from his carriage he appeared calm and smiling; he even wore an air of gayety.  On entering the vestibule he said to his officers, rubbing his hands, “Well, sirs, we made a fine escape!” They shuddered with indignation and anger.  He then entered the grand saloon on the ground floor, where a large number of counselors of state and-dignitaries had already assembled; but hardly had they begun to express their congratulations, when he interrupted them, and in so vehement a manner that he was heard outside the saloon.  We were told that after this council he had a lively altercation with Fouche, Minister of Police, whom he reproached with his ignorance of this plot, openly accusing the Jacobins of being the authors.

That evening, on retiring, the First Consul asked me laughingly if I was afraid.  “More than you were, my general,” I replied; and I related to him how I had heard the fatal news at the Feydeau, and had run without my hat to the very wicket of the Carrousel, where the sentinels tried to prevent my entering.  He was amused at the oaths and abusive epithets with which they had accompanied their defense of the gate, and at last said to me, “After all, my dear Constant, you should not be angry with them; they were only obeying orders.  They are brave men, on whom I can rely.”  The truth is, the Consular Guard was at this period no less devoted than it has been since as the Imperial Guard.  At the first rumor of the great risk which the First Consul had run, all the soldiers of that faithful band had gathered spontaneously in the court of the Tuileries.

After this melancholy catastrophe, which carried distress into all France, and mourning into so many families, the entire police were actively engaged in searching for the authors of the plot.  The dwelling of the First Consul was first put under surveillance, and we were incessantly watched by spies, without suspecting it.  All our walks, all our visits, all our goings and comings, were known; and attention was especially directed to our friends, and even our liaisons.  But such was the devotion of each and all to the person of the First Consul, such was the affection that he so well knew how to inspire in those around him, that not one of the persons attached to his service was for an instant suspected of having a hand in this infamous attempt.  Neither at this time, nor in any other affair of this kind, were the members of his household ever compromised; and never was the name of the lowest of his servants ever found mixed up in criminal plots against a life so valued and so glorious.

The minister of police suspected the Royalists of this attempt; but the First Consul attributed it to the Jacobins, because they were already guilty, he said, of crimes as odious.  One hundred and thirty of the most noted men of this party were transported on pure suspicion, and without any form of trial.  It is now known that the discovery, trial, and execution of Saint Regent and Carbon, the true criminals, proved that the conjectures of the minister were more correct than those of the chief of state.