Terrible tsarinas

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Another Catherine! kept you here… But you are extremely proud! You think that nobody has a better mind than you!” At these words, flouting the instructions he had been given, Peter stepped forward and interjected, “She is terribly spiteful and incredibly stubborn!”

“You must be speaking about yourself!” retorted Catherine.

“I have no problem telling you in front of Her Majesty that I really am malicious with you, who advise me to do things that are wrong, and that I certainly have become stubborn since I see that by being agreeable I only earn your spite!”

Before the discussion degenerated into an everyday domestic conflict, Elizabeth sought to regain control. Confronted by this teary woman, she had almost forgotten that the alleged victim of society was a faithless wife and a conspirator. Now, she went on the attack. Pointing to the letters in the gold dish, she said, “How dared you to send orders to Field Marshal Apraxin? “I simply asked him to follow your orders,” murmured Catherine.

“Bestuzhev says that there were many more!”

“If Bestuzhev says that, he lies!” ‘Well, if he is lying, then I will have him put to torture!” exclaimed Elizabeth, giving her daughter-in-law a fatal glance.

But Catherine did not stumble; indeed, the first passe d’armes had boosted her confidence. And it was Elizabeth who suddenly felt ill at ease in this interrogation. To calm herself, she began to pace up and down the length of the room. Peter took advantage of the hiatus to launch out in an enumeration of his wife’s misdeeds.

Exasperated by the invectives from her little runt of a nephew, the tsarina was tempted to side with her daughter-in-law, whom she had just condemned a few minutes before. Her initial jealousy of the young and attractive creature gave way to a kind of female complicity, over the barrier of the generations. In a moment, she