important invisible leverage! I could tell you now of a Brother
at Soissons whom they mean to put into the Chamber. They knew his money
value; they have got him into their shop. He is as stupid as he is
rich--just as fit to be a deputy as to command the garrison of Paris.
But they will get him nominated, and then the Government will get him
elected, and then he will do the bidding of Brother Doumer and the
others, to help them to put pressure on the ministers and on the
President, and be helped by them to recoup himself, in one way or
another, for all the cash advances he will make before he is elected.'

Laon sends two deputies to the Chamber. My friend's opinion in August
was that the Opposition now control the city, and that both of these
seats would be carried against the Government. The event proved that he
was right. He was right, too, as to the outlook at Chateau Thierry, the
charming birthplace of La Fontaine, on the road to Epernay. There he
expected to see the Republican candidate who sat in the late Chamber, M.
Lesguillier, hold his seat against the monarchical candidate, M. de
Mandat-Grancey, the author of a well-known and interesting book on
Ireland, _Chez Paddy_. M. de Mandat-Grancey is a landed proprietor who
has taken an active and successful part in promoting the improvement of
the breed of horses in this country. He is a man of liberal ideas as
well as a man of enterprise, and in the present agricultural 'crisis,'
of which one hears so much in France, such men would certainly be of use
in the Chamber. But at Chateau Thierry, according to my friend,
'everything is organised by the freemasons. They control a journal
there, the _Avenir de l'Aisne_. The mayor, M. Morlot, is a freemason.
Another freemason, an ex-deputy, M. Deville, wields great influence
there. You will see that the recent deputy, who is an insignificant
person, will be re-elected, and that M. de Mandat-Grancey, who would be
of use, will be beaten.'

'Perhaps because he is an avowed monarchist,' I replied, 'and the people
may be Republicans,'

My friend looked at me for a moment. 'Are you speaking seriously?'

Of course I was.

'Well, then, that astonishes me! Can you possibly suppose, after all you
have seen and known of France, that the people in a place like Chateau
Thierry are such simpletons as to believe that it makes the slightest
difference what name you give to a government? They leave that sort of
thing to the journalists and