Short answers, pulled from the story.
Four armed men waited outside the Salle Le Peletier theater to assassinate Napoleon Bonaparte after a performance of Les Horaces. Police chief Joseph Fouché stopped Giuseppe Ceracchi, François Topino-Lebrun, and their accomplices before they could strike with daggers. No shots were fired and no blood stained the cobblestones because the attack never occurred.
Joseph Fouché claimed an agent named Harel worked with war commissioner Lefebvre to create information for Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne. Modern historians like Jean Tulard and Thierry Lentz argue that Harel acted as an agent provocateur who infiltrated the group to manipulate events. The narrative served to justify harsh measures against political opponents under the guise of national security.
Dominique Demerville, Joseph Ceracchi, Joseph Aréna, and François-Jean-Baptiste Topino-Lebrun died by guillotine on the 30th of January following official rejection. Four conspirators faced judgment at the criminal court of The Seine and were condemned to death on 19 nivôse year IX which equals the 9th of January 1801. Their executions took place at the Palais de Justice in Paris after three days of debates lasting until eleven o'clock that evening.
Historians including Adolphe Thiers, Jean Tulard, and Thierry Lentz suggest state actors created the threat to eliminate political enemies. Pierre Marie Desmarest documented fifteen years of high policing under Napoleon while Henri Gaubert examined conspirators during Napoleon I's reign. Gustave Hue published a study titled A Police Plot Under the Consulate in 1909 to highlight police manipulation within the large consulate period.