The princes, who hold possessions in Alsace, whose cause he affects to espouse, are but the pretexts of his hate; and the emigres themselves are but his instruments.  Let us despise these emigres:  it is the duty of the high national court to execute justice on these mendicant princes.  The electors of the empire are not worthy of your anger; fear causes them beforehand to prostrate themselves at your feet—­a free people does not crush a fallen foe:  strike at the head—­this head is the emperor.”

He communicated his own ardour to the Assembly; but Brissot, although a skilful politician, and the able counsellor of his party, did not possess that sonorous oratory that elevates an opinion to the level of the voice of a nation.  Vergniaud alone was gifted with a soul, in which was combined all the passion and eloquence of a party:  by meditating on the annals of the past, he elevated his mind to scenes that passed then analogous to those in which he was an actor, and communicated an importance and solemnity to every word.  “Our revolution,” said he at the same sitting, “has spread alarm amongst every throne, for it has given an example of the destruction of the despotism that sustains them.  Kings hate our constitution because it renders men free, and because they would reign over slaves.  This hate has been manifested on the part of the emperor by all the measures he has adopted, to disturb us or to strengthen our enemies, and encourage those Frenchmen who have rebelled against the laws of their country.  We must not believe that this hate has ceased to exist, but it must cease to work.  The genius of Liberty watches over our frontiers, which are less defended by our troops and our national guards than by the enthusiasm of freedom.  Liberty, since its birth, has been the object of a shameful and secret war, waged against it even in its very cradle.  What is this war?  Three armies of reptiles and venomous insects breed and creep in your own breast:  one is composed of paid libellists and hired calumniators, who strive to arm the two powers against each other by inspiring them with mutual distrust; the other army, equally dangerous, is composed of seditious priests, who feel that their God is forsaking them, and that their power is crumbling away with their prestige, and who, to retain their empire, term vengeance religion, and crime virtue.  The third is composed of greedy speculators and financiers, who can grow rich only on our ruin:  national prosperity would be destruction to their egotistical speculations; and our death would be their life.  They are like those beasts of prey, who wait the issue of the battle that they may batten and feast on the corpses of the slain. (Loud applause.)

“They know that the expenses of your preparations for defence are numerous; and they reckon upon the failure of the credit of the treasury, and the scarcity of specie; they reckon upon the weariness of those citizens who have abandoned their wives, their babes, to hasten to the frontiers, and who will abandon them, whilst millions, distributed at home, will arouse insurrections, in which the people, armed by madness, will themselves destroy their rights, whilst they imagine they are defending them; then the emperor will advance at the head of a powerful army to rivet your fetters.  Such is the war that they make on you, and that they seek to make. (Loud applause.)