ncouraged his followers to support him, to the dismay of
those old-fashioned Royalists who resented Boulanger's treatment of the
duc d'Aumale. His name was the theme of the popular song of the
moment--"C'est Boulanger qu'il nous faut"; the general and his black
horse became the idol of the Parisian populace; and he was urged to play
the part of a plebiscitary candidate for the presidency.

The general's vanity lent itself to what was asked of it; after various
symptoms of insubordination had shown themselves, he was deprived of
his command in 1888 for twice coming to Paris without leave, and finally
on the recommendation of a council of inquiry composed of five generals,
his name was removed from the army list. He was, however, almost at once
elected to the chamber for the Nord, his political programme being a
demand for a revision of the constitution. In the chamber he was in a
minority, since genuine Republicans of all varieties began to see what
his success would mean, and his actions were accordingly directed to
keeping the public gaze upon himself. A popular hero survives many
deficiencies, and neither his failure as an orator nor the humiliation
of a discomfiture in a duel with M. Floquet, then an elderly civilian,
sufficed to check the enthusiasm of his following. During 1888 his
personality was the dominating feature of French politics, and, when he
resigned his seat as a protest against the reception given by the
chamber to his revisionist proposals, constituencies vied with one
another in selecting him as their representative. At last, in January
1889, he was returned for Paris by an overwhelming majority. He had now
become an open menace to the parliamentary Republic. Had Boulanger
immediately placed himself at the head of a revolt he might at this
moment have effected the _coup d'etat_ which the intriguers had worked
for, and might not improbably have made himself master of France; but
the favourable opportunity passed. The government, with M. Constans as
minister of the interior, had been quietly taking its measures for
bringing a prosecution against him, and within two months a warrant was
signed for his arrest. To the astonishment of his friends, on the 1st of
April he fled from Paris before it could be executed, going first to
Brussels and then to London. It was the end of the political danger,
though Boulangist echoes continued for a little while to reverberate at
the polls during 1889 and 1890. Boulange