Imperial cortege
appeared, descending the boulevards at a trot and turning into the Rue
Le Peletier. In the first two carriages were seated the chamberlains and
officers of the crown, and in the third the Imperial couple, escorted by
a _peloton_ of lancers of the Guard, the lieutenant commanding which
rode close by the right side of the coach, while a marechal des logis
chef rode on the left side. The three vehicles slackened their speed to
turn into the vaulted passage, under the marquise, which conducted to
the stairway newly constructed for the use of the sovereign, and at this
instant a bomb fell in the midst of the cortege and exploded. All the
lights were extinguished by the concussion, the glass of the marquise of
the theatre and that of the windows of the neighboring houses, from the
cellars to the mansards, flew in splinters, the street was covered with
the dead and wounded, and the terrified horses of the lancers, bolting
in every direction, added to the confusion and terror. A few seconds
later, a second bomb fell under the horses of the Imperial carriage,
killing them, and a third, directly under the carriage itself.

At the first explosion, the Emperor had attempted to leave his carriage
by the door on the right, on the side of the peristyle of the Opera, but
this door, jammed in its frame by the terrible shock, refused to open.
While he was hesitating to attempt to descend by the other door, which
opened on the street in which the assassins were probably stationed, a
haggard and bloody countenance presented itself at the opening. It
proved to be that of a brigadier of the secret police, Alessandri, one
of the most devoted of the Imperial agents; beside it presently showed
themselves the faces of M. Lanet, commissaire of the section of the
Opera, a police officer, Hebert, MM. Royer and Vaez, directors of the
Opera, and General Roguet. The latter, who had been seated on the box of
the Imperial carriage, had received a violent contusion on the neck,
from which an enormous quantity of blood escaped. The lieutenant
commanding the escort hastily assembled those of his men whom the flying
projectiles had spared, and behind this friendly human wall the Emperor
and the Empress finally ventured to leave their vehicle, and hastened
into the Opera-house. Neither of them were injured, though the former
had a hole through his hat, and his forehead was lightly cut by a piece
of flying glass. His carriage was riddled by s