Yet Catherine was subject to much disquietude, and obliged to temporize with many, who gave her very different advice. The turbulence of Gregory Orloff, her favourite, disgusted all men of refinement, and filled the court with people like himself boisterous and unlearned. He was induced even to aspire to be her husband; but whether the intentions of the empress were not really in favour of the project, or that the murmurs of the people obliged her to abandon it, it was soon laid aside. But a conspiracy had been set on foot, which was sanctioned by the most considerable names, and big with the greatest danger. In this dilemna; not knowing the reality of her suspicions, she thought to obtain from the princess Dashkoff more certain intelligence, and wrote to her a most flattering letter, which was thus answered:
- "Madam,
"I have heard nothing: but, if I had, I should beware of what I spoke. What is it that you require of me? that I should expire upon a scaffold? I am ready to ascend it."
The empress continued to be harrassed by plots, which she could not stifle, and which yet had not sufficient strength or address to effect their purposes. She employed her mind much in objects of public utility at home, but despotically forced her former lover Poniatofsky, upon the Poles, as their king.
In July, 1764, the unfortunate prince Ivan, who had once been intended by her husband for his successor, in consequence of an order signed by the empress, that the officers on guard were to put him to death, if any attempt was made for his liberation, fell a sacrifice to the zeal of a man who wished to raise him to the throne, and was ignorant of the orders given.
