nfiding friend. Pope Pius VII., who had formed a very strong
friendship for Josephine, accompanied them as far as Turin. When
parting, the empress made him a present of a beautiful vase of Sevres
china, embellished with exquisite paintings of the coronation.

From Turin Napoleon took Josephine to the field of Marengo. He had
assembled upon that great battle plain, which his victory has
immortalized, thirty thousand troops, that Josephine might behold, in
the mimicry of war, the dreadful scenes which had deluged those fields
in blood. It was the fifth of May, and a bright Italian sun shone down
upon the magnificent pageant. A vast elevation was constructed in the
middle of the plain, from which, seated upon a lofty throne, the emperor
and empress overlooked the whole field. Napoleon decorated himself upon
the occasion with the same war-worn garments--the battered hat, the
tempest-torn cloak, the coat of faded blue, and the long cavalry saber
which he had worn amid the carnage and the terror of that awful day.
Many of the veterans who had been engaged in the action were present.
Napoleon and Josephine came upon the ground in a magnificent chariot,
drawn by eight horses. The moment he appeared upon the plain, one
general shout of acclamation from thirty thousand adoring voices rent
the sky. After the mimic battle was ended, the soldiers defiled before
the emperor and empress, while he conferred, upon those who had
signalized themselves in the day of Marengo, the decorations of the
Legion of Honor. The gorgeous uniform of the men, the rich caparisons
and proud bearing of the horses, the clangor of innumerable trumpets and
martial bands, the glitter of gold and steel, the deafening thunders of
artillery and musketry, filling the air with one incessant and terrific
war; the dense volumes of sulphurous smoke rolling heavily over the
plain, shutting out the rays of an unclouded sun, all combined to
produce an effect upon the spectators never to be effaced.

On the eighth of May, 1805, they made their triumphal entry into the
city of Milan. While the whole city was absorbed in those fetes and
rejoicings which preceded the coronation, the inexhaustible mind of
Napoleon was occupied in planning those splendid public buildings and
those magnificent improvements which still commemorate the almost
superhuman energy of his reign. The iron crown of Charlemagne, which
for a thousand years had pressed no brow, was brought forth from
its