“Madam, I see one sure method of obviating all difficulty.  It may perhaps be displeasing to you on account of Poniatowski.[23] But you will nevertheless do well to give it your approbation, since compensations may be offered to that monarch of greater value to him than the throne which is continually tottering under him.  The remainder of Poland must be partitioned.”

[Footnote 23:  Poniatowski had been formerly a favorite of the empress.]

The empress cordially embraced the plan, and the annihilation of Poland was decreed.  It was necessary to move slowly and with caution in the execution of the plan.  In the meantime, as the grand duchess had died, leaving no heir to the empire, the empress deemed it a matter of the utmost moment to secure another wife for the Grand Duke Paul, lest Russia should be exposed to the perils of a disputed succession.  Natalia was hardly cold in her grave ere the empress proposed to Prince Henry, that his niece, the princess of Wirtemberg, should become the spouse of the grand duke.  The princess was already betrothed to the hereditary prince of Hesse Darmstadt, but both Henry and his imperial brother, Frederic of Prussia, deemed the marriage of their niece with the prospective Emperor of Russia a match far too brilliant to be thwarted by so slight an obstacle.  Frederic himself informed the prince of the exalted offer which had been made to his betrothed, and without much difficulty secured his relinquishment of his contemplated bride.  Frederic deemed it a matter of infinite moment that the ties subsisting between Russia and Prussia should be more closely drawn.  He wrote to his brother Henry of his success, and by the same courier invited the Grand Duke Paul to visit Berlin that he might see the new spouse designed for him.  He also expressed his own ardent desire to become acquainted with the grand duke.

Catharine, highly gratified with this success, placed a purse of fifty thousand dollars in the hands of her son to defray the expenses of his journey.  It was at the close of the summer of 1776 when the grand duke left the palaces of St. Petersburg to visit those of Berlin.  His mother, who made all the arrangements, dispatched her son on this visit in a style of regal splendor.  When the party reached Riga, a courier overtook them with the following characteristic letter, written by the empress’s own hand to Prince Henry: 

“June 11, 1776.

“I take the liberty of transmitting to your royal highness the four letters of which I spoke to you, and which you promised to take care of.  The first is for the king, your brother, and the others for the prince and princesses of Wirtemberg.  I venture to pray you, that if my son should bestow his heart on the Princess Sophia, as I have no doubt but what he will, to deliver the three letters according to their directions, and to support the contents of them with that persuasive eloquence with which God has endowed you.