In his
philosophical principles he affected the tone of a moderator, and
repeated the axioms of Mirabeau against the laws relative to
expatriation; in his attack on the princes he included the king, and
held him up to the people as an object of suspicion; and lastly, in his
denunciation of the diplomacy of the ministers, he urged them to a war
_a l'outrance_, and displayed in this measure the energy of a patriot
and the foresight of a statesman; for in case war should be the result,
he did not conceal from himself the jealousy of the nation against the
court, and he knew that the first act of open war would be to declare
the king a traitor to his country.

This speech placed Brissot at the head of the conspirators of the
Assembly; he brought to the young and untried party of the Gironde his
reputation as a public writer, and a man who had had ten years'
experience of the factions; the audacity of his policy flattered their
impatience, and the austerity of his language made them believe in the
depth of his designs. Condorcet, the friend of Brissot, and, like him,
devoured by insatiable and unscrupulous ambition, mounting the tribune,
merely commented on the preceding discourse, and concluded, like
Brissot, by summoning the powers to pronounce for or against the
constitution, and demanded the renewal of the _corps diplomatique_.

This discourse was visibly concerted, and it was evident that a party,
already formed, took possession of the tribune, and was about to
arrogate to itself the dominion of the Assembly. Brissot was its
conspirator, Condorcet its philosopher, Vergniaud its orator. Vergniaud
mounted the tribune, with all the _prestige_ of his marvellous
eloquence, the fame of which had long preceded him. The eager looks of
the Assembly, the silence that prevailed, announced in him one of the
great actors of the revolutionary drama, who only appear on the stage to
win themselves popularity, to intoxicate themselves with applause,
and--to die.

XV.

Vergniaud, born at Limoges, and an advocate at the bar of Bordeaux, was
now in his thirty-third year, for the revolutionary movement had seized
on and borne him along with its currents when very young. His dignified,
calm, and unaffected features announced the conviction of his power.
Facility, that agreeable concomitant of genius, had rendered alike
pliable his talents, his character, and even the position he assumed. A
certain _nonchalance_ announced that he easi