NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 15ise, a lively, busy street, escaped unin-
jured. When General Rapp reached the
theater, he found Napoleon “calm and
composed,” surveying the applauding
audience through his opera glass. Na-
poleon then said “very coolly” to Rapp,
“The rascals wanted to blow me up. Bring
me a book of the Oratorio.”
Napoleon blamed the attack on
“blood-drinking” Jacobins. In a fury, he
said to his police chief, Joseph Fouché:
“For such an atrocious crime, we must
have vengeance like a thunderbolt. Blood
must flow. We must shoot as many guilty
men as there have been victims.” Fouché
suggested that the royalists had planned
the attack, but Napoleon continued to
blame the Jacobins. Fouché followed Na-
poleon’s orders and arrested 130 of them.
The police tracked down the grain
dealer, who identified the remains of the
cart and described the buyer, Carbon, in
detail. The police also located the stable
where the conspirators had kept the mare,
who had been identified by her horse-
shoes. The police arrested Carbon, who
then gave up his accomplices. Robinault
was captured and executed alongside
Carbon on April 20, 1801. Limoëlan fled
to the United States. Cadoudal escaped
to Britain, but he later returned to France
to embark on another failed plot against
Napoleon. He was captured, and exe-
cuted in 1804.Weaponized Fear
The “infernal machine” plot marked the
first time that a bomb had been used for
an assassination attempt. It was neither
the first nor the last attack against Na-
poleon. However, it was unique in that it
targeted an individual but was indiscrim-
inate in its impact. This was an act that
took political dissent in a new direction.
During the French Revolution’s Reign
of Terror (1793-94), the word “terror-
ism” emerged to describe the use of fear
for political purposes as employed bythe reigning regime. It punished people
thought to oppose the revolution, which
sought not only to eradicate existing en-
emies but to suppress future opposition.
In the revolution’s turbulent after-
math, the meaning of the word “ter-
rorism” shifted to apply not to violence
perpetrated by a government but to that
perpetrated against a government. The
royalist rebels’ act of terrorism was an
attempt to dismantle a leader and an
ideology that they loathed.
But their plot had unintended conse-
quences. Though the true culprits were
royalists, Napoleon nonetheless seized
an opportunity to repress the Jacobins,
insisting upon their exile from France.
Napoleon was able to punish and purge
his enemies on both sides, toppling po-
tential threats to his authoritarian am-
bition. Four years later, he would crown
himself emperor of France.—Juan José SánchezDeath of a Conspirator
AFTER HE WAS SENTENCED TO DEATH in 1804 for conspiring to assassinate Napoleon, Georges
Cadoudal refused to beg him for mercy. In June of that year, Cadoudal was the first of 12 royalist
prisoners to be guillotined. Armand de Polignac, an artist and a royalist, portrayed the scene in
this 19th-century watercolor painting.
BRIDGEMAN/ACI