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"And what do you think of this latest comedy, the coronation at

Milan?" asked Anna Pavlovna, "and of the comedy of the people of

Genoa and Lucca laying their petitions before Monsieur

Buonaparte, and Monsieur Buonaparte sitting on a throne and

granting the petitions of the nations? Adorable! It is enough to

make one's head whirl! It is as if the whole world had gone

crazy."

Prince Andrew looked Anna Pavlovna straight in the face with a

sarcastic smile.

"'Dieu me la donne, gare a qui la touche!'' * They say he was

very fine when he said that," he remarked, repeating the words in

Italian: "'Dio mi l'ha dato. Guai a chi la tocchi!''

* God has given it to me, let him who touches it beware!

"I hope this will prove the last drop that will make the glass

run over," Anna Pavlovna continued. "The sovereigns will not be

able to endure this man who is a menace to everything."