This was understood well enough by the ambitious
Girondist who, after for a time conducting the foreign
policy of France, assumed the conmiand of her Northern
armies. But, though Dumouriez, in his attempts to
secure Belgium for France, sought to avail himself of
the jealousies among the Allies — ^intensified by the
check which the Prussian army had experienced at
Valmy — ^in order to conclude a separate peace with
Prussia, this humiliating proposal fell to the ground.
