ed, and had
occasion for just such a person about him. The general replied that he
was under too great obligations to his highness the prince to refuse him
any thing that he asked. He immediately called Catharine into his
presence, and told her that that was Prince Menzikoff, and that he had
occasion for a servant like herself, and that he was able to be a much
better friend to her than he himself could be, and that he had too much
kindness for her to prevent her receiving such a piece of honor and good
fortune.

"Catharine answered only with a profound courtesy, which showed, if not
her consent to the change proposed, at least her conviction that it was
not then in her power to refuse the offer that was made to her. In
short, Prince Menzikoff took her with him, or she went to him the same
day."

Catharine remained in the service of the prince for a year or two, and
was then transferred from the household of the prince to that of the Czar
almost precisely in the same way in which she had been resigned to the
prince by the general. The Czar saw her one day while he was at dinner
with the prince, and he was so much pleased with her appearance, and with
the account which the prince gave him of her character and history, that
he wished to have her himself; and, however reluctant the prince may have
been to lose her, he knew very well that there was no alternative for him
but to give his consent. So Catharine was transferred to the household
of the Czar.

She soon acquired a great ascendency over the Czar, and in process of
time she was privately married to him. This private marriage took place
in 1707. For several years afterward the marriage was not publicly
acknowledged; but still Catharine's position was well understood, and her
power at court, as well as her personal influence over her husband,
increased continually.

Catharine sometimes accompanied the emperor in his military campaigns,
and at one time was the means, it is thought, of saving him from very
imminent danger. It was in the year 1711. The Czar was at that time at
war with the Turks, and he had advanced into the Turkish territory with a
small, but very compact and well-organized army. The Turks sent out a
large force to meet him, and at length, after various marchings and
manoeuvrings, the Czar found himself surrounded by a Turkish force three
times as large as his own. The Russians fortified their camp, and the
Turks attacked them. The latt