It was a different Prince who returned to Petersburg in late October. He had a mission - and everyone noticed 'the character and conduct of Prince Potemkin are so materially changed within these six months,' Harris reported to Lord Grantham, the new Foreign Secretary. 'He rises early, attends to business, is become not only visible but affable to everybody'.12
Serenissimus even dismissed his basse-cour. Major Semple tried to use Potemkin's protection to squeeze the merchants of Petersburg and extort money from the Duchess of Kingston. When he threatened to send Russian soldiers to her house to get the money, Potemkin exposed the 'Prince of Swindlers,' who fled Russia, defrauding merchants all the way home. Little is known about Semple's subsequent adventures, but Ligne later wrote to Potemkin that he had entertained 'one of Your Highness's Englishmen, le Major Semple, who told me he accompanied you to the conquest of the Crimea'. He was convicted of fraud in England, transported in 1795, escaped, then died in prison in London in 1799.13 Serenissimus enjoyed his menagerie of mountebanks, learning all he could from them and storing it in his prodigious memory. They used him. But Potemkin always got the better deal.
Now he started to sell his houses, horses, estates, jewels, amassed 'loads of ready money', and declared that he wished to retire to Italy. He told Harris he had lost his power and that he had offered Catherine his resignation but she had rejected it. Potemkin was forever threatening resignation - Catherine must have been used to it. Nonetheless, no one was quite sure what was afoot.14 He even paid his debts.
It seemed as if God was paying Potemkin's debts too. Prince Orlov had gone mad after the death of his new young wife in June 1781 and wandered ranting, through the corridors of palaces. Nikita Panin had a stroke on 31 March 1783. When these two eclipsed suns, who loathed one another, yet grudgingly admired Potemkin, died within a few days, Catherine thought they would be 'astonished to meet again in the other world'.15
The Prince was organizing his affairs because he was preparing himself for his life's work in the south. He was in his creative prime when Catherine's 'dear master' got back to Petersburg - ideas whirled out of him as forcefully and picturesquely as sparks from a Catherine wheel. He immediately set to work on her to settle the Crimean problem once and for all. Was Catherine the tough, obstinate strategist and Potemkin the cautious tactician, as historians would claim later? In this case, Potemkin took the tougher line and got his way - but in different cases they took different lines: it is impossible to generalize. When faced with a problem or a risk, the pair argued, shouted, sulked, were reconciled, back and forth, until their joint policy emerged fully formed.
In late November, the Prince explained to Catherine, in a passionate tour de force, why the Crimea, which 'breaks our border', had to be taken because the Ottomans 'could reach our heart' through it. This had to be done now while there was still time, while the British were still at war with the French and Americans, while Austria was still enthusiastic, while Istanbul was still wracked with riots and plague. In a stream of imperialistic rhetoric and erudite history, he exclaimed:
Imagine the Crimea is Yours and the wart on your nose is no more! ... Gracious Lady ... You are obliged to raise Russian glory! See who has gained what: France took Corsica, the Austrians without a war took more in Moldavia than we did. There is no power in Europe that has not participated in the carving-up of Asia, Africa, America. Believe me, that doing this will win you immortal glory greater than any other Russian Sovereign ever. This glory will force its way to an even greater one: with the Crimea, dominance over the Black Sea will be achieved.
And he finished: 'Russia needs paradise.'16
Catherine hesitated: would it lead to war? Could not they just take the port of Akhtiar instead of the whole Khanate? Potemkin lamented Catherine's caution to Harris: 'Here we never look forward or backward and are governed solely by the impulse of the hour ... If I was sure of being applauded when I did good or blamed when I did wrong, I should know on what I was to depend ...'. Harris at last came in useful when Potemkin extracted his assurance that Britain would not prevent Russian expansion at the cost of the Porte.17
Then, just a few weeks after Potemkin's return, Catherine gave him the 'most secret' rescript to annex the Crimea - but only if Shagin Giray died or was overthrown or he refused to yield the port of Akhtiar or if the Ottomans attacked or ... There were so many conditions that both knew that he was really free to pull off his prize if he could get away with it. 'We hereby declare our will', the Empress wrote to the Prince on 14 December 1782, 'for the annexation of the Crimea and the joining of it to the Russian Empire with full faith in you and being absolutely sure that you will not lose convenient time and opportune ways to fulfil this.' There was still a risk that the Ottoman Empire would go to war or that the Great Powers would prevent it.18
No wonder Potemkin was working so hard. He had to prepare for war with the Sublime Porte while hoping to avoid it. Catherine kept Joseph closely informed by letter on the shrewd calculation that, if he had received no surprises, he was less likely to bridle. If they were quick and the operation bloodless, they could get the Crimea before the rest of Europe could react. The clock was ticking because France and Britain were just negotiating peace in the American War. They signed the preliminaries on 9/20 January in Paris. The peace was not yet ratified, so the Russians could count on another six months. The diplomats tried to guess how far the partners would go: The views of Prince Potemkin extend themselves every day and are of such a magnitude', reported Harris, 'as to exceed the ambition of the Empress herself.'19 Sir James understated the case when he wrote that 'notwithstanding the pains he took to dissemble it', Serenissimus was 'very sorry to see our war drawing so near to its end.. .'.2°
These were Potemkin's last opportunities to enjoy the companionship of Sir James Harris. The Englishman felt he had played his last hand in Petersburg. When his friend Charles James Fox returned to the ministry as one-half of the Fox-North coalition, pursuing a pro-Russian policy, Harris demanded to be recalled while relations with Russia were friendly. Sir James and the Prince saw each other for the last time in the spring, when the latter was increasingly occupied with his southern preparations. Harris received his farewell audience from the Empress after Potemkin's departure on 20 August 1783 and then left for home.[35]
Harris had made the mistake of basing his hopes on a man who was happy to advocate an English alliance, but who was really pursuing an entirely different policy in the south. When the Austrian alliance became active, Harris's beguilement by Potemkin was exposed.
Sir James left Petersburg with high credit in London because his role as Potemkin's friend and tutor in English civilization had brought him closer to the top than any other ambassador was ever to get in Russia. But he must have had mixed feelings about Potemkin, who had so played him. 'Prince Potemkin is no longer our friend,' he sadly told Charles James Fox. Potemkin's archives show they kept in cheerful contact long afterwards. Harris often recommended travellers to the Prince: one was Archdeacon Coxe, the memoirist. 'I know I owe you excuses,' wrote Harris, '... but I know how you like men of letters ...'. Catherine came to regard Harris as a 'trouble-maker and intriguer'. Potemkin had 'crushes' on his friends and then moved on. He told a later ambassador that he had done much for Harris, who had 'ruined everything', and he growled at Bezborodko that Harris was 'insidious, lying and not very decent'. Their friendship was later destroyed by Britain's growing hostility to Russia - just one more sad example of the special graveyard reserved for diplomatic friendships.21