wn, rough and
uncouth, to take his place. For many years Gambetta had been preparing
for such an opportunity, and he was equal to it, for he made one of the
greatest speeches that up to that time had ever been made in France.
That night all the papers in Paris were sounding the praises of this
ragged, uncouth Bohemian, and soon all France recognized him as the
Republican leader. This sudden rise was not due to luck or accident.
He had been steadfastly working and fighting his way up against
opposition and poverty for just such an occasion. Had he not been
equal to it, it would only have made him ridiculous. What a stride;
yesterday, poor and unknown, living in a garret, to-day, deputy elect,
in the city of Marseilles, and the great Republican leader! The
gossipers of France had never heard his name before. He had been
expelled from the priest-making seminary as totally unfit for a priest
and an utterly undisciplinable character. In two weeks, this ragged
son of an Italian grocer arose in the Chamber, and moved that the
Napoleon dynasty be disposed of and the Republic be declared
established.

When Louis Napoleon had been defeated at Sedan and had delivered his
sword to William of Prussia, and when the Prussian army was marching on
Paris, the brave Gambetta went out of the besieged city in a balloon
barely grazed by the Prussian guns, landed in Amiens, and by almost
superhuman skill raised three armies of 800,000 men, provided for their
maintenance, and directed their military operations. A German officer
said, "This colossal energy is the most remarkable event of modern
history, and will carry down Gambetta's name to remote posterity."
This youth who was poring over his books in an attic while other youths
were promenading the Champs Elysees, although but thirty-two years old,
was now virtually dictator of France, and the greatest orator in the
Republic. What a striking example of the great reserve of personal
power, which, even in dissolute lives, is sometimes called out by a
great emergency or sudden sorrow, and ever after leads the life to
victory! When Gambetta found that his first speech had electrified all
France, his great reserve rushed to the front, he was suddenly weaned
from dissipation, and resolved to make his mark in the world. Nor did
he lose his head in his quick leap into fame. He still lived in the
upper room in the musty Latin quarter, and remained a poor man, without
stain of dishonor, t