ourbon? I frankly answer, I cannot tell. My wife's
maternal uncle spoke of them as "_the_ Bourbons," just as you talk
of "_the_ Groceries," and no one asks you _Lequel_? As for my own
ancestry, I do not speak of it. I have never been in the habit of
thrusting myself on the attention of the public. It is sufficient
for me that my wife's maternal uncle's ancestors were Bourbons.

I first began to take charge of public affairs in connection with
an election that took place in the city where I found myself. M.
DE LESSEPS opposed THIERS and GAMBETTA. He presented himself as an
independent candidate. Was he? I suspected. Already I had my secret
agents in every centre of population. One, whose letter bore the
post-mark the Pyramids, placed in my hand proof that DE LESSEPS was an
official candidate of the Empire. I secretly conveyed this information
to a local newspaper. The news burst like a tempest on the public of
Marseilles, and swept away in its irresistible whirl the candidature
of M. DE LESSEPS.

This was pretty well for a first newspaper paragraph, worth at the
time, as I remember thinking, more than the paltry three sous a line
that became my due. But I had made more than a few sous--I had made an
enemy! Years after, BISMARCK told me how, chatting with NAPOLEON THE
THIRD at Donchery, that fallen monarch had recalled this incident, in
which his prophetic eye justly discerned the beginning of the end. He
admitted that he had said to the EMPRESS, "France is too small for me
and VAN DE BLOWITZOWN TROMP. One of us must cross _la Manche_."

Sublime! One of us did.

But my time was not yet. My friends advised, nay, besought me to leave
Marseilles. Towards the end of this year (1869) I took their advice,
and retired to a small property I chanced to have in the centre of
the Landes. This place being dry, and somewhat remote, was peculiarly
suitable for watching the growth of great problems with a mind
unbiassed by any knowledge of facts. I saw the Franco-German question
grow, and I foresaw how it would end. I wrote to THIERS, and told
him all about it. When the war broke out I mounted my stilts, and
cautiously made my way across the untrodden track, following my
Destiny. I had predicted the downfall of the Empire, and, in its last
gasp, the Empire strove to wither me. Proceedings had been commenced,
when Sedan put an end to them.

At this epoch France was on her knees, beaten down by the German hand,
her eyes blind with b