own business interests and the interests of the schemes in which
he was engaged, nor did he hesitate to give useful information
to leaders who favored his own views in the Chambers and were in
opposition to the ministers he disliked. Thus the son-in-law of the
president intrigued against the president's ministers, and Jules
Ferry, leader of the Republican law and order party in the Chamber,
and his followers, could not forgive him for having thus betrayed
them. Wilson belonged to the advanced section of the Republican
party, the Reds; but he was not so popular with them that they were
unwilling to attack him, provided they could thereby get rid of
M. Grevy, and put a more advanced Republican in his place.

No positive accusation, however, in the matter of Madame Limouzin
could have been brought against M. Wilson, had it not been discovered
by that lady's counsel that two of the letters seized and held as
evidence--letters from M. Wilson to Madame Limouzin--were written on
paper manufactured after their date,--an incident not unfamiliar to
readers of old-fashioned English novels. The real letters, therefore,
had undoubtedly been abstracted, and replaced by others of a less
compromising kind.

The Ministry, which up to the time of this discovery had endeavored
to keep the name of the president's son-in-law from being connected
with the sale of decorations of the Legion of Honor, was obliged
to authorize his prosecution; and the Prefect of Police, who was
suspected of having given back to M. Wilson his own letters, was
forced to resign.[1]

[Footnote 1: There is a similar incident in Balzac's "Cousin Pons."]

When the trial of M. Wilson and the prefect came on, they were
acquitted, not by a verdict of Not Guilty, but because the French
Code contained no clause that constituted it an offence for a man to
obtain possession of his own letters. The judge, when he acquitted
the accused, stated that there was no doubt whatever of the
substitution. Then from all sides information began to pour in from
people who had paid money to M. Wilson to procure them ministerial
or presidential favors, and such disclosures could not but reflect
on M. Grevy. Instantly his enemies seized their opportunity. For
once, Monarchists and Anarchists united and endeavored to force
the president to resign; but the old man stood by his son-in-law
in his hour of adversity, and would not go.

Then the coalition changed its base, and attacked M. Rou