he more virtuous rural districts, far removed from the
corruption of the capital, their influence was on the increase. The
name of M. Roland, uttered with execrations in the metropolis by the
vagabonds swarming from all parts of Europe, was spoken in tones of
veneration in the departments, where husbandmen tilled the soil, and
loved the reign of law and peace. Hence the Jacobins had serious cause
to fear a reaction, and determined to silence their voices by the
slide of the guillotine. The most desperate measures were now adopted
for the destruction of the Girondists. One conspiracy was formed to
collect the mob, ever ready to obey a signal from Marat, around the
Assembly, to incite them to burst in at the doors and the windows, and
fill the hall with confusion, while picked men were to poniard the
Girondists in their seats. The conspiracy was detected and exposed but
a few hours before its appointed execution. The Jacobin leaders,
protected by their savage allies, were raised above the power of law,
and set all punishment at defiance.

A night was again designated, in which bands of armed men were to
surround the dwelling of each Girondist, and assassinate these foes of
Jacobin domination in their beds. This plot also was revealed to the
Girondists but a few hours before its destined catastrophe, and it was
with the utmost difficulty that the doomed victims obtained
extrication from the toils which had been wound around them.
Disastrous news was now daily arriving from the frontiers. The most
alarming tidings came of insurrections in La Vendee, and other
important portions of France, in favor of the restoration of the
monarchy. These gathering perils threw terror into the hearts of the
Jacobins, and roused them to deeds of desperation. Though Madame
Roland was now in comparative obscurity, night after night the most
illustrious men of France, battling for liberty and for life in the
Convention, ascended the dark staircase to her secluded room, hidden
in the depth of a court of the Rue de la Harpe, and there talked over
the scenes of the day, and deliberated respecting the morrow.

The Jacobins now planned one of those horrible insurrections which
sent a thrill of terror into every bosom in Paris. Assembling the
multitudinous throng of demoniac men and women which the troubled
times had collected from every portion of Christendom, they gathered
them around the hall of the Assembly to enforce their demands. It was
thre