es of
Madame Roland and her husband. Probity is the virtue of democrats, for
the people look first at the hands of those who govern them. The
Girondists, pure as men of the ancient time, feared the shadow of a
suspicion of this nature on their characters, and Dumouriez's
carelessness on this point annoyed them. They complained. Gensonne and
Brissot insinuated their feelings to him on this point at Roland's.
Roland himself, authorised by his age and austerity of manners, took
upon himself to remind Dumouriez that a public man owes respect to
decorum and revolutionary manners. The warrior turned the remonstrance
into pleasantry, replied to Roland that he owed his blood to the nation,
but neither owed it the sacrifice of his tastes nor his amours; that he
understood patriotism as a hero, and not as a puritan. The bitterness of
his language left venom behind, and they separated with mutual
ill-feeling.

From this day forth he no longer visited at Roland's evening meetings.
Madame Roland, who understood the human heart by the superior instinct
of her genius and her sex, was not deceived by the general's tactics.
"The hour is come to destroy Dumouriez," she said boldly to her friends.
"I know very well," she added, addressing Roland, "that you are
incapable of descending either to intrigue or revenge; but remember that
Dumouriez must conspire in his heart against those who have wounded him.
When such daring remonstrances have been made to such a man, and
uselessly made, it is necessary to strike the blow if we would not be
struck ourselves." She felt truly, and spoke sagaciously. Dumouriez,
whose rapid glance had seen behind the Girondists a party stronger and
bolder than their own, began from this time to connect himself with the
leaders of the Jacobins. He thought, and with reason, that party hatred
would be more potent than patriotism, and that by flattering the rivalry
of Robespierre and Danton against Brissot, Petion, and Roland, he should
find in the Jacobins themselves a support for the government. He liked
the king, pitied the queen, and all his prejudices were in favour of
the monarchy. He would have been as proud to restore the throne as to
save the republic. Skilful in handling men, every instrument was good
that was available; to get rid of the Girondists, who, by oppressing the
king menaced himself, and to go and seek further off and lower than
these rhetoricians, that popularity which was necessary to him when