However, on his return Bentham was distracted by something much more alluring.
The object of his affections was Countess Sophia Matushkina, pretty niece and ward of Field-Marshal Prince Alexander Golitsyn, the Governor of Petersburg whose failures of command during the Russo-Turkish War were now obscured by the prestige of age. Samuel and the Countess, roughly the same age, met in the Field-Marshal's salon, fell in love and managed to meet twice a week. Their passion was fanned by the operatic intrigues made necessary by the disapproval of old Golitsyn and the interest shown by the whole Court. The Field-Marshal was against any courtship, yet alone marriage, between his ward and this English golddigger. The Empress, however, who combined mischief with a certain amorousness herself, let the Court know that she was thoroughly enjoying the scandal.
At this point, Samuel's ambitious imagination ran wild. 'If you have anything to say to me for or against a Matrimonial Connection,' he asked Jeremy, 'let me know.' He loved the girl - and her position, for he added disarmingly: 'She is heiress to two Rich People.' Samuel decided his love affair had caused such interest that it would help him get a job from the Empress, a novel sort of curriculum vitae, though one not unknown in Russia: 'I am fully disposed that a desire Her Majesty has to assist my Match goes a great way in disposing her in my favour ... she fully believes it was my Love induced me to offer my Services.' He also wrote letters to Field-Marshal Golitsyn declaring, 'it's already more than five months since I loved your niece'. This can only have further incensed the Field-Marshal, who banned the couple from seeing each other.
The courtiers relished this forbidden romance as much as the Empress - and, even while annexing the Crimea, Potemkin was also kept informed. It was a wonderful moment to be an Englishman in Petersburg and Samuel lived a dizzy social existence, bathing in the attention of magnates and countesses. Petersburg was full of Englishmen - Sir James Harris, and his successor as British envoy Alleyne Fitzherbert, patronized him. His only enemy among them was the permanent Scotsman at court - Dr Rogerson, that accomplished gambler and usually fatal doctor. Perhaps suspecting Bentham's motives, Rogerson told Catherine that Samuel was not worth meeting because he had a speech defect.7 This did not hold him back. Samuel's two best Russian friends were on Potemkin's staff, Princess Dashkova's son, Prince Pavel Mikhailovich Dashkov, and Colonel Korsakov, the engineer, both educated in Britain. The Russians took Bentham to the salons of all the magnates who kept open tables for foreigners. Here is a typical undated day in Samuel's social whirclass="underline" 'Breakfasted at Fitzherbert, dined by invitation at the Duchess of Kingston's [back on another visit], then to Prince Dashkov's, to Potemkin's but as he was not at home, went to Baroness Stroganov and from there to supper at Dashkov's.'8
Probably at Catherine's prompting, her favourite, Lanskoy, now intervened on Samuel's behalf, telling Sophia's aunt and mother that 'the Empress thought they did wrong to oppose the young Countess's inclinations ... This only irritated the aunt more.' There were few cities in the world, even in Italy, as well arranged for intrigue as Petersburg, where the Court itself set the pace and where battalions of servants made the business of sending notes, eavesdropping and watching for secret signs at windows cheap and comprehensive. So, aided by his friends, Samuel and Sophia enjoyed Romeo and Juliet scenes on balconies in the dim gardens of palaces. Valets and coachmen bore secret letters that were pressed into manicured hands. Countess Sophia let down perfumed epistles to Sam from her windows.9 Samuel, intoxicated by the grandeur of those involved in his affairs, suffered from the delusion common to many in love that they are the centre of the known world. He felt the very cabinets of Europe had forgotten wars and treaties, and were exclusively discussing his trysts.
Therefore when Potemkin returned triumphantly with the Crimea and Georgia at his feet, Samuel was convinced that Serenissimus' first question would be about his love. The Prince was much more interested in the Englishman's shipbuilding potential. But he knew from his courtiers that Bentham's affair was doomed. The Empress may have liked teasing the Golitsyns - but she was never going to support an Englishman against the scions of Gedimin of Lithuania. So Lanskoy, imperial intervention manifested in flesh, intervened again: the affair must end.
On 6 December, the crestfallen Samuel called on the Prince, who had Korsakov offer him a job at Kherson. Samuel resisted Potemkin's offer - still hoping Countess Sophia's love would lead to marriage. But it was all over. Petersburg was no longer such fun. Samuel resolved to leave 'out of delicacy' to the pining Countess, so he accepted the job. Potemkin appointed him lieutenant- colonel with a salary of 1,200 roubles a year and 'much more for table money'. The Prince had many plans for young Samuel - he was going to move his dockyards below the bar in the Dnieper and he wanted Samuel to erect his various mechanical inventions 'under his command'.
The fortunate Colonel was now almost in love with Potemkin, like so many Westerners before and after him. It is interesting how Bentham perceived the Prince's unique position: 'his immediate command is all the Southern part of the country and his indirect command is the whole Empire'. The melodramatic lover of the months before was now replaced by Potemkin's self-congratulatory protege: 'While I enjoy the share of the Prince's good opinion and confidence which I flatter myself I possess at present, my situation cannot be disagreeable. Everything I propose to him, he accedes to.' When the Prince was interested in someone, he treated him with more respect than all the generals of the empires of Europe put together: now Samuel was that person. 'I go to him at all times. He speaks to me whenever I come into the room giving me the bonjour and makes me sit down when the stars and ribbons may come ten times without his asking them to sit down or even looking at them.'
Potemkin's idiosyncratic management style bemused Colonel Bentham: 'as to what employment I am to have at Kherson or elsewhere ...'. Serenissimus also mentioned 'an Estate on the Borders of Poland ... One day he talks of a new port and dockyard below the Bar, another he talks about my erecting windmills in the Crimea. A month hence I may have a regiment of Hussars and be sent against ... the Chinese and then command a ship of 100 guns.' He was to end up doing almost all of the above. He certainly could not complain that working for Potemkin was going to be boring. However, as to his immediate destiny, he could only inform his brother: 'I can tell you nothing.'
On 10 March 1784, the Prince abruptly departed from Petersburg for the south, leaving Bentham's arrangements to Colonel Popov, his head of Chancellery.10 At midnight on Wednesday, 13 March, Bentham followed in a convoy of seven kibitkas. Samuel kept a diary of these days: he arrived in
Moscow on Saturday to meet Potemkin. When he presented himself to the Prince on Sunday morning in his usual frockcoat, Serenissimus called in ever- ready Popov, told him to list the boy in the army, cavalry or infantry, whichever he liked - he chose the infantry - and put on his lieutenant-colonel's uniform." Henceforth Bentham always wore his green coat with scarlet lapels, scarlet waistcoat with gold lace, and white breeches.12
A season of travelling with the Prince round his empire was a privilege accorded to very few foreigners - but Potemkin only tolerated those who were the best company. For six months, Samuel travelled round the Empire 'always in the same carriage' as Potemkin: 'The journey I have been making this spring with the Prince, to me who do not think much of fatigue, has been in every respect highly agreeable ... I had not for a long time spent my time so merrily.'13 They headed south via Borodino, Viazma and Smolensk, passed through Potemkin's estates at Orsha on the upper Dnieper, noting that Potemkin's leather tannery already employed two tanners from Newcastle. They then headed off to Potemkin's southern headquarters, Kremenchuk. Bentham must have been with the Prince when he inaugurated his new Viceroyalty of Ekaterinoslav. They were in the Crimea by early June: they must have visited the new naval base at Sebastopol together. On the road, Lieutenant-Colonel Bentham experienced the way that Potemkin ran his empire from the back of a speeding sledge that travelled thousands of versts in a spray of ice.