However it may have been, the czarina, having been well apprised, by her spies, of what was going on at Rome in Radzivill's house, ordered her generals in Poland to pillage, destroy, and burn, under some pretext or other, all the property of Radzivill; to arrest all his stewards, and not to allow them to send him any money abroad, under any circumstances. She even went so far as to make a liberal gratuitous offer, through her agents, to all the bankers at Rome, to induce them not to provide Prince Radzivill with any money.
Radzivill, thus suddenly deprived of his immense revenue, was obliged to live in Italy on the produce of his diamonds; and when these supplies, and the money borrowed by him from his friends were exhausted, he set out in order to gain some intelligence concerning his private affairs in Poland; leaving the young lady under the care of a governess, to whom he gave proper instructions to watch over her charge, and not to admit, during his absence, any stranger to the princess, without a previous knowledge of his character and principles. Scarcely had Prince Radzivill returned to Poland, when the Russian ambassador stated that, if he would deliver the Princess Tarakanof to the empress of Russia, not only all his possessions should be instantly restored to him, and all his losses liberally paid.
I but that the prince would also thereby secure to himself for the future, her imperial majesty's favour, extended even to all his relatives and friends.
In the first burst of indignation, Radzivill intended to demand personal satisfaction from the Russian ambassador for his insulting proposition; but, acting on the advice of his friends, he answered, in writing, with great dignity, that whatever might happen, and however eager he might be to secure her imperial majesty's favour, he would never betray the trust placed in his honour, and would never deliver Princess Tarakanof into the hands of her enemies, as such an action would stain his noble name with eternal infamy, and would lower him in his own estimation. In this letter he threw all the blame on the over zeal of the Russian ambassador; and played so well on the generosity, nolle feelings, and magnanimity, of the czarina, that the insulting proposition was neer renewed to him; and though he was not recompensed for his losses, his possessions were all restored to him, and his stewards, previously arrested by the Russian generals, liberated. The Russian ambassador added also, that if he, the prince, gave him his promise, as a gentleman, not to have any personal intercouse with the princess alluded to, not to encourage any ambitious dreams in her mind, directly or indirectly, and not to correspond with her, he could assure him, as a gentleman, that she should be left unmolested abroad. Should, however, anything happen to the contrary, Radzivill would thereby work her misfortune and ruin. Radzivill, who was naturally of a chivakous disposition, thinking any man of high station incapable of breaking his word or of affirming a falsehood, and dreading, not without reason, the dark hints of the ambassador respecting the young lady's fate, sent her privately some money, which, however, never reached her; recommended her to some friends, and left her exposed, unprotected, and helpless, to the diabolical snares skilfully prepared for entrapping her, just at that very time when she required protection more than anything else.