After Easter he had a marionette theater set up in his room and he invited many people, even ladies. This made for the most insipid spectacle in the world. The room in which this theater was located had a door that had been walled up because it led to another which opened onto the Empress’s apartment, where there was a mechanical table that one could raise and lower in order to eat there without servants.44 One day the Grand Duke, in his room preparing his so-called spectacle, heard conversation in the other, and in his rash eagerness, he took from the theater a carpenter’s tool that was used to make holes in boards and began to drill the boarded door full of holes so that he could see everything that was happening, namely the dinner that the Empress was having there. The Grand Master of the Hunt Count Razumovsky, in a brocaded house robe (he had taken medicine that day), and a dozen other of the Empress’s closest confidants were dining there with her. His Royal Highness, not content to enjoy the fruits of his clever labor alone, called his entire entourage so they could amuse themselves by looking through the holes that he had just made with such industry. He did more: when he and those around him had had their fill of this indiscreet pleasure, he invited Madame Kruse and me and my ladies to come to his apartment to see something that we had never seen. He did not tell us what it was, apparently so as to arrange for us a pleasant surprise. Because I did not come quickly enough to satisfy him, he took Madame Kruse and my ladies; I arrived last and found them sitting before the door, where he had set up benches, chairs, and stools for the comfort of the spectators, so he said. As I entered, I asked what this was; he ran to me and told me what was happening. I was horrified and indignant at his temerity, and I told him that I wanted neither to look nor to take part in this scene, which would surely bring him grief if his aunt learned of it, and I told him that it would be hard for her not to find out because he had shared his secret with at least twenty people; all those who had been willing to look through the door, seeing that I did not wish to do the same, began to walk away, one by one.45 The Grand Duke himself became a little sheepish about what he had done and went back to working with his marionette theater, and I returned to my room. We heard no mention of anything until Sunday, but that day for some reason I arrived a little later than usual at mass. Back in my room, I was going to remove my court dress when the Empress entered looking slightly flushed and very irritated. Since she had not been at mass in the chapel but had attended the divine service in her little private chapel, as soon as I saw her, I approached her as was my custom to kiss her hand, since I had not yet seen her that day. She kissed me, sent for the Grand Duke, and while waiting scolded me for having come late to mass and for preferring finery to the good Lord. She added that during the reign of Empress Anna, although she had not resided at the court but in a house a good distance from it, she had never failed to perform her duties and had often risen before dawn to fulfill them.46 Then she sent for my chamber valet in charge of wigs and told him that if in the future he coiffed me so slowly, she would have him dismissed. When she had finished with all this, the Grand Duke, who had undressed in his room, entered in a dressing robe, night-cap in hand, looking quite joyful and carefree, and ran to kiss the hand of the Empress, who kissed him and began to ask him where he had found the temerity to do what he had done, that she had gone into the room with the mechanical table, that she had found the door full of holes, and that all these holes opened toward the place where she normally sat, that apparently in doing this he had forgotten everything that he owed her, that she could only consider him ungrateful, that her own father Peter I had also had an ingrate for a son, whom he had punished and disinherited,47 that at the time of the Empress Anna, she had always shown her the respect owed to one who wore a crown and who was anointed by God, that that Empress did not tolerate pranks and had those who failed to show her respect locked in the fortress, that he was nothing but a little boy and that she would show him how to behave. At this he began to get angry and wanted to reply to her, and to that end he stammered a few words, but she ordered him to be silent, and got so angry that she no longer controlled her fury, which often happened when she got upset, and she insulted him and said all kinds of shocking things, showing him as much disdain as anger. We were both stupefied and speechless, and although this scene was not aimed directly at me, I had tears in my eyes. She noticed this and said to me, “What I say is not meant for you. I know that you did not take part in what he did and that you neither looked nor wanted to look through the door.” This just observation calmed her a little and she fell silent, and indeed it was difficult to add anything to what she had just said. After this she said good-bye and left for her apartment extremely red in the face and with her eyes flashing. The Grand Duke returned to his apartment, and I removed my dress in silence, ruminating on all that I had just heard. When I was undressed, the Grand Duke came to find me, and he said to me in a tone that was half contrite and half sarcastic, “She was like a fury and did not know what she was saying.” I replied, “She was in an extreme fit of anger.” We discussed what we had just heard, after which we dined together alone in my room.
When the Grand Duke had returned to his apartment, Madame Kruse entered my room and said to me, “One must admit that today the Empress acted like a real mother.” I saw that she wanted to make me talk, and because of that I was silent. She continued, “A mother gets angry and scolds her children and then it passes. Both of you should have said to her, ‘, we beg your pardon, mother,’ and you would have disarmed her.” I told her that I was overwhelmed and astounded by Her Majesty’s fury and that all I was able to do at that moment was listen and be silent. She left my room, apparently to go make her report. For my part, the “I beg your pardon, mother” that would disarm the Empress’s anger stayed in my head, and thereafter I had occasion to use it with success, as will be seen later.
Sometime before the Empress dismissed Count Brümmer and the Grand Chamberlain Bergholz from their functions in the Grand Duke’s service, when I left my rooms earlier than usual one morning and went into the antechamber, Brümmer, who was nearly alone, used the occasion to talk to me. He begged and urged me to go into the Empress’s dressing room every morning, since upon her departure, my mother had obtained permission for me to do this, a privilege that I had taken little advantage of up until then because this prerogative greatly bored me.48 I had gone there one or two times and had found the Empress’s ladies, who little by little had withdrawn so that I remained alone. I told him this; he told me that this meant nothing and that I had to continue. To tell the truth, I understood nothing of this courtier’s perseverance; it might be useful for his purposes, but it did nothing for me to stand about in the Empress’s dressing room and still less to be a burden to her. I shared my disgust with Count Brümmer, but he did everything he could to persuade me, without success. I was happier in my own apartment, especially when Madame Kruse was not there. That winter I discovered that she was quite partial to drink, and as she was soon marrying off her daughter to Marshal of the Court Sievers, either she would go out or else my servants would find the means to get her drunk and then she would go to sleep. This would rid my room of this cantankerous Argus.49
Count Brümmer and Grand Chamberlain Bergholz having been dismissed from the Grand Duke’s service, the Empress named General Prince Vasily Repnin to attend the Grand Duke. This nomination was surely the best thing the Empress could do, because Prince Repnin was not only a man of honor and of probity, but he was also an intelligent and very gallant man, full of sincerity and loyalty. For my own part, I could only praise Prince Repnin’s conduct; as for Count Brümmer, I did not have great regrets. He bored me with his endless political discussions, which smacked of intrigue, while the honest and military character of Prince Repnin inspired trust in me. As for the Grand Duke, he was enchanted to be free of his tutors, whom he hated. Upon parting from him, however, they instilled in him a great fear that they were leaving him at the mercy of Count Bestuzhev’s plots, the mainspring of all these changes, w
hich were made under the plausible pretext of His Imperial Highness attaining his majority in his Duchy of Holstein. Prince August, my uncle, was still in Petersburg and overseeing the administration of the Grand Duke’s hereditary lands.
In May we went to the Summer Palace. At the end of May the Empress placed with me as chief governess Madame Choglokova, one of her maids of honor and a relative.50 This was a serious blow for me, since this woman was entirely on the side of Count Bestuzhev, extremely simple-minded, cruel, capricious, and very self-serving. Her husband, the Empress’s chamberlain, had at that time gone to Vienna with I know not what commission. I cried a great deal when she arrived and for the rest of the day; I had to be bled the following day. The morning before my bloodletting, the Empress came into my room, and seeing my red eyes, said to me that young women who did not love their husbands always cried, but that my mother had assured her that I had no aversion to marrying the Grand Duke, and that besides, she would not have forced me to do it, but that since I was married, I should not cry anymore. I remembered Madame Kruse’s instructions, and I said to her, “, I beg your pardon, mother,” and she was appeased. Meanwhile the Grand Duke arrived, whom the Empress greeted graciously this time, and then she left. I was bled, and in this instance I needed it greatly; then I went to bed and cried all day long. The following day the Grand Duke took me aside after dinner, and I saw clearly that he had been informed that Madame Choglokova had been placed with me because I did not love him. But as I told him, I did not understand how they believed they would increase my tenderness for him by giving me this woman. To serve as my Argus was another matter, but for this, it would have been necessary to choose someone less stupid, and certainly this position required more than being cruel and malevolent. Madame Choglokova was believed to be extremely virtuous because at that time she loved her husband adoringly; she had married him out of love. Such a fine example, placed before me, was perhaps meant to persuade me to do the same. We will see whether this succeeded.
Here is what precipitated this arrangement, or so it seems. I say “precipitated” because I think that since the beginning, Count Bestuzhev had always had the intention of surrounding us with his creatures. He would very much have liked to do the same with Her Imperial Majesty’s entourage, but there the matter was more complicated. Upon my arrival in Moscow, the Grand Duke had in his chambers three servants named Chernyshev, all three sons of grenadiers in the Empress’s bodyguard; they held the rank of lieutenant, a distinction that she had given them as recompense because they had put her on the throne. The eldest Chernyshev was a cousin of the other two, who were brothers. The Grand Duke had great affection for all three of them; they were his closest intimates and truly served him well, all three being big and well built, especially the eldest. The Grand Duke used him for all his commissions and sent him to my apartment several times a day. It was in him moreover that the Grand Duke confided when he did not wish to come see me. This man was a friend of and very close to my chamber valet Evreinov, and I often learned things by this channel that I would not have known otherwise. Both were greatly devoted to me in heart and soul, and I often gained insight from them into a great many matters that I would have acquired otherwise only with difficulty. I know not in what context, but one day the eldest of the Chernyshevs had said while speaking of me to the Grand Duke, she is not my fiancée, but yours.” This remark had made the Grand Duke laugh; he related it to me, and from that moment it had pleased His Imperial Highness to call me his fiancée, and when Andrei Chernyshev spoke with me, he called the Grand Duke your fiancé, To finish this joke, after our marriage, Chernyshev proposed to His Imperial Highness that he, Chernyshev, call me mother, “matushka,” and that I call him son, But since this son was a constant subject of conversation both for the Grand Duke, who loved this man dearly, and for me, who had great affection for him as well, my servants grew agitated, some out of jealousy, others out of fear for the consequences that could result both for them and for us.
One day when there was a masked ball at the court and I had returned to my room to change my dress, my chamber valet Timofei Evreinov took me aside and told me that he and all of my house servants were frightened by the danger into which they saw me rushing. I asked him what this could be; he said to me, “You are only making people talk and you are always thinking about Andrei Chernyshev.” “Well,” I said with my innocent heart, “what harm is there in that? He is my son. The Grand Duke loves him as much as and even more than I, and he is devoted and faithful to us.” “Yes,” he replied to me, “this is true. The Grand Duke can do as he pleases, but you do not have the same right. What you call kindness and affection because this man is faithful to you and serves you, your servants call love.” When he had pronounced this word, which I had not even suspected, I was struck as if by lightning, both by the judgment of my servants, which I found rash, and by the situation in which I found myself without even suspecting it. He told me that he had advised his friend Andrei Chernyshev to say that he was ill in order to put an end to this talk. He had taken Evreinov’s advice, and his supposed illness lasted until around the month of April. The Grand Duke was greatly concerned by this man’s illness and spoke to me constantly about it, knowing nothing of the truth. Andrei Chernyshev reappeared in the Summer Palace; I could no longer see him without embarrassment.
Meanwhile the Empress had seen fit to make a new arrangement for the court servants. They took turns serving in all the rooms, and consequently, Andrei Chernyshev did as the others. At that time the Grand Duke often held concerts in the afternoon; he played the violin himself. During one of these concerts, I grew bored as usual and went to my room, which led out to the great hall of the Summer Palace, whose ceiling was being painted and which was entirely filled with scaffolding. The Empress was absent, and Madame Kruse had gone to the house of her daughter, Madame Sievers; I did not find a single living soul in my room. Out of boredom I opened the door to the hall and saw at the other end Andrei Chernyshev. I made a sign for him to approach; he came to the door with, to be honest, a great deal of apprehension. I asked him if the Empress would return soon. He said to me, “I cannot speak to you, there is too much noise in the hall. Invite me into your room.” I replied to him, “That is something I will not do.” He was on one side of the door and I on the other, holding the door half open and speaking to him. A sudden movement made me turn my head away from the door next to which I was standing. Behind me at the other door of my dressing room I saw Chamberlain Count Devier, who said to me, “The Grand Duke is asking for you, Madame.” I closed the door to the hall and went with Count Devier into the apartment where the Grand Duke was having his concert. I learned afterward that Count Devier was a kind of spy charged with this mission, like several others close to us.
The following day, a Sunday, after mass the Grand Duke and I learned that the three Chernyshevs had been placed as lieutenants in the regiments near Orenburg, and that afternoon Madame Choglokova was placed in my entourage. A few days later, we were ordered to prepare to accompany the Empress to Revel.51 At the same time, Madame Choglokova came to tell me on behalf of Her Imperial Majesty that I had been excused from coming in the future into her dressing room and that if I had something to tell her, it should only be through her, Madame Choglokova. Deep down I was extremely happy with this order, which freed me from having to stand about waiting among the Empress’s women, and besides, I did not go there often and only saw Her Majesty very rarely. Since I had started going there, she had shown herself to me only three or four times, and little by little, one by one, the Empress’s ladies usually left the room when I entered; so as not to be alone, I did not stay there very long either.
In the month of June the Empress left for Revel and we accompanied her. The Grand Duke and I traveled in a four-seated carriage; Prince August and Madame Choglokova were our companions. Our manner of traveling was neither pleasant nor comfortable. The houses and way stations were occupied by the Empress; we were either given tents or else pl
aced in the servants’ quarters. I remember that one day during this trip I got dressed next to an oven in which they had just baked bread, and that another time when I walked in, there was water ankle-deep in the tent in which my bed had been set up. Moreover, as the Empress had no fixed hour either for departing or for arriving, nor for meals or rests, we were all, both masters and servants, exhausted to an extraordinary degree. Finally, after ten or twelve days of travel, we arrived at a property of Count de Stenbock at forty versts52 from Revel, from where the Empress departed with great ceremony, wishing to arrive at Catherinenthal during the day. But I know not how it happened that the journey lasted until one-thirty in the morning. During the whole journey from Petersburg to Revel, Madame Choglokova plunged our carriage into boredom and grief. She responded to the least remark that anyone made with, “Such talk would displease Her Majesty,” or “Such things would not be approved by the Empress.” She sometimes attached such judgments to the most innocent and the most unimportant things. I for one remained aloof. I did nothing but sleep during the journey in the carriage.
On the day following our arrival in Catherinenthal, the usual rhythm of the court recommenced; that is to say that from morning to evening and very late into the night, we played for rather high stakes in the Empress’s antechamber, which was a hall that divided the house and the three stories of this building in two. Madame Choglokova was a gambler. She urged me to play faro like all the others. All of the Empress’s favorites usually participated when they were not in Her Imperial Majesty’s apartment, or rather in her tent, because she had had a very large and magnificent one set up next to her chambers, which were on the ground floor and very small, in the manner that Peter I had normally had them constructed. He had built this country house and planted the garden. The Prince and Princess Repnin, who were on this trip and who knew that Madame Choglokova had conducted herself with arrogance and without common sense during the journey, urged me to speak about her with Countess Shuvalova and Madame Izmailova, the ladies highest in the Empress’s affections.53 These women did not like Madame Choglokova and they were already informed of what had happened; the little Countess Shuvalova, who was indiscretion itself, did not wait for me to talk with her about it, but sitting next to me during a card game, she herself began to speak of it, and since she had a very mocking tone, she so ridiculed Madame Choglokova’s conduct that the latter soon became everyone’s laughingstock. She went further. She recounted to the Empress all that had happened. Apparently Madame Choglokova was scolded, because she softened her tone toward me a great deal.
The Memoirs of Catherine the Great Page 15