France in the Nineteenth Century

by Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer

In 1851 his parents took him to England to the Great Exhibition. He afterwards passed some months with his maternal relatives at Brighton, and was sent to school there; but he had such fierce quarrels with the English boys in defence of his nationality that the experiment of an English education did not answer. At the age of seventeen he was admitted to the French military school at Saint-Cyr, and two years later was in Algeria, as a second lieutenant in a regiment of Turcos. His experiences in Africa were of the kind usual in savage warfare; but he became a favorite with his men, whom he cared for throughout his career with much of that fatherly interest which distinguished the Russian hero, General Skobeleff.—

When the war with Italy broke out, in 1859, Boulanger and his Turcos took part in it. He was severely wounded in his first engagement, and lay long in the hospital, attended by his mother. He received, however, three decorations for his conduct in this campaign, in which he was thrice wounded. On the last occasion, as he lay in hospital, he received a visit of sympathy from the Empress Eugénie, then in the very zenith of her beauty and prosperity.

Boulanger's next service was in Tonquin, where on one occasion he fought side by side with the Spaniards, and received a fourth decoration, that of Isabella the Catholic.

He was next assigned to home duty at Saint-Cyr; and when the terrible war of 1870 broke out, and all the cadets were drafted into the army as officers, he was made major of a regiment, which was at Mézières, on the Belgian frontier, when MacMahon and the emperor surrendered at Sedan. Boulanger and his command escaped with Vinoy's troops from the disaster, and got back to Paris, where he kept his men in better order during the siege than any other officer. They took part in the sortie made to join Chanzy's Army of the Loire, in November, 1870, and in a skirmish with the Prussians he was again badly wounded. When the Prussian army entered Paris on March 5, 1871, Boulanger and the regiment under his command had the unpleasant duty of guarding the streets along their line of march to insure them a safe passage.

In 1874 when thirty-seven years of age, Boulanger was a colonel, with the breast of his uniform covered with decorations; but he had taken no part whatever in politics, and was not known to have any political views, save that he called himself a fervent Republican, and personally resented any aristocratic assumptions on the part of inferior officers.

In 1881 he was sent by the French Government to the United States, in company with the descendants of Lafayette and Rochambeau, to attend the Yorktown celebration. Amongst all the French delegation Boulanger was distinguished by his handsome person and agreeable manners, while his knowledge of English made him everywhere popular. He was already married to his cousin, Mademoiselle Renouard, and had two little daughters, Hélène and Marcelle.

When the Minister of War gave Boulanger his appointment on the mission to Yorktown, he cautioned him that he must not shock the quiet tastes of American republicans by wearing too brilliant uniforms. Fortunately Colonel Boulanger did not accept the hint, and on all public occasions during his visit to this country he attracted the admiration of reporters and spectators as the handsomest man in the French group, wearing the most showy uniform, with the greatest number of glittering decorations. He was tall, with handsome auburn beard and hair, and very regular features. Even in caricatures the artist has been obliged to represent him as very handsome.

After his return to France, Boulanger was sent to Tunis,—a State recently annexed by the French, who were jealous of the power acquired by Great Britain on the southern shores of the Mediterranean by her protectorate in Egypt. Here Boulanger's desire to conduct things in a military way led to disputes with the civil authorities, and he returned to France in 1885, where M. de Freycinet, then head of a new Cabinet, made him Minister of War. He at once set to work to reform the army. He told his countrymen that if they ever hoped to take revenge upon the Germans (or rather revanche; for the words do not mean precisely the same thing), they must have their army in a much better state of preparation than it was in 1870. Instantly a cry arose in France that General Boulanger was the man who sought a war with Germany, and who would lead French armies to the reconquest of Alsace and Lorraine. The French peasantry have never been able to accept the loss of Alsace and Lorraine as an accomplished fact; they look on the retention of those provinces by the Germans as a temporary arrangement until France can at the right moment wrest them out of her powerful rival's hand.

Boulanger's popularity rose to fever-heat. The Boulanger March, with its song, "En revenant de la revue," was played and sung in all the cafés chantants of Paris. The general rode a black horse as handsome as himself. Some one has said, "As a political factor, Boulanger was born of a horse and a song."

In 1886 he advocated the exile of the Orleans princes and the erasure of the Duc d'Aumale's name from the list of French generals. For this he was reproached with ingratitude to the duke, who had once been his commanding officer. His own letter of thanks for kindness, favors, and patronage was produced, and Boulanger could only defend himself by pronouncing it a forgery.