The Flesh is Weak
Sunday, August 18, 1756
Your Highness,
I am born, Madame, to obey you. You ask me for news of our friend. I send it to you at once, Poniatowski’s letter, forwarded by a faithful English merchant, sent to me by his confidential servant from Riga. Be assured, Madame, that my own business here goes very badly. They will not accept the £100,000 sterling in the subsidy, which would be the first payment of four, and without their acceptance I look upon the treaty as broken. The Great Chancellor Bestuzhev either does not, or is determined not to, understand me. After all our trouble, in both time and effort, the faction that supports France has the upper hand.
I assure you that our whole business with the treaty may be ruined by this stupidity. This is very annoying to me, and puts me in a very bad temper with all the world but you.
As to the plotting of the faction favourable to France, I am delighted to see the masterly way in which you fathom their artifices and despise their weakness. My advice to you on the whole affair is to sit quiet, to let them come to you without ever giving any decided answer about anything. Experience counts for everything in business — that is what gives knowledge; thus an adviser and a doctor without practice will only make a mess of things and murder patients.
Henry the Great began his letters to Sully, “Mon Ami.” I shall feel very proud if you will do the same.
Your humble servant,
Hanbury-Williams
Thursday, August 22
Dear Sir Charles,
Thank you for your friendship towards me, mon ami— since that is the title which you suggest I use. Be so good as to forward this sealed letter to our absent friend, the Count. The request that he makes you, to send him word that I love him, emboldens me to tell you that you are confirming for him a truth of truths.
Let me tell you that from no one but you would I readily without complaint accept the numerous flatteries that you shower on me. But from you, I take them as proof of friendship. I am annoyed that your affairs are so perpetually held up, but am very flattered that your bad temper is diminished as far as I am concerned. When shall I be able to put you in a good one? Meanwhile my good wishes and my affection are always with you.
C.
Tuesday, August 27
Your Highness,
I must now speak to you about your money. It is my privilege to help you settle your expenses in court. This is what you should do, and what I shall do.
After I settle the account with the banker, I shall send word to you how much remains in my hands; and you will draw that sum by Naryshkin as you require it, from time to time, for my own security demands that no one should ever be able to prove that I procured you money. After that, I will send you the bond which you have to sign for my Master, the King; you should copy it in your own handwriting from the original.
I hope that this plan will please you. I shall try all my life to please you and to help you. I own that it hurts me to think that the Great Chancellor Bestuzhev believes that your protection is only extended to me because of Poniatowski.
I assure you, Madame, that insignificant as I am, I would not live with the greatest prince in the world on such a footing. My friendship is of no great value and my devotion is a small affair, but such as they are, I am not lavish with them; and I can honestly say that up till now no one in this world has suffered from having placed confidence in me.
I pride myself on being an honest man, and I hope in time to convince you of it. This is how I shall set about it. I shall never be troublesome to you, I shall faithfully guard your secrets, I shall tell you nothing but the truth. I shall help you in all that in my power lies, and never shall I flatter you. Your esteem is my ambition, because I believe that the man who obtains it is worthy to possess it.
Your obedient servant
Hanbury-Williams
Wednesday, September 4
Dear Sir Charles,
From the moment I had the pleasure of making your acquaintance, I conceived a real regard for you, quite independent of any other connection, seeing that my association with your protégé, the Count, only came into being seven months later.
You are not insignificant — you are a grand seigneur as far as merit and honesty are concerned. Your friendship and devotion are without price, and I congratulate myself on having acquired your confidence.
But have you no news of Count Poniatowski? I had hoped that by now there would be some talk of his return. As for your suggestion that for his safety it is necessary that he secures a position when he comes back, I fully agree. It is most reasonable that he return here as Minister from Poland. I have been deliberating on how to achieve this. In a few weeks he will be in Warsaw for the Diet where King Augustus will preside. Someone must approach the King on his behalf. In God’s name give me your advice, for my head reels. Abandon me not in my present distress.
C.
Sunday, September 8
Your Highness,
My devotion to you, Madame, has no limits, save that of a higher duty to my King and country. You ask for my counsel and here it is: Poniatowski’s return can only be secured by the Chancellor Bestuzhev. I own that I am much afraid that it is the latter who has provoked the Empress against him — a horrible thought, but as he has it in his power to assist us, we must not quarrel with him. Therefore be firm but kind. Press him to show you a scheme to secure the Count’s return. I suggest an effusive letter to King Augustus.
Personally, I have nothing more to do here. Your court loves France too well to think of England, double treachery there while France offers sanctuary to the Pretender who yet schemes to overthrow King George. And no further word on the treaty. My worst fear is that all my strenuous efforts have been in vain.
For you I will do anything. But prudence must guide us, for treachery threatens. Above all, I persist that our correspondence must remain an impenetrable secret delivered by only the most trusted servants.
Good-bye, Madame, my pen falls from my hand. I am tired out and none too well, with pains in my head, but yours always.
Your humble servant,
Hanbury-Williams
Wednesday, September 15
Dear Sir Charles,
I thank you for all that you have said and done and am only sorry that you are not well.
I implore you to neglect nothing which might hasten Poniatowski’s return. You will oblige me in a very tender spot. I shall follow your counsel blindly. My heart and my head, notwithstanding the praise which it has pleased you to shower on them, are quite dejected. I shall press Chancellor Bestuzhev every day, even twice a day, for the return of the Count. I have already sent a rude letter to him. I am going to adopt your maxim, never to be on very good terms with him when I want anything.
I feel really vexed at his conduct toward you. To say nothing of his treachery and low cunning. An honest Chancellor would be a marvel.
A rumour has just reached me that King Frederick is marching into Saxony.
C.
Warsaw, Thursday, September 26
Mon Cher and respectable Ami!
I love you as my second father! It is an appellation which I owe you for so many reasons that I shall never change it. You can judge better than I can ever express how touched I am by all that you tell of the Grand Duchess in your letter. May God bless her and make her as happy as she deserves to be.
My parents received me more warmly than ever. They have guessed my reason for wanting to return to Russia and my mother is putting up roadblocks. Her religious scruples, which have become very strong, force her to say non consentio. When I pressed her more strongly to give her formal consent to my return, she told me with tears in her eyes that she foresaw that this affair would alienate my affection, upon which she had based all that was sweetest in life. I found myself in the most horrible predicament that I have ever had to face. I dashed my head against the walls, shrieking rather than weeping.
I earnestly beg you to write my parents and urge them to send me back because I am necessary to you. Anything. Only use your influence.
Almost the whole of my family are assembled, awaiting the result of the strange scene which is taking place in Saxony. The mail no longer reaches us from the court.
With no reliable intelligence, I can tell you nothing except that the King of Prussia has marched into Saxony and now occupies Dresden. Frederick is said to have acted in the cruellest manner toward the royal family, who are virtual prisoners in that city. There are unsavoury accounts of the destruction of Dresden, that Frederick has laid waste to most of it. When I recall the beauty of the place, my heart breaks.
As for the Polish Diet, if King Augustus does not arrive here for the first day, probably he will not come at all. Therefore I am stranded in Warsaw awaiting the outcome.
Adieu. They are hurrying me, for the messenger is leaving. Would that I could speak to you instead of writing. You recall the silver compass, which you gave me as a parting gift because I was foolish enough to admire it in your hand. I keep it with me always. If I have to, I shall use it to find my way back to you. It is a cursed thing to be parted from those one loves.
Your very humble and obedient servant,
Stanislaw Poniatowski
Tuesday, October 8
Your Highness,
Do not be discouraged by the Countess Poniatowska’s refusal to allow her son to return to Russia. She loves him. She is intelligent, but very bigoted, and has elicited from him a promise that should a marriage ever become possible, he will insist on a ceremony in the Roman church. She has a horror of the Orthodox faith and knows in her heart that you will never repudiate it in order to marry. After all, you cannot be sovereign in your adopted country without adhering to the Orthodox church. But I have more credit with her than anybody and I shall use all of it on this occasion.
Be assured that I am as anxious for the return of Poniatowski as you are, and that I shall work for it with the Great Chancellor Bestuzhev; and I give you my word that if he does not do it, I shall find some pretext to quarrel with him. I shall make my court quarrel with him. He shall never have a penny of the English pension I promised him.
Continue to press him; he is a very slippery eel. Write him letters in a tone which threatens him with the loss of your friendship in the present and your protection in the future. He can do what you ask, if he pleases.
I am sure that you will be sorry to hear that I am not at all well, and that my illness causes me such pain in my head and stomach that I have much difficulty in writing to you and that I cannot be present at court tonight. I fear that my failure in what I came here to do — to bring to a close the subsidy treaty — has made me ill. If it is not too grand to say so, I have let down my King and country and feel the weight of it upon me.
With regret, your humble servant,
Hanbury-Williams
Thursday. October 10
My dear Sir Charles,
I do not like your notes when they are an effort to you. I am afraid of making your health worse. Rather dictate your letters to someone. Your condition pains me extremely. Perhaps I can lift your spirits by telling you that I received a copy of the letter Chancellor Bestuzhev has written to King Augustus. In it he is as effusive as you would like, insisting that “… in the light of the present critical position of affairs, an Envoy Extraordinary should be sent here without delay from the Kingdom of Poland whose presence would draw closer the ties of friendship between the two countries.” He says that he has found “no one who can be more pleasing to his court than Count Poniatowski, who has won Her Imperial Majesty’s favour and the goodwill of the whole court.”
What do you say to that? It seems to me fairly satisfactory!
May God grant you good health, happiness and all the blessings imaginable.
C.
Friday, November 1 (dictated)
Your Highness,
I am sorry, Madame, that your kindness to me will cause you to learn with sorrow that my illness continues the same. Dr. Condoidi assures me that he will pull me through in time; but I doubt it, for my liver no longer does its work, and my digestion is so ruined that I have eaten nothing solid for nearly a month.
I am sorry that Count Poniatowski worries himself about me. I am his friend and will remain so, tho’ we shall not see one another often, since we are Ministers of governments that are in opposing camps. We shall find a means of communicating our thoughts to one another, and I am so certain of his devotion to me that I think only of how to help him. I flatter myself that, one day, you, Madame, and the King of Prussia as your lieutenant, will make him the King of Poland.
You have told me, and I have no doubt of your sincerity, that you hold the King, my Master, in high esteem and that you love England. Russia makes a treaty with France; and at the same moment, France receives with open arms a Minister from the Pretender, in order to plan the invasion of Great Britain. If you were in your rightful place, you would not allow this. You would see all these things with your own eyes.
I hope you will look upon me entirely as a person who is bound to you by love and affection, and as one who will never allow you to do yourself harm in my interests. Adieu, Madame. May heaven preserve you.
Your obedient servant,
H.-W.
St. Petersburg, Wednesday, January 22, 1757
My dear Fox,
I am sorry to tell you that I am in very bad health and have been several times confined to my house with the result that I am no longer able to collect sufficient information to warrant me remaining at my position. Every step I take is watched very narrowly, my letters are opened, and some of the people who used to get me the best intelligence have been questioned why they go so often to my house, and advised not to make me such frequent visits.
I have no illusion as to the course which the Russian court will adopt — it is only a matter of time before they accede to the Treaty of Versailles and join France and their allies. I have no doubt that France has already bought Chancellor Bestuzhev. In light of the continuing intrigues of the French to replace our King with the Pretender, I will not be surprised to hear Bestuzhev exclaim that Bonnie Prince Charlie is the rightful ruler of England! Nobody that is not on the spot can have an idea of this court.
After having twice requested to be recalled, I am sorry to tell you what is serious and ridiculous at the same time, which is, that my disorder is just fallen into my legs, particularly my left leg, so that when I have just got our King’s leave to go away from here, I have no legs to go upon.
Count Poniatowski has at last arrived, after all our efforts. I was well enough to be in court when he presented his credentials to the Empress. One of the Great Chancellor’s conditions for the Count’s return as Polish envoy was that we no longer live under the same roof and indeed associate only in matters of business since our governments are enemies. It is hard on the both of us, since our natural inclinations are affectionate.
I will under no circumstances stay another winter in the country. I can only imagine when you will receive this letter since from the moment when the Prussian army began its advance, the post routes were closed and messengers must make long detours.
I remain your humble servant,
H.-W.