Napoleon was obliged to begin by the good to arrive at the bad; he
was obliged to increase the French army, before he could employ it
for the purposes of his personal ambition.
One evening when I was conversing with some friends, we heard a very
loud explosion, but supposing it to be merely the firing of some
cannon by way of exercise, we paid no attention to it, and continued
our conversation. We learned a few hours afterwards that in going to
the opera, the first consul had narrowly escaped being destroyed by
the explosion of what has been called the infernal machine. As he
escaped, the most lively interest was expressed towards him:
philosophers proposed the re-establishment of fire and the wheel for
the punishment of the authors of this outrage; and he could see on
all sides a nation presenting its neck to the yoke. He discussed
very coolly at his own house the same evening what would have
happened if he had perished. Some persons said that Moreau would
have replaced him: Bonaparte pretended that it would have been
General Bernadotte. "Like Antony," said he, "he would have
presented to the inflamed populace the bloody robe of Caesar." I
know not if he really believed that France would have then called
Bernadotte to the head of affairs, but what I am quite sure of is,
that he said so for the purpose of exciting envy against that
general.
If the infernal machine had been contrived by the jacobins, the
first consul might have immediately redoubled his tyranny; public
opinion would have seconded him: but as this plot proceeded from
the royalist party, he could not derive much advantage from it.
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