the minds of the waverers.  The papers began to side with him.  Marat heaped invectives on Brissot; Camille Desmoulins, in his pamphlets, exposed the shameful association of Brissot, in London, with Morande, the dishonoured libellist.  Danton himself, the orator of success, fearing to be deceived by fortune, hesitated between the Girondists and Robespierre.  He remained silent for a long time, and then made a speech full of high-sounding words, beneath which was visible the hesitation of his convictions, and the embarrassment of his mind.

BOOK X.

I.

Whilst this was passing at the Jacobins, and the journals—­those echoes of the clubs—­excited in the people the same anxiety and the same hesitation, the underhand diplomacy of the cabinet of the Tuileries, and the emperor Leopold, who sought in vain to postpone the termination, were about to behold all their schemes thwarted by the impatience of the Gironde and the death of Leopold.  This philosophic prince was destined to bear away with him all desire of reconciliation and every hope of peace, for he alone restrained Germany.  M. de Narbonne, thwarted by public demonstrations the secret negotiations of his colleague M. de Lessart, who strove to temporise, and to refer all the differences of France and Europe to a congress.

The diplomatic committee of the Assembly, urged by Narbonne, and composed of Girondists, proposed decisive resolutions.  This committee, established by the Assembly, and influenced by the ideas of Mirabeau, called the ministers to account for every thing that occurred:  out of the kingdom diplomacy was thus unmasked—­the negotiations broken off—­all combination rendered impossible, for the cabinets of Europe were continually cited before the tribune of Paris.  The Girondists, the actual leaders of this committee, possessed neither the skill nor the prudence necessary to handle without breaking the fine threads of diplomacy.  A speech was in their eyes far more meritorious than a negotiation; and they cared not that their words should re-echo in foreign cabinets, provided they sounded well in the chamber or the tribune.  Moreover, they were desirous of war, and looked on themselves as statesmen, because at one stroke they had disturbed the peace of Europe.  Ignorant of politics, they yet deemed themselves masters of it, because they were unscrupulous; and because they affected the indifference of Machiavel, they deemed they possessed his depth.

The emperor Leopold, by a proclamation, on the 21st of December, furnished the Assembly with a pretext for an outbreak.  “The sovereigns united,” said the emperor, “for the maintenance of public tranquillity and the honour and safety of the crowns.”  These words excited the minds of all to know what could be their meaning; they asked each other how the emperor, the brother-in-law, and ally of Louis