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 Cæsar alluded to this as
an illustration of his policy. "In conformity with my system," observed
he, "of amalgamating all kinds of merit, and of rendering one and the
same reward universal, I had an idea of presenting the Cross of
the Legion of Honor to Talma; but I refrained from doing this, in
consideration of our capricious manners and absurd prejudices. I
wished to make a first experiment in an affair that was out of date and
unimportant, and I accordingly gave the Iron Crown to Crescentini.
The decoration was foreign, and so was the individual on whom it was
conferred. This circumstance was less likely to attract public notice or
to render my conduct the subject of discussion; at worst, it could only
give rise to a few malicious jokes. Such," continued the Emperor, "is