r ten years the
marriage was barren, and the only reason for supposing that the future
tsar Paul (q.v.), who was born on the 2nd of October 1754, was the son
of Peter, is the strong similarity of their characters. Living in the
grossly animal court of the empress Elizabeth, bound to a husband whom
she could not but despise and detest, surrounded by suitors, and
entirely uninfluenced by religion, Catherine became and remained
perfectly immoral in her sexual relations to men. The scandalous
chronicle of her life was the commonplace of all Europe. Her male
favourites were as openly paraded as the female favourites of King Louis
XV. It may be said once and for all that her most trusted agents while
she was still grand-duchess, and her chief ministers when she became
empress, were also her lovers, and were known to be so.

For some time after the marriage, the young couple were controlled by
the empress Elizabeth, who appointed court officials to keep a watch on
their conduct; but before long these custodians themselves had become
the agents of Catherine's pleasures and ambition. After the birth of
Paul she began to take an active part in political intrigues. Her
abilities forced even her husband to rely on her judgment. When in
difficulty he ran to her and flattered her with the name of Madame La
Ressource--Madame Quick Wit--which did not prevent him from insulting
and even kicking her when the immediate need of her help was over. In
1758 he endeavoured to turn the empress Elizabeth against her, and for a
time Catherine was in danger. She faced the peril boldly, and
reconquered her influence over the sovereign, but from this time she
must have realized that when the empress was dead she would have to
defend herself against her husband. That Peter both hated and dreaded
her was notorious. The empress Elizabeth died on the 5th of January
1762. The grand duke succeeded without opposition as Peter III. His
behaviour to his wife continued to be brutal and menacing, and he went
on as before offending the national sentiment of the Russian people. In
July he committed the insane error of retiring with his Holsteiners to
Oranienbaum, leaving his wife at St Petersburg. On the 13th and 14th of
that month a "pronunciamiento" of the regiments of the guard removed him
from the throne and made Catherine empress. The history of this revolt
is still obscure. It has naturally been said that she organized the
mutiny from the first, and some p