Vergniaud felt this, and knew how to communicate it.

The knowledge that they laboured for universal good, and the prospect of the gratitude of future ages shed a halo--a noble pride around France, and of sanctity around liberty.

It was one of the characteristics of this orator, that he almost invariably elevated the Revolution to the dignity of an apostleship, that he extended his humanity to all mankind, and that he only impassioned and worked upon the people by his virtues; such words produced an effect over all the empire, against which neither the king nor his ministers could strive.
XIV.
Moreover, as has been shown, Vergniaud and his party had friends in the council.

M.de Narbonne and the Girondists met and concerted their plans at Madame de Staeel's, whose _salon_, in which some warlike measure was always being discussed, was called the camp of the Revolution: the Abbe Fauchet, the denouncer of M.de Lessart, here imbibed fresh ardour for the overthrow of this minister.

M.de Lessart, by weakening as much as possible the threats of the court of Vienna and the anger of the Assembly, sought to gain time for better and wiser resolutions.