Girondists had already spoken to him, but which he himself could not as yet define.  Should the war be unfortunate, thought he, Europe will crush without difficulty beneath the tread of its armies the earliest germs of this new government, to the truth of which perhaps a few martyrs might testify, but which would find no soil from whence to spring anew.  If fortunate, military feeling, the invariable companion of aristocratic feeling, honour, that religion that binds the soldier to the throne; discipline, that despotism of glory, would usurp the place of those stern virtues to which the exercise of the constitution would have accustomed the people,—­then they would forgive every thing, even despotism, in those who had saved them.  The gratitude of a nation to those who have led its children to victory is a pitfall in which the people will ever be ensnared,—­nay, they even offer their necks to the yoke; civil virtues must ever fade before the brilliancy of military exploits.  Either the army would return to surround the ancient royalty with all its strength, and France would have her Monk, or the army would crown the most successful of its generals, and liberty would have her Cromwell.  In either case the Revolution escaped from the people, and lay at the mercy of the soldiery, and thus to save it from war was to save it from a snare.  These reflections decided him; as yet he meditated no violence; he but saw into the future, and read it aright.  This was the original cause of his rupture with the Girondists; their justice was but policy, and war appeared to them politic.  Just or unjust, they wished for it as a means of destruction to the throne, of aggrandisement for themselves.  Posterity must decide, if in this great quarrel the first blame lies on the side of the democrat, or the ambitious Girondists.  This fierce contest, destined to terminate in the death of both parties, began on the 12th of December at a meeting of the Jacobin Club.

V.

“I have meditated during six months, and even from the first day of the Revolution,” said Brissot, the leader of the Gironde, “to what party I should give my support.  It is by the force of reason, and by considering facts, that I have come to the conviction that a people, who, after ten centuries of slavery, have re-conquered liberty, have need of war.  War is necessary to consolidate liberty, and to purge the constitution from all taint of despotism.  War is necessary to drive from amongst us those men whose example might corrupt us.  You have the power of chastising the rebels, and intimidating the world; have the courage to do so.  The emigres persist in their rebellion, the sovereigns persist in supporting them.  Can we hesitate to attack them?  Our honour, our public credit, the necessity of strengthening our revolution, all make it imperative on us.  France would be dishonoured, did she tamely suffer the insolence and revolt of a few factions,