General Boulanger, though he has recovered from his wound, which
proved a somewhat severe one, has evidently suffered a loss of support in the constituencies as striking and as sudden as his original accession to popularity. In the Ardeche, where he last Sunday offered himself for election, he was defeated by no less than 17,000 votes, the numbers being 24,000 for Boulanger, against 41,000 for his opponent. In the Dordogne election, he was still more unsuccessful, only polling 4,737 votes, though it must be mentioned that he did not in this case actually come forward as a candidate. His friends, however, are said to have encouraged his election. For the moment it certainly seems as if General Boulanger's power with the voters bad vanished, and as if " the ridicule which kills " had overtaken the swordsman who, trying to run through the civilian, was himself rum through. Still, we must never forget that France remains France, and that the man who landed from the steamer at Boulogne, with a beef-steak in his hat and a circus eagle trained to fly round his head, in the end ruled his countrymen for nineteen years as an absolute despot.
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