Chapter 1

IN THE PAS-DE-CALAIS

Calais--Natural and artificial France--The provinces and the departments--The practical joke of the First Consulate--The Counts of Charlemagne and the Prefects of Napoleon--President Carnot at Calais--Politics and Socialism in Calais--Immense outlay on the port, but works yet unfinished--Indifference of the people--A president with a grandfather--The 'Great Carnot' and Napoleon--The party of the 'Sick at heart'--The Louis XVI. of the Republic--Léon Say and the 'White Mouse'--Gambetta's victory in 1877--Political log-rolling, French and American--Republican extravagance and the 'Woollen Stocking'--Boulanger and his legend--Wanted a 'Great Frenchman'--The Duc d'Aumale and the Comte de Paris--The Republican law of exile--The French people not Republican--The Legitimists and the farmers--A French journalist explains the Presidential progress--Why decorations are given 1-22