NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 13
MILESTONES
later executed for plotting to kill the new
French leader.
Planning the Attack
The press had announced that Napo-
leon would be attending the French pre-
miere of the oratorio on December 24.
Georges Cadoudal, a former leader of
royalist rebels named the Chouans,
whose armies Napoleon had defeated
earlier that year, planned his
own great “debut” for that
evening as well. Cadoudal
enlisted three other vet-
erans in his operation:
Pierre Robinault de
Saint-Régent,
Joseph Picot de Limoëlan, and François-
Jean Carbon from Paris. These co-
conspirators intended to kill Napoleon,
and so remove the man they viewed as
the single greatest obstacle to restoring
the Bourbon dynasty.
On December 17, Carbon bought a
small cart and a horse from a Parisian
grain dealer. At dusk on December 24,
Limoëlan and Carbon drove the cart from
an empty building on the outskirts of
the capital and arrived at the triumphal
arch of the Porte Saint-Denis in central
Paris. To the cart they attached a large
wine barrel loaded with 200 pounds of
gunpowder and sharp stones. The barrel
turned bomb, known as the “infernal
machine,” would be detonated with a
hand-lit fuse.
It was known that Napoleon always
took the same route to the theater. His
carriage would leave the Tuileries Pal-
ace, cross Place du Carrousel, and turn
left along Rue Saint-Nicaise. Robinault
placed the horse and cart at the end of
Saint-Nicaise, piling stones and rubble
around it to give the impression that it
had broken down. The cart was posi-
tioned so that it partially blocked the
road. The bomb was concealed with hay,
straw, and a sack of oats.
Limoëlan waited in Place du Carrou-
sel so he could see Bonaparte’s cavalry
escort leaving the Tuileries Palace. Once
the convoy was sighted, he would give
Robinault the signal to light the fuse,
which would take several seconds to
burn. To ensure that no one interfered
with or moved the cart, Robinault paid a
14-year-old girl named Marianne Peusol
to hold the horse’s reins while he stood
by and held the fuse.
A DETAIL FROM “NAPOLEON AS FIRST CONSUL,” AN 1802 PAINTING
BY ANTOINE-JEAN GROS. MUSÉE DE LA LÉGION D’HONNEUR, PARIS
Napoleon had many enemies
among the Jacobins and those
nostalgic for the monarchy.
IN THE NEWS
THE STREET PLAN above, a detail from an 18th-century engraving of
Paris, shows where the attack took place. The next day’s press carried
vivid reports of the atrocity: The Moniteur Universel reported on “the
terrible explosion” that took place “at 8 o’clock as the First Consul was
being escorted to the opera from the courtyard of the Tuileries Palace
... It killed three women, a shopkeeper and a child. Fifteen people
were injured... Around 15 houses have been considerably damaged.”
BRIDGEMAN/ACI
ERICH LESSING/ALBUM
Site of the explosion