wd awaited him on the day of his departure.
It broke down the barriers, and delayed in-coming and out-going
trains, as it pressed around him. At first the general seemed pleased
by this evidence of his popularity; then he began to feel the truth
of what a friend whispered to him, "These twenty thousand men will
make you forty thousand enemies," and he grew embarrassed and annoyed
by the demonstration. Finally he mounted a locomotive, and made
a brief speech to the people; then the train steamed out of the
station.

The exile of the general to Clermont-Ferrand, and the harsh measures
taken against him by the man who succeeded him in the War Office,
caused his popularity with the populace daily to increase. He was
felt to be a power in the State, and this, when he perceived it,
awakened his ambition.

In November, 1887, when all parties in France were anticipating
the resignation of M. Grevy after the exposure of his son-in-law,
the majority of Frenchmen, outside the Chamber of Deputies, dreaded
the election of M. Jules Ferry to his place, and prophesied that
it would be the signal for another civil war. This was the opinion
held (rightly or wrongly) by M. Grevy himself, by General Boulanger,
and by the Comte de Paris. By the last day of November, when it
seemed impossible for M. Grevy to retain office, because no leader
of influence in the Chamber would help him to form a ministry,
Boulanger, who had come up to Paris, met a small party of his friends,
including M. Clemenceau, leader of the Radical party, and Rochefort,
the leader of the Radical press, at dinner at the house of M. and
Madame Laguerre.[1] M. Laguerre was a deputy who supported Boulanger
in the Chamber against his enemies. Two gentlemen present had that
afternoon seen M. Grevy, who had implored them to find some leader
who would form a ministry; already had M. Clemenceau been thought
of, but he was undecided. It was evident that if he would secure
the out-of-doors support of Boulanger's popularity, his ministry
must include Boulanger. It seemed equally certain that if it did
so, it would be beset by enemies in the Chamber. In the midst of a
heated discussion on the subject, General Boulanger about midnight
was mysteriously called away.

[Footnote 1: See "Les Coulisses du Boulangisme," published in "Figaro,"
and attributed to M. Mermieux.]

The person who summoned him was the editor of the "Cocarde," the
Boulangist newspaper, who had been sounded that