nks of the
woman whom Voltaire once styled "the Semiramis of the North." Because
she was so powerful, because no one could gainsay her, she led in
private a life which has been almost more exploited than her great
imperial achievements. And yet, though she had lovers whose names have
been carefully recorded, even she fulfilled the law of womanhood--which
is to love deeply and intensely only once.

One should not place all her lovers in the same category. As a girl,
and when repelled by the imbecility of Peter, she gave herself to
Gregory Orloff. She admired his strength, his daring, and his
unscrupulousness. But to a woman of her fine intelligence he came to
seem almost more brute than man. She could not turn to him for any of
those delicate attentions which a woman loves so much, nor for that
larger sympathy which wins the heart as well as captivates the senses.
A writer of the time has said that Orloff would hasten with equal
readiness from the arms of Catharine to the embraces of any flat-nosed
Finn or filthy Calmuck or to the lowest creature whom he might
encounter in the streets.

It happened that at the time of Catharine's appeal to the imperial
guards there came to her notice another man who--as he proved in a
trifling and yet most significant manner--had those traits which Orloff
lacked. Catharine had mounted, man--fashion, a cavalry horse, and, with
a helmet on her head, had reined up her steed before the barracks. At
that moment One of the minor nobles, who was also favorable to her,
observed that her helmet had no plume. In a moment his horse was at her
side. Bowing low over his saddle, he took his own plume from his helmet
and fastened it to hers. This man was Prince Gregory Potemkin, and this
slight act gives a clue to the influence which he afterward exercised
over his imperial mistress!

When Catharine grew weary of the Orloffs, and when she had enriched
them with lands and treasures, she turned to Potemkin; and from then
until the day of his death he was more to her than any other man had
ever been. With others she might flirt and might go even further than
flirtation; but she allowed no other favorite to share her confidence,
to give advice, or to direct her policies.

To other men she made munificent gifts, either because they pleased her
for the moment or because they served her on one occasion or another;
but to Potemkin she opened wide the whole treasury of her vast realm.
There was no limit to