d
the handsomest leg I have ever seen with any man, and her foot was
admirably proportioned. She danced to perfection, and every thing she
did had a special grace, equally so whether she dressed as a man or a
woman."

Enervating and degrading pleasure and ambitious or revengeful wars,
engrossed the whole attention of the Russian court during the reign of
Elizabeth. The welfare of the people was not even thought of. The
following anecdote, illustrative of the character of Peter III., is
worthy of record in the words of Catharine:

"One day, when I went into the apartments of his imperial highness, I
beheld a great rat which he had hung, with all the paraphernalia of an
execution. I asked what all this meant. He told me that this rat had
committed a great crime, which, according to the laws of war, deserved
capital punishment. It had climbed the ramparts of a fortress of
card-board, which he had on a table in his cabinet, and had eaten two
sentinels, made of pith, who were on duty in the bastions. His setter
had caught the criminal, he had been tried by martial law and
immediately hung; and, as I saw, was to remain three days exposed as
a public example. In justification of the rat," continues Catharine,
"it may at least be said, that he was hung without having been
questioned or heard in his own defense."

It is not surprising that a woman, young, beautiful and vivacious,
living in a court where corruption was all around her, where an
unmarried empress was rendering herself notorious by her gallantries,
stung to the quick by the utter neglect of her husband, insulted by
the presence of his mistresses, and disgusted by his unmitigated
boobyism, should have sought solace in the friendship of others. And
it is not strange that such friendships should have ripened into love,
and that one thus tempted should have fallen. Catharine in her memoirs
does not deny her fall, though she can not refrain from allowing an
occasional word to drop from her pen, evidently intended in
extenuation. Much which is called virtue consists in the absence of
temptation.

Catharine's first son, Paul, was born on the 20th of September, 1753.
He was unquestionably the son of Count Sottikoff, a nobleman alike
distinguished for the graces of his person and of his mind. Through a
thousand perils and cunning intrigues, Catharine and the count
prosecuted their amour. Woe was, as usual, to both of them the result.
The empress gives a very touching a