“And what do you think of this latest comedy, the coronation at Milan?” asked Anna Pávlovna, “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 Andréy looked Anna Pávlovna straight in the face with a sarcastic smile.

“ ‘ Dieu me la donne, gare à qui la touche! ’ 2 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! ’ ”

“I hope this will prove the last drop that will make the glass run over,” Anna Pávlovna continued. “The sovereigns will not be able to endure this man who is a menace to everything.”