A good friend has provided details of Grenadier Nicolas Durand of the Grenadiers a cheval of the Consular Guard. One of the men on escort duty on the night of the Infernal Machine. The one who pretty much saved Napoleon by shoving the royalist cart bomb out of the way.

His matricule is number 457 in the link to the mounted grenadiers of the Consular Guard found below. He was indeed in the 4th Company having served in the 5th Hussars since 9 February 1794. He had served in seven campaigns.

He was born on 3 March 1773 at Muizon, Gueux, in the départment de la Marne and was the son of Rémy Durand et de Marguerite Déard. He was, along with quite a few of his comrades, 1.80 metres. He had chestnut hair, chestnut eyebrows, wide forehead, auburn eyes, medium nose, small mouth, round chin, oval face, red blotches.

He joined the Guard on 18 April 1800 and quit it for the gendarmerie on 8 February 1805 after nearly exactly 11 years of service. No medals, no promotion, a quiet life policing the Marne.