He was elected to the Legislature of France in 1869, and entered it the foremost of the sworn foes of the empire. Soon came the war with Prussia, and the collapse of the government of Napoleon III. Gambetta became a prominent member of the Government of National Defence, and served for a time as both Minister of War and Minister of the Interior. In this time of confusion and transition, when France was at war with a powerful nation, and had no established government, he performed herculean labors for his country. Escaping from beleagured Paris in a balloon, he joined himself to the army and directed its operations. His was the master-mind, more than any other, which ruled France. He appointed generals, raised re-enforcements for the army, and negotiated loans. Though defeat followed defeat, he urged that the war should be pushed on, and was bitterly opposed to the conclusion of a peace with Prussia. When, in 1871, the National Assembly convened at Bordeaux, voted to accept the enemy’s terms and make peace, Gambetta, in wrath, withdrew from the hall, followed by certain of his colleagues. The new elections of the same year sent him back to the Assembly, where he continued the peerless orator, and firm and brave champion of Republicanism. When President MacMahon, in 1877, supplanted the old Republican ministry with one of another character, Gambetta led the attack upon him, which resulted in his retirement. In the period which followed, until 1881, this statesman’s star was in the ascendant. His influence was greater than ever before. In the Assembly he had a strong Republican majority at his back. He was “the power behind the throne.” Deferred to by those at the head of the executive department of the nation, he governed while others did so in name. In the Autumn of 1881 he became Premier, but the defeat of one of his measures compelled his retirement in a few weeks.