[594] Giuseppe Ceracchi was born at Rome in 1760. He was a sculptor, had been a pupil of Canova, and had modelled the bust of Napoleon.—"When he entered into the plot, he endeavoured to procure another sitting, under pretence of making an essential improvement on the bust. Fortunately, at that time, the consul had not a single moment's leisure; and thinking that want was the real cause of the urgent solicitations of the sculptor, he sent him six thousand francs."—Napoleon, Las Cases, tom. iii., p. 10.
[595] Topino-Lebrun, an historical painter, and pupil of David was born at Marseilles in 1769.
[596] "The first consul's box was in the first tier in front; his access to it was by the public entrance. In this attempt originated the idea of a private entrance."—Savary, tom. i., p. 229.
[597] "An individual named Harel, one of the accomplices, in the hope of large remuneration, made some disclosures to Bourrienne, secretary of the first consul. Harel being brought forward, corroborated his first information, and designated the conspirators."—Fouché, tom. i., p. 170.—"After dinner, Buonaparte threw a great-coat over his little green uniform, and got into his carriage, accompanied by Duroc and myself. He arrived and entered his box without interruption. In about half an hour he desired me to go into the corridor, and observe what passed. Scarcely had I left the box, when, hearing a great noise, I learned that a number of persons had been arrested. I returned to inform the first consul, and we drove instantly back to the Tuileries."—Bourrienne.
[598] Mémoires de Fouché, tom. i., p. 172.
[599] "The letter was forwarded to the Consul Lebrun, through the Abbé de Montesquiou. Lebrun was reprimanded for having received a letter from the king through an underhand channel."—Fouché, tom. i., p. 155.
[600] Las Cases, tom. i., p. 271; O'Meara's Napoleon in Exile, vol. i., p. 480; Fouché, tom. i., p. 154.
[601] "The duchess breakfasted with Josephine at Malmaison; and the conversation turning on London, the emigrants, and the French princes, Madame de Guiche mentioned, that as she happened, a few days before, to be at the house of the Count d'Artois, she had heard some persons ask the prince what he intended to do for the first consul in the event of his restoring the Bourbons; and that the prince had replied, 'I would immediately make him constable of the kingdom, and every thing else he might choose. But even that would not be enough: we would raise on the Carrousel a lofty and magnificent column, surmounted with a statue of Buonaparte crowning the Bourbons.' As soon as the first consul entered, Josephine eagerly repeated to him the circumstance which the duchess had related. 'And did you not reply,' said her husband, 'that the corpse of the first consul would have made the pedestal of the column?' The duchess received orders that very night to quit Paris."—Las Cases, tom. i., p. 272.
[602] The opinions of the royal family were nobly expressed in a letter written by the Prince of Condé to the Comte d'Artois, at a later period, 24th January, 1802, which will be hereafter quoted at length.—S.
[603] It is said in the Memoirs of Fouché, (vol. i., p. 180,) that the infernal machine was the invention originally of a Jacobin named Chevalier, assisted by Veycer, one of the same party; that they even made an experiment of its power, by exploding an engine of the kind behind the Convent de la Saltpétrière; that this circumstance drew on them the attention of the police, and that they were arrested. It does not appear by what means the Royalists became privy to the Jacobin plot, nor is the story in all its parts very probable; yet it would seem it must be partly true, since the attempt by means of the infernal machine was at first charged upon the Jacobins, in consequence of Chevalier's being known to have had some scheme in agitation, to be executed by similar means in the course of the previous year.—S.