ned to appear.
Boulanger became seriously alarmed. He did not see how he could act
if shut up in prison. His apprehensions were carefully augmented
by the heads of the police, who had placed one of their agents
about his person.[1] This man showed him a pretended order for
his arrest on April 1, 1889. The question of his retirement into
Belgium if his liberty were threatened had been already debated
by himself and his friends. Nearly all of them were against it.
"Let not the people think our general could run away," said some.
But others answered, "They will say it is a smart trick; that the
general has cheated the Government."

[Footnote 1: Les Coulisses du Boulangisme.]

After seeing the false document which was shown him, with great
pretence of secrecy, by the police agent, the general hesitated
no longer. On the evening of April 1, accompanied by Madame de
Bonnemains, a lady to whom he was paying devoted attention, pending
a divorce from his wife, he went to Brussels, followed by his friend
Count Dillon, the go-between in financial matters between the Royalists
and himself. The Cabinet of M. Carnot had learned the value of the
saying, "If your enemy wishes to take flight, build him a bridge
of gold."

The departure of the general threw consternation into the ranks
of his followers. "It cannot be!" they cried. Then they consoled
themselves with the reflection that he must soon return, as he
had done once before under somewhat similar circumstances.

But he did not return. The Government had triumphed. Boulanger's
power was broken; like a wave, it had toppled over when its crest
was highest. The High Court of Justice condemned Deroulede the
poet, Rochefort, and Dillon, to confinement for life in a French
fortress. The sentence, however, was simply one of outlawry, for
they were all with Boulanger.

The exiles did not stay long in Brussels. The Government of Belgium
objected to their remaining so near the frontier of France,--for
in Brussels a telephone connected them with Paris,--and they went
over to London. There, at the general's request, he had an interview
with the Comte de Paris. But their conversation was limited to
useless compliments and military affairs. Boulanger's power as a
political leader was at an end; the friends of the prince would
advance him no more funds, and in the elections, which took place
very quietly in France during the summer, he and his friends suffered
total defeat.

The Govern