Bel-Ami. Partie 2. Chapitre 5

Chapter 5 Autumn had come. The Du Roys had spent the entire summer in Paris, leading an energetic campaign in Vie Française in favor of the new cabinet during the deputies' short vacations. Although it was only the first days of October, the Chambers were going to resume their sessions, because the affairs of Morocco were becoming threatening.

Nobody, basically, believed in an expedition towards Tangier, although, on the day of the separation of Parliament, a deputy from the right, the Count of Lambert-Sarrazin, in a speech full of wit, applauded even by the centers , would have offered to bet and pledge his mustache, as a famous Viceroy of India had once done,

against the favorites of the head of the Council, that the new cabinet would not be able to refrain from imitating the old one and send an army to Tangier, matching that of Tunis, for love of symmetry, like putting two vases on a fireplace. He added: “The land of Africa is in fact a chimney for France,

gentlemen, a chimney which burns our best wood, a chimney with a large circulation which we light with Bank paper. “You have indulged in the artistic fantasy of adorning the left corner with a Tunisian trinket that costs you a lot of money, you will see that Mr. Marrot will want to imitate his predecessor and adorn the right corner with a Moroccan trinket. »

This speech, which remained famous, had served as the theme for Du Roy for ten articles on the Algerian colony, for his entire series interrupted during his debut at the newspaper, and he had energetically supported the idea of ​​a military expedition, although he was convinced that it would not take place. He had struck the patriotic chord and bombarded Spain with all the arsenal of