room, he turned, as with
a sudden thought. "To be sure, it is rather unlucky you do not sing
to-night, for this morning a message came from the Lord Chamberlain's
office to announce the Queen's intention to come _incognita_,
accompanied by the princesses, purposely to see you perform; and a large
_grillee_ is actually ordered to be prepared for them, where they can
perfectly see and hear without being seen by the audience; but I'll step
myself to the Lord Chamberlain's office, say that you are confined to
your bed, and express your mortification at disappointing the royal
party." "Stop, Kelly," cried the cantatrice, all in a flutter; "what you
now say alters the case. If her Majesty Queen Charlotte wishes to see
'La Vergine del Sole,' and to hear me, I am bound to obey her Majesty's
commands. Go to Goold and say I _will_ sing." "When I went into her
dressing-room after the first act," says Kelly, "her Majesty not having
arrived, Grassini, suspicious that I had made up a trick to cajole her,
taxed me with it; and when I confessed, she took it good-naturedly and
laughed at her own credulity." The popularity of Grassini in London
remained unabated during several seasons; and when she reengaged for
the French opera, in 1808, it was to the great regret of musical London.
Talma was a warm admirer of her dramatic genius, and he used to say that
no other actress, not even Mars, Darval, or Duchesnois, possessed so
expressive and mutable a face. The Grecian outline of her face, her
beautiful forehead, rich black hair and eyebrows, superb dark eyes, "now
flashing with tragedy's fiery passions, then softly languishing with
love," and finally "that astonishing _ensemble_ of perfections which
Nature had collected in her as if to review all her gifts in one
woman--all these qualities together exercised on the spectator such
a charm as none could resist. Pasta herself might have looked on and
learned, when Grassini had to portray either indignation, grief, anger,
or despair."

Her performance in "Romeo e Giulietta" was so fine that Napoleon
sprang to his feet, forgetting his marble coldness, and shouted like a
school-boy, while Talma's eyes streamed with tears; for, as the latter
afterward confessed, he had never before been so deeply touched.
Napoleon sent her a check for twenty thousand francs as a testimonial of
his admiration, and to Crescentini he sent the order of the Iron Cross.
Many years after, in St. Helena, the dethroned Cae