Explosion of the machine infernale
- When
- 24 December 1800
- Where
- Rue Saint-Nicaise, Paris
- Part of
- Rue Saint-Nicaise Conspiracy
Royalist plotters detonated a bomb on Napoleon's route through Paris on Christmas Eve 1800; he escaped but five died and twenty-six were injured.
On the late afternoon of 3 Nivôse Year IX (24 December 1800), Carbon, who had made the machine infernale, harnessed a mare to a cart carrying a large wine cask and drove it with Limoëlan to the Porte Saint-Denis. Limoëlan, standing in the Place du Carrousel, panicked and failed to signal Saint-Régeant in the rue Saint-Nicaise, who lost a minute or two of preparation. Napoleon's carriage, driven by a drunken man named César, passed the rue Saint-Nicaise and entered the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Napoleon and Joséphine narrowly escaped; five people were killed and twenty-six others injured.
Sources
- Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-14
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