It seems the Jacobins against Our hero greatly were incensed: His levées, drawing-rooms, and so forth, They look’d upon as deeds of no worth; The pageantry he held so dear, Did not Republican appear; And, at such goings on distrest, Their indignation they exprest; Our hero consequently saw The need of keeping them in awe; So he contrived a plot, which seems The masterpiece of all his schemes; And in this plot, too, he resolved His greatest foes should be involved. Fouché pretended, on th’ occasion, (For Nap allow’d of no evasion) That some conspirators had got Daggers and pistols, and what not, To make the Conqueror their aim, When from the Opera he came. Nap to the Opera went indeed, One gave the signal, as agreed; Three men were instantly arrested Three whom great Bonaparte detested. They got it seems a dagger from one, But carrying daggers now was common; He was from Nap at a great distance, This proof, tho’, was of no assistance; When the supposed assassination Had undergone examination, They seiz’d on others, as directed, For having such a scheme projected; One prov’d at home that night he slept, For being ill, his bed he kept; All this, however, had no weight, For Nap’s resentment was too great. They suffered by the guillotine, Which was his favourite machine; Save one, th’ Italian too, I wot, From whom the dagger had been got, Nap banish’d him, and with him too, Th’ Italian patriotic crew; Four thousand, as historians say, For no offence were swept away. The first plot was that of October 10, 1800, and it has, certainly, somewhat of a police ‘get up’ about it. The First Consul knew all about it through an ex _chef de bataillon_ named Harrel, who used to come every night to De Bourrienne, and tell him what the so-called conspirators had done. He supplied Harrel, at Napoleon’s request, with money, &c. Napoleon was never in any danger, and four men perished by the guillotine. Barre says: ‘Still the persons designed, and arrested, on the very spot of the premeditated murder, were strictly searched about their proper persons, and neighbouring places, and not an arm, nor even a pin, was found. With what, then, could those pretended conspirators commit a murder, since, at the very moment, and on the very spot where it was to have been perpetrated, no kind of arms were found about them? ‘That such was the case, it was asserted, and never denied, in the course of the trial. ‘The only witness was one Harel, an acknowledged spy of the police, holding the rank of Captain. ‘And on the single evidence of a spy, devoted to, and paid by, the police, four men (Arena, Ceracchi, Demerville, and Topino-Lebrun,) were condemned to death....