“Have you any doubt, Madame? He will convey to you his good intentions, perhaps even his best wishes; and as neither will cost him anything, I am sure his first letter will be full of them.”
The Prince was mistaken; the Emperor was ready to appear on the field with a hundred thousand men,[58] and had just appointed the Prince General-Commander-in-chief (feldzeugmeister) of all the infantry. Unfortunately the letter bringing this news crossed one the Prince had written to the Emperor asking his permission to serve as a general in the Russian army, and at the same time offering to keep His Majesty well informed of the Russian plans of campaign and military operations. The Emperor granted this request.
The Prince began preparing for his departure in October 1787. “I received,” he says, “from the Emperor a letter concerning his ally that showed both his kindness and genius; I made a summary of it that served as a plan of campaign, for none had as yet been conceived at Saint Petersburg. They had no idea by what end to begin.”
Before starting to join Potemkin[59] the Prince wished to give a ball to the prettiest women at Court, according to their request, but was unable to do so, as the war operations were already far advanced. “The army,” he was told, “may perhaps be already under the walls of Oczakoff; five thousand Turks have been killed by Souvaroff at Kinburn. The Turkish fleet is retiring; start at once.”
He left on the 1st of November 1787. “Good heavens!” he writes, “what weather! what roads! what a winter! what headquarters! By nature I am confiding, and always believe I am loved. I thought the Prince, judging by his own words, would be delighted to see me. I only observed six months later the embarrassed manner in which he received me on the day of my arrival. I threw myself into his arms and said:—
“‘When shall we take Oczakoff?’
“‘Who knows!’ he said; ‘the garrison numbers eighteen thousand men; I have not as many in the whole of my army. I am short of everything, and the most unhappy of mortals, unless God helps me.’
“‘What!’ I replied, ‘the story of Kinburn, the departure of the fleet, has all that been of no use? I have travelled day and night, for they told me you had already begun the siege!’
“‘Alas,’ he answered, ‘God grant that the Tartars do not get here, and lay waste the whole country with fire and sword. God has saved me (I shall never forget it). He allowed me to collect behind the banks of the Bog what remained of the troops. It is a miracle that I have retained till now as much of the country as I have.’
“‘Where are the Tartars?’ said I.