Alexander I: Tsar of War and Peace by Alan Palmer

Author:Alan Palmer [Palmer, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571305872
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2014-06-11T21:00:00+00:00

Mme de Staël was also presented to the Empress Elizabeth, whom she describes as ‘the tutelary angel of Russia’, a rare ‘instance of concord between power and virtue’. ‘Her manners are extremely reserved’, Mme de Staël wrote, ‘but what she says is full of life.’31 Small wonder if Elizabeth’s behaviour seemed stiff and constrained. It cannot have been easy for her to exchange pleasantries with a French woman of letters at such a time. For, though Alexander might still enjoy escaping into grandiose dreams, Elizabeth’s feelings were more prosaic, nor was she so adept at pretending to a sentiment she did not genuinely experience. Not for her that elevated quest for perfectibility which carried Germaine de Staël sublimely from salon to salon across Europe. ‘An imagination such as hers can truly find much to feed itself on here at this moment’, Elizabeth reflected in a note to her mother; but she added the dry comment, ‘She is spending the winter in Sweden.’32

Elizabeth’s real thoughts were on more serious matters; for she knew that while her husband and his distinguished visitor were posturing for mutual compliments, the future of the Empire lay on the razor-edge of fate. She would not let it be believed abroad there was any weakening of will within Russia. It was difficult to get letters through to Baden but Elizabeth found a route, by way of a banking institution in Stockholm, and she kept her mother regularly informed of what was happening in Petersburg. Thus on 7 September, the day Germaine de Staël left for Sweden, Elizabeth wrote reassuringly to the Margravine:

I feel certain you are badly informed in Germany about what goes on here. Probably they have already convinced you we have fled to Siberia, while we have not in reality even left St Petersburg. We are ready for anything except negotiations. The farther Napoleon advances the less confidence he can feel in the possibility of peace. This is the unanimous view of the Emperor, of all the nation and of every class. In this respect there exists total harmony, thank God! That is something on which Napoleon never reckoned; he was wrong about that as about other matters! Every step he takes into this vast Russian land brings him closer to the abyss! We shall see how he manages to winter there!33

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