The Empire of Russia Part 29

The war still raged fiercely in Turkey with the usual vicissitudes of battles. The Danube at length became the boundary between the hostile armies, its wide expanse of water, its islands and its wooded sh.o.r.es affording endless opportunity for surprises, ambuscades, flight and pursuit. Under these circ.u.mstances war was prosecuted with an enormous loss of life; but as the wasting armies were continually being replenished, it seemed as though there could be no end to the strife.

Catharine had for some time been meditating a marriage for her son, the Grand Duke Paul. There was a grand duchy in Germany, on the Rhine, almost equally divided by that stream, called Darmstadt. It contained three thousand nine hundred square miles, being about half the size of the State of Ma.s.sachusetts, and embraced a population of nearly a million. The Duke of Darmstadt had three very attractive daughters, either one of whom, Catharine thought, would make a very suitable match for her son. She accordingly invited the three young ladies, with their mother, to visit her court, that her son might, after a careful scrutiny, take his pick. The brilliance of the prospective match with the tzar of all the Russias outweighed every scruple, and the invitation was eagerly accepted. Paul was cold as an iceberg, stubborn as a mule and crack-brained, but he could place on the brow of his spouse the crown of an empress. Catharine received her guests with the greatest magnificence, loaded them with presents, and finally chose one of them, Wilhelmina, for the bride of Paul. The marriage was solemnized on the 10th of November, 1773, with all the splendor with which the Russian court could invest the occasion, the festivities being continued from the 10th to the 21st of the month.

Catharine, with her own hand, kept up a regular correspondence with many literary and scientific men in other parts of Europe, particularly with Voltaire and Diderot, the ill.u.s.trious philosophers of France. Several times she sent them earnest invitations to visit her court. Diderot accepted her invitation, and was received with confiding and friendly attentions which no merely crowned head could have secured. Diderot sat at the table of the empress, and daily held long social interviews with her, conversing upon politics, philosophy, legislation, freedom of conscience and the rights of nations.

Catharine was charmed with the enthusiasm and eloquence of her guest, but she perfectly appreciated the genius and the puerility combined in his character.

"Diderot," said she, "is a hundred years old in many respects, but in others he is no more than ten."

The following letter from Catharine to Diderot, written with all the freedom of the most confidential correspondence, gives a clearer view of the character of Catharine's mind, and of her energy, than any description could give.

"Now we are speaking of haughtiness, I have a mind to make a general confession to you on that head. I have had great successes during this war; that I am glad of it, you will very naturally conclude. I find that Russia will be well known by this war. It will be seen how indefatigable a nation it is; that she possesses men of eminent merit, and who have all the qualities which go to the forming of heroes. It will be seen that she is deficient in no resources, but that she can defend herself and prosecute a war with vigor whenever she is unjustly attacked.

"Brimful of these ideas, I have never once thought of Catharine, who, at the age of forty-two, can increase neither in body nor in mind, but, in the natural order of things, ought to remain, and will remain, as she is. Do her affairs go on well? she says, so much the better. If they prosper less, she would employ all her faculties to put them in a better train.

"This is my ambition, and I have none other. What I tell you, is the truth. I will go further, and say that, for the sparing of human blood, I sincerely wish for peace. But this peace is still a long way off, though the Turks, from different motives, are ardently desirous of it. Those people know not how to go about it.

"I wish as much for the pacification of the unreasonable contentions of Poland. I have to do there with brainless heads, each of which, instead of contributing to the common peace, on the contrary, throws impediments in the way of it by caprice and levity. My emba.s.sador has published a declaration adapted to open their eyes. But it is to be presumed that they will rather expose themselves to the last extremity than adopt, without delay, a wise and consistent rule of conduct. The vortices of Descartes never existed anywhere but in Poland. There every head is a vortex turning continually around itself. It is stopped by chance alone, and never by reason or judgment.

"I have not yet received your _Questions_,[21] or your watches from Ferney. I have no doubt that the work of your artificers is perfect, since they work under your eyes. Do not scold your rustics for having sent me a surplus of watches. The expense of them will not ruin me. It would be very unfortunate for me if I were so far reduced as not to have, for sudden emergencies, such small sums whenever I want them.

Judge not, I beseech you, of our finances by those of the other ruined potentates of Europe. Though we have been engaged in war for three years, we proceed in our buildings, and every thing else goes on as in a time of profound peace. It is two years since any new impost was levied. The war, at present, has its fixed establishment; that once regulated, it never disturbs the course of other affairs. If we capture another Kesa or two, the war is paid for.

[Footnote 21: Questions sur l'Encyclopedie.]

"I shall be satisfied with myself whenever I meet with your approbation, monsieur. I likewise, a few weeks ago, read over again my instructions for the code, because I then thought peace to be nearer at hand than it is, and I found that I was right in composing them. I confess that this code will give me a considerable deal of trouble before it is brought to that degree of perfection at which I wish to see it. But no matter, it must be completed.

"Perhaps, in a little time, the khan of the Crimea will be brought to me in person. I learn, this moment, that he did not cross the sea with the Turks, but that he remained in the mountains with a very small number of followers, nearly as was the case with the Pretender, in Scotland, after the defeat at Culloden. If he comes to me, we will try to polish him this winter, and, to take my revenge of him, I will make him dance, and he shall go to the French comedy.

"Just as I was about to fold up this letter, I received yours of the 10th of July, in which you inform me of the adventure that happened to my 'Instruction'[22] in France. I knew that anecdote, and even the appendix to it, in consequence of the order of the Duke of Choiseul. I own that I laughed on reading it in the newspapers, and I found that I was amply revenged."

[Footnote 22: Her majesty's instruction for a code of laws.]

CHAPTER XXVI.

REIGN OF CATHARINE II.

From 1774 to 1781.

Peace with Turkey.--Court of Catharine II.--Her Personal Appearance and Habits.--Conspiracy and Rebellion.--Defeat of the Rebels.--Magnanimity of Catharine II.--Ambition of the Empress.--Court Favorite.--Division of Russia into Provinces.--Internal Improvements.--New Part.i.tion of Poland.--Death of the Wife of Paul.--Second Marriage of the Grand Duke.--Splendor of the Russian Court.--Russia and Austria Secretly Combine to Drive the Turks out of Europe.--The Emperor Joseph II.

In 1774 peace was concluded with Turkey, on terms which added greatly to the renown and grandeur of Russia. By this treaty the Crimea was severed from the Ottoman Porte, and declared to be independent. Russia obtained the free navigation of the Black Sea, the Bosporus and the Dardanelles. Immense tracts of land, lying on the Euxine, were ceded to Russia, and the Grand Seignior also paid Catharine a large sum of money to defray the expenses of the war. No language can describe the exultation which this treaty created in St. Petersburg. Eight days were devoted, by order of the empress, to feasts and rejoicings. The doors of the prisons were thrown open, and even the Siberian exiles were permitted to return.

The court of Catharine II. at this period was the most brilliant in Europe. In no other court was more attention paid to the most polished and agreeable manners. The expenditure on her court establishment amounted to nearly four millions of dollars a year. In personal appearance the empress was endowed with the attractions both of beauty and of queenly dignity. A cotemporary writer thus describes her:

"She is of that stature which is necessarily requisite to perfect elegance of form in a lady. She has fine large blue eyes, with eyebrows and hair of a brownish color. Her mouth is well-proportioned, chin round, with a forehead regular and open. Her hands and arms are round and white, and her figure plump. Her bosom is full, her neck high, and she carries her head with peculiar grace.

"The empress never wears rich clothes except on solemn festivals, when her head and corset are entirely set with brilliants, and she wears a crown of diamonds and precious stones. Her gait is majestic; and, in the whole of her form and manner there is something so dignified and n.o.ble, that if she were to be seen without ornament or any outward marks of distinction, among a great number of ladies of rank, she would be immediately esteemed the chief. She seems born to command, though in her character there is more of liveliness than of gravity.

She is courteous, gentle, benevolent and outwardly devout."

Like almost every one who has attained distinction, Catharine was very systematic in the employment of her time. She usually rose at about five o'clock both in summer and winter; and what seems most remarkable, prepared her own simple breakfast, as she was not fond of being waited upon. But a short time was devoted to her toilet. From eight to eleven in the forenoon she was busy in her cabinet, signing commissions and issuing orders of various purport. The hour, from eleven to twelve, was daily devoted to divine worship in her chapel.

Then, until one o'clock, she gave audience to the ministers of the various departments. From half past one till two she dined. She then returned to her cabinet, where she was busily employed in cares of state until four o'clock, when she took an airing in a coach or sledge. At six she usually exhibited herself for a short time to her subjects at the theater, and at ten o'clock she retired. Court b.a.l.l.s were not unfrequently given, but the empress never condescended to dance, though occasionally she would make one at a game of cards.

She, however, took but little interest in the game, being much more fond of talking with the ladies, generals and ministers who surrounded her. Even from these court b.a.l.l.s the very sensible empress usually retired, by a side door, at ten o'clock.

The empress informed herself minutely of every thing which concerned the administration of government. Her ministers were merely instruments in her hands executing her imperial will. All matters relating to the army, the navy, the finances, the punishment of crime and to foreign affairs, were reported to her by her ministers, and were guided by her decisions.

There must always be, in every government, an opposition party--that is, a party who wish to eject from office those in power, that they themselves may enjoy the loaves and fishes of governmental favor. This is peculiarly the case in an empire where a large cla.s.s of haughty n.o.bles are struggling for the preeminence. Many of the bigoted clergy were exasperated by the toleration which the empress enjoined, and they united with the disaffected lords in a conspiracy for a revolution. The clergy in the provinces had great influence over the unlettered boors, and the conspiracy soon a.s.sumed a very threatening aspect. The first rising of rebellion was by the wild population scattered along the banks of the Don. The rebellion was headed by an impostor, who declared that he was Peter III., and that, having escaped from those who had attempted his a.s.sa.s.sination, he had concealed himself for a long time, waiting for vengeance. This barbaric chieftain, who was called Pugatshef, very soon found himself at the head of fourteen thousand fierce warriors, and commenced ravaging oriental Russia. For a season his march was a constant victory. Many thousand Siberian exiles escaped from their gloomy realms and joined his standards. So astonishing was his success, that even Catharine trembled. Pugatshef waged a war of extermination against the n.o.bles who were the supporters of Catharine, in cold blood beheading their wives and children, and conferring their t.i.tles and estates upon his followers. The empress found it necessary to rouse all her energies to meet this peril. She issued a manifesto, which was circulated through all the towns of the empire, and raised a large army, which was dispatched to crush the rebellion. Battle after battle ensued, until, at last, in a decisive conflict, the hosts of Pugatshef were utterly cut up.

Still, this indefatigable warrior soon raised another army from the untamed barbarians of the Don, and, rapidly descending the Volga, attacked, by surprise, some Russian regiments encamped upon its banks, and routed them with fearful slaughter. The astronomer, Lovitch, a member of the imperial academy of sciences at St. Petersburg, was, at that time, under the protection of these regiments, surveying the route for a ca.n.a.l between the Don and the Volga. Pugatshef ordered his dragoons to thrust their pikes into the unfortunate man, and raise him upon them into the air, "in order," said he, "that he may be nearer the stars." They did this, and then cut him to pieces with their sabers.

The troops of Catharine pursued the rebels, encountered them in some intricate pa.s.ses of the mountains, whence escape was impossible, and overwhelmed them with destruction. Their vigorous leader, leaping from crag to crag, escaped, swam the Volga, crossed, in solitude, vast deserts, and made new attempts to rally partisans around him. But his last hour was sounded. Deserted by all, he was wandering from place to place, pursued like a wild beast, when some of his own confederates, basely betraying him, seized him, after a violent struggle, put him in irons, and delivered him to one of the officers of the Russian army.

The wretched man, preserving impenetrable silence, was conveyed to Moscow in an iron cage. Refusing to eat, food was forced down his stomach. The empress immediately appointed a commission for the trial of the rebel. She instructed the court to be satisfied with whatever voluntary confession of his crime he might make, forbidding them to apply the torture, or to require him to name his accomplices. The culprit was sentenced to have his hands and feet cut off, and then to be quartered. By order of the empress, however, he was first beheaded.

Eight of his accomplices were also executed, eighteen underwent the knout, and were then exiled to Siberia. Thus terminated a rebellion which cost the lives of more than a hundred thousand men.

Over those wide regions, whose exact boundaries are even now scarcely known, numerous nations are scattered, quite distinct in language, religion and customs, and so separated by almost impa.s.sable deserts, that they know but little of each other. These wilds, peopled by war-loving races, afford the most attractive field for military adventures. The energy and sagacity with which Catharine crushed this formidable rebellion added greatly to her renown. Tranquillity being restored, the empress, in order to crown a general pardon, forbade any further allusion whatever to be made to the rebellion, consigning all its painful events to utter oblivion. She even forbade the publication of the details of the trial, saying,

"I shall keep the depositions of Pugatshef secret, that they may not aggravate the disgrace of those who spurred him on."

The empress was ambitious to make her influence felt in every European movement, and she was conscious that, in order to command the respect of other courts, she must ever have a formidable army at her disposal.

In all the great movements of kings and courts this wonderful woman performed her part with dignity which no monarch, male or female, has ever surpa.s.sed. It is strange that it has taken so many centuries for the nations to learn that peace, not war, enriches realms. Had Russia abstained from those wars in which she has unnecessarily engaged, she might now have been the most wealthy and powerful nation on the globe.

Admitting that there have been many wars which, involving her national existence, she could not have avoided, still she has squandered countless millions of money and of lives in battles which were quite unnecessary. Russia, like the United States, is safe from all attacks from without. Had Russia employed the yearly earnings of the empire in cultivating the fields, rearing towns, and in extending the arts of industry and refinement, infinitely more would have been accomplished for her happiness and renown than by the most brilliant conquests. But Catharine, in her high ambition, seemed to be afraid that Europe might forget her, and she was eager to have her voice heard in the deliberations of every cabinet, and to have her banners unfurled in the march of every army.

There was an office, in the court of the empress, sanctioned by time in Russia, which has not existed in any other court in Europe. It perhaps originated from the fact that for about three fourths of a century Russia was almost exclusively governed by women. The court favorite was not merely the prime minister, but the confidential friend and companion of the empress. On the day of his installation he received a purse containing one hundred thousand dollars, and a salary of twelve thousand dollars a month. A marshal was also commissioned to provide him a table of twenty-four covers, and to defray all the expenses of his household. The twelve thousand dollars a month were for what the ladies call _pin money_. The favorite occupied in the palace an apartment beneath that of the empress, to which it communicated by a private stair-case. He attended the empress on all parties of amus.e.m.e.nt, at the opera, the theater, b.a.l.l.s, promenades and excursions of pleasure, and he was not allowed to leave the palace without express permission. It was also understood that he should pay no attention to any lady but the empress.

The year 1775 dawned upon Russia with peace at home and abroad.

Catharine devoted herself anew to the improvement of her subjects in education and all physical comforts. Prince Gregory Orlof had been for many years the favorite of the empress, but he was now laid aside, and Count Potemkin took his place.

Catharine now divided her extensive realms into forty-three great provinces, over each of which a governor was appointed. These provinces embraced from six to eight hundred thousand inhabitants.

There was then a subdivision into districts or circles, as they were called. There were some ten of these districts in each province, and they contained from forty to sixty thousand inhabitants. An entire system of government was established for each province, with its laws and tribunals, that provision might be made for every thing essential to the improvement and embellishment of the country. The governors of these provinces were invested with great dignity and splendor. The gubernatorial courts, if they may so be called, established centers of elegance and refinement, which it was hoped would exert a powerful influence in polishing a people exceedingly rude and uncultivated.

There were also immense advantages derived from the uniform administration of justice thus established. This new division of the empire was the most comprehensive reform Russia had yet experienced.

Thus the most extensive empire on the globe, with its geographical divisions so vast and dissimilar, was cemented into one h.o.m.ogeneous body politic.

Until this great reform the inhabitants of the most distant provinces had been compelled to travel to Petersburg and Moscow in their appeals to the tribunals of justice. Now there were superior courts in all the provinces, and inferior courts in all the districts. In all important cases there was an appeal to the council of the empress. Russian ships, laden with the luxuries of the Mediterranean, pa.s.sed through the Dardanelles and the Bosporus, and landed their precious freights upon the sh.o.r.es of Azof, from whence they were transported into the heart of Russia, thus opening a very lucrative commerce.

The Polish n.o.bles, a very turbulent and intractable race of men, were overawed by the power of Catharine, and the ma.s.ses of the Polish people were doubtless benefited by their transference to new masters.

Russia was far more benignant in its treatment of the conquered provinces, than were her banditti accomplices, Prussia and Austria.

The road to China, traversed by caravans, was long and perilous, through pathless and inhospitable wilds, where, for leagues, no inhabitant could be seen, and yet where a fertile soil and a genial clime promised, to the hand of industry, all the comforts and luxuries of life. All along this road she planted villages, and, by the most alluring offers, induced settlers to establish themselves on all portions of the route. Large sums of money were expended in rendering the rivers navigable.

In the year 1776, the grand d.u.c.h.ess, consort of Paul, who was heir to the throne, died in childbirth, and was buried in the same grave with her babe. About the same time Prince Henry of Prussia visited the Russian court to confer with Catharine upon some difficulties which had arisen in the demarcations of Poland. It will be remembered that in the division which had now taken place, the whole kingdom had not been seized, but a remnant had been left as the humble patrimony of Poniatowski, the king. In this interview with the empress, Prince Henry said,

"Madam, I see one sure method of obviating all difficulty. It may perhaps be displeasing to you on account of Poniatowski.[23] But you will nevertheless do well to give it your approbation, since compensations may be offered to that monarch of greater value to him than the throne which is continually tottering under him. The remainder of Poland must be part.i.tioned."

[Footnote 23: Poniatowski had been formerly a favorite of the empress.]

The empress cordially embraced the plan, and the annihilation of Poland was decreed. It was necessary to move slowly and with caution in the execution of the plan. In the meantime, as the grand d.u.c.h.ess had died, leaving no heir to the empire, the empress deemed it a matter of the utmost moment to secure another wife for the Grand Duke Paul, lest Russia should be exposed to the perils of a disputed succession. Natalia was hardly cold in her grave ere the empress proposed to Prince Henry, that his niece, the princess of Wirtemberg, should become the spouse of the grand duke. The princess was already betrothed to the hereditary prince of Hesse Darmstadt, but both Henry and his imperial brother, Frederic of Prussia, deemed the marriage of their niece with the prospective Emperor of Russia a match far too brilliant to be thwarted by so slight an obstacle. Frederic himself informed the prince of the exalted offer which had been made to his betrothed, and without much difficulty secured his relinquishment of his contemplated bride. Frederic deemed it a matter of infinite moment that the ties subsisting between Russia and Prussia should be more closely drawn. He wrote to his brother Henry of his success, and by the same courier invited the Grand Duke Paul to visit Berlin that he might see the new spouse designed for him. He also expressed his own ardent desire to become acquainted with the grand duke.