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34 against them all kinds of rumors calculated to madden and inflame the populace against them. Recognizing “the power behind the throne,” it was Madame Roland against whom these slanders were chiefly directed. It was Madame Roland who, on the 7th of December, 1792, was summoned before the bar of the Convention to answer those charges. She plead her own cause, standing erect before that tribunal of fierce-eyed men, a bright, regal-browed, beautiful woman, strong and brave in the face of their scowls, conscious of having pursued the right through all. She answered quietly, firmly, eloquently, undauntedly, all their questions, and they were obliged to dismiss her, with a secret sense of shamefacedness at their own discomfiture, but none the less determined to accomplish the ruin of her and hers.

Recognizing how vain were all efforts to stem the tide of terror and anarchy (then deluging the country with blood), and disliking to have their name associated with