The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-01-04
GREAT LOVE
STORIES
of HISTORY
Jean Roland and
ManOr1 PhiIipSOn
By Albert Poyson Terhune
(CopyriSht. BY tie Autsor1

before she was led forth 10 execution,
wrote the most celebrated woman OF
her day. She was describing her en-
gagement and marriage 10 a man who
was even then about TO kill himself
for love of her. This man was Jean
Roland. a refugee from the alleged
Justice" OF Frances reign of terror.
Manon philipon came Of an old. i'm
poverished French family. AS a girl
she had shown promise of the literary
and political genius by which she was
one day to bend q nation to her will
and to help change the history OF the
world. She was so beautiful and &C
complished that. poor as she was. she
did not lack suitors. Yet she rejected
every offer Of marriage. In IVA. when
she was 90. she CHANGED to meet Ro-
land. grave. scholarly man OF 40.
From the first he was attracted to
her She cared little for him: but
friendship eprang up. based on mutual
interests. For nearly five years this
platonic friendship endured. Then. to
the girls surprise. Roland. on the eve
Of his departure upon a journey to
Italy. kissed her. This opened her
eyes to his real feelings and led her.
little by little. to
learn to love him.
"0 He asked her to
be his wife. She told him frankly
that she was very poor and babe him
ask her fathers consent. Her father
refused, in a needlessly brutal man.
rer. This refusal probably served to
sweep away Manon's last doubts as to
her love for Roland. For. unable to
marry him, she went into retirement
at a convent. There she stayed for
succeeded in wringing from her IA
Their a reluctant consent to the match.
The wedding took place February 4,
1879.
For the first few years after their
marriage Nine. Roland looked upon
her husband as heaven-gifted genius.
Then she gradually discovered she
had ten times his brains and courage.
But, instead of despising him. she set
herself to using all her wondrous tai
ents for the improvement of her hus-
bands fortunes. with the result that
her genius raised him at last to the
post of minister Of the interior. Mad
anne Roland. failing in an effort to
secure place for herself and her hus-
band in the French peerage. avenged
herself by indulging in visionary
dreams of freeing France from royal
tyranny and of making it a free coun-
try like our own. She and her hus-
band aired these views in print until
hn hor To-
aroused. This pair Of middle-aged
lovers did more than anyone else to
bring about the French revolution.
The people eagerly read and believed
their pamphlets. Nine. Roland's
beauty and wit made her the most
popular as we'll as the most influential
woman in France. The seeds Of revolt
sowed by her were destined within a
very few years to blossom forth into
that terrible. if needful, growth. the
French revolution.
free. They wanted King Louis XVI.
dethroned. They demanded an indie
pendent. self-governing nation. They
clamored for a revolution. They got
all they asked. But, as in the story of
"Frankenstein," the monster they Gre
ated destroyed them. 1t was a pretty.
bloodless. philosophical. kid glove"
revolution that they had planned, and
a pure republic like those of ancient
Greece and Rome. guided by gentle,
high-souled men. When the French
revolution at last burst forth the Ro-
lands were overjoyed. But their JOY
quickly turned to horror. Instead of
the ideal, calm logical change Of gov
eminent that they had both looked
forward to. murder. graft. wholesale
barbarities marked every step of the
uprising. France swan to freedom in
the blood of its butchered children.
The king was not only dethroned but
beheaded as we'll.
Because the Rolands begged for
moderation they and their followers
were charged with treason against the
new, bioodstained republic. Roland
fed in time to avoid capture. But
Nine. Roland was arrested and thrown
into prison. Their adherents were
scattered or slain. In her cell, in the
fall Of 1898. Nine. Roland wrote her
pages of this book she says: Never
can history paint these dreadful times
nor the monsters that fill them with
their barbarities. Oh, my
friends! May kind
c fate guide you to
the United States
the only asylum Of freedom"
On Nov 8. 1898. after a farcical
trial, Nine. Roland was led forth to
be beheaded. On the way to the scat
fold her eye fell upon big clay image
OF Liberty. She exclaimed, bitterly:
20. Liberty. what crimes are com
mitted in thy name" (Or. according
to some who heard her: 20. Liberty
how they have fooled you.")
Her husband. in the safe hidine
place where he was awaiting her re
lease, read of Nine. Roland's death
He made no outcry. but wrote a fierce
denunciation of her "murderers" This
paper he pinned on his breast Then
unable to endure life without the wife
he adored, the stricken old man drew
his sword and drove the blade through
his heart.