s disproportion of making use of the fires of Etna to fry
one's eggs by."

Yet Madame Roland performed these and less agreeable duties as
cheerfully and as perfectly as she had performed her chosen tasks in
the convent years before. Women doctors were not known in those
days, but the genius of Madame Roland embraced a knowledge of
medicine with other things; and she often went three leagues to
relieve a sick peasant, and was ever ready to sacrifice herself for
the good of others.

There was very little happiness for her in the companionship of her
husband. He was twenty-two years her senior, and possessed an
imperious temper and an exacting nature. But the most ardent wife
could not have better performed her duty to the most lovable of
husbands.

Naturally democratic in her feelings and sympathies, Madame Roland
took the keenest interest in the progress of the Revolution; from
her quiet retreat she studied its leading members, and when, in
1791, her husband was chosen deputy to the Constituent Assembly, she
accompanied him to Paris, and their apartments became the rendezvous
for such men as Brissot, Buzot, Danton, Robespierre, Petion, and
many more, who met to confer with one another and to exchange ideas
and suggestions. Madame Roland sat apart with her embroidery and
listened. Of these meetings she speaks thus in her "Memoirs": "Good
ideas were started and excellent principles maintained; but there
was no path marked out, no determinate point toward which each
person should direct his views. Sometimes for very vexation, I could
have boxed the ears of these philosophers."

Had not her sex precluded this silent spirit of the Girondists from
taking part in these counsels, if, instead of acting second hand
through her husband, she could have taken the lead, as her genius,
perception, honesty, and courage entitled her to do, who knows that
she might not have averted the disasters which befell the party
through its dissensions.

In March, 1792, Roland was elected minister of the interior; and
Madame Roland presided over the establishment that had been
sumptuously fitted up for Madame Necker. Roland became the idol of
the patriotic party, and was enchanted with his excellent position.
He urged upon King Louis XVI., in whom he reposed great faith, the
necessity of a decree against the priesthood, and the establishment
of a camp in the suburbs of Paris. Louis demurred, Roland insisted
in the famous letter written by hi