of rooms.... The rooms are already vacated, and everything is prepared for the new-comer. All imaginable comfort and luxury ... await him; and, on opening a drawer, he finds a hundred thousand roubles [about £20,000], the usual first gift, a foretaste of Pactolus. That evening, before the assembled court, the Empress appears, leaning familiarly on his arm, and on the stroke of ten, as she retires, the new favourite follows her" (_ibid._, pp. 246-249).] [508] [After the death or murder of her husband, Peter III., Catherine Alexievna (1729-1796) (born Sophia Augusta), daughter of the Prince of Anhalt Zerbst, was solemnly crowned (September, 1762) Empress of all the Russias.] {389}[ji] _And almost died for the scarce-fledged Lanskoi_.--[MS. erased.] [509] He was the grande passion of the grande Catherine. See her Lives under the head of "Lanskoi." [Lanskoi was a youth of as fine and interesting a figure as the imagination can paint. Of all Catherine's favourites, he was the man whom she loved the most. In 1784 he was attacked with a fever, and perished in the arms of her Majesty. When he was no more, Catherine gave herself up to the most poignant grief, and remained three months without going out of her palace of Tzarsko-selo. She afterwards raised a superb monument to his memory. (See _Life of Catherine II._, by W. Tooke, 1800, iii. 88, 89.)] [510] [Ten months after the death of Lanskoi, the Empress consoled herself with Iermolof, described, by Bezborodky, as "a modest refined young man, who cultivates the society of serious people." In less than a year this excellent youth is, in turn, displaced by Dmitrief Mamonof. His _petit nom_ was _Red Coat_, and, for a time, he is a "priceless creature." "He has," says Catherine, "two superb black eyes, with eyebrows outlined as one rarely sees; about the middle height, noble in manner, easy in demeanour." But Mamonof suffered from "scruples of conscience," and, after a while, with Catherine's consent and blessing, was happily married to the Princess Shtcherbatof, a maid of honour, and not, as Byron supposed, a rival "man of the moment."--See _The Story of a Throne_, by K. Waliszewski, 1895, ii. 135, sq.] [511] This was written long before the suicide of that person. [For "his parts of speech" compare-- " ... that long mandarin C-stle-r-agh (whom Fum calls the Confucius of Prose) Was rehearsing a speech upon Europe's repose To the deep double bass of the fat Idol's nose." Moore's _Fum and Hum, The Two Birds of Royalty_.] {390}[512] [Compare _Beppo_, stanza xvii. line 8, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 165. See, too, letter to Hoppner, December 31, 1819, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 393.] [jj] _Beneath his chisel_-- or, _Beneath his touches_----.--[MS. erased.] {391}[jk] ---- _and bound fair Helen in a bond_.--[MS. erased.] [513] Hor., _Sat._, lib. i. sat. iii. lines 107, 108. [jl] _That Riddle which all read, none understand_.--[MS. erased.]