in Rouge, forced the minister to face
a vote of censure, and he was within a few votes of being defeated.
According to general opinion, Paul Visire had never been so weak, so
vacillating, or so spiritless, as on that occasion.

He understood that he could only keep himself in office by a great
political stroke, and he decided on the expedition to Nigritia. This
measure was demanded by the great financial and industrial corporations
and was one which would bring concessions of immense forests to the
capitalists, a loan of eight millions to the banking companies, as well
as promotions and decorations to the naval and military officers. A
pretext presented itself; some insult needed to be avenged, or some
debt to be collected. Six battleships, fourteen cruisers, and eighteen
transports sailed up the mouth of the river Hippopotamus. Six hundred
canoes vainly opposed the landing of the troops. Admiral Vivier des
Murenes' cannons produced an appalling effect upon the blacks, who
replied to them with flights of arrows, but in spite of their fanatical
courage they were entirely defeated. Popular enthusiasm was kindled by
the newspapers which the financiers subsidised, and burst into a blaze.
Some Socialists alone protested against this barbarous, doubtful, and
dangerous enterprise. They were at once arrested.

At that moment when the Minister, supported by wealth, and now beloved
by the poor, seemed unconquerable, the light of hate showed Hippolyte
Ceres alone the danger, and looking with a gloomy joy at his rival, he
muttered between his teeth, "He is wrecked, the brigand!"

Whilst the country intoxicated itself with glory, the neighbouring
Empire protested against the occupation of Nigritia by a European
power, and these protests following one another at shorter and
shorter intervals became more and more vehement. The newspapers of the
interested Republic concealed all causes for uneasiness; but Hippolyte
Ceres heard the growing menace, and determined at last to risk
everything, even the fate of the ministry, in order to ruin his enemy.
He got men whom he could trust to write and insert articles in several
of the official journals, which, seeming to express Paul Visire's
precise views, attributed warlike intentions to the Head of the
Government.

These articles roused a terrible echo abroad, and they alarmed the
public opinion of a nation which, while fond of soldiers, was not fond
of war. Questioned in the House on the f