ourselves, and before his departure had
received from the Emperor magnificent presents. Among these was a golden
altar with chandeliers, and holy vessels of the richest workmanship, a
superb tiara, Gobelin tapestries, and carpets from the Savonnerie, with a
statue of the Emperor in Sevres porcelain. The Empress also made to his
Holiness a present of a vase of the same manufacture, adorned with
paintings by the best artists. This masterpiece was at least four feet
in height, and two feet and a half in diameter at the mouth, and was made
expressly to be offered to the Holy Father, the painting representing, if
my memory is correct, the ceremony of the coronation.

Each of the cardinals in the suite of the Pope had received a box of
beautiful workmanship, with the portrait of the Emperor set in diamonds;
and all the persons attached to the service of Pius VII. had presents
more or less considerable, all these various articles being brought by
the furnishers to the apartments of his Majesty, where I took a list of
them, by order of his Majesty, as they arrived.

The Holy Father also made in return very handsome presents to the
officers of the Emperor's household whose duties had brought them near
his person during his stay at Paris.

From Stupinigi we went to Alexandria. The Emperor, the next day after
his arrival, rose early, visited the fortifications of the town, reviewed
all the positions of the battlefield of Marengo, and returned only at
seven o'clock, and after having broken down five horses. A few days
after he wished the Empress to see this famous plain, and by his orders
an army of twenty-five or thirty thousand men was assembled. The morning
of the day fixed for the review of these troops, the Emperor left his
apartment dressed in a blue coat with long skirts, much worn, and even
with holes in some places. These holes were the work of moths and not of
balls, as has been said in certain memoirs. On his head his Majesty wore
an old hat edged with gold lace, tarnished and frayed, and at his side a
cavalry saber, such as the generals of the Republic wore; this was the
coat, hat, and sword that he had worn on the day of the battle of
Marengo. I afterwards lent these articles to Monsieur David, first
painter to his Majesty, for his picture of the passage of Mont St.
Bernard. A vast amphitheater had been raised on this plain for the
Empress and the suite of their Majesties; the day was perfect, as is each
day of the