You are, presumably, referring to the famous saying of
Napoleon Bonaparte in which he is reputed to have said that he saved the government by
clearing the streets of protestors with a "whiff of
grapeshot."
Grapeshot is a type of shot that was used in
cannons. It was sort of like a shotgun shell for a cannon. When cannon fired
grapeshot, it was not just one big cannon ball coming out of the gun. Instead, a huge
spray of smaller balls would come out of the cannon. This was typically used against
massed charges of infantry because it could kill or wound many more people at once than
a cannonball could.
When Napoleon made this comment (if he
did) he is saying that he used grapeshot against the rebels and, by doing so, he broke
up their rebellion and saved the government.
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