BOOK IV.
I.
At this juncture the germ of a new opinion began to display itself in the south, and Bordeaux felt its full influence.

The department of the Gironde had given birth to a new political party in the twelve citizens who formed its deputies.

This department, far removed from the _centre_, was at no distant period to seize on the empire alike of opinion and of eloquence.

The names (obscure and unknown up to this period) of _Ducos, Guadet, Lafond-Ladebat, Grangeneuve, Gensonne, Vergniaud_, were about to rise into notice and renown with the storms and the disasters of their country; they were the men who were destined to give that impulse to the Revolution that had hitherto remained in doubt and indecision, before which it still trembled with apprehension, and which was to precipitate it into a republic.

Why was this impulse fated to have birth in the department of the Gironde and not in Paris?
Nought but conjectures can be offered on this subject; and yet perhaps the republican spirit was more likely to manifest itself at Bordeaux than at Paris, where the presence and influence of a court had for ages past enervated the independence of character, and enfeebled the austerity of principle that form the basis of patriotism and liberty.