sur le premier plan, in the foreground

Page 29. 1. 6. Charles-François-Duperier, dit Dumouriez, bom 1739, came of an ancientfamilyof the noftZasse de ^aro6e. Hehad served with distinction through the Seven Years' War, but his mihtary prospects being poor, he threw himself into the diplomatie and poHtical service, and had been employed on several secret foreign missions.

The King beheved him to be a true RoyaUst. His friendship with Gensonné whose acquaintance he had made^ while on a mission in the departments of the west, misled the Girondins into thinking that he shared their opinion. But he had in reality neither RoyaUst nor Republican principles, only a passion for the management of foreign affairs.

Though the ablest man who had taken office since the Refvolution began, he underestimated the influence of revolutionary f eeling in France, and in Roland was not supported by an efficient Minister of the Interior. Cf. note, p. 143, 1. 3.

I. 6. Clavière. The former assistant of Mirabeau. Cf. Mémoires, vol. i, p. 94.