The Emperor Joseph met the Czarina at Kherson, and they continued together on their travels, which resembled those of a fairy tale. “I still fancy I am dreaming,” says the Prince de Ligne, “when I recall that journey, in an enormous coach large enough for six people, quite a triumphal chariot in fact, studded all over with precious stones, and drawn by sixteen horses of the Tartar race. How, as I sat between two persons, on whose shoulders I would sink at times, overcome by the heat, I would be startled by such snatches of conversation as these:—
“‘I have thirty millions of subjects, I am told, counting only the males.’
“‘And I, twenty-two,’ replied the other, ‘counting all.’
“They made imaginary conquests of towns and provinces, as if that were nothing at all, whilst I kept on saying: ‘Your Majesties will reap nothing but worry and misery,’ to which the Emperor would reply, addressing himself to the Empress: ‘Madame, we treat him too well; he has no respect for us. Did you know, Madame, that he had been in love with one of my father’s mistresses, and at the time of my first successes in society he outwitted me in the affections of a marchioness who was an object of adoration to both of us, and as beautiful as an angel?’”
During the journey the Empress had made a gift of the site of Iphigenia’s rock to the Prince de Ligne. All those who possessed land in the Crimea, such as the Mourzas, took the oath of fidelity to Catherine, and the Prince de Ligne followed suit. The Emperor came up to him, and taking hold of his order of the Golden Fleece, said: “You are the first one of this order who has sworn allegiance together with the long-bearded lords.”
“Sire,” said de Ligne, with a malicious air, “it is better both for your Majesty and myself that I should take it with the Tartar lords than with those of Flanders.”
The Emperor had just heard of the rebellion in that country, of which we shall speak later on.
After their return from this fairy-like journey the war against the Turks was decided, and the Austro-Russian alliance concluded. Preparations for war were being quietly carried on when, all at once, Turkey assumed the offensive by arresting the Russian ambassador, M. de Bulgakoff, and confining him in the Castle of the Sept Tours (Seven Towers). On the 18th of August 1787 Catherine declared war.
The Empress thoroughly relied on the alliance she had just concluded with Joseph II.; nevertheless she inquired of the Prince de Ligne:—
“What do you think the Emperor will do?”