Buffalo Bill and Napoleon Bonaparte on a white horse: it was 1894 and the French artist Rosa Bonheur was painting the promotional poster for the traveling circus exhibition “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World” also set up on the parade ground of Alessandria on 21 April 1906, that is, on the site of the Spanish citadel (already demolished) circumscribed by via Piave, corso Lamarmora, via Tortona, spalto Gamondio. This reproduction of bloody battles between indigenous and settlers on the North American prairie exalts scenarios known to the General and the Colonel: the leadership in skirmishes between cavalry soldiers on the lush plain is also the geographical liaison between Marengo and Great Plains.
The last moment of earthly life given to the two leaders is intense and marked by the decision to deny man’s pride as the architect of one’s own destiny, in order to participate in the Christian religion.
Buffalo Bill met Pope Leo XIII in 1890, then, shortly before he died, he embraced Catholicism.
“My First Communion was the most beautiful day of my life”: the testimony given by the Emperor confined to Saint Helena to his biographer is very disruptive because actually Napoleon imposed himself the title of Emperor, tearing the crown from the hands of Pope Pius VII.