“The convincing and reiterated proofs which you have given me of your friendship, the high esteem which I have conceived for your virtues, and the extent of the confidence which you have taught me to repose in you, leave me no doubt on the success of a business which I have so much at heart.  Was it possible for me to place it in better hands?

“Your royal highness is surely an unique in the art of negotiation.  Pardon me that expression of my friendship.  But I think that there has never been an affair of this nature transacted as this is; which is the production of the most intimate friendship and confidence.

“That princess will be the pledge of it.  I shall not be able to see her without recollecting in what manner this business was begun, continued and terminated, between the royal house of Prussia and that of Russia.  May it perpetuate the connections which unite us!

“I conclude by very tenderly thanking your royal highness for all the cares and all the troubles you have given yourself; and I beseech you to be assured that my gratitude, my friendship, my esteem, and the high consideration which I have for you, will terminate only with my life.

“Catharine.”

The Grand Duke Paul was received in Berlin with all the honors due his rank as heir to the imperial throne of Russia.  The great Frederic even came to the door of his apartment to greet his guest.  The grand duke was escorted into the city with much pomp.  Thirty-four trumpeters, winding their bugles, preceded him, all in rich uniform.  Then came a strong array of soldiers.  These were followed by a civic procession, in brilliant decorations.  Three superb state coaches, containing the dignitaries of Berlin, came next in the train, followed by a detachment of the life-guards, who preceded the magnificent chariot of the duke, which chariot was regarded as the most superb which had then ever been seen, and which was drawn by eight of the finest horses Prussia could produce.  This carriage conveyed Paul and Prince Henry.  A hundred dragoons, as a guard of honor, closed the procession.  At the gates of the city the magistracy received Paul beneath a triumphal arch, where seventy beautiful girls, dressed like nymphs and shepherdesses, presented the grand duke with complimentary verses, and crowned him with a garland of flowers.  The ringing of bells, the pealing of cannon, strains of martial music, and the acclamations of the multitude, greeted Paul from the time he entered the gates until he reached the royal palace.

“Sire,” exclaimed Paul, as he took the hand of the King of Prussia, “the motives which bring me from the extremities of the North to these happy dominions, are the desire of assuring your majesty of the friendship and alliance to subsist henceforth and for ever between Russia and Prussia, and the eagerness to see a princess destined to ascend the throne of the Russian empire.  By my receiving her at your hands, I assure you that she will be more dear to myself and to the nation over which she is to reign.  It has also been one of the most ardent aspirations of my soul to contemplate the greatest of heroes, the admiration of our age and the astonishment of posterity.”