s, when
Dumouriez was softened by the {108} royal kindness, when minds
experienced a relaxation, and honest people, worn out by so many
political shocks, were sincerely desirous of repose, it was she who
nourished discord, made the Gironde irreconcilable, inspired the
subversive pamphlets of Louvet, embittered her husband's heart, and
invented the provocations against which the conscience of the
unfortunate monarch rebelled. This part, which would have been a sorry
one for a man to play, seems still worse in a woman. Count Beugnot has
said very justly: "I have seen that a woman can preserve only the
faults of her sex in the midst of such a frightful catastrophe, not its
virtues. The gentle, amiable, sensitive qualities grow and develop in
the shelter of peaceful domestic joys; they are lost and obliterated in
the heat of debates, the bitterness of parties, and the shock of
passions. The soft and tender foot of woman cannot tread unharmed in
paths bristling with steel and red with blood. To do so with safety
she must become a man; but to me, a man-woman seems a monster. Ah! let
them leave to us, whom nature has granted the pitiful advantage of
strength, the field of contention and the fate of war; we are adequate
to this cruel destiny; but let them keep to the easier and sweeter part
of pouring balm into wounds and staunching tears."

Roland's character was tranquil; it was his wife who made him
ambitious, haughty, and inflexible. She should have pacified her
husband, but instead of that she excited him. Never was he malevolent
and {109} spiteful enough to suit her. She would not pardon him a
single movement of compassion or respect towards the august
unfortunates. Led by her, Roland no longer dared entertain a generous
thought. He returned shamefaced to the Ministry of the Interior if he
had felt a humane sentiment while at the Tuileries. It is sad to find
tenderness and pity in the heart of a man, Dumouriez, and in the heart
of a woman, Madame Roland, nothing but malevolence and hatred.
Dumouriez wanted to put out the fire; Madame Roland, to stir it up.
Dumouriez sincerely desired the King's safety; Madame Roland swore that
he should perish. If a germ of pity woke to life in the hearts of the
ministers, Madame Roland hastened to stifle it. Her hostility towards
the royal family was more than deliberate; there was something like
ferocity in it. Her Memoirs and those of Dumouriez display two very
differen