Consequently their wavering groups speedily gave way before the impact of the new, solid, central power.
A movement so wanting in definiteness as that of the Girondins was destined to slide into absolute opposition to the men of the Mountain: it was doomed to become royalist.

Certainly it did not command the adhesion of Napoleon.

His inclinations are seen in his pamphlet, "Le Souper de Beaucaire," which he published in August, 1793.

He wrote it in the intervals of some regimental work which had come to hand: and his passage through the little town of Beaucaire seems to have suggested the scenic setting of this little dialogue.

It purports to record a discussion between an officer--Buonaparte himself--two merchants of Marseilles, and citizens of Nimes and Montpellier.