dy aware. It became
needful, however, to inform him of the plot, which was now carefully
nursed by the authorities. The arrests were planned to take place at
the opera on October 10th. About half an hour after the play had
begun, Bonaparte bade his secretary go into the lobby to hear the
news. Bourrienne at once heard the noise caused by a number of
arrests: he came back, reported the matter to his master, who
forthwith returned to the Tuileries. The plot was over.[168]

A more serious attempt was to follow. On the 3rd day of Nivose
(December 24th, 1800), as the First Consul was driving to the opera to
hear Haydn's oratorio, "The Creation," his carriage was shaken by a
terrific explosion. A bomb had burst between his carriage and that of
Josephine, which was following. Neither was injured, though many
spectators were killed or wounded. "Josephine," he calmly said, as she
entered the box, "those rascals wanted to blow me up: send for a copy
of the music." But under this cool demeanour he nursed a determination
of vengeance against his political foes, the Jacobins. On the next day
he appeared at a session of the Council of State along with the
Ministers of Police and of the Interior, Fouche and Chaptal. The Arena
plot and other recent events seemed to point to wild Jacobins and
anarchists as the authors of this outrage: but Fouche ventured to
impute it to the royalists and to England.

"There are in it," Bonaparte at once remarked, "neither nobles, nor
Chouans, nor priests. They are men of September (_Septembriseurs_),
wretches stained with blood, ever conspiring in solid phalanx
against every successive government. We must find a means of prompt
redress."

The Councillors at once adopted this opinion, Roederer hotly declaring
his open hostility to Fouche for his reputed complicity with the
terrorists; and, if we may credit the _on dit_ of Pasquier, Talleyrand
urged the execution of Fouche within twenty-four hours. Bonaparte,
however, preferred to keep the two cleverest and most questionable
schemers of the age, so as mutually to check each other's movements. A
day later, when the Council was about to institute special
proceedings, Bonaparte again intervened with the remark that the
action of the tribunal would be too slow, too restricted: a signal
revenge was needed for so foul a crime, rapid as lightning:

"Blood must be shed: as many guilty must be shot as the innocent
who had pe