The coachman, who was intoxicated, heard the order, and having mistaken the explosion for a salute, lashed his horses furiously until the theatre was reached. The machine had been fired by a slow match, and the explosion took place just twenty seconds too soon. Summary justice was executed upon the perpetrators of this infamous deed, and some time later the Duke d' Enghien atoned for the part, whatever it might have been, that the Bourbons had taken in these murderous schemes.
Austria delayed for several months final negotiations of the treaty agreed upon after the engagement at Marengo, evidently reassured by the attempts made on the First Consul's life. Preliminaries of peace had been signed at Paris, between the Austrian general, Saint Julian, and the French government. Duroc was dispatched to the Emperor of Austria, to obtain his ratification of the articles; but having reached the headquarters of the Army of the Rhine, he was refused a pass to proceed on his journey.
Napoleon immediately ordered Moreau to recommence hostilities, unless the Emperor delivered up the fortresses of Ulm, Ingolstadt and Phillipsburg as pledges of his sincerity. Austria, accordingly, purchased a further protraction of the armistice at this heavy price; at the same time offering to treat for peace on new grounds. News of the occupation of the three fortresses by the French troops, was announced in Paris on the 23d of September 1800, where the fresh hopes of peace caused universal satisfaction.
These hopes, however, proved delusive. Austria delayed and equivocated, until it became evident the Emperor would make no peace separate from England, and that the latter power was prepared to support her ally.
Napoleon, perceiving that he was being trifled with, now gave orders (in November, 1800) to all his generals to put their divisions in march all along the frontiers of the French dominions. The shock was instantaneous, from the Rhine to the Mincio. Brune overwhelmed the Austrians on the Mincio; Macdonald held the Tyrol, and Moreau achieved the glorious victory of Hohenlinden after a desperate and most sanguinary battle. This latter contest decided the fate of the campaign. Thus with three victorious armies, either of which could have marched triumphantly into Vienna, Napoleon hesitated long enough before taking that final step, to allow Austria to sign an honest and definite peace. The treaty of Luneville was at last signed in good faith on February 9th, 1801. By the peace of Luneville, Napoleon for the second time effected the pacification of the Continent. Of all the powerful coalition which threatened France in 1800, England alone continued hostile in 1801 if we except Turkey, with which no arrangement could be made until the affairs of Egypt were settled.
On the 8th of March, 1801, a British army of 17,000 men landed in Egypt under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby. The French were very ill-prepared for an attack. The English army overcame the resistance of the forces which opposed their landing through the heavy surf formed on the beach, and advanced upon their enemy. No general action occurred until the 21st when the English obtained a decisive victory and drove Menou,—who had succeeded to the command of the troops in Egypt at the death of Kléber,—with great loss within the walls of Alexandria. Here he was blockaded and General Belliard, cut off from all communication with him, capitulated after which Menou submitted. Each capitulated on condition of being taken back to France with all his troops and their arms and baggage. Thus ended the conquest of Egypt by Napoleon. The French admiral, Gantheaume, had long been making fruitless efforts to land reinforcements in Egypt, but had been unable to elude the British ships. He was now ordered to return to Toulon, where preparations were made to receive the French troops.
After the news of the reverses of the French army in Egypt, and the great sea victory of Copenhagen by Nelson, Napoleon was determined to bring England to negotiations of peace and a recognition of the French Republic, and with this in view he gathered an army of 100,000 men on the coasts of France, with a flotilla sufficiently large to effect a landing in England, whenever circumstances seemed to favor such a movement. At this very moment it was, that Fulton, the inventor of steam-boats, communicated his discovery to the First Consul. Napoleon thus had the first chance placed in his hands of possessing exclusively for a time, the greatest and most diversified means of physical power ever known in the world. Scarcely deigning to bestow a thought upon the subject the First Consul treated the inventor as a "visionary."
Whether or not Napoleon ever intended to invade Great Britain, he succeeded at all events in convincing the world for a time that such was his design, and when the peace of Amiens was signed on March 25th, 1802, Paris and London rejoiced, as did all civilized nations. The peace of Amiens left the military resources of France unemployed on the hands of Bonaparte. This induced him to think of profiting by the European calm, and effect the conquest of St. Domingo. He gave the command of the expedition to his brother-in-law, Leclerc; but it was unsuccessful.
The inauguration of Christian worship once more in France in 1802 gave Napoleon an opportunity to show that he had the interest of the people at heart. France was an infidel nation, and it was the fashion to believe there was no God. The signing of the Concordat by Pope Pius VII. gave to France what she had long needed—a form of religious worship. It required no little strength of purpose to take this step. "Religion is a principle which cannot be eradicated from the heart of man;" said Napoleon. "Last Sunday I was walking here alone, and the church bells of the village of Ruel rang at sunset. I was strongly moved, so vividly did the memory of early days come back with that sound. If it be thus with me, what must it be with others? In re-establishing the Church, I consult the wishes of the great majority of my people." A grand religious ceremony took place at Notre Dame Cathedral to celebrate the proclamation of the Concordat, at which the First Consul presided with great pomp, attended by all the ministers and general officers then in Paris. Another measure, adopted at this period, was the decree permitting the return of the emigrants, provided they appeared and took the oath to the government within a certain period. It is estimated that a hundred thousand exiles returned to their country in consequence of this decree.