earthquake's power, to make every throne in Europe
totter, and to convulse Christendom to its very center. Barbaroux left
them deeply impressed with a sense of the grandeur and the perils of
the enterprise, and remarked to a friend, "Of all the men of modern
times, Roland seems to me most to resemble Cato; but it must be owned
that it is to his wife that his courage and talents are due." Previous
to this hour the Girondists had wished to sustain the throne, and
merely to surround it with free institutions. They had taken the
government of England for their model. From this day the Girondists,
freed from all obligations to the king, conspired secretly in Madame
Roland's chamber, and publicly in the tribune, for the entire
overthrow of the monarchy, and the establishment of a republic like
that of the United States. They rivaled the Jacobins in the endeavor
to see who could strike the heaviest blows against the throne. It was
now a struggle between life and death. The triumph of the invading
army would be the utter destruction of all connected with the
revolutionary movement. And thus did Madame Roland exert an influence
more powerful, perhaps, than that of any other one mind in the
demolition of the Bourbon despotism.

Her influence over the Girondist party was such as no _man_ ever can
exert. Her conduct, frank and open-hearted, was irreproachable, ever
above even the slightest suspicion of indiscretion. She could not be
insensible to the homage, the admiration of those she gathered around
her. Buzot adored Madame Roland as the inspiration of his mind, as the
idol of his worship. She had involuntarily gained that entire
ascendency over his whole being which made her the world to him. The
secret of this resistless enchantment was concealed until her death;
it was then disclosed, and revealed the mystery of a spiritual
conflict such as few can comprehend. She writes of Buzot, "Sensible,
ardent, melancholy, he seems born to give and share happiness. This
man would forget the universe in the sweetness of private virtues.
Capable of sublime impulses and unvarying affections, the vulgar, who
like to depreciate what it can not equal, accuse him of being a
dreamer. Of sweet countenance, elegant figure, there is always in his
attire that care, neatness, and propriety which announce the respect
of self as well as of others. While the dregs of the nation elevate
the flatterers and corrupters of the people to station--while
cut-t