Senate were conceded, demanded that it be chosen by popular vote. The
power of the Chamber was to be diminished, that of the President
increased, and laws were to be subject to ratification by plebiscite or
referendum. The measure was naturally rejected, but Boulanger renewed
the attack in July by demanding the dissolution of the Chamber. In the
excitement of the debate the lie was passed between Boulanger and the
President of the Council of Ministers, Floquet. Boulanger resigned his
seat and in a duel, a few days later, between Floquet and Boulanger, the
dashing general, the warrior of the black horse, and the hero of the
popular song "En rev'nant d'la revue," was ignominiously wounded by the
civilian politician.

But Boulanger's star was not yet on the wane. He continued to be elected
Deputy in different departments, and the efforts of the Ministry to cut
the ground from under his feet by bringing in a separate revisionary
project did not undermine his popularity with the rabble, the jingo
Ligue des Patriotes of Paul Deroulede, and the anti-Republican
malcontents. In January, 1889, after a fiercely contested and
spectacular campaign, he was elected Deputy for the department of the
Seine, containing the city of Paris, nerve-centre of France. It is
generally conceded that if Boulanger had gone to the Elysee, the
presidential mansion, on the evening of his election, and turned out
Carnot, he would have had the Parisian populace and the police with him
in carrying out a _coup d'etat_. Luckily for the country his judgment
or his nerve failed him at the crucial moment, and from that time his
influence diminished. The panic-stricken Government was able to thwart
his plebiscitary appeals by re-establishing the _scrutin
d'arrondissement_, or election by small districts instead of by whole
departments. Moreover, when the Floquet Cabinet fell soon after on its
own revisionary project, the succeeding Tirard Ministry was able to pass
a law preventing simultaneous multiple candidacies, and impeached
Boulanger, with some of his followers, before the Senate as High Court
of Justice. Instead of facing trial, Boulanger and his satellites Dillon
and Henri Rochefort fled from France. In August they were condemned in
absence to imprisonment. Boulanger never returned to France, and with
diminishing subsidies his following waned. The elections of 1889
resulted in the return of only thirty-eight Boulangists and, when in
September, 1891, Bou