when before the bar of judgment of
Fouquier-Tinville, the terrible prosecutor, consisted in her relation
to the Girondists who had been condemned to death as traitors to the
republic. She met her death heroically, as became a woman who had
lived bravely. At the very last moment of her life, she offered
consolation to fellow victims. Her death was that of the greatest
heroine of the Revolution, the climax of a life the one ambition of
which had been to save her country and to shed her blood for it. As
she rode through the city in her pure white raiment, serenely radiant
in her own innocence, she was the embodiment of all that was highest
and purest in the Revolution--one of the best and greatest women known
to French history. She stands out as a representative of the French
Republic.

There are a number of traits of Mme. Roland which should be considered
before giving a final estimate of her character, of her role in French
history, and of her right to be ranked among the most illustrious
women of France. Critics in general seem to show her a marked
hostility; such men as Caro assert that she had no modesty, that she
lacked sentiment, delicacy, and reserve. M. Saint-Amand said that she
reflected the vices and virtues of her age, summing up the passions
and illusions, being intellectually and morally the disciple of
Rousseau, but socially personifying the third estate, which in the
beginning asked for nothing, but later demanded all. Politics made
her cruel at times, although by nature she was good and sensible. He
declared that with her acquaintance with Buzot began her career of
love and ambition. In love, she believed herself a patriot, but all
the various phases of her public career were simply the results of her
emotions. Thus, for example, in order to see Buzot, she persuaded
her husband to return to Paris to seek his fortune and make the
realization of her dreams possible. She desired to play a role for
which her origin had not destined her, which made her actions appear
theatrical and affected. It is evident that she hated both the king
and the queen, and at the council for the Girondist ministry demanded
the death of the royal couple. And yet, Saint-Amand cites her as the
most beautiful of that group of martyrs who lost their lives in the
first heat of the Revolution--as the genius among them by her
force, purity, and grace--the brilliant and austere muse in all the
saintliness of martyrdom.

The two maxims w