y by supplicating the Emperor in the name of the
Republic, of which he was the representative, to permit Genoa to exchange
her independence for the honour of becoming a department of France. This
offer, as may be guessed, was merely a plan contrived beforehand. It was
accepted with an air of protecting kindness, and at the same moment that
the country of Andrea Doria was effaced from the list of nations its last
Doge was included among the number of French Senators. Genoa, which
formerly prided herself in her surname, the Superb, became the chief
station of the twenty-seventh military division. The Emperor went to
take possession of the city in person, and slept in the Doria Palace, in
the bed where Charles V. had lain. He left M. le Brun at Genoa as
Governor-General.

At Milan the Emperor occupied the Palace of Monza. The old Iron Crown of
the Kings of Lombardy was brought from the dust in which it had been
buried, and the new Coronation took place in the cathedral at Milan, the
largest in Italy, with the exception of St. Peter's at Rome. Napoleon
received the crown from the hands of the Archbishop of Milan, and placed
it on his head, exclaiming, "Dieu me l'a donnee, gare a qui la touche."
This became the motto of the Order of the Iron Crown, which the Emperor
founded in commemoration of his being crowned King of Italy.

Napoleon was crowned in the month of May 1805: and here I cannot avoid
correcting some gross and inconceivable errors into which Napoleon must
have voluntarily fallen at St. Helena. The Memorial states "that the
celebrated singer Madame Grasaini attracted his attention at the time of
the Coronation." Napoleon alleges that Madame Grassini on that occasion
said to him, "When I was in the prime of my beauty and talent all I
wished was that you would bestow a single look upon me. That wish was
not fulfilled, and now you notice me when I am no longer worthy your
attention."

I confess I am at a loss to conceive what could induce Napoleon to invent
such a story. He might have recollected his acquaintance with Madame
Grassini at Milan before the battle of Marengo. It was in 1800, and not
in 1805, that I was first introduced to her, and I know that I several
times took tea with her and Bonaparte in the General's apartments I
remember also another circumstance, which is, that on the night when I
awoke Bonaparte to announce to him the capitulation of Genoa, Madame
Grassini also awoke. Napoleon was charmed with