came to one of these, I was strongly inclined to stop and
indulge in reverie. The past history of France and Paris arose before my
mind, and I could not, if I would, away with it. The characters who
acted parts in Paris and perished in those places were before me, and
their histories lent a powerful interest to the spot upon which they
suffered and died. The reader can have no adequate idea of the feelings
with which a stranger visits these places of sad memories, unless he
recalls them to mind, nor will it be out place for me to do so.

A prison was often pointed out to me in which the celebrated Madame
Roland was confined, and the spot upon which she suffered death. I gazed
long at the grim walls which shut out the sunlight from that noble
woman--long upon the stones which drank her blood in the Place de la
Concorde. Her whole history was as vividly before me as if I were living
in the terrible days of blood. Her maiden name was Manon Philipon, and
her father was an engraver. They lived in Paris, where she grew up with
the sweetest of dispositions, and one of the finest of intellects. Her
mother was a woman of refinement and culture. She was excessively fond
of books and flowers, so much so that many years later she wrote, "I can
forget the injustice of men and my sufferings, among books and flowers."
Her parents gave her good masters, and she applied herself to her
studies with ardor and delight. They were never harsh in their treatment
of her, but always gentle and kind. She acted nearly as she pleased, but
seems not to have been spoiled by such a discipline as we might have
expected. When she was only nine years old, Plutarch fell into her
hands, and she was intensely interested in it--more so than with all the
fairy tales she had ever read. From him she drank in republicanism at
that early age. She also read Fenelon and Tasso. She spent nearly the
whole of her time in reading, though she assisted her mother somewhat in
her household duties. The family belonged to the middle-classes, and
despised the debaucheries of the higher and lower orders of the people.
The mother was pious, and Manon was placed for a year in a convent. She
then spent a year with her grandparents, and returned to her father's
house. Her course of reading was very much enlarged, and her attention
was now specially directed to philosophical works. She was thus a great
deal alone, and gave little of her time to gossip and promenade. She
went, how