vast
labyrinthine prison, where the imagination wanders affrighted through
intricate mazes of halls, and arches, and vaults, and dungeons,
rendered only more appalling by the dim light which struggles through
those grated orifices which pierced the massive walls. The Seine flows
by upon one side, separated only by the high way of the quays. The bed
of the Seine is above the floor of the prison. The surrounding earth
was consequently saturated with water, and the oozing moisture
diffused over the walls and the floors the humidity of the sepulcher.
The plash of the river; the rumbling of carts upon the pavements
overhead; the heavy tramp of countless footfalls, as the multitude
poured into and out of the halls of justice, mingled with the moaning
of the prisoners in those solitary cells. There were one or two narrow
courts scattered in this vast structure, where the prisoners could
look up the precipitous walls, as of a well, towering high above them,
and see a few square yards of sky. The gigantic quadrangular tower,
reared above these firm foundations, was formerly the imperial palace
from which issued all power and law. Here the French kings reveled in
voluptuousness, with their prisoners groaning beneath their feet. This
strong-hold of feudalism had now become the tomb of the monarchy. In
one of the most loathsome of these cells, Maria Antoinette, the
daughter of the Caesars, had languished in misery as profound as
mortals can suffer, till, in the endurance of every conceivable
insult, she was dragged to the guillotine.

It was into a cell adjoining that which the hapless queen had occupied
that Madame Roland was cast. Here the proud daughter of the emperors
of Austria and the humble child of the artisan, each, after a career
of unexampled vicissitudes, found their paths to meet but a few steps
from the scaffold. The victim of the monarchy and the victim of the
Revolution were conducted to the same dungeons and perished on the
same block. They met as antagonists in the stormy arena of the French
Revolution. They were nearly of equal age. The one possessed the
prestige of wealth, and rank, and ancestral power; the other, the
energy of a vigorous and cultivated mind. Both were endowed with
unusual attractions of person, spirits invigorated by enthusiasm,
and the loftiest heroism. From the antagonism of life they met in
death.

CHAPTER XII

TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF MADAME ROLAND.

1793

Examination of Madame