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.