Jules Grévy takes the pulse of Marshal Macmahon, who lies sick in bed with a priest and another man; they are choking from the fumes of their burning bed; Léon Gambetta emerges from behind the scenes carrying a clyster. Coloured wood engraving, 1879.

The pot that has started the burning bears the faint letters '16 mai'. This refers to the crisis in 1877 in which Macmahon sacked Jules Simon and dissolved the entire Chamber of Deputies. The artist shows this rash decision as the beginning of the end of the Right. The presence of the priest here shows clericalism and anti-republicanism to be close bedfellows, and as going down together. This print is a response to the elections of January 1879. The influential republican Léon Gambetta, represented here behind the curtain with a clyster, chose not to run for president and fielded Grévy instead. Grévy stands to the left, measuring Macmahon's pulse against his watch