The Shadow of Tyburn Tree (1970)
“It was fantastic, impossible; a dream from which he would soon wake with a start. It simply could not be true. The old witch was seeking to make a fool of him; or perhaps he had not heard her aright.
Then as he stared at her, still sunk in her curtsey at his feet, he knew that she was not making a mock of him, but had hailed him as the new Imperial consort in sober earnest.
Into his racing mind came all that Natalia Andreovna had told him of the making and unmaking of the favourites. When the Empress tired of one she never quarrelled with him or warned him that he was about to be dismissed. She began to look round for another; and shrewd Potemkin, to whom her mind was an open book on such matters, put a few likely young men in her way, taking care to select only those whom he felt had not sufficiently strong personalities to undermine his own position as her chief counsellor. When she found one of Potemkin’s lusty young protégés pleasing to her, old Katerina Ivanovna was called in to ...give a party.MoreLess
Then as he stared at her, still sunk in her curtsey at his feet, he knew that she was not making a mock of him, but had hailed him as the new Imperial consort in sober earnest.
Into his racing mind came all that Natalia Andreovna had told him of the making and unmaking of the favourites. When the Empress tired of one she never quarrelled with him or warned him that he was about to be dismissed. She began to look round for another; and shrewd Potemkin, to whom her mind was an open book on such matters, put a few likely young men in her way, taking care to select only those whom he felt had not sufficiently strong personalities to undermine his own position as her chief counsellor. When she found one of Potemkin’s lusty young protégés pleasing to her, old Katerina Ivanovna was called in to ...give a party.MoreLess
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