Scarface courted her, wrote her love letters, let her use his carriage and took her to the theatre. None of the Russians was allowed to sit down in her presence, as if she really was a member of the imperial family. But he also claimed to be furious that Potemkin had replaced his brother Prince Orlov and offered to use his fleet to help her mount the throne in order to return his family to their rightful place beside a new empress. His deception may have been a most pleasurable game: it seems she did become his mistress and that the affair lasted eight days. Maybe the girl believed that he was in love with her and she was successfully gulling him. In such heartless matters of state, Scarface was a master. His marriage proposal baited the trap.
He invited her to inspect his fleet at Livorno. She accepted. The squadron was commanded by a plainspoken Scottish vice-admiral, Samuel Greig, one of the architects of Chesme. Greig agreed to welcome the Princess, two Polish noblemen, two valets and four servants, all Italians, aboard with imperial honours. There she found a priest awaiting them, surrounded by the crew in ceremonial uniforms. Imperial salvoes were fired; sailors hailed her, 'Long Live the Empress!' The priest chanted a blessing over 'Princess Elisabeth' and Orlov-Chesmensky. It is said she wept with joy as all her dreams came true.
When she looked around, the Count was no longer beside her. His myrmidons seized 'the villain', as Orlov-Chesmensky reported to his Empress in Moscow, and took her below. As the ship headed for Petersburg, we know that Potemkin was in correspondence with Orlov-Chesmensky - some of the letters have survived and they would certainly have discussed this affair. Catherine shared Scarface's letters with him. 'My honey, my sweetheart,' she wrote at the time of the kidnapping, 'send me the letter[s] from ... Co[unt] Al[exei] Gr[igorevich] Orlov.' In April, the couple discussed the reward due to Krestinek for his effective if distasteful work in reeling in the adventuress. Many felt that Greig's role in this dubious kidnapping on foreign soil was unbecoming in a British officer, but no evidence has reached us that the admiral, who was set on making a career in Russian service, had any compunction about kidnapping a young woman, especially as he was personally thanked in Moscow by Catherine herself.
The 'Princess' arrived in Petersburg on 12 May and was immediately delivered under cover of darkness to the Peter and Paul Fortress, though legend says she was kept for a while in one of Potemkin's suburban residences. Field-Marshal Golitsyn, Governor of Petersburg, interrogated her to learn who backed her and if she really believed her story. It seems that, like many of those who are able to convince followers of deceptions, she believed her own stories: Golitsyn reported to Catherine that 'the story of her life is filled with fantastic affairs and rather resembles fairy-tales'. Catherine and
Potemkin would have followed this interrogation with interest. In the fevered imaginations of Russian peasants, crazier stories had created armies. But when the 'Princess' wrote to Catherine asking for an interview, and signed herself 'Elisabeth', the Empress turned on her: 'Send someone to tell the notorious woman that if she wishes to lighten her petty fate, then she should cease playing comedy.'31
While Catherine and Potemkin celebrated victory in Moscow, 'Princess Elisabeth', who already suffered from tuberculosis, was kept in a damp cell where she dwelt in her castles in the air. She pathetically appealed for better conditions in her letters to Catherine. But she did not exist any more. No one heard her. Just as Catherine had turned a blind eye to Peter's murder and had arranged for Ivan's jailers to kill him if necessary, now the consumptive girl was abandoned. There were two floods in St Petersburg in June and July of that summer and a greater one in 1777, so the legend grew that the shivering beauty had been gradually drowned as the waters rose in her subterranean cell. This was the image recreated in Flavitsky's chilling portrait. It was also claimed that she died giving birth to Orlov-Chesmensky's child and that he was tormented with guilt - an unlikely sentiment in his case.
She is known to history by one of the few imaginable titles she had not used herself: 'Princess Tarakanova', literally 'of the cockroaches'. The name derived from her claims to be the child of Alexei Razumovsky, whose nephews were called Daraganov - which may have become 'Tarakanov'. But 'Princess of the Cockroaches' could also have come from the image of the insects who were the sole companions of her last days.32 While the Empress was preparing to return to the capital, 'Princess Elisabeth' perished of consumption on 4 December 1775. She was twenty-three. Her body was hastily and secretly buried - another inconvenience snuffed out.33
When the Grand Duke Paul and the Court returned from the Kolomenskoe Palace outside town on 6 July 1775, even dour Moscow must have been incandescent with excitement, teeming with soldiers, princes, ambassadors, priests and ordinary folk, all ready for ten days of partying. The celebrations, the first political spectacular arranged by Potemkin, were designed to reflect Russia's victorious emergence from six years of war, pestilence and rebellion. Eighteenth-century festivities usually involved triumphal arches and fireworks. The arches, based on the Roman model, were sometimes made of stone but more usually of canvas, wood-bunting or papier-mache. Notes flew between Empress and Potemkin over every detaiclass="underline" 'Have you received the people working on the feu d'artifice for the peace?', she asked him.34
The intricacy and scale of the arrangements put everyone on edge. When Simon Vorontsov arrived with his troops, 'I presented to ... Potemkin the state in which my regiment was and he gave me his word he would not make us do exercises or public inspections for three months ... But ten days later, against his word, he sent me to say that the Empress with all her Court would come to see the exercises ... I understand that he wanted me to lose face in public .. Л The next day, they argued violently.35
On 8 July, the hero of the war, Field-Marshal Rumiantsev, approached the city. Potemkin sent a fond, respectful note to 'batushka' Rumiantsev arranging to meet him at Chertanova, 'where the marquee [of the triumphal arch] is ready', signing off, 'Your most humble and faithful servant, G. Potemkin.' Potemkin then rode out and brought the Field-Marshal to Catherine's apartments.
On the 10th, the imperial entourage walked from the Prechinsky Gate to the Kremlin. Potemkin had stage-managed a splendid show to convince foreign observers of the ascendancy of this victorious Empress. 'Every street in the Kremlin was filled with soldiers ... a great dais ... draped in red cloths, and all the walls of the cathedrals and other buildings, were lined with rows of tiered seats to create a vast amphitheatre ... But nothing can compare with the magnificent sight which greeted us with the procession of the Empress ...'. As the earth literally shook with the 'sound and thunder' of ringing bells, the Empress, wearing a small crown and purple cloak lined with ermine, progressed back to the Cathedral with Rumiantsev on her left and Potemkin on her right. Over her head, twelve generals bore a purple canopy. Her train was carried by Chevaliers-Gardes, in red and gold uniforms with glittering silver helmets and ostrich plumes. Her entire Court followed 'in gorgeous dress'. At the door of the Uspensky, the Empress was greeted by her bishops. Solemn mass was performed, the 'Те Deum' sung. 'We were entranced,' recalled a spectator.36
After the service, the Empress held a ceremony of decoration in the Faceted Hall. Catherine surrounded by her four field-marshals, distributed the prizes of victory. She granted Rumiantsev the title suffix of 'Zadunaisky' - literally 'Beyond the Danube'. This dashing surname was Potemkin's idea - Catherine asked him earlier: 'My friend, is it still necessary to give the Marshal the title "Zadunaisky"?'37 Once again, Potemkin was supporting Rumiantsev, not trying to ruin him. Zadunaisky also received 5,000 souls, 100,000 roubles, a service of plate and a hat with a wreath of precious stones worth 30,000 roubles. Prince Vasily Dolgoruky received the title 'Krimsky' for taking the Crimea in 1771. But the most significant prizes went to Potemkin: the diploma of his first title, count of the Russian Empire, along with a ceremonial sword. The Empress emphasized his political work, specifically citing his contribution to the Turkish treaty. As she told Grimm, 'Ah - what a good mind that man has! He's played more part than anyone in this peace.'38 After one of their rows, she had promised, 'I'll give you the portrait on the day of the peace - adieu my jewel, my heart, dear husband.'39 So now Potemkin received the Empress's miniature portrait, decorated with diamonds, to wear on his breast. Only Prince Orlov had had this privilege before, and Count Potemkin wore it in all his portraits and for the rest of his life - whenever, that is, he deigned to dress properly.