ve him, after his
education was finished, the small fortune of his father. He came to
finish his studies in law at Paris, and bought a place in parliament as
a barrister, where he practised little and without any notoriety. He
despised chicanery; his mind and language had the proportions of the
great causes of the people and the throne. The Constituent Assembly
began to stir them. Danton, watchful and impassioned, was anxious to
mingle with them: he sought the leading men, whose eloquence resounded
throughout France. He attached himself to Mirabeau; became connected
with Camille Desmoulins, Marat, Robespierre, Petion, Brune (afterwards
the marshal), Fabre d'Eglantine, the Duc d'Orleans, Laclos, Lacroix, and
all the illustrious and second class orators who then "fulmined over"
Paris. He passed his whole time in the tribunes of the Assembly, in the
walks, and the coffee-houses, and his nights in the clubs. A few
well-seasoned words, some brief harangues, some bursts of mysterious
lightning: and above all, his hair like a horse's mane, his gigantic
stature, and his powerful voice, made him universally remarked. Yet
beneath the purely physical qualities of the orator men of intelligence
remarked great good sense and an instinctive knowledge of the human
heart. Beneath the agitator they discerned the statesman. Danton in
truth read history, studied the ancient orators, practised himself in
real eloquence, that which enlightens in its passion, and beneath his
actual part was preparing another much superior. He only asked the
movement to raise him so high that he might subsequently control it.

He married Mademoiselle Charpentier, daughter of a lemonade-seller on
the Quai de l'Ecole. This young lady controlled him by her affection,
and insensibly reformed him from the disorders of his youth to more
regular domestic habits. She extinguished the violence of his passions,
but without being able to quench that which survived all
others--ambition of a great destiny.

Danton lived in a small apartment in the Cour de Commerce, near his
father-in-law, in rigid economy, receiving but a very few friends, who
admired his talent and attached themselves to his fortunes. The most
constant were Camille Desmoulins, Petion, and Brune. From these meetings
went forth signals of extensive sedition. The secret subsidies of the
court came there to tempt the cupidity of the head of the young
revolutionists. He did not reject them, but used them som