{"product_id":"9789357384049","title":"Love affairs of the Courts of Europe","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"I\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003et was to a noise like thunder, and close clasped in a soldier's embrace, that\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCatherine I. made her first appearance in Russian history.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHistory, indeed, contains few chapters more strange, more seemingly impos-\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003esible, than this which tells the story of the maid-of-all-work-the red-armed, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eilliterate peasant-girl who, without any dower of beauty or charm, won the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eidolatry of an Emperor and succeeded him on the greatest throne of Eu-\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003erope. So obscure was Catherine's origin that no records reveal either her true\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ename or the year or place of her birth. All that we know is that she was cra-\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003edled in some Livonian village, either in Sweden or Poland, about the year\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e1685, the reputed daughter of a serf-mother and a peasant-father; and that\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eher numerous brothers and sisters were known in later years by the name\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSkovoroshtchenko or Skovronski. The very Christian name by which she is\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eknown to history was not hers until it was given to her by her Imperial lover.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is not until the year 1702, when the future Empress of the Russias was a\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003egirl of seventeen, that she makes her first dramatic appearance on the stage\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eon which she was to play so remarkable a part. Then we find her acting asmaid-servant to the Lutheran pastor of Marienburg, scrubbing his floors, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003enursing his children, and waiting on his resident pupils, in the midst of all\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe perils of warfare. The Russian hosts had for weeks been laying siege to\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMarienburg; and the Commandant, unable to defend the town any longer\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eagainst such overwhelming odds, had announced his intention to blow up\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe fortress, and had warned the inhabitants to leave the town.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBetween the alternatives of death within the walls and the enemy without, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePastor Glück chose the latter; and sallying forth with his family and maid-\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eservant, threw himself on the mercy of the Russians who promptly packed\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ehim off toMoscow a prisoner. ForMartha (as she seems to have been known\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ein those days) a different fate was reserved. Her red lips, saucy eyes, and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eopulent figure were too seductive a spoil to part with, General Shérémétief\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003edecided, and she was left behind, a by no means reluctant hostage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePeter's soldiers, now that victory was assured, were holding high revel of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003efeasting and song and dancing. They received the new prisoner literally with\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eopen arms, and almost before she had wiped the tears from her eyes, at part-\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eing from her nurslings, she was capering gaily to the music of hautboy and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003efiddle, with the arm of a stalwart soldier round her waist.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Suddenly,\" saysWaliszewski, \"a fearful explosion overthrew the dancers, cut\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe music short, and left the servant-maid, fainting with terror, in the arms\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eof a dragoon.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThus did Martha, the \"Siren of the Kitchen,\" dance her way into Russian\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ehistory, little dreaming, we may be sure, to what dizzy heights her nimble\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003efeet were to carry her. For a time she found her pleasure in the attentions\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eof a non-commissioned officer, sharing the life of camp and barracks and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003emaking friends by the good-nature which bubbled in her, and which was\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ealways her chief charm. When her sergeant began to weary of her, she found\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ea humble place as laundry-maid in the household of Menshikoff, the Tsar's\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003efavourite, whose shirts, we are told, it was her privilege to wash; and who, it\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eseems, was by no means insensible to the buxom charms of this maid of the\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Alpha Edition","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46361653739761,"sku":"9789357384049","price":23.87,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0674\/5433\/7265\/files\/9789357384049_p0.jpg?v=1764930529","url":"https:\/\/shop.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9789357384049","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble","version":"1.0","type":"link"}