able publication of certain matters in a
newspaper of which he was the proprietor. Besides this he was at
the head of a great number of financial schemes, whose business
he conducted under the roof of the Elysee. Before he married
Mademoiselle Grevy, a _conseil de famille_ had deprived him of
any control over his property till he came of age, on account of
his recklessness; but he was what in America we call "a smart man,"
and M. Grevy was very much attached to him.

In the early days of 1887 a person who considered himself defrauded
in a nefarious bargain he was trying to make with an adventuress,
denounced to the police of Paris a Madame Limouzin, to whom he
had paid money on her promise to secure for him the decoration of
the Legion of Honor. He wanted it to promote the sale of some kind
of patent article in which he was interested. To the astonishment
of the police, when they raided the residence of Madame Limouzin,
letters were found compromising two generals,--General Caffarel,
who had been high in the War Department when General Boulanger was
minister, and General d'Andlau, author of a book, much commended
by military authorities, on the siege of Metz.

General Caffarel was a gallant old officer, and it is said the
scene was most piteous when, as part of his punishment, the police
tore from his coat his own decoration of the Legion of Honor. The
War Minister tried to smother the scandal and to save the generals,
but it got into the public prints, with many exaggerations. General
d'Andlau took to flight. The police arrested Madame Limouzin, her
accomplice, Madame Ratazzi, and several other persons. The public grew
very much excited. It was said that state secrets were given over to
pillage, that they were sold to the Germans, that the Government was
at the mercy of thieves and jobbers. "One figure," wrote M. Monod,
"stood out from the rest as a mark for suspicion. It was that of M.
Daniel Wilson. He had never been popular with frequenters of the
Elysee. He was a rich man, both on his own and his wife's side,
and was an able man and a man of influence in business affairs. He
had been Under-Secretary of Finance and President of the Committee
of the Budget." Many thought he had the best chance of any man for
succeeding M. Grevy as president of France. He was, however, one of
those unquiet spirits who may be found frequently among speculators
and financiers. He had no scruple about using his position to promote
his