Girondins were convinced that their opponents aspired to a bloody dictatorship, while the Montagnards believed that the Girondins were ready for any compromise with conservatives, and even royalists, that would guarantee their remaining in power. The bitter enmity soon reduced the Convention to a state of limbo. Debate after debate degenerated into verbal brawling from which no decision could emerged. The political deadlock, which had repercussions all over France, eventually drove men to accept dangerous allies, royalists in the case of Girondins, sans-culottes in that of the Montagnards.