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Napoleon
Bonaparte's Career
12 Portraits
 Threats
against the life of Napoleon
Bonaparte were not rare as his manner of ruling France
did outrage many on all sides of politics.
Royalists
were the main plotters, although Bonaparte preferred - for
political reasons - to blame the rival Jacobins.
One
discovered assassination attempt was the stuff of modern
spy thrillers.
It
involved the plotters infiltrating a group of workmen restoring
Malmaison and switching Bonaparte's favoured snuff box with
one laced with poison. The plan was foiled, but the same
group then schemed to kidnap the First Consul as he walked
alone in the grounds of the estate.
Nothing
came of the conspiracy, although Bonaparte did use the threat
of kidnapping or assassination as a means of frightening
Josephine. He played tricks
upon her, making up stories of attempts on his life and
then would calm her by bursting out in laughter.
The
most serious - and very nearly successful - attempt on his
life took place on Christmas Eve in 1800 when a massive
bomb exploded near his carriage as he went to the opening
night of Haydn's opera Creation.
Royalist
plotters had positioned a horse and wagon bearing a barrel
filled with gunpowder and shrapnel on the Rue Saint-Nicaise
and lit the fuse as Bonaparte's carriage neared.
The
speed of the vehicle - Bonaparte had ordered his driver
to go quickly because he did not want to be late to the
opera - and the poor quality of the gunpowder led to the
bomb exploding seconds after the First Consul had passed.
An
estimated 52 people were killed or wounded by the device
- known as the Infernal Machine - including Bonaparte's
stepdaughter Hortense Beauharnais, who was cut on the wrist
by flying metal.
She
had been, together with Josephine, in a separate carriage
that belatedly followed the First Consul. A friendly argument
between Josephine and General
Jean Rapp over the choice of a scarf is credited with
delaying her journey long enough to avoid taking the full
brunt of the explosion.
The
power of the bomb destroyed several buildings and one of
the victims was a young girl who had been paid by the plotters
to hold the reins of the wagon's horse.
Bonaparte,
Josephine and their party attended the performance for a
while before returning home.
Despite
knowing that Royalists had planted the bomb, Bonaparte used
the attempt to discredit the Jacobins. Two of the actual
ringleaders, a former noble Pierre Saint-Regent and a royalist
rebel named Carbon, were later guillotined.
In
1804, another Royalist plan - this time to kidnap Bonaparte
and known as the Cadoudal Plot - was foiled and led to the
arrests of a large number of conspirators, including generals
Jean Moreau and Jean
Pichegru.
Its
leader and chief planner, Georges
Cadoudal, was captured and executed, Pichegru is believed
to have killed himself in prison, while Moreau was exiled.
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