the influence of her enchantment. He paused, looked at
her for a moment in slight bewilderment, and yielded. The poor old
man, more dead than alive, was conducted upon the scaffold and placed
beneath the fatal ax. Madame Roland, without the slightest change of
color, or the apparent tremor of a nerve, saw the ponderous
instrument, with its glittering edge, glide upon its deadly mission,
and the decapitated trunk of her friend was thrown aside to give
place for her. With a placid countenance and a buoyant step, she
ascended the platform. The guillotine was erected upon the vacant spot
between the gardens of the Tuileries and the Elysian Fields, then
known as the Place de la Revolution. This spot is now called the Place
de la Concorde. It is unsurpassed by any other place in Europe. Two
marble fountains now embellish the spot. The blood-stained guillotine,
from which crimson rivulets were ever flowing, then occupied the space
upon which one of these fountains has been erected; and a clay statue
to Liberty reared its hypocritical front where the Egyptian obelisk
now rises. Madame Roland stood for a moment upon the elevated
platform, looked calmly around upon the vast concourse, and then
bowing before the colossal statue, exclaimed, "O Liberty! Liberty! how
many crimes are committed in thy name." She surrendered herself to the
executioner, and was bound to the plank. The plank fell to its
horizontal position, bringing her head under the fatal ax. The
glittering steel glided through the groove, and the head of Madame
Roland was severed from her body.

[Illustration: EXECUTION OF MADAME ROLAND.]

Thus died Madame Roland, in the thirty-ninth year of her age. Her
death oppressed all who had known her with the deepest grief. Her
intimate friend Buzot, who was then a fugitive, on hearing the
tidings, was thrown into a state of perfect delirium, from which he
did not recover for many days. Her faithful female servant was so
overwhelmed with grief, that she presented herself before the
tribunal, and implored them to let her die upon the same scaffold
where her beloved mistress had perished. The tribunal, amazed at such
transports of attachment, declared that she was mad, and ordered her
to be removed from their presence. A man-servant made the same
application, and was sent to the guillotine.

The grief of M. Roland, when apprised of the event, was unbounded. For
a time he entirely lost his senses. Life to him was no longer
en