Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 6.djvu/55

 MADAME ROLAND 23< retired to the Convent of the Congregation, and shut herself up with her books, and received only her old friends. M. Roland, for whose sake she had taken so decisive a step, was far from an ardent lover in his conduct at this juncture. He wrote her affectionately, but he made no reference to his proposal of marriage until six months had passed. Then he came to Paris, had an interview through iron gratings, and expressed himself determined to make her his wife. Since she had left her father's roof, she was at liberty to accept his somewhat tardy proposal, and she emerged from the convent to become Madame Roland. We have seen that M. Roland was not an ardent lover, and it is readily un- derstood that this beautiful, intense girl, in the very prime of young womanhood, was not in love with him. She felt only esteem for his virtues, and admiration for his intellect. But she was twenty-five years old, and virtually homeless ; of all the score of men who had sought her hand in marriage, no one had evei stirred her heart, and she married, believing, no doubt, that this cold regard and high admiration which the character of M. Roland elicited, was all that she could feel for any man. It was not until the thunders of the Revolution shook the world, that her heart awoke to real passion ; and even then, in a situation where hundreds of women who have professed greater religious fervor, have fallen, she conquered herself, and virtually died to protect her husband's life. During the first year of their marriage, the Rolands lived in Paris. Manon had imagined a happy association with her friends, the Cannets ; but her hus- band was morbidly jealous of these friends, and extracted a promise from her that she would see them as little as possible. She became his amanuensis and secretary, and scarcely ever left his side. During the next ten years we find her passing the greater part of her time in the Clos de la Platiere, an ancient and humble country-seat belonging to the Ro- land family. Here, with her taxing domestic duties, the exactions of her hus- band, the care of her child Eudora, the tyrannies of her aged mother-in-law, this wonderful woman had little opportunity for the exercise of her talents. It seems strange to think of this beautiful martyr, whose name is a synonym for all that is grand and heroic, passing the best years of her womanhood in pre- paring dishes for the appetite of a dyspeptic husband, in looking after house- linen, and arranging lessons for a child. Matilda Blind says " This affects one with something of the ludicrous disproportion of making use of the fires of Etna to fry one's eggs by." Yet Madame Roland performed these and less agreeable duties as cheerfully and as perfectly as she had performed her chosen tasks in the convent years be- fore. Women doctors were not known in those days, but the genius of Madame Roland embraced a knowledge of medicine with other things ; and she often went three leagues to relieve a sick peasant, and was ever ready to sacrifice her- self for the good of others. There was very little happiness for her in the companionship of her hus-