He is described as having spoken for nearly an hour with great confidence in a highly declamatory tone, and with studied action, impressing all present who had ever heard of Cicero or Hortensius with the belief that he had worked himself up into the notion of being one or both of them for the occasion.
Source: wiktionary
Behind him an excitable Frenchman was holding forth in declamatory style to a group of astonished residents.