Robert Massie

This is how Catherine appeared in his eyes:

She was twenty-five, that perfect moment when a woman who has any claim to beauty

friendship between the two courts. As I have found no one more pleasing to my court than

d for all the happiness of her life; that it was hard to refuse some things, but this time she was determined not to consent. I was beside myself; I threw myself at her feet and begged her to change her mind. She said, again in tears, “This is what I expected.” She went away, pressing my hand, and left me with the most horrible dilemma I have ever experienced in my life.

Aided by his powerful Czartoryski uncles, Poniatowski finally escaped from his mother