The “Infernal Machine”

The ‘infernal machine’ refers to an assassination attempt on Napoleon Bonaparte on 24 December 1800, at around 8.30 pm, in Paris. A barrel filled with gunpowder, placed on a cart and fitted with a fuse, exploded as the First Consul’s carriage passed along Rue Saint-Nicaise. Thanks to the coachman’s swift driving, Napoleon’s carriage narrowly passed by a moment before the explosion. Napoleon emerged without injury.
Although the perpetrators of the attack were royalists and Chouan officers, Napoleon used the incident to sideline certain Republican opponents (the Jacobins), sending several of them into exile. This failed attempt thus strengthened the First Consul’s authority and accelerated his rise to the Consulate for life and subsequently the Empire.