Excerpt from Memoirs of the Empress Catherine II In reading these pages, we behold her entering on the scene, we see her forming herself to that which she afterwards became. A frolicsome girl of four teen, her head dressed d la Moise, fair, playful, the betrothed of a little idiot, the Grand Duke, she has already caught the disease of the Winter Palace the thirst of dominion. One day, whfle perched. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.