and ready for its fell purpose, from
some surprise or dread of detection, they changed their place of
meeting, and in one night removed the machine from the spot where it had
been usually deposited. The penetrating eye of the police lost sight of
them. Fouche, and his followers exercised their unrivalled talents for
pursuit and discovery to no purpose. The baffled minister then waited
upon Bonaparte, to whom he had regularly imparted the result of every
day's information respecting it, and told him that he could no longer
trace the traiterous instrument of his assassination, and requested him,
as he knew it must be completed by this time, not to go to any public
places, until he had regained a knowledge of it. Bonaparte replied, that
fear only made cowards, and conspirators brave, and that he had
unalterably determined to go with his accustomed equipage to the
National Concert that very evening. At the usual hour the first consul
set off undismayed from the Thuilleries, a description of the machine,
which was made to resemble a water cask, being first given to the
coachman, servants, and guards. As they proceeded, the advance guard
passed it unobserved, but the coachman discovered it just as the
consular carriage was on a parallel with it; instantly the dexterous and
faithful charioteer lashed his horses into full speed, and turned the
corner of the Rue Marcem. In one moment after, the terrible machine
exploded, and covered the street with ruins. The thunder of its
discharge shook the houses of Paris, and was heard at a considerable
distance in the country. The first consul arrived in safety at the Hall
of Music, and with every appearance of perfect tranquillity, entered his
box amidst the acclamations of the crowded multitude. The range of
buildings which was shattered by the explosion, has long offended the
eye of taste, and presented a gloomy, and very inconvenient obstruction
to the grand entrance of the palace. Bonaparte, with his usual judgment,
which converts every event into some good, immediately after this
affair, purchased the houses which were damaged, and the whole of this
scene of ruins and rubbish is removing with all possible expedition, to
the great improvement of this grand approach.

Whilst I was strolling along the banks of the Seine, I could not help
remarking that it would suffer much by a comparison with the Thames, so
finely described by sir John Denham--

Though deep, yet clear, though gen