He had stood aside to allow war to pass by him, but opinion always had its eyes on him, and it might have been said that a secret instinct revealed to the people that in this man was the destiny of the future.

When he advanced, they followed him; when he did not move, they waited for him.

The Girondists, therefore, were compelled, from prudential motives, to distrust this man, and to remain in the Assembly between their own course and him.

These precautions taken, they looked about them for the men who were nullities by themselves, and yet, engrafted on their party, of whom they could make ministers.

They required instruments, and not masters,--Seids attached to their fortune, whom they could direct at will either against the king or against the Jacobins--could elevate without fear, or reject without compunction.