Paris: With Pen and Pencil eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 286 pages of information about Paris.

Paris: With Pen and Pencil eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 286 pages of information about Paris.

M. Roland wishing to save the king, if possible, determined upon remonstrating with him upon his course.  Madame Roland wrote the letter of remonstrance, though, of course, it appeared in his name.  It was bold and severe, and accomplished no good.  The result of it was, that Roland was dismissed from the office, and retired to private life.  Soon after, however, he was recalled under the republic, and endeavored to do his duty.  Madame Roland writes in September of this year:  “We are under the knife of Marat and Robespierre.  These men agitate the people and endeavor to turn them against the National Assembly.”  She and her husband were heartily and zealously for the republic, but they were moderate, and entirely opposed to those brutal men who were in favor of filling Paris and France with blood.  Madame Roland writes, later:  “Danton leads all; Robespierre is his puppet; Marat holds his torch and dagger:  this ferocious tribune reigns, and we are his slaves until the moment when we shall become his victims.  You are aware of my enthusiasm for the revolution:  well, I am ashamed of it; it is deformed by monsters and become hideous.”  Madame Roland now struggled to overthrow the Jacobins—­but was only overthrown herself.  She was at this time celebrated for her wit and beauty.  A writer of that time says of her: 

“I met Madame Roland several times in former days:  her eyes, her figure, and hair, were of remarkable beauty; her delicate complexion had a freshness and color which, joined to her reserved yet ingenuous appearance, imparted a singular air of youth.  Wit, good sense, propriety of expression, keen reasoning, naive grace, all flowed without effort from her roseate lips.”

During the horrible massacres of September Roland acted with great heroism.  While the streets of Paris ran with human blood, he wrote to the mayor, demanding him to interfere in behalf of the sufferers.  Marat denounced him as a traitor, and from that moment his life was in danger.  Madame Roland was charged with instigating the unpopular acts of her husband by the radicals, and she was in equal danger with her husband.  After the execution of the king, Roland became discouraged, and convinced that he could do no more for France, and he retired with his wife to the country.  Here they lived in constant danger of arrest.  Roland finding the danger so great, made good his escape, but she was arrested a short time after.  She had retired to rest at night, when suddenly her doors were burst open and the house filled with a hundred armed men.  She was instantly parted from her child and sent off to Paris.  One of the men who had her in charge, cried out, “Do you wish the window of the carriage to be closed?” “No, gentlemen,” she replied, “innocence, however oppressed, will never assume the appearance of guilt.  I fear the eyes of no one, and will not hide myself.”

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Paris: With Pen and Pencil from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.