cries for Boulanger, but there was no
emotion. This he explained by telling me that the people had not been
properly '_style_.' 'In these cases, you know,' he said with the air of
a connoisseur in enthusiasm, 'you must have a certain subtle _stylage_.'

The word was new to me, but not so the thing. For I presently found that
by a 'subtle _stylage_' of the people, my companion only meant what in
America is known as 'working up a boom,' when the welfare of the Union
requires that a President, or a presidential candidate, should
perambulate a certain number of 'doubtful' States, or, in the
picturesque language of the days of Andrew Johnson, go 'swinging round
the circle.' If I am not misinformed, an analogous operation is
occasionally performed in England, when some popular idol finds it worth
his while to make an unpremeditated political tour.

'The thing was better done at Lens,' said my fellow-traveller. 'Do you
know Lens? They are all miners there, you know--very curious people. I
suppose they were glad to come up from under the ground and look at us.
Some of the women, too, were pretty--really very pretty. It was all very
well arranged. There is a good manager there, M.----. He made way, you
know, in 1886, for Camescasse, to oblige the Government. The President
gave him the Cross. It had a very good effect. At Bapaume, too, the
President did a good thing. He decorated ---- there, who had so much
trouble with the Christian Brothers.'

'For having trouble with the Christian Brothers?' I could not help
asking.

'No! but the courts decided against him, and that was a misfortune. The
President put it right by decorating him, for it is evident that he
meant to do his duty, and a Government must stand by its friends. Do you
know Bapaume? It is a pretty place--all factories. It was there, you
know, that Faidherbe beat the Germans. A very pretty place.'

CHAPTER II

IN THE PAS-DE-CALAIS--_continued_

BOULOGNE

Boulogne now, as in the days of Arthur Young, is surrounded with bright
and pleasant villas and country houses, though many of the chateaux
which Young was so much surprised to find inhabited by country gentlemen
attending to their duties and living on their estates have disappeared.

It is not only a larger and a more lively place than Calais; it is a
more picturesque and a more interesting place. The old walls and
ramparts of the upper town make such a striking contrast with the modern
streets and