d already made it. The parties interested in the
matter of the bridge and that of the water from Arcier could not hold
out against a talking-to from a clever Ministerialist, who proved to
them that their safety lay at the Prefecture, and not in the hands of
an ambitious man. Each day was a check for Savarus, though each day the
battle was led by him and fought by his lieutenants--a battle of words,
speeches, and proceedings. He dared not go to the Vicar-General, and
the Vicar-General never showed himself. Albert rose and went to bed in a
fever, his brain on fire.

At last the day dawned of the first struggle, practically the show of
hands; the votes are counted, the candidates estimate their chances,
and clever men can prophesy their failure or success. It is a decent
hustings, without the mob, but formidable; agitation, though it is
not allowed any physical display, as it is in England, is not the less
profound. The English fight these battles with their fists, the French
with hard words. Our neighbors have a scrimmage, the French try their
fate by cold combinations calmly worked out. This particular political
business is carried out in opposition to the character of the two
nations.

The Radical party named their candidate; Monsieur de Chavoncourt came
forward; then Albert appeared, and was accused by the Chavoncourt
committee and the Radicals of being an uncompromising man of the Right,
a second Berryer. The Ministry had their candidate, a stalking-horse,
useful only to receive the purely Ministerial votes. The votes, thus
divided, gave no result. The Republican candidate had twenty, the
Ministry got fifty, Albert had seventy, Monsieur de Chavoncourt obtained
sixty-seven. But the Prefet's party had perfidiously made thirty of its
most devoted adherents vote for Albert, so as to deceive the enemy. The
votes for Monsieur de Chavoncourt, added to the eighty votes--the real
number--at the disposal of the Prefecture, would carry the election, if
only the Prefet could succeed in gaining over a few of the Radicals.
A hundred and sixty votes were not recorded: those of Monsieur de
Grancey's following and the Legitimists.

The show of hands at an election, like a dress rehearsal at a theatre,
is the most deceptive thing in the world. Albert Savarus came home,
putting a brave face on the matter, but half dead. He had had the wit,
the genius, or the good luck to gain, within the last fortnight, two
staunch supporters--Girard