He was of a rhetoric not inferior to Vergniaud's--that most eloquent Girondon--and of a quickness of wit and honesty of aim unrivalled in the whole body of the Convention, and with these gifts he harassed to no little purpose those smooth-tongued legislators of the Gironde, whom Dumouriez called the Jesuits of the Revolution.

His popularity with the men of the Mountain and with the masses of Paris was growing daily, and the crushing reply he had that day delivered to the charges preferred by Vergniaud was likely to increase his fame.
Well, therefore, might he sit with flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes chewing the butt of his pen and smiling to himself at the memory of the enthusiasm of which he had been the centre a half-hour ago.

Here, indeed, was something that a man might live for, something that a man might take pride in, and something that might console a man for a woman's treachery.

What, indeed, could woman's love give him that might compare with this?
Was it not more glorious far to make himself the admired, the revered, the very idol of those stern men, than the beloved of a simpering girl?
The latter any coxcomb with a well-cut coat might encompass, but the former achievement was a man's work.
And yet, for all that he reasoned thus speciously and philosophically, there was a moment when his brow grew clouded and his eyes lost their sparkle.

He was thinking of that night in the inn at Boisvert, when he had knelt beside her and she had lied to him.