in ideas rather than an apostle. They called him an intriguer.

Brissot brought Petion, his fellow-student and friend. Petion, already
member of the Constituent Assembly, and whose harangues in two or three
cases had excited interest. Brissot was reputed to have inspired these
orations. Buzot and Robespierre, both members of the same Assembly, were
introduced there. Buzot, whose pensive beauty, intrepidity, and
eloquence were destined hereafter to agitate the heart and soften the
imagination of Madame Roland; and Robespierre, whose disquiet mind and
fanatic hatred cast him henceforward into all meetings where
conspiracies were formed in the name of the people. Some others, too,
came, whose names will subsequently appear in the annals of this period.
Brissot, Petion, Buzot, Robespierre, agreed to meet four evenings in
each week in the _salon_ of Madame Roland.

XVI.

The motive of these meetings was to confer secretly as to the weakness
of the Constituent Assembly, on the plots laid by the aristocracy to
fetter the Revolution, and on the impulse necessary to impress on the
lukewarm opinions, in order to consolidate the triumph. They chose the
house of Madame Roland, because this house was situated in a quarter
equi-distant from the homes of all the members who were to assemble
there. As in the conspiracy of Harmodius, it was a woman who held the
torch to light the conspirators.

Madame Roland thus found herself cast, from the first, in the midst of
the movement party. Her invisible hand touched the first threads of the
still entangled plot which was to disclose such great events. This part,
the only one that could be assigned to her sex, equally flattered her
woman's pride and passion for politics. She went through it with that
modesty which would have been in her a _chef d'oeuvre_ of skill if it
had not been a natural endowment. Seated out of the circle near a work
table, she worked or wrote letters, listening all the time with apparent
indifference to the discussions of her friends. Frequently tempted to
take a share in the conversation, she bit her lips in order to check her
desire. Her soul of energy and action was inspired with secret contempt
for the tedious and verbose debates which led to nothing. Action was
expended in words, and the hour passed away taking with it the
opportunity which never returns.

The conquests of the National Assembly soon enervated the conquerors.
The leaders of this Assembly retr