The princess departed from Pisa with her customary suite of attendants, and was greeted by the whole population, her aifability and obliging manners having rendered her a general favourite. On arriving at Leghorn, she landed at the house of the British consul, where suitable apartments had been already prepared for her, and where she was received with all the marks of the profoundest respect. The next day she was visited by all the ladies of rank, and was soon surrounded by a numerous court. Every one was preparing some new entertainment for her. Whenever she went out, the people lined the way as she passed along; and being pleased with her beauty, and having heard of her liberality and kindness, cheered her with repeated huzzas, with that southern enthusiam so difficult to describe, and which is seldom known in the northern countries. They called her, La hella e huena princessa — " The good and beautiful princess." All circumstances conspired to lull her into a fatal security. All I tended to dispel the idea of any immediate danger at the very time when her days were already numbered.
The young Russian princess was so far from apprehending any danger threatening her, that after having passed several days in a round of amusements with which she was pleased and delighted, she made of her own accord the proposition to visit the Russian fleet. The idea was applauded, the necessary orders were immediately given, and the next afternoon everything was ready at the water-side, for her reception.
On her arrival at the port, the princess was handed into a boat with splendid awnings. Many ladies, with the British consul, seated themselves with her. A second boat conveyed Count Alexy Orloff and the admiral; and a third, filled with Russian and British officers and sailors, closed the procession. The boats put from shore in sight of an immense multitude of people, and were received by the fleet with bands of music, salutes of artillery, and repeated huzzas. As the princess came alongside the ship on board of which she was to go, and when silence was restored, she could not help admiring the beautiful scenery of Leghorn, and the distant tops of the Appenine range drawn in the streams of crimson light of an Italian setting sun. A splendid chair was let down from the yard, in which being seated,* she was readily hoisted upon deck; and it was observed to her that these were particular honours paid to her rank.
OrlofF soon followed her, under the plea of helping some ladies; but no sooner was she on board with him than she was handcuffed. In vain she implored the pity of her cruel betrayer; in vain she called him by the most tender names; in vain she threw herself at his feet, and bathed them with her tears. No answer even was given to her lamentation, she was carried down into the hold, put in irons, and the vessel set sail for Russia. The confusion, the shrieks of the ladies, and of all those who were present, may be better imagined than described.
On arriving at St. Petersburg, the young victim was shut up in a fortress, placed in a dark dungeon, and treated with the greatest harshness and barbarity. What became of her afterwards was never precisely knovn, no one ever daring to inquire about her. It is said that Catherine once feasted her eyes with her torments. The author of the interesting Memoires Secretes sur I'ltalie, says, that the young victim was drowned on the 10th of September, 1777, when the waves, moved by a terrible gale, rose ten feet above their usual level. Others assert that the unfortunate princess fell in prison by the hands of the executioner. All agree that she died in the course of that year.
The inhabitants of Leghorn, who saw the princess embark, heard shortly after with inexpressible horror that, instead of the grand entertainment which the princess was to have on board the fleet, she was put in irons. The grand Duke of Tuscany, whose territory was thus so shamefully violated, wrote immediately to Vienna and Petersburg, to complain of the outrage; but protestations without coercive measures are of little avail. All the British oiScers in the naval Russian service, indignant at the infamy perpetrated in their presence on the Princess Tarakanof, returned to England.
Such was the fate of the grand-daughter of Peter the Great, bom in wedlock: whose only crime was, that she raised the jealousy of Catherine II., and might have laid claim to the Russian throne.
Nothing can possibly exculpate Catherine from her participation in this barbarous deed, however some of her admirers may partially justify her conduct in the matter: as for Alexy Orloff (in whose heart the rattlesnake, the foam of a mad cat, and the bile of seven jealous furies must have taken shelter), considering that Princess Tarakanof was an orphan, young, beautiful, unprotected, innocent; that she never in any way offended him; that she loved him; that she lived with him for some months as his lawful wife; that she belonged to a family which ought to be dear to every Russian; considering that she put perfect trust in him; we must consider his action as an instance of the most abominable and blackest perfidy that ever stained the conscience and honour of any human being.
See Histoire de Pierre III., et les Amours secretes de Catherine II.; Life of Catherine II. p. 61; Life of Catherine II., by Costera; Memoirs of the reign of Catherine II.; and Memoires secretes d'ltalie.