Weekly Calaveras chronicle., 1867-08-03
Women at the Scafold.
NINE. ROLAND.

| Nine. Roland was born in the ranks
of the bourgeoise, was married to man
who was minister of France, and at
tanned as high a historical renown as
Marie Antoinette, whose doom on the
scaffold she shared
Her father was an engraver and not
above his art; her mother was a COM
mon-place, narrow minded, but good
natured woman. Neither could ever
understand the superiority of their
daughter. Within herself, therefore,
she concentrated her great thoughts,
her aspirations, her ambitions, for #
solitude and study lead Charlotte Cor
day to self sacrifice, they reused within
Nine. Roland's bosom the feeling of
personal ambition and high aggrandize-
ment.
1t was her favorite theme of the day
to compare the modern Republic of
France with the republics of Greece
and Rome Nine. Roland had evident
ly modelled her character on the hero
ines of antiquity. She, too, considered
that she had mission, but it was to
govern, not to die. This desire steeled
her heart against the usual tender ties
of her sex and dictated her marriage
with Roland, a man stern and unpre-
possessing, many years older than her
self.
She too in spite of the antique vir-
tues she possessed, contracted an invet-
crate hatred against the queen. In the
Girondist party-the chivalrous party
of the Revolution-she strongly COM
batted and opposed the feeling of admi-
ration and compassion many of its men,
bers had manifested towards Marie
Antoinette. Spite of Nine. Roland s
stoical assumptions, we cannot but see
in this unfounded hatred the result of
the inveterate prejudice of the bourg-
geoise against the aristocracy, and per-
haps Individually, little of a woman S
envy may be mingled with it, for Nine
Roland was beautiful and loved not,
| (plebian as she was) to hear extolled
the graces and noble bearing of the
queen.
Nine. Roland was woman of extra
ordinary intellectual power; and wrote
with vigor and overwhelming eloquence.
She had not the brilliancy, or woman
likeness of Nine. de Stael; she could
not converse; the conversation in her
saloon where the Girondist met, always
took the form of political debate, and
Nine. Roland's energy and eloquence
would have flied her for the rostrum.
Nine. Roland is the favorite heroine
of the Revolution. The more than
Spartan purity of her conduct has blind
ed somewhat posterity to the evident
faults of her character.
Cold and ambitious it is true, her
energies were enlisted in the cause of
liberty, but her own personal aggran-
dizement was her only incentive to ac-
ton. She was though, without par
ticle Of affection, Chat is the effect of
weakness, and not of strength) ever
playing a part-she never descended to
the gentler emotions of life, but main
tanned herself the pedestal she had
erected.
Even after all was over, in her pris-
on, when her part in the revolutionary
world was played and her partisans dead
or fed, she evidently aimed at poster
ity, and spoke and wrote to that alone.
She was woman of undaunted cour-
age and died as she had lived, like a
heroine. Not giving her last thoughts
to her husband or her infant daughter,
but exclaiming with heroic accents
go, liberty, how many crimes are
committed in thy name."
Nine. Roland during the long months
of her imprisonment wrote her mem
oirs. They were written a few pages
at time, and given to her friend and
counselor, Bose, who was allowed to
visit her every day.
These memoirs are the most curious
memorials of the human heart. They
reveal but little of the Revolution
none of the secrets of the chief of the
Girondists might be supposed to have
desired to leave to posterity, but they
tell of her first years, of the varied emo.
tions of her soul, which directed her
mind and led her to become at last the
wondrous combination of masculine
courage and feminine fascination, which
she was.
These memoirs, though written for
posterity, seem to be addressed as a
private revelation to some friend whose
soul had harmonized with her own.
This friend seems to have been Bri-
zot, whether there was ever between
them warmer sentiment, remains one
of the secrets of history.
In prison Nine Roland seems to
have forgotten all but the tender feel
ings of wife, woman, and mother,
not resuming her heroic dignity until
arraigned before the tribunal. Then
she answered with the intelligence, re-
serve, and dignity of heroine.
Sentence of death was pronounced