osephine, with
Hortense and other friends, followed in her private carriage. As the
carriages were passing through the narrow street of St. Nicaire, a
tremendous explosion took place, which was heard all over Paris. An
infernal machine, of immense power, had been conveyed to the spot,
concealed beneath a cart, which was intended, at whatever sacrifice of
the lives of others, to render the assassination of the First Consul
certain. Eight persons were instantly killed; more than sixty were
wounded. Several buildings were nearly demolished. The windows of both
carriages were dashed in, and the shattered vehicles were tossed to and
fro like ships in a storm. Napoleon almost miraculously escaped
unharmed. Hortense was slightly wounded by the broken glass. Still they
all heroically went on to the opera, where, in view of their
providential escape, they were received with thunders of applause.

It was at first supposed that the Jacobins were the authors of this
infamous plot. It was afterwards proved to be a conspiracy of the
Royalists. Josephine, whose husband had bled beneath the slide of the
guillotine, and who had narrowly escaped the axe herself, with
characteristic humanity forgot the peril to which she and her friends
had been exposed, in sympathy for those who were to suffer for the
crime. The criminals were numerous. They were the nobles with whom
Josephine had formerly lived in terms of closest intimacy. She wrote to
Fouche, the Minister of Police, in behalf of these families about to be
plunged into woe by the merited punishment of the conspirators. This
letter reflects such light upon the character of Josephine, which
character she transmitted to Hortense, that it claims insertion here.

"CITIZEN MINISTER,--While I yet tremble at the frightful event which has
just occurred, I am disquieted and distressed through fear of the
punishment necessarily to be inflicted on the guilty, who belong, it is
said, to families with whom I once lived in habits of intercourse. I
shall be solicited by mothers, sisters, and disconsolate wives, and my
heart will be broken through my inability to obtain all the mercy for
which I would plead.

"I know that the clemency of the First Consul is great; his attachment
to me extreme. But the crime is too dreadful that a terrible example
should not be necessary. The chief of the Government has not been alone
exposed. It is that which will render him severe, inflexible. I conjure
you, theref