This act of the first consul
had its ordinary effect: the audience, indifferent to the music,
rose and saluted their hero with loud acclamation and applause. Not
till Josephine entered the loge had the acclamations subsided, and
the music begun again. A few minutes after, the news of the fearful
event spread all over the house: a murmur arose, and the music was
interrupted anew.
The Duchess d'Abrantes, who was present at this scene, gives a
faithful, eloquent, and graphic picture of it:
"A vague noise," says she, "began to spread from the parterre to the
orchestra, and from the amphitheatre to the boxes. Soon the news of
the occurrence was known all over the house, when, like a sudden
clap of thunder, an acclamation burst forth, and the whole audience,
with a single undivided look of love, seemed to desire to embrace
Bonaparte. What I am narrating I have seen, and I am not the only
one who saw it. ... What excitement followed this first explosion of
national anger, which at this moment was represented by the
audience, whose horror at the dark plot cannot be described with
words! Women were seen weeping and sobbing; men, pale as death,
trembled with vengeance and anger, whatever might have been the
political standard which they followed; all hearts and hands were
united to prove that difference of opinion creates no difference in
the interpretation of the code of honor.
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