The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-08-17
A REMARKABLE WOMAN.
Nine. Roland and Her Tragic Role In
the French Revolution.

Mime. Roland and Her Tragic Role In
the French Revolution.
Nine Roland was one of the noblest
A child of poverty. she gradually grew
to distinction, until she welded for a
time the mighty scepter which after
ward led her captive to the dungeon
and finally to the guiIlotiRe. In the
cause of reform she was the center
of all influence around which cluster
ed those mighty spirits which seemed
for a time to control the destinies of
France.
In early youth she showed signs of
possessing great talent. ''Plutarch's
Lives" gave her an almost passionate
longing for the fame Of the great men
Of past ages, and at the age of four
teen she is said to have wept because
she was not Roman or a Spartan
woman.
At length the outburst came-the
French struggle for liberty in 1889
so soon to degenerate into ruthless
anarchy. Nine. Roland and her hus-
band joined the Girondist party. NJ.
Roland became minister Of the interior.
Nine Roland assisted him in drawing
up official papers, and to her pen is
attributed the celebrated warning let
ter to the king, published in May, 1892,
which Occasioned his dismissal.
Roland denounced the more fiery rev.
olutionists, and Robespierre, Murat,
Danton and the rest became very bit
ter, particularly toward Nine. Roland.
The lives of herself and her husband
were not considered safe, and arrange
ments were made for them to sleep
away from their regular home. Nine.
Roland objected. II am ashamed Of
the part I am made to play" she said.
II will neither disguise myself or leave
the house. If they wish to assassinate
me, it shall be at my own house,
The crisis came. On May 81, 1893,
she was arrested and cast into prison,
her husband being at the time away
from Paris. She never obtained her
liberty or saw her husband. All her
jailers she converted into friends by
her fascinating manner and general
amiability She devoted all her leisure
hours in prison to the composition of
her memoirs.
On Oct. 16 Marie Antoinette was
guillotined. Later in the same month
twenty of the leading Girondists, all
personal friends Of the Rolands, shared
the same fate. And then came the
turn of Nine. Roland.
At the trial Nine. Roland appeared
dressed carefully in white, with her
beautiful black hair descending to her
waist. Unmoved by the insults to
which she was subjected by her brutal
judges, she maintained unruff1ed a dig
niied demeanor which might have
suited Roman matron of old, but her
death was predetermined, and she was
remorselessly condemned.
On the fatal day and at the same
hour and place with herself a man was
to be guillotined. To die first on such
an occasion had become q sort of priv
ilege among the wretched victims as
means of avoiding the agony of see
ing others die. Nine Roland waived
this privilege in favor of her less cou-
rageous companion. The executioner
had orders to guillotine her before the
man, but she entreated him not to
show the impoliteness of refusing a
woman's last request.
AS she passed to the scaffold she
gazed on a gigantic statue of Liberty
erected near it and exclaimed, 20 Lib
erty, how many crimes are committed
in thy name" The guilloti4e then
took the life of one who was perhaps
the most remarkable woman of the
French revolution.-St. Louis Republic.