizabeth because the latter surrounded her with spies
and watchers, and required of her a strict virtue, a never-violated
matrimonial fidelity--fidelity to the husband who so far derided and
insulted his wife as to demand that she should receive into her circle
and treat with respect and kindness his own mistress, the Countess
Woronzow--fidelity to this husband, who had never shown her any thing
but contempt and neglect, and who had no other way of entertaining her
than teaching her to march in military fashion, and stand as a sentinel
at his door!
Wounded in her inmost being and her feminine honor, tired of the eternal
pin-prickings with which Elizabeth tormented her, Catharine retreated
into her most retired apartment, there in quiet to reflect upon her
dishonorable greatness, and yearningly to dream of a splendid future.
"For the future," said she, with sparkling eyes to her confidante,
Princess Daschkow, "the future is mine, they cannot deprive me of it.
For that I labor and think and study. Ah, when my future shall have
become the present, then will I encircle my brows with a splendid
imperial diadem, and astonish you with all my greatness and
magnificence."
"But you forget your husband!" smilingly interposed Princess Daschkow.
"He will a little obscure the splendor of your imperial crown, as he
will always be the first in the realm. He is the all-powerful emperor,
and you will be powerless, although an empress!"
Catharine proudly tossed her head, and her eyes flashed.
"I shall one day remember all the mortifications he has inflicted upon
me," said she, "and an hour will come when I shall have a reckoning with
him, and full retribution! Ah, talk not to me of my husband--Russian
emperors have never been immortal, and why should he be so?"