ake her husband
and those about her happy, was apparently to be the whole scope of her
life. At this period, she writes to a friend, "Seated in my chimney
corner, at eleven before noon, after a peaceful night and my morning
tasks,--my husband at his desk, and my little girl knitting,--I am
conversing with the former, and overlooking the work of the letter;
enjoying the happiness of being warmly sheltered in the bosom of my
dear little family, and writing to a friend, while the snow is falling
on so many poor wretches overwhelmed by sorrow and penury. I grieve
over their fate. I repose on my own, and make no account of those
family annoyances, which appeared formerly to tarnish my felicity."

The revolution came to disturb this peaceful existence. At first she
hailed it with joy; but fears soon arose. "Is the question," she says,
"to be whether we have one tyrant or a hundred?" She attached herself
zealously to that party which advocated liberty without anarchy. The
confusion of the times proved destructive to the manufacturing
interests of Lyons; twenty thousand workmen were thrown out of
employment, and were without means of support. M. Roland was selected
to proceed to Paris to make known the distresses to the National
Assembly, and to solicit relief.

The Girondists held opinions most in consonance with her own; her
house at Paris soon became the rendezvous of that party; and her
talents, beauty, and enthusiasm, insensibly procured for her a great
influence in their councils. A late historian thus speaks of her:
"Roland was known for his clever writings on manufactures and
mechanics. This man, of austere life, inflexible principles, and cold,
repulsive manners, yielded, without being aware, to the superior
ascendency of his wife. She was young and beautiful. Nourished in
seclusion by philosophical and republican sentiments, she had
conceived ideas superior to her sex, and had erected a strict
religion from the then reigning opinions. Living in intimate
friendship with her husband, she wrote for him, communicated her
vivacity and ardor, not only to him, but to all the Girondists, who,
enthusiastic in the cause of liberty and philosophy, adored beauty and
talent, and their own opinions in her." But she carefully guarded
against appearing to exert influence. Present at the councils held at
her own house, she sat apart, and, apparently engaged in needle-work
or in writing, took no part in the public deliberations; but