Marat, in his Ami du Peuple, wrote thus ambiguously of Brissot:—­“Brissot,” says the Friend of the People, “was never, in my eyes, a thorough-going patriot.  Either from ambition or baseness, he has up to this time betrayed the duties of a good citizen.  Why has he been so tardy in leaving a system of hypocrisy?  Poor Brissot, thou art the victim of a court valet, of a base hypocrite!—­why lend thy paw to La Fayette?  Why, thou must expect to experience the fate of all men of indecision.  Thou hast displeased every body; thou canst never make thy way.  If thou hast one atom of proper feeling left, hasten, and scratch out thy name from the list of candidates for the approaching general election.”

Thus appeared on the scene for the first time, in the midst of the hootings of both parties, this man, who attempted in vain to escape from the general contempt accumulated on his name from the faults of his youth, in order to enter on the gravity of his political career—­a mingled character, half intrigue, half virtue.  Brissot, destined to serve as the centre of a rallying point to the party of the Gironde, had, by anticipation in his character, all there was in after days, of destiny in his party, of intrigue and patriotism, of faction and martyrdom.  The other marked candidates in Paris, were, Pastoret, a man of the South, prudent and skilful as a Southron, steering ably betwixt parties, giving sufficient guarantee to the Revolution to be accepted by it, enough devotion to the court to retain its secret confidence; borne hither and thither by the alternating favours of the two opinions, like a man who seeks fortune for his talent in the Revolution, but never looking for it beyond the limits of the just and honourable.  Lacepede, Cerutti, Heraut de Sechelles, and Gouvion, La Fayette’s aide-de-camp.  The elections of the department occupied but little attention.  The National Assembly had exhausted the country of its characters and its talents; the ostracism it had exercised had imposed on France but secondary ability.  There was but little enthusiasm for untried men:  the public eyes were only fixed on the names about to disappear.  A country cannot contain a twofold renown:  that of France was departing with the members of the dissolved Assembly—­another France was about to rise.

BOOK IV.

I.

At this juncture the germ of a new opinion began to display itself in the south, and Bordeaux felt its full influence.  The department of the Gironde had given birth to a new political party in the twelve citizens who formed its deputies.  This department, far removed from the centre, was at no distant period to seize on the empire alike of opinion and of eloquence.  The names (obscure and unknown up to this period) of Ducos, Guadet, Lafond-Ladebat, Grangeneuve, Gensonne, Vergniaud, were about to