that went against the tastes of her husband seemed salutary to
her; with Elizabeth, things were less clear. She sought savagely to
keep her free will, to obey only her own instinct. Moreover, the
early military successes bolstered her hopes. Showing more re-
solve than Apraxin, General Fermor seized Königsberg, besieged
Kustrin, and was making progress in Pomerania. However, he
was stopped outside of Zorndorf, in a battle that was so indeci-
sive that both camps proclaimed victory. Certainly, the French
victory in Crefeld, on the Rhine, by the count of Clermont, briefly
dampened the Empress’s optimism. But experience had taught
her that this kind of risk is inevitable in war and that it would be
disastrous for Russia to lay down its weapons at the first sign of
failure. Suspecting her allies of being less adamant than she in
their bellicose intentions, she even declared to the ambassador of
Austria, Count Esterhazy, that she would fight until the end, even
if she had to “sell all her diamonds and half her dresses.”
According to the reports that Elizabeth received from the
theater of operations, this patriotic disposition was shared by all
the soldiers, of high rank or low. In the palaces, on the other
hand, opinions were less certain. It was considered proper, in
some Russian circles associated with the embassies, to show a
certain independence of mind in this respect; this was considered
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having a “European” outlook. The mindset promulgated in foreign
capitals and bolstered by international alliances between great
families encouraged an elegant and tolerant lifestyle straddling
several borders, so that certain courtiers scoffed at those who only
wished for a solution that would be fundamentally Russian. First
among the partisans of Frederick II was, as always, the Grand
Duke Peter, who no longer hid his cards. He claimed to be com-
municating to the king of Prussia (through the intermediary of
England’s new ambassador to St. Petersburg, George Keith, who
had succeeded Williams) everything that the tsarina was saying
in her secret war councils. Elizabeth did not want to believe that
her nephew was receiving money as a price for his treason; but she
was informed that Keith had received from his minister, Pitt (who
also idolized the king of Prussia), instructions to encourage the
grand duke to use all his influence with the empress to spare Fre-
derick II from disaster.
Once upon a time, the Germanophiles could also count on
Catherine and Poniatowski to support them. But, after the open-
hearted conversation that she had had with her daughter-in-law,
Elizabeth felt sure that she had definitively defeated her. Folding
in on herself, retreating inward to simmer over her sentimental
sorrows, the young woman now spent her time only weeping and
dreaming. Since she had voluntarily removed herself from the
game board, she had lost any importance on the international
level. To ensure that she had been rendered harmless, Elizabeth
dispatched Stanislaw Poniatowski on a foreign mission. Her Maj-
esty then went one step further and, asking him to relinquish his
passport, let him know that henceforth his presence in St. Peters-
burg would be deemed undesirable.
After having disarmed her daughter-in-law, the Empress
thought that she had only to disarm one other adversary, who was
hateful in a different way: Frederick II. She was set against the
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king of Prussia not only because he opposed her personal political
views, but even more so because he had won over the heart of too
many Russians, who were blinded by his insolence and his gleam-
ing armor. Fortunately, Maria Theresa seemed as resolved as she
to destroy the Germanic hegemony, and Louis XV, at the urging of
Pompadour, it was said, was now engaging to reinforce the army
he had launched against Frederick II’s troops. On December 30,
1759, a third treaty of Versailles renewed the second and guaran-
teed to Austria the restitution of all the territories that had been
occupied during preceding campaigns. That should be enough,
thought Elizabeth, to revive the allies’ flagging energies.
In parallel to all this official business, she conducted (with
an almost youthful delight) a friendly correspondence with the
king of France. The letters between the two monarchs were writ-
ten by their respective secretaries, but the tsarina liked to think
that those from Louis XV were really dictated by him and that the
solicitude expressed in the letters was the sign of a genuine au-
tumnal flirtation. Elizabeth was suffering from open wounds on
her legs, and Louis XV stretched his compassion as far as to send
her his personal surgeon, Dr. Poissonier. Certainly, it was not his
skill with the scalpel and his ability to prescribe medications, but
his capacity to collect information and to weave intrigues that had
earned Poissonier the king’s high regard. Having been invested
with this secret mission, he was welcomed as an intelligence spe-
