"The grand duke is weary of his subordinate position, and yearns for the crown which he thinks it is his right to wear."
Catharine's two hands clutched at her head, as though to defend her crown.
"He shall not have it!" she screamed. "He will not dare to raise his impious hands to snatch his mother's rights away!"
"He will find other hands to do it; for you well know, Catharine, that the crime from which we recoil ourselves, we transfer to other hands, while we accept its fruits."
Catharine shuddered, and grew pale.
"Yes, yes," murmured she to herself, "yes, I know it—well I know it, for it has murdered sleep for me!"
"And the grand duke has accomplices, Catharine. Not one, nor two—but half of your subjects mutter within themselves that the crown you wear has been Paul's since his majority. Russia is one grand conspiracy against you, and your enemies have pitched their tents at the foot of your throne. They may well hate the only man who stands between you and destruction. Their arrows have glanced harmlessly from the adamantine shield of his loyalty, and there remained but the alternative of calumniating him to his empress. Oh, Catharine, my angel; beware of Paul, who has never forgotten how his father lost his life! Beware of Orloff, who has never forgiven you for loving me! Both these traitors, with Panin to truckle to them, are in league with Von Gortz to force you into a league destructive of Russian aggrandizement. Oh, my beloved! sun of my existence! mount into the heaven of your own greatness, and let not the cloud of intrigue obscure your light. And when safe in the noonday of your splendor, you think of this day, let one warm ray of memory stream upon the grave of the man who died because his empress ceased to love him!"
At the conclusion of his peroration, Potemkin knelt down and passionately kissed the hem of Catharine's robe. Then, springing up, he clasped his hands, and turned away. But the empress darted after him like an enraged lioness, and, catching his arm, gasped:
"What! you would leave me, Alexandrowitsch?"
"Yes—I go to Orloff, to receive my death! The empress has willed it, and she shall find me obedient even unto my latest breath."