alids, who came to seek relief, or convalescents, who came to bring
her proofs of their gratitude; baskets of chestnuts, goats' milk
cheeses, or apples from their orchards. She was delighted at finding the
country people grateful and sensible of kindness. She had drawn her own
picture of the people residing in the vicinity of large cities. The
burning of chateaux, during the outbreak and massacres of September,
taught her subsequently that these seas of men, then so calm, have
tempests more terrible than those of the ocean, and that society
requires institutions, just as the waves require a bed, and strength is
as indispensable as justice to the government of a people.

XIII.

The hour of the Revolution of '89 had struck, and came upon her in the
bosom of this retreat. Intoxicated with philosophy, passionately devoted
to the ideal of humanity, an adorer of antique liberty, she became on
fire at the first spark of this focus of new ideas;--she believed with
all her faith, that this revolution, like a child born without a
mother's sufferings, must regenerate the human race, destroy the misery
of the working classes, for whom she felt the deepest sympathy, and
renew the face of the earth. Even the piety of great souls has its
imagination. The generous illusion of France at this epoch was equal to
the work which France had to accomplish. If she had not dared to hope so
much, she would have dared nothing: her faith was her strength.

From this day, Madame Roland felt a fire kindled within her which was
never to be quenched but in her blood. All the love which lay slumbering
in her soul was converted into enthusiasm and devotion for the human
race. Her sensibility deceived--too ardent, unquestionably, for one
man--spread over a nation. She adored the Revolution like a lover. She
communicated this flame to her husband and to all her friends. All her
repressed feelings were poured forth in her opinions; she avenged
herself on her destiny, which refused her individual happiness, by
sacrificing herself for the happiness of others. Happy and beloved, she
would have been but a woman; unhappy and isolated, she became the leader
of a party.

XIV.

The opinions of M. and Madame Roland excited against them all the
commercial aristocracy of Lyons, an honest right-minded city, but one of
money, where all becomes a calculation, and where ideas have the weight
and immobility of interests. Ideas have an irresistible current, which