seats in favor of the popular hero. Even Corsica
was anxious to have him for her deputy. But it was not only his
own election which concerned General Boulanger; he wished to secure
the election of his followers. For that purpose election funds were
needed, and the alliance with the Royalists was renewed. Whenever
a Royalist candidate had a certainty of election, no Boulangist
candidate was to contend against him. In other cases the agents
of the Comte de Paris were openly to encourage their followers to
vote for the nominee of the ally who was to assist the Monarchists
to oppose the Government. There would have been great difficulty in
raising the money needed for this electoral campaign, had it not
been for a lady of high rank, the Duchesse d'Uzes, of unspotted
reputation, and of great enthusiasm for the cause of royalty, who
poured her whole fortune (over three million francs) into the joint
treasury. The alliance between Boulanger and the Royalists was a
profound secret. Very few Boulangists suspected that their election
expenses were being paid by funds drawn from the purses of the
supporters of monarchy.

[Footnote 2: Parliament before this time meant in French history
the Provincial Courts, that had chiefly legal functions.]

For more than a year the popularity of "Le brav' General" kept the
various ministries that succeeded each other in Paris and their
officials all over France, in perpetual anxiety. Boulanger made journeys
almost like royal progresses into the Departments. Everywhere crowds
cheered him, reporters followed him, his name was in everybody's
mouth, his doings filled columns of the newspapers in many languages,
and his flower, the carnation, was embroidered on tablecloths and
worn in button-holes. All newspapers and reviews seem to have agreed
that no man had been so popular in France since the days of the
Great Emperor. He liked the position thrust upon him, and accepted
gracefully and graciously the adoration he received,--an adoration
born partly of infectious curiosity, partly from a love of what
is phenomenal, partly from the attraction of the unexpected, and
above all from the national need of some object of idolatry. France
had been long destitute of any one to whom she might pay personal
devotion. Every peasant's cottage throughout France was soon decorated
with his chromo. He has even been seen on his black horse adorning
the bamboo hut of a king in Central Africa. Pamphlets, handbills,