s wife, and placed in the king's
hands June 11th. This letter became immensely popular. The Assembly
ordered it to be printed and copies sent to all departments,
together with expressions of national regret at the discharge of
Roland and his friends, which the letter caused. But they were
recalled to office after the dreadful August 10th.

Twice a week Madame Roland gave a dinner to fifteen of her husband's
colleagues, with whom he wished to converse. No other lady was
present. The Girondists were at the apex of society, and Madame
Roland was the life and impetus of the party. She endeavored to
infuse its members with her hatred of false pride and old
prejudices, and with her desire to establish a liberal democracy.
Always enthusiastic, and vexed with the lack of unity and direct
purpose in the Assembly, she was over-zealous in some of her
suggestions.

Among the brilliant men whom she entertained at these dinners, was
one, young, handsome, elegant, and refined, whose many manly
qualities woke in her heart that long-delayed passion which a nature
so ardent must sometime feel. This man was Buzot; and he was as
irresistibly drawn to this beautiful, brilliant woman as the magnet
to the steel.

Madame Roland was at this time thirty-eight years old; her brilliant
color and her open expression made her look much younger, and her
tall, finely developed form, her splendid eyes and engaging smile,
charmed and attracted all who came near her. But though domestic
life and morality were held at the lowest possible value in those
chaotic days, and each man made a law for himself, Madame Roland
never wavered in her loyalty and devotion to the man whose name she
bore. Only through her remarkable letters written to Buzot from her
prison cell, and never made public till 1863, does the glory and
intensity of her hopeless passion display itself.

From the very first, Madame Roland had distrusted Danton. It was not
long before her intuitions proved correct, for Danton soon showed
his jealousy and dislike of the minister, whom he found too honest
to tamper with. He feared, too, the penetration, frankness, and
genius of Roland's wife. Men who saw the insidious, selfish
qualities of Danton, began to cultivate and conciliate him out of
fear of his enmity.

Robespierre, whom Madame Roland had at first believed in as an
honest friend to liberty, became an ally of Danton and Marat, and
Roland soon realized that it was not the monarchists