think of the king and his
suffering family, our sympathies are so enlisted in behalf of their
woes that we condemn the letter as harsh and unfeeling. When we think
for how many ages the people of France had been crushed into poverty
and debasement, we rejoice to hear stern and uncompromising truth fall
upon the ear of royalty. And yet Madame Roland's letter rather excites
our admiration for her wonderful abilities than allures us to her by
developments of female loveliness. This celebrated letter was
presented to the king on the 11th of June, 1792. On the same day M.
Roland received a letter from the king informing him that he was
dismissed from office. It is impossible to refrain from applauding the
king for this manifestation of spirit and self-respect. Had he
exhibited more of this energy, he might at least have had the honor of
dying more gloriously; but, as the intrepid wife of the minister
dictated the letter to the king, we can not doubt that it was the
imperious wife of the king who dictated the dismissal in reply. Maria
Antoinette and Madame Roland met as Greek meets Greek.

"Here am I, dismissed from office," was M. Roland's exclamation to his
wife on his return home.

"Present your letter to the Assembly, that the nation may see for what
counsel you have been dismissed," replied the undaunted wife.

M. Roland did so. He was received as a martyr to patriotism. The
letter was read amid the loudest applauses. It was ordered to be
printed, and circulated by tens of thousands through the eighty-three
departments of the kingdom; and from all those departments there came
rolling back upon the metropolis the echo of the most tumultuous
indignation and applause. The famous letter was read by all
France--nay, more, by all Europe. Roland was a hero. The plaudits of
the million fell upon the ear of the defeated minister, while the
execrations of the million rose more loudly and ominously around the
tottering throne. This blow, struck by Madame Roland, was by far the
heaviest the throne of France had yet received. She who so loved to
play the part of a heroine was not at all dismayed by defeat, when it
came with such an aggrandizement of power. Upon this wave of
enthusiastic popularity Madame Roland and her husband retired from the
magnificent palace where they had dwelt for so short a time, and, with
a little pardonable ostentation, selected for their retreat very
humble apartments in an apparently obscure street of