irious with
rage. They crowded all the avenues to the Tuileries, burst through the
gates and over the walls, dashed down the doors and stove in the
windows, and, with obscene ribaldry, rioted through all the apartments
sacred to royalty. They thrust the dirty red cap of Jacobinism upon
the head of the King. They poured into the ear of the humiliated queen
the most revolting and loathsome execrations. There was no hope for
Louis but in the recall of M. Roland. The court party could give him
no protection. The Jacobins were upon him in locust legions. M. Roland
alone could bring the Girondists, as a shield, between the throne and
the mob. He was recalled, and again moved, in calm triumph, from his
obscure chambers to the regal palace of the minister. If Madame
Roland's letter dismissed him from office, her letter also restored
him again with an enormous accumulation of power.

[Illustration: THE LIBRARY.]

His situation was not an enviable one. Elevated as it was in dignity
and influence, it was full of perplexity, toil, and peril. The spirit
of revolution was now rampant, and no earthly power could stay it. It
was inevitable that those who would not recklessly ride upon its
billows must be overwhelmed by its resistless surges. Madame Roland
was far more conscious of the peril than her husband. With intense
emotion, but calmly and firmly, she looked upon the gathering storm.
The peculiarity of her character, and her great moral courage, was
illustrated by the mode of life she vigorously adopted. Raised from
obscurity to a position so commanding, with rank and wealth bowing
obsequiously around her, she was entirely undazzled, and resolved
that, consecrating all her energies to the demands of the tempestuous
times, she would waste no time in fashionable parties and heartless
visits. "My love of study," she said, "is as great as my detestation
of cards, and the society of silly people affords me no amusement."
Twice a week she gave a dinner to the members of the ministry, and
other influential men in the political world, with whom her husband
wished to converse. The palace was furnished to their hands by its
former occupants with Oriental luxury. Selecting for her own use, as
before, one of the smallest parlors, she furnished it as her library.
Here she lived, engrossed in study, busy with her pen, and taking an
unostentatious and unseen, but most active part, in all those measures
which were literally agitating the whole