Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-02-05

From the very moment that the MUIR
murs of revolution began to be heard,
NJ and Nine Roland were in the thick
of the fight At first their activities were
in LYONS. NJ Roland's home, but he was
soon elected a representative to the ma
tionai assembly, and removed to Paris.
There his Young and enthusiastic wife
attended meetings of the assembly, wrote
articles for the newspapers, and wrote
also. il is said, her husbands speeches
and state papers. When the Austrians
massed their troops on the frontier pre-
paratory to invading France. headed 10y
the aristocrats who had fled from France,
she wrote SO powerful an appeal to the
king urging him to declare war alike on
the emigrants and their allies that the
monarch straightway removed NJ Roland
from Office.
Had Louis XVI needed Nine. Roland's
advice he might-almost certainly would
have saved his crown and head
Roland Falls Under Suspicion.
The revolution progressed. NJ. Roland,
a man of wealth and the descendant of
a distinguished family, fell under sus-
picion and was arrested. 1t was mo-
ment when the possession of luxurious
house and the enjoyment Of comfort
able income was regarded as evidences
of sympathy with the aristocracy, and
the song Les Aristocrats la Lanterne
meaning hang them to the street lamps)
was the popular doegerel of the day. The
Gironde was moderate. 1t had, indeed,
acquiesced in the vote by which Louis
XVI and Marie Antoinette Were put to
death, but it fought the sanSuinary pro-
gram of Robesperre and Marat. The
lut rnOtriNing DESTROY Nine.
Roland on the plea that she was attempt
ing to arouse the southern arrondlsse-
ments of France against Paris-that Paris
was wallowing in a sea OF blood, ana
which was utterly unable to defend it
self against a foreign invasion should one
come.
So in the end she was arrested at her
home and cast into one of the dungeons
of the conciergerie. Her cell was at least
five feet below the level of the Seine.
and seepage made it damp and unhealth-
full 1t was here that Nine. Roland wrote
her Memoirs in the remarkably short
period of twenty-eight days.
Those who have read Charles Dickens
"a Tale of Two Cities" or have seen
the play founded upon it and presented
under the title The Only Way" will be
interested to know that a woman sought
to essay the role of Sidney Carton and
go to the guillotne in place of Mime. Ro-
land
Earlier in this article 1 referred to the
friends she had made in the convent.
Among these was Henriette Cannot, who
had been the active agent in introducing
NJ Roland to his wife. Now that the
latter was in imminent peril of death this
devoted friend came to the prison with
the proposition that the twain change
clothes; that Nine. Roland leave the cell
and that Henriette should remain to suf-
fer the death penalty.
Il was widow, wrote Henriette,
without children. while my friend had a
husband and a daughter. What more nat
ural than that l should expose my life TO
save hers? My prayers and tears awaited
nothing. They will kill YOU she con-
tnually repeated. Your blood will be
set back against me. Better suffer a
thousand deaths myself than 10 reproach
myself with yours
Awed Robbie in Prison.
In the prison of the concierSerie this
woman of refinement and intellectual at
tainments was incarcerated in company
with women of the slums and of the
demi-monde Du Barry, the dethroned
courtesan and favorite of Louis XIV. and
the wife of Roland slept under the same
roof. though not at the same moment.