is over for me," said M.
Grevy; "I shall at once send in my resignation."

The resignation was accepted, and greatly to the surprise of the
general public,--for already the streets were full of excited
citizens,--M. Sadi-Carnot was elected president, almost without
discussion, and without disorder. His election put an end to the
secret arrangement between Boulanger and the Royalists, and appeared
likely to give France a more settled government than it had enjoyed
since the Republic came into existence. The Exposition of 1889,
too, was at hand, and Paris was very anxious that no political
convulsions should frighten away strangers.

The general was deeply hurt by his unpopularity in the Chamber,
and by the way in which his former friends had thrown him over; but
he still had the mob, the army, and the peasantry for his partisans,
nor was he without the sympathy of the Bonapartists.

It was not long before he got into trouble with the War Department
for coming to Paris without leave. It had not been usual for a
general of division to ask leave of the Minister of War for a brief
absence, nor could General Boulanger forget that he himself had
been War Minister not many months before.

The general complained bitterly of the way he had been followed
up by the police, as if he had been a criminal. "From the time I
left the Ministry of War," he said,[1] "I have been spied upon and
shadowed like a thief. Even my orderly has been bribed to report
facts and falsehoods concerning me. My letters have been opened,
and copies of my telegrams lie on every minister's table." He was
deprived of his command, and retired from active service.

[Footnote 1: To a reporter for "Figaro."]

This measure, so far from rendering him innocuous to the Opportunist
party, brought him into Parliament[2] (as the French Chambers are now
called) and increased his popularity. He had been already elected
deputy both from the Department of the Aisne and the Department of the
Dordogne,--the latter without his proposing himself as a candidate,
although he was ineligible, and could not take his seat, since at the
time of his election he was an officer of the Government, holding
a command. Having now retired into private life, he stood for the
Department of Le Nord, where he was received with enthusiasm and
elected by an immense majority. From all quarters came telegraphic
messages to him from candidates for parliamentary honors, offering
to resign their