"Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes.

But I warn you, if you don't tell me that this means war, if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that Antichrist--I really believe he is Antichrist--I will have nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend, no longer my 'faithful slave,' as you call yourself! But how do you do?
I see I have frightened you--sit down and tell me all the news." It was in July, 1805, and the speaker was the well-known Anna Pavlovna Scherer, maid of honor and favorite of the Empress Marya Fedorovna.

With these words she greeted Prince Vasili Kuragin, a man of high rank and importance, who was the first to arrive at her reception.

Anna Pavlovna had had a cough for some days.

She was, as she said, suffering from la grippe; grippe being then a new word in St.Petersburg, used only by the elite.
All her invitations without exception, written in French, and delivered by a scarlet-liveried footman that morning, ran as follows: "If you have nothing better to do, Count (or Prince), and if the prospect of spending an evening with a poor invalid is not too terrible, I shall be very charmed to see you tonight between 7 and 10--Annette Scherer." "Heavens! what a virulent attack!" replied the prince, not in the least disconcerted by this reception.