It was the period when all their friends arrived.  Petion had just been elected maire, and was creating a republic in the commune.  Robespierre, excluded from the Legislative Assembly by the law which forbade the re-election of the members of the Constituent Assembly, found a tribune in the Jacobins.  Brissot assumed Buzot’s place in the new Assembly, and his reputation, as a public writer and statesman, brought around him and his doctrines the young Girondists, who had arrived from their department, with the ardour of their age, and the impulse of a second revolutionary tide.  They cast themselves, on their arrival, into the places which Robespierre, Buzot, Laclos, Danton, and Brissot had marked out for them.

Roland, the friend of all these men, but in the back ground, and concealed in their shadow, had one of those peculiar reputations, the more potent over opinion, as it made but little display:  it was spoken of as though an antique virtue, beneath the simple appearance of a rustic:  he was the Sieyes of his party.  Beneath his taciturnity his deep thought was assured, and in his mystery the oracle was accredited.  The brilliancy and genius of his wife attracted all eyes towards him:  his very mediocrity, the only power that has the virtue of neutralising envy, was of service to him.  As no one feared him, every body thrust him forward—­Petion as a cover for himself—­Robespierre to undermine him—­Brissot to put his own villanous reputation under the shelter of proverbial probity—­Buzot, Vergniaud, Louvet, Gensonne, and the Girondists, from respect for his science, and the attraction towards Madame Roland; even the Court, from confidence in his honesty and contempt for his influence.  This man advanced to power without any effort on his own part, borne onwards by the favour of a party, by the prestige which the unknown has over opinion, by the disdain of his opponents and the genius of his wife.

II.

The king had for some time hoped that the wrath of the Revolution would be softened down by its triumph.  Those violent acts, those stormy oscillations between insolence and repentance, which had marked the inauguration of the Assembly, had painfully undeceived him.  His astonished ministry already trembled before so much audacity, and in the council avowed their incompetency.  The king was desirous of retaining men who had given him such proofs of devotion to his person.  Some of them, confidants or accomplices, served the king and queen, either by keeping up communications with the emigrants or by their intrigues in the interior.