her
opinions were freely expressed in private to the leaders of the party,
who eagerly engaged with her in discussion.

The flight of the king filled her with alarm; his arrest and
return to Paris excited new hopes; she looked for safety only in his
dethronement, and in the establishment of a republican form of
government; but for this she hardly dared hope. "It would be a
folly, an absurdity, almost a horror," she writes to a friend at this
time, "to replace the king on the throne. To bring Louis XVI. to
trial, would doubtless be the greatest and most just of measures;
but we are incapable of adopting it."

At the end of seven months, Roland's mission terminated, and he
returned to Lyons. But Madame Roland could no longer be happy in the
quiet, domestic circle; her discontent thus expresses itself in a
letter to a friend, but, unwittingly perhaps, does not assign it to
the true cause: "I see with regret that my husband is cast back on
silence and obscurity. He is habituated to public life; his energy and
activity injure his health when not exercised according to his
inclinations; in addition, I had hoped for great advantages for my
child in a residence at Paris. Occupied there by her education, I
should have excited and developed some sort of talent. The recluse
life I lead here makes me tremble for her. From the moment that my
husband has no occupation but his desks, I must remain near to amuse
him, according to a duty and a habit which may not be eluded. This
existence is exactly opposite to that suitable for a child of ten. My
heart is saddened by this opposition of duties. I find myself fallen
into the nullity of a provincial life, where no exterior circumstances
supply that which I cannot do myself. If I believed my husband were
satisfied, hope would embellish the prospect. However, our destiny is
fixed, and I must try to render it as happy as I can."

But the truth was, that her life at Paris had opened a new prospect to
Madame Roland, and excited new desires in her bosom. Her activity and
enthusiasm longed to employ themselves upon a grand theatre, and she
panted to become great, as Plutarch's heroes were great, and to go
down to posterity as one of the founders of her country's freedom.

She was soon restored to the wished-for scene of action. In December,
1792, her husband was appointed minister of the interior. She relates
with great good-humor the surprise which her husband's plain,
citizen-like costume