Still the Princess Wilhelmina must have known that there was something about this woman worthy of more serious consideration, when she was the acknowledged wife of a man who might have formed an alliance with the highest princess of Europe, but who was always content with the woman of his choice.
In fact, ever anxious to exalt her dignity, he founded the Order of St. Catherine in her honor, and when at last he came to his death-bed, as the result of obstinate exposure in the work of rescuing a boat which had been thrown upon the rocks, his last thought was for her.
When too weak to speak, in the death grip of pneumonia, he signaled for pen and in trembling hand wrote these words, "Let everything be given to…"
The sentence was never finished, but Catherine and her party declared that it had been the Czar's intention to leave the throne to his wife, if she survived him, and that his dying effort had been to put this fiat on record. It was a rather slender title with which to bring a peasant woman to the throne of Russia, but like "Mercutio's wound," it was enough.
Previous article Next article
From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
