Infernal Machine plot
Napoleon and Josephine took separate coaches to the Opéra to listen to Hydn’s masterpiece, the Creation. Suddenly, there was an explosion on the corner of place du Carrousel and rue Saint-Nicaise. 24 people were injured and 5 killed, including the little girl who was paid by the conspirators to hold the horse that was attached to a cart filled with gunpowder.
Fortunately for Napoleon and his entourage, the Infernal Machine, as it became known, exploded after the First Consul’s carriage passed safely but before Josephine had reached it. Only Hortense was lightly cut on her wrist by the glass of the carriage windows.
‘Napoleon escaped by a singular chance,’ recalled his aide-de-camp Jean Rapp, who was in Josephine’s coach. Napoleon’s calmness was observed by everyone at the Opéra that evening. ‘Josephine, those rascals wanted to blow me up,’ he said as she entered the box. When the audience learnt what had happened, they cheered. Of all the plots against him, the Infernal Machine came closest to success.