The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-06-14

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hung rats in his own, and who so far from con-
ceang his nfdelities from his wife, made her the
confdante of his amorous intrigues-who can won
der, we say, that under such circumstances Catha-
rine soon ceased to be child? The following in
cdent illustrates the sort of espionage to which she
was subjected. 1t occurred after the departure of
her mother from court:
81 do not exactly remember, but fancy it was
about this time that the Chevaier Sacromoso ar
rived in Russia. = He was presented to u.s. In
kissing my hand he slipped into it very small note,
saying at the same time, in low voice, 1T is from
your mother ] was almost stupefied with terror
at this act. l dreaded its being observed by some
| one or other, especially by the Tchoglokoffs, who
were close by. However took the note, and slip
ped it into my right hand glove; one had noticed
it. On returning to my room, found in fact,
letter from my mother, rolled up in slip ofpaper,
which it was stated that the Chevalier expected
an answer through an Italian musician, who attend
ed the Grand Dukes concerts. My mother, rem
dered anxious by my involuntary silence, wanted
to know the cause of it, she also wished to know in
what situation | was. l wrote to her, giving her
the information she required. told her that had
been forbidden to write to any one, under the pre-
text that it did not become Grand Duchess of
Russia to write any letters but such were
posed at the Office of Foreign Affairs, where was
only to attach my signature, and never to dictate
what waste be written, because the ministers knew
better than did what was proper to be said; that
! it had almost been made crime in NJ. Ozoufef
| that had sent him few lines, which l begged
| him to enclose in a letter to my mother. | also
| gave her information several other points,
| about which she had inquired. / rolled up nv
note in the same manner as the one had received,
and watched with Impotence and anxiety the mo-
| hent for getting rid of it. AT the first concert
| given by the Grand Duke made the tour of the
orchestra, and stopped behind the chair of the solo
| vionist, D'Ologlio, who was the person pointed
out to me. When he come behind his
| chair, he pretended to take his handkerchief from
bot l,fth
| open. Without any appearance of action, slipped
my note into it, and one had the slightest suspi-
cion of what had happened. During his stay in st.
Petersburg, SacromOso delivered to me two or three
| other notes having reference to the same matter;
my answers were returned in the same manner and
| no one was ever the WISER"
| The following is Catharines description of the
at-hanging amusements of her liege lord and mas
ter referred to above:
Gone day when | went into the apartments
of his Imperial Highness, l behed a great
| rat, which he had had hung--with all the
paraphernalia of an execution-in the middle
Of cabinet, formed by means of a par
tition. ! asked him what all this meant. He told
me that this rat had committed a crime; which,
according to the laws of war, deserving of cape
ital punishment; it had climbed over the ramparts
of fortress If cardboard which he had on the ia
BILE in his cabinet and had eaten two sentinels made
of pith, who were on duty at the bastions He had.
had the criminal tried by martial law, his setter
having caught him, and he immediately hung
as saw, and was to remain there exposed to the
public gaze for three days, an example. | could
not help bursting into loud laugh at the extreme
folly of the thing but this greatly displeased him.
Seeing the Importance he attached to the matter
retired, excusing myself on account of my ignor-
ance as woman of military law; but this did not
| prevent his being very much out of humour with
| me on account Of my laughter. In justification of
the rat however, it may at least be said that he was
| hung without having been questioned or heard in
| his own Defence"
Another of his Imperial Highness favorite recrea
ons is described follows. The scene is laid in the
private apartments of the illustrious pair:
''This is the kind of annoyance we had to put up
with, morning, noon and night even to late hour
The Grand Duke, with rare perseverance, trained
| pack of dogs, and with heavy blows of his Whip
and cries like those of the huntsmen, made them
fly from end to the other of his two rooms which
were all he had. Such of the dogs as became tired
or got out of rank were severely punished, which
made them howl still more. When he got tired of
this deestable exercise, painful to the ears and
destructive to the repose of his neghbors he seized
! his violin, on which he rasped away with extraor-
binary violence, and very badly, all the time walk
ing up and down his rooms. Then he recommended
| the education and punishment of his dogs which to
| me seemed very cruel. On occasion, hearing
| one of these animals howl piteousy and for a long
time, opened the door fmy bedroom, where
was seated, and which adjoined the apartment in
which this scene was enacted, and saw him holding
this dog by the collar, suspended in the air. while
| boy who was in his service, kalmuck by birth,
held the animal by the tail 1t poor little
King Charles's dog of English breed, and the Duke
was beating him with all his might with the heavy
| handle of whip. | interceded for the poor beast
| but this only made him redouble his blows. Unable
| to bear so cruel scene, / returned to my room
with tears in my eyes. In general, tears and cries.
instead Of moving the Duke to pity, put him in a
passion Pity was feeling that was painful, and
| even insupportable in his mind"
| So much for the husband-now for the LOVERS
We will commence with the portrait of Serge Sol
tikoff, father of the Emperor Paul-of whom Catha
rine tells US that
CHE was very handsome, and certainly had not
his equal at the Imperial Court, still less at ours
lie was not wanting in mind, nor in that finish of
accomplishments, manner and style, which the great
world gives, and especially a court He was TWEEN
ty-six years old. Take him all in ALL he was by
birth, and by many other qualities, distinguished
gentleman As for his faults he to hide them
The greatest OF all was love of intrigue and want
principle These were not unfolded to my eyes, of
held out all the spring, and part ofthe autumn
saw him almost every day, and made no change
in my conduct towards him. | was the same to
him as | was to all others, and never saw him but
In the presence OF the court, Of part of it. One
| day to get rid of him, | made up my mind to tell
him that he misdirecting his attentions |
] added how do you know that my heart is not en-
| gagged elsewhere" This however, instead of dis
couraging MIN, only made his pursuit all the more
ardent In all this there thought of the dear
| husband, for 1T was a known and admitted fact
that he was not at all amiabe, to the objects
| with whom he was in love; and he was always in
loves in fact he might be said to pay court to every
woman, except the who bore the name of his
vile, she alone was excluded from all share of his
attentions"
Let us add o'the above Caharine's account of the
chastisement bestowed upon another lover, a sue
cessor of Soltko9, the handsome Leon Naricbkipe
when the latter had grown too bold and presumed
over much upon Catharine's love for him. She
writes:
CATER this fete Leon Uarichkine renewed his Wis
its to me. One day entering my boudoir, |
found him impertinently stretched on couch
which was there, and singing an absurd song; see
ing this, went out, closing the door after me- and
Immediately went in search of his sister-in-law
whom told that we must get good bundle of net
ties, and with them chastise this fellow; who had
| Tor some time past behaved so insolenty towards
us, and teach him to respect us. His sster-in-law
readily consented, and we forthwith had brought
to US some good strong rods, surrounded with net
ties. We took along with us widow, who was
with ME, among my women by name Tatiana Jou-
rieyna, and all three entered the cabinet where
We found Leon Narchkine singing his song at the
top of his voice. When he saw us he tried to make
| OIL, but we whipped him so well with our rods and
nettes, that his hands, legs, and face sw 1en
for two or three days to such degree that he could
not accompany us to Peterhoff Cd the morrow,
which was court day, but was obliged to remain
| in his room. He took care besides not to boast of
what had occurred, because we assured him that on
the least sign of impoliteness, or ground of com
plant from him, we would renew the operation,
seeing that there was other means of managing
him. all this was done as mere joke, and without
anger, but our hero felt it sufficiently to recoect
It, and did not again expose himself to it, at least
not to the same extent as BEFORE"
One more aneedote and we have done. Having
been invited by the Empress to choose between
Soltikof and Narichkine, Catharine, as we have
seen, compromised by taking both, and added ano-
Their into the bargain--the Count Poniatowskv
Upon the occasion of visit of the latter to Catba
rine's apartments, in company with the Swedish
ambassador, Count Horn, an incident occurred
which illustrates at once the intimate relations ex-
listing between Poniatowsky and the writer of the
Memoirs, and the shrewdness and penetration of the
diplomatist. 1t moreover recalls not dissimiar
incident in the Sickes' case, in which the too af
fectionate recognition of an Italian greyhound is
said to have led to the waving of the fatal hand
kerehief and the terrible tragedy that ensued:
son reaching my cabinet, little Italian prev-
hound that had there, ran to meet u.s. and began
to bark loudly at Count Horn, but when he perceiv
ed Count Poniatowsky, he seemed wild with de-
light. As the cabinet was very small no one oh
served this but Leon Narchkine his sister-in Law
and myself But it did not escape the notice of
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