The thunders of battle soon commenced on the sea and on the land.  Both parties fought with desperation.  Russia and Austria endeavored to unite France with them, in the attempt to dismember the Turkish empire as Poland had been partitioned, but France now stood in dread of the gigantic growth both of Russia and of Austria, and was by no means disposed to strengthen those powers.  England was also secretly aiding the Turks and sending them supplies.  Influenced by the same jealousy against Russia, Sweden ventured to enter into an alliance with the Turks, while Prussia, from the same motive, secretly lent Gustavus III. money, and England sent him a fleet.  Thus, all of a sudden, new and appalling dangers blazed upon Russia.  So many troops had been sent to the Crimea that Catharine was quite unprepared for an attack from the Swedish frontier.

The Grand Duke Paul begged permission of his mother that he might join the army against the Turks.  The empress refused her consent.

“My intention,” wrote again the grand duke, “of going to fight against the Ottomans is publicly known.  What will Europe say, in seeing that I do not carry it into effect?”

“Europe will say,” Catharine replied, “that the grand duke of Russia is a dutiful son.”

The appearance of the powerful Swedish fleet in the Baltic rendered it necessary for Catharine to recall the order for the squadron at Cronstadt to sail for the Mediterranean.  The roar of artillery now reverberated alike along the shores of the Baltic and over the waves of the Euxine.  Denmark and Norway were brought into the conflict, and all Europe was again the theater of intrigues and battles.  It would be a weary story to relate the numerous conflicts, defeats and victories which ensued.  Famine and pestilence desolated the regions where the Turkish and Russian armies were struggling.  Army after army was destroyed until men began to grow scarce in the Russian empire.  Even the wilds of Siberia were ransacked for exiles, and many of them were brought back to replenish the armies of the empress.  At length, after a warfare of two years, with about equal success on both sides, Catharine and Gustavus came to terms, both equally glad to escape the blows which each gave the other.  This peace enabled Russia to concentrate her energies upon Turkey.

The Turks now fell like grass before the scythe.  But the Russian generals and soldiers were often as brutal as demons.  Nominal Christianity was no more merciful than was paganism.  Count Potemkin, the leader of the Russian army, was one of the worst specimens of the old aristocracy, which now, in many parts of Europe, have gone down into a grave whence, it is to be hoped, there can be no resurrection.  The Turkish town of Ismael was taken in September, 1790, after enormous slaughter.  The French Revolution was at this time in rapid progress, and several Frenchmen were in the Russian army.  To one of these, Colonel Langeron, Potemkin said,