she
induced her husband to write a letter to the National Assembly
concerning the massacres. But how weak and undecided is this letter,
and how public opinion must have been lowered and debased when it could
regard Roland as a courageous minister! In place of scathing the
murderers with the energy of an {376} honest man, he pleads extenuating
circumstances in their favor. "It is in the nature of things and
according to the human heart," he said in his pale missive, "that
victory should lead to some excesses. The sea, agitated by a violent
storm, continues to roar long after the tempest; but everything has its
limits and must finally see them determined. Yesterday was a day over
whose events we ought, perhaps, to draw a veil. I know that the
terrible vengeance of the people carries with it a sort of justice; but
how easy it is for scoundrels and traitors to abuse this effervescence,
and how necessary it is to arrest it!" This language produced not the
least effect. The massacres went on, and Roland remained minister;
although in his letter of September 3 he had written: "I ask the
privilege of resigning if the silence of the laws does not permit me to
act." The _virtuous_ Roland sat in the Council beside his colleague,
the organizer of this human butchery. September 13, he addressed a
letter to the Parisians in which he burnt incense to himself, bragged
about his character, his actions, and his firmness, and carried his
infatuation so far as to write: "I have twice accepted a burden which I
felt myself able to bear." Ah! how difficult it is to renounce even a
shadow of power, and of what compromises with their consciences are not
ministers capable in order to retain for a few days longer the
portfolios that are slipping from their hands! In the depths of his
soul Roland, like his wife, had the profoundest horror of the murders
and {377} the murderers. And yet notice how he extenuates them in his
letter to the Parisians: "I admired August 10; I trembled over the
results of September 2; I carefully considered what the betrayed
patience of the people and their justice had produced, and I did not
blame a first impulse too inconsiderately; I believe that its further
progress should have been prevented, and that those who were seeking to
perpetuate it were deceived by their imagination or by cruel and
evil-minded men. If the erring brethren recognize that they have been
deceived, let them come; my arms are open to