Olga Zherebtsova

After her brothers' fall from grace following Catherine II's death, they conspired with Count Pahlen to assassinate her successor Paul whom they viewed as the author of their misfortunes.

[1] Zherebtsova followed Lord Whitworth to England where she was shocked to learn about his prospective betrothal to the widow of John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset.

It was rumored that Madame Gerebtzoff extorted from her rival some 10,000 pounds before turning her attention to the Prince Regent, whose mistress she is said to have become.

[2][3][4] In the declining years of her life, Madame Gerebtzoff returned to the Russian capital, where she again became immersed in court intrigues through her powerful son-in-law, Prince Aleksey Orlov.

In the 1840s, she was the patron of Alexander Herzen, who would recall her character and opinions with admiration in his memoirs "My Past and Thoughts":[5] Like a tree in winter, she maintained the linear outline of her boughs after the leaves had fallen off and the scraggy bare branches had been pinched with cold, all the more clearly demonstrating her magnificent stature, her daring bulk, and the trunk, though white with frost, still stalking lordly and sulkily and braving every tempest and gust.