On December 24, 1800, The “Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise”, also known as the “Machine Infernale Plot, ” failed to kill Napoleon Bonaparte, then the First Consul of France, the de facto dictator of the French Republic. Not the first attempt to kill Bonaparte, on October 10, 1800, another assassination plot against Napoleon called “Conspiration des Poignards” had also failed, nor would it be the last. A man of great personal will and great charisma, Napoleon nonetheless evinced great animosity on the part of those that had previously held much of the power in France, including the Catholic Church, Royalists and Jacobins. Obviously, every plot to kill Napoleon failed, as he became Napoleon I, Emperor of the French in 1804 until his first abdication in 1814, and then again for the “Hundred Days” in 1815 after he had escaped exile on the island of Elba. But what if Napoleon had been cut down in his prime on Christmas Eve of 1800? What historical events would or would not have occurred?