BOOK X.
I.
Whilst this was passing at the Jacobins, and the journals--those echoes of the clubs--excited in the people the same anxiety and the same hesitation, the underhand diplomacy of the cabinet of the Tuileries, and the emperor Leopold, who sought in vain to postpone the termination, were about to behold all their schemes thwarted by the impatience of the Gironde and the death of Leopold.

This philosophic prince was destined to bear away with him all desire of reconciliation and every hope of peace, for he alone restrained Germany.

M.de Narbonne, thwarted by public demonstrations the secret negotiations of his colleague M.de Lessart, who strove to temporise, and to refer all the differences of France and Europe to a congress.
The diplomatic committee of the Assembly, urged by Narbonne, and composed of Girondists, proposed decisive resolutions.

This committee, established by the Assembly, and influenced by the ideas of Mirabeau, called the ministers to account for every thing that occurred: out of the kingdom diplomacy was thus unmasked--the negotiations broken off--all combination rendered impossible, for the cabinets of Europe were continually cited before the tribune of Paris.

The Girondists, the actual leaders of this committee, possessed neither the skill nor the prudence necessary to handle without breaking the fine threads of diplomacy.