volved
in mystery. None can tell what their sufferings were during the days
and the nights of their weary wanderings, when no eye but that of God
could see them. Some peasants found among the mountains, where they
had taken refuge, human remains rent in pieces by the wolves. The
tattered garments were scattered around where the teeth of the
ferocious animals had left them. They were all that was left of the
noble Petion and Buzot. But how did they die? Worn out by suffering
and abandoned to despair, did they fall by their own hands? Did they
perish from exposure to hunger and exhaustion, and the freezing blasts
of winter? Or, in their weakness, were they attacked by the famished
wolves of the mountains? The dying scene of Petion and Buzot is
involved in impenetrable obscurity. Its tragic accompaniments can only
be revealed when all mysteries shall be unfolded.

CHAPTER XI.

PRISON LIFE.

1793

Liberation of Madame Roland.--She is re-arrested.--Infamous cruelty
of the Jacobins.--Anguish of Madame Roland.--Madame Roland recovers
her composure.--Intellectual enjoyments.--More comfortable
apartments.--Kindness of the jailer's wife.--Madame Roland entreated
to escape.--Rigorous treatment.--Visit of an English lady.--Kindness
of the jailers.--Cheerful aspect of Madame Roland's cell.--Henriette
Cannet.--Vain entreaties.--Robespierre in the zenith of his
power.--Madame Roland's letter to Robespierre.--Supports of
philosophy.--Influence of the Roman Catholic religion.--Energy of
Madame Roland.--She prepares for voluntary death.--Madame Roland's
prayer.--Notes to her husband and child.--Apostrophe to
friends.--Farewell to Nature.--Maternal love triumphs.--The struggle
ended.--Descriptions of Tacitus.--Madame Roland writes her memoirs.--The
spirit wanders among happier scenes.--Striking contrasts.--Madame Roland
conveyed to the Conciergerie.--Dismal cell.--Description of the
Conciergerie.--Narrow courts.--Quadrangular tower.--The daughter of the
Caesars.--The daughter of the artisan.

Madame Roland remained for four months in the Abbaye prison. On the
24th day of her imprisonment, to her inexpressible astonishment, an
officer entered her cell, and informed her that she was liberated, as
no charge could be found against her. Hardly crediting her
senses--fearing that she should wake up and find her freedom but the
blissful delirium of a dream--she took a coach and hastened to her own
door. Her eyes were full of tears