CHAPTER XXI.

PLOTS AGAINST NAPOLEON’S LIFE--THAT OF OCTOBER 10, 1800--THAT OF DECEMBER 24, 1800--NUMBER OF PEOPLE KILLED AND INJURED--NAPOLEON’S PORTRAIT.

The two plots against Napoleon’s life which occurred in this year must not be forgotten. Let us have Combe’s version, which does not much exaggerate the facts of the cases:--

It seems the Jacobins against Our hero greatly were incensed: His levées, drawing-rooms, and so forth, They look’d upon as deeds of no worth; The pageantry he held so dear, Did not Republican appear; And, at such goings on distrest, Their indignation they exprest; Our hero consequently saw The need of keeping them in awe; So he contrived a plot, which seems The masterpiece of all his schemes; And in this plot, too, he resolved His greatest foes should be involved. Fouché pretended, on th’ occasion, (For Nap allow’d of no evasion) That some conspirators had got Daggers and pistols, and what not, To make the Conqueror their aim, When from the Opera he came. Nap to the Opera went indeed, One gave the signal, as agreed; Three men were instantly arrested Three whom great Bonaparte detested. They got it seems a dagger from one, But carrying daggers now was common; He was from Nap at a great distance, This proof, tho’, was of no assistance; When the supposed assassination Had undergone examination, They seiz’d on others, as directed, For having such a scheme projected; One prov’d at home that night he slept, For being ill, his bed he kept; All this, however, had no weight, For Nap’s resentment was too great. They suffered by the guillotine, Which was his favourite machine; Save one, th’ Italian too, I wot, From whom the dagger had been got, Nap banish’d him, and with him too, Th’ Italian patriotic crew; Four thousand, as historians say, For no offence were swept away.

The first plot was that of October 10, 1800, and it has, certainly, somewhat of a police ‘get up’ about it. The First Consul knew all about it through an ex _chef de bataillon_ named Harrel, who used to come every night to De Bourrienne, and tell him what the so-called conspirators had done. He supplied Harrel, at Napoleon’s request, with money, &c. Napoleon was never in any danger, and four men perished by the guillotine.

Barre says: ‘Still the persons designed, and arrested, on the very spot of the premeditated murder, were strictly searched about their proper persons, and neighbouring places, and not an arm, nor even a pin, was found. With what, then, could those pretended conspirators commit a murder, since, at the very moment, and on the very spot where it was to have been perpetrated, no kind of arms were found about them?

‘That such was the case, it was asserted, and never denied, in the course of the trial.

‘The only witness was one Harel, an acknowledged spy of the police, holding the rank of Captain.

‘And on the single evidence of a spy, devoted to, and paid by, the police, four men (Arena, Ceracchi, Demerville, and Topino-Lebrun,) were condemned to death....

‘Those unfortunate men having appealed from such iniquitous judgment, as grounded on many erroneous statements, and irregular proceedings, the court of appeals divided, when it was found that eight judges were for repealing, and eight for confirming, the judgment.

‘The division being equal, five more judges were added to the sixteen, when the iniquitous judgment was confirmed.’

The other attempt upon Napoleon’s life was genuine enough. On December 24, 1800, Haydn’s Oratorio of the ‘Creation’ was to be performed at the Opera. He was sleepy, and disinclined to go, but was overpersuaded, and went. Luckily his coachman was drunk, and drove faster than usual. In the Rue St. Nicaise there was a loud explosion, two or three seconds after he had passed the place where it had occurred.

A barrel of gunpowder, surrounded by grapeshot, and pieces of iron, was fixed in a cart, and fired when Napoleon passed. He escaped, but twenty people were killed, and fifty-three wounded, including St. Regent who fired the train. The coachman was so drunk that he drove on, thinking it was only a salute that had been fired. There are several, and contradictory, versions of this event, but this seems to be the most authentic--

For this conspiracy ideal Was soon succeeded by one real. While the First Consul, with delight, Was going to the play one night; His carriage pass’d a narrow way, Where an infernal barrel lay-- This barrel of a sudden blew up, And the combustibles all flew up. With great dismay was Boney filled, No wonder--some were hurt and kill’d; The windows of the carriage broke, And most tremendous was the smoke: The coachman luckily enough, Had taken plenty of strong stuff; And, not regarding any evil, Drove thro’ the passage like a devil; His whip applied when there was need, And saved his master by his speed. Had coachee been of drink no lover, With Nap it would have been all over. The Jacobins (for, as related, This party the brave Consul hated,) Were mark’d for this assassination, And many suffered transportation. Indeed our hero firmly swore, (As he had often done before, For he would swear thro’ thick and thin), The British had a hand therein-- It seems the gentleman forgot John Bull disdains a wicked plot.

Cobbett, of course, improves the occasion.[58] ‘Miserable slaves! For an instance of base flattery, surpassing anything we have hitherto seen, take the following from the _Chef du Cabinet_: “The explosion of the infernal machine broke _twenty-nine_ pictures, out of _thirty_, which ornamented an apartment in the street of St. Thomas. The single picture which escaped, was that of the Chief Consul. One would be ready to affirm (mark this) _that the same God, who watches over the life of the first Consul, protected even his likeness_”!!! What Emperor was it that talked of making _his horse a Consul_? An English blood horse would be disgraced by becoming the successor of Buonaparte.’

And again:[59] ‘Buonaparte’s embracing the Parisian addressers, puts us in mind of the good old ceremony of the _thief’s kissing the hangman_.’