pail, and Louis Napoleon were rival candidates
for the office of President.

The nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, and son of Hortense, was only known
as the perpetrator of two very absurd attempts to overthrow the
monarchy under Louis Philippe. But since the remains of the great
emperor had been returned to France by England, and the splendors of
the past placed in striking contrast with a dull, lustreless present,
there had been a revival of Napoleonic memories and enthusiasm. Here
was an opportunity to unite two powerful sentiments in one man--a
Napoleon at the head of republican France would express the glory of
the past and the hope of the future.

The magic of the name was irresistible. Louis Napoleon was elected
President of the second Republic, and history prepared to repeat itself.

CHAPTER XVIII.

A revolution scarcely deserving the name had made France a second time
a republic. The Second French Republic was the creation of no
particular party. In fact, it seemed to have sprung into being
spontaneously out of the soil of discontent.

Its immediate cause was the forbidding of a banquet which was arranged
to take place in Paris on Washington's birthday, February 22d, 1848.
M. Guizot, who had succeeded M. Thiers as head of the ministry, knowing
the political purpose for which it was intended, and that it was a part
of an impending demonstration in the hands of dangerous agitators,
would not permit the banquet to take place.

This was the signal for an insurrection by a Paris mob, which
immediately led to a change in the form of government--a crisis which
the nation had taken no part in inaugurating. Revolution had been
written in French history in very large Roman capitals! But when the
smoke from this smallest of revolutions had curled away, there stood
Louis Napoleon--son of the great Bonaparte's brother Louis and Hortense
de Beauharnais--who had been elected president by vote of the nation.

France did not know whether she was pleased or not. Inexperienced in
the art of government, she only knew that she wanted prosperity, and
conditions which would give opportunity to the genius of her people.
Any form of government, or any ruler who could produce these, would be
accepted. She had suffered much, and was bewildered by fears of
anarchy on one side and of tyranny on the other. If she looked
doubtfully at this dark, mysterious, unmagnetic man, she remembered it
was only for four years, and wa