On the 24th of July this was a perfectly correct thing to say. But on the 29th Kutuzov received the title of prince. This ennoblement might have been a signal for him to be put out to grass, so Prince Vasily’s judgement was still a perfectly correct thing to say, though now he was in no great hurry to say it. But on the 8th of August a committee was convened, consisting of Field-Marshal Saltykov, Arakcheyev, Vyazmitinov, Lopukhin and Kochubey, to discuss the progress of the war. This committee decided that the various failures had been caused by high-level dissension, and, although the committee members were aware that the Tsar was not well-disposed towards Kutuzov, they didn’t take long to propose his appointment as overall commander. Before the day was out Kutuzov had been appointed commander-in-chief of all military forces, and plenipotentiary in charge of the whole occupied region.
On the 8th of August Prince Vasily came across the ‘man of real ability’ once again at Anna Pavlovna’s. The ‘man of real ability’ was making a great fuss of Anna Pavlovna herself, with a view to using her influence to get himself appointed as chief administrator in one of the Empress Maria’s institutions of female education. Prince Vasily strode into the room with the air of a conquering hero, a man who has just achieved his life’s ambition.
‘Well, have you heard the great news? Prince Kutuzov is our field-marshal! No more dissension. I am so pleased, absolutely delighted!’ said Prince Vasily. ‘A real man at last!’ he declared with a knowing look and a forbidding glare at everyone in the room. For all his desire to secure the job, the ‘man of real ability’ could not resist the impulse to remind Prince Vasily about his earlier judgement. (This was a double
‘But, Prince, they say he’s blind,’ he said, reminding Prince Vasily of his own words.
‘Get away with you. He can see well enough,’ growled Prince Vasily, speaking quickly with the deep voice and intermittent cough that he always used to sweep away difficulties. ‘He can see well enough,’ he repeated. ‘And what pleases me,’ he went on, ‘is that the Emperor has given him unlimited authority over all the forces and all the region – that’s something no other commander-in-chief has ever had. That makes two autocrats,’ he concluded with a triumphant smile.
‘I hope so in God’s name,’ said Anna Pavlovna.
The ‘man of real ability’, still a novice in court society, was keen to ingratiate himself with Anna Pavlovna, so he wanted to protect her original stance on this issue.
‘They say the Emperor was reluctant to appoint Kutuzov,’ he commented. ‘They say he blushed like a young lady listening to the naughty bits of La Fontaine when he heard the Tsar say, “Your sovereign and your country bestow this honour upon you.”’
‘Perhaps his heart wasn’t really in it,’ said Anna Pavlovna.
‘No, no, no,’ Prince Vasily protested with some vigour. Kutuzov was now second to none. In his eyes, Kutuzov, as well as being a good man in himself, was worshipped by all and sundry. ‘No, that cannot be right. The Tsar has always had a high opinion of him,’ he added.
‘In God’s name I hope Prince Kutuzov will take full control,’ said Anna Pavlovna, ‘and not let
Prince Vasily soon cottoned on: he knew what ‘anybody’ meant. He spoke in a whisper.
‘I know for a fact that Kutuzov made one stipulation: the Tsarevich must not go with the army. Do you know what he said to his Majesty?’ And Prince Vasily trotted out certain words attributed Kutuzov: ‘I can neither punish him if he gets things wrong nor reward him if he does well. Oh! He’s got his head screwed on has old Kutuzov. What a character! I’ve known him for ages.’
‘They do say,’ observed the ‘man of real ability’, who had yet to acquire the diplomatic skills of a courtier, ‘that his Excellency even stipulated that the Emperor himself was not to go with the army.’
The words were hardly out of his mouth when Anna Pavlovna and Prince Vasily spun on their heels, looked sadly at each other and sighed at his simple-mindedness.
CHAPTER 7
