Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/250

236 partizans from among the most powerful persons of the court; yet her mother failed herself in the circumspection she advised, and being too busy in state matters, was ordered by the empress to leave the kingdom.

Catharine could not, without great regret, see her mother depart; but the hope of the throne, which fortified her against other misfortunes, supported her under this, and a connection she soon formed drove it effectually from her mind.

A handsome and tolerably well-accomplished young man, named Soltikoff, found means at Oranienbaum to withdraw her fidelity from the grand duke. He was chamberlain to Peter, and not in the least suspected by him; but others saw clearer, and secretly found means to accuse him to the empress, who threatened him with Siberia. With the indignant air of innocence, he complained to the grand duke of the slander, appealed to him, and begged leave to retire to Moscow. The credulous prince believed him, undertook his defence, and obtained his pardon, while the affair occasioned a temporary return of kindness between Peter and Catharine, but Soltikoff still continued in favour, and the chancellor paid him great court, secretly persuading him to remove every respectable character from his master, and supply their places with vile and obscure persons. As soon as he had done this, Bestucheff complained of him to the empress, who sent him to Stockholm to notify to the king the birth of Paul Petrovitch, of whom the grand duchess had just been delivered, Oct. 1, 1754.

On his return, he was stopped, and desired to reside at Hamburgh. The grand duchess would have solicited his return, but the chancellor told her the consequences, and ambition silenced love. She, however, wrote to him, and frequently received answers; when all at once, the