The Rise of Catherine the Great Page #4

she's crying her eyes out all alone.

Alone?

Do you mean to say he's left her?

He hasn't been with her.

The hunting lodge, I think.

But she... she's crying her eyes out

so that it hurts to listen.

The swine!

Brute!

Fool! Beast!

Catherine, my poor darling.

What's happened?

What has he done to you?

Where is he?

Oh, I've never heard of such a thing!

How dare he do

a thing like that to me?

- To you?

- I'm responsible for you.

I won't tolerate your being treated like this

just because you're young and helpless.

But that's just the way

men do treat women.

They're devils if they think

they can get away with it!

But Peter can't, and so he'll find out if I have

to drag him back by the scruff of his neck!

Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

There's only one way for a poor,

defenseless woman to treat her husband...

and that's to get the upper hand of him

in the first five minutes and to rule him.

I don't want to rule him.

And if he doesn't love me,

we can live together as friends.

Friends? Never.

Without love,

marriage is simply immoral.

The whole aim and sense of it

is to have a man here, under your thumb.

Oh, Lord!

If we could only live without men.

But we can't live without them,

the rascals...

and how difficult it is

to live with them.

Especially with yours.

He's unstable, moody, dangerous and bad.

Well, it's easy to love the good ones.

Everybody loves them.

But one must love the others

because they need our love.

Don't you see he needs it?

Oh! You love him.

Yes. I do.

That's entirely different.

It's a terribly difficult case.

Nobody can help you.

Nobody can advise you.

Then you'll have to help yourself,

my little Catherine.

Right turn!

Order arms!

Royal salute!

Present arms!

What's the show?

Anniversary

of the Battle of Poltava.

Full dress parade of the officers

for your wife's inspection.

Full dress parade of my wife's lovers...

for my inspection!

That's what it was done for.

Aren't you proud of them, Colonel?

Perhaps, on the whole.

Not quite the stuff we were made of

in my young day.

Oh, but you can't expect that.

Your record goes back

to the Battle of Poltava...

where you were the first man

through the Swedish line...

and got that...

and that...

and that.

- How do you know all this?

- This is my regiment, Colonel.

Gentlemen...

I invite you to come in and drink

the regimental toast with me.

Parade dismiss!

Thank you.

I'll put a stop

to that little mountebank!

Gentlemen, the toast is...

to the most glorious regiment

in the world.

Your regiment, my regiment...

the Ismailovsky regiment coupled

with the name of Colonel Karnilov.

- Colonel Karnilov!

- The regiment!

Now, gentlemen, whose turn is it

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