Note 509 — CANTO THE NINTH.
Reading edition
He was the grande passion of the grande Catherine. See her Lives under the head of "Lanskoi."
[Lanskoi was a youth of as fine and interesting a figure as the imagination can paint. Of all Catherine's favourites, he was the man whom she loved the most. In 1784 he was attacked with a fever, and perished in the arms of her Majesty. When he was no more, Catherine gave herself up to the most poignant grief, and remained three months without going out of her palace of Tzarsko-selo. She afterwards raised a superb monument to his memory. (See Life of Catherine II., by W. Tooke, 1800, iii. 88, 89.)]