Vergniaud, PIERRE VICTURNIEN, one of the greatest orators of the French Revolution, was born at Limoges, 31st May 1753, the son of an unprosperous merchant there. Turgot, then intendant of the Limousin, divined his promise, and nominated him to a bursarship at the Collège du Plessis at Paris. He studied divinity aimlessly at the Sorbonne, but soon grew tired of it, next took a post in the civil service at Paris, but ere long threw it up and retired to his bankrupt father's house at Limoges. But a brother-in-law helped him to settle as an advocate at Bordeaux in 1781, and he quickly gained a great practice, and was elected a deputy to the National Assembly in 1791. His splendid eloquence, the charm of his personality, made him the leader of the Girondists, but he was too indolent and unambitious to care for political intrigue, and indeed he was far more of the orator than the statesman. Sent to the Convention by the department of the Gironde, he supported, in the question of the king's trial, the proposal of Salle to make an appeal to the people. When the decisive moment came he voted for death, and as president it was his duty to announce the result. In the struggle with the Mountain he made a splendid effort, but too late. He was guillotined 31st October 1793, the last of the twenty-one who died together.
See Vatel, Vergniaud: Manuscrits, lettres et papiers (2 vols. 1875); Aulard, Les Orateurs de la Législative et de la Convention (vol. i.); and the Lives by Touchard-Lafosse (1848) and Verdière (1866). See also vol. i. of H. Morse Stephens, The Principal Speeches of the Statesmen and Orators of the French Revolution (1892).