[4] Bruce is best known in history as l'éprouveuse for the role that she allegedly played in Catherine's love life.

Bruce was then given the task of persuading Potemkin to leave his exile and enter a relationship with Catherine.

In 1779, Catherine was directed into a room, where she witnessed her latest lover, Ivan Rimsky-Korsakov, having sex with Bruce.

[5] The person who directed her is believed to have been Aleksandra von Engelhardt, on the order of Potemkin, who wished for the removal of both Korsakov and Bruce from court.

She returned to her spouse and was dismissed as a lady-in-waiting and replaced by Anna Protasova (1745–1826), the cousin of Alexej Orlov, who is mentioned as l'éprouveuse in the poems of Lord Byron.