For some time past the agents of Government throughout France had been
instructed to solicit the First Consul to grant for the people what the
people did not want, but what Bonaparte wished to take while he appeared
to yield to the general will, namely, unlimited sovereign authority, free
from any subterfuge of denomination. The opportunity of the great
conspiracy just discovered, and in which Bonaparte had not incurred a
moment's danger, as he did at the time of the infernal machine, was not
suffered to escape; that opportunity was, on the contrary, eagerly
seized by the authorities of every rank, civil, ecclesiastical, and
military, and a torrent of addresses, congratulations, and thanksgivings
inundated the Tuileries. Most of the authors of these addressee did not
confine themselves to mere congratulations; they entreated Bonaparte to
consolidate his work, the true meaning of which was that it was time he
should make himself Emperor and establish hereditary succession. Those
who on other occasions had shown an officious readiness to execute
Bonaparte's commands did not now fear to risk his displeasure by opposing
the opinion he had expressed in the Council of State on the discussion of
the question of the Consulate for life. Bonaparte then said, "Hereditary
succession is absurd. It is irreconcilable with the principle of the
sovereignty of the people, and impossible in France."

In this scene of the grand drama Bonaparte played his part with his
accustomed talent, keeping himself in the background and leaving to
others the task of preparing the catastrophe. The Senate, who took the
lead in the way of insinuation, did not fail, while congratulating the
First Consul on his escape from the plots of foreigners, or, as they were
officially styled, the daggers of England, to conjure him not to delay
the completion of his work. Six days after the death of the Due
d'Enghien the Senate first expressed this wish. Either because Bonaparte