ed on the second ballot, so that the
Republicans emerged with a large though diminished majority. But the old
Left Centre had practically disappeared and the Radicals were vastly
more numerous. The great divisions were now the Right, the moderate
Union des gauches, the Radicals, and the revolutionary Extreme Left. The
Brisson Cabinet was blamed for not "working" the elections more
successfully and it resigned at the time of President Grevy's
re-election. He had reached the end of his seven years' term and was
chosen again on December 28, 1885. He was to have troublesome
experiences during the short time he remained in the Presidency.

The Freycinet, Goblet, and Rouvier Cabinets, which fill the rest of
Grevy's Presidency, were largely engrossed with a new danger in the
person of General Boulanger. He first appeared in a prominent position
as Minister of War in the Freycinet Cabinet. A young, brilliant, and
popular though unprincipled officer, he soon devoted himself to demagogy
and put himself at the head of the jingoes who called Ferry the slave of
Bismarck. The expeditions of Tunis and Tonkin had, moreover, thrown a
glamour over the flag and the army.

Boulanger began at once to play politics and catered to the advanced
parties, who adopted him as their own. He backed up the spectacular
expulsion of the princes, which, as an answer to the monarchical
progress, drove from France the heads of formerly reigning families and
their direct heirs in line of primogeniture, and carried out their
radiation from the army. The populace cheered the gallant general on his
black horse, and when Bismarck complained that he was a menace to the
peace of Europe Boulanger's fortune seemed made. At a certain moment
France and Germany were on the brink of war in the so-called Schnaebele
affair.[13] So, when Boulanger was left out of the Rouvier Cabinet
combination in May, 1887, as dangerous, he played more than ever to the
gallery as the persecuted saviour of France and, on being sent to take
command of an army corps in the provinces at Clermont-Ferrand, he was
escorted to the train by thousands of enthusiastic manifestants.

Meanwhile, President Grevy was nearing a disaster. In October, 1887,
General Caffarel, an important member of the General Staff, was arrested
for participating in the sale of decorations. When Boulanger declared
that the arrest of Caffarel was an indirect assault on himself,
originally responsible for Caffarel's appo