lause and the
censure alike invigorated Madame Roland, and her whole soul became
absorbed in the one idea of popular liberty. This object became her
passion, and she devoted herself to it with the concentration of every
energy of mind and heart.

On the 20th of February, 1791, Madame Roland accompanied her husband
to Paris, as he took his seat, with a name already prominent, in the
National Assembly. Five years before, she had left the metropolis in
obscurity and depression. She now returned with wealth, with elevated
rank, with brilliant reputation, and exulting in conscious power. Her
persuasive influence was dictating those measures which were driving
the ancient nobility of France from their chateaux, and her vigorous
mind was guiding those blows before which the throne of the Bourbons
trembled. The unblemished and incorruptible integrity of M. Roland,
his simplicity of manners and acknowledged ability, invested him
immediately with much authority among his associates. The brilliance
of his wife, and her most fascinating colloquial powers, also
reflected much luster upon his name. Madame Roland, with her glowing
zeal, had just written a pamphlet upon the new order of things, in
language so powerful and impressive that more than sixty thousand
copies had been sold--an enormous number, considering the comparative
fewness of readers at that time. She, of course, was received with the
most flattering attention, and great deference was paid to her
opinions. She attended daily the sittings of the Assembly, and
listened with the deepest interest to the debates. The king and queen
had already been torn from their palaces at Versailles, and were
virtually prisoners in the Tuileries. Many of the nobles had fled from
the perils which seemed to be gathering around them, and had joined
the army of emigrants at Coblentz. A few, however, of the nobility,
and many of the higher clergy, remained heroically at their posts,
and, as members of the Assembly, made valiant but unavailing efforts
to defend the ancient prerogatives of the crown and of the Church.
Madame Roland witnessed with mortification, which she could neither
repress nor conceal, the decided superiority of the court party in
dignity, and polish of manners, and in general intellectual culture,
over those of plebeian origin, who were struggling, with the energy of
an infant Hercules, for the overthrow of despotic power. All her
_tastes_ were with the ancient nobility and