ntered her mind that kings and queens had aught else
to do than to indulge in luxury. It would be hardly possible to
conceive of two characters less qualified to occupy the throne in
stormy times than were Louis and Maria. The people were slowly, but
with resistless power, rising against the abuses, enormous and hoary
with age, of the aristocracy and the monarchy. Louis, a man of
unblemished kindness, integrity, and purity, was made the scape-goat
for the sins of haughty, oppressive, profligate princes, who for
centuries had trodden, with iron hoofs, upon the necks of their
subjects. The accumulated hate of ages was poured upon his devoted
head. The irresolute monarch had no conception of his position.

The king, in pursuance of his system of conciliation, as the clamors
of discontent swelled louder and longer from all parts of France,
convened the National Assembly. This body consisted of the nobility,
the higher clergy, and representatives, chosen by the people from all
parts of France. M. Roland, who was quite an idol with the populace of
Lyons and its vicinity, and who now was beginning to lose caste with
the aristocracy, was chosen, by a very strong vote, as the
representative to the Assembly from the city of Lyons. In that busy
city the revolutionary movement had commenced with great power, and
the name of Roland was the rallying point of the people now struggling
to escape from ages of oppression. M. Roland spent some time in his
city residence, drawn thither by the intense interest of the times,
and in the saloon of Madame Roland meetings were every evening held by
the most influential gentlemen of the revolutionary party. Her ardor
stimulated their zeal, and her well-stored mind and fascinating
conversational eloquence guided their councils. The impetuous young
men of the city gathered around this impassioned woman, from whose
lips words of liberty fell so enchantingly upon their ears, and with
chivalric devotion surrendered themselves to the guidance of her mind.

In this rising conflict between plebeian and patrician, between
democrat and aristocrat, the position in which M. Roland and wife were
placed, as most conspicuous and influential members of the
revolutionary party, arrayed against them, with daily increasing
animosity, all the aristocratic community of Lyons. Each day their
names were pronounced by the advocates of reform with more enthusiasm,
and by their opponents with deepening hostility. The app