Page:Madame Rolland (Blind 1886).djvu/140

130 The philosophy of the Revolution found its highest expression in the group that gathered round the lovely and lovable Madame de Condorcet, who had so sincerely given her heart to the great movement that she was able to incite her husband to the composition of his noblest work, while he was daily expecting to be dragged to execution. Then there was the Cercle Social at which ultra-revolutionary and social theories were chiefly discussed. It was attended by an enthusiastic crowd of men and women, and amongst them was a Dutch lady, a Madame Palm-Aelder, who claimed political equality for her sex, a claim worthy to be made of the Revolution, and which the fervid and excitable Olympe de Gouges—who always sided with the weaker party—seconded by those telling words: "Women have surely the right to ascend the platform since they have that of mounting the scaffold."

Above these varied figures Madame Roland towered, representing, as she did, the pure Republican ideal. Coming from the country, where her great powers had lain dormant so long, coming with the bloom of her enthusiasm still fresh upon her, with energies unblunted, and a heart whose capacity for emotion had but grown by long self-suppression, she now scanned with keenest attention the various actors in the thrilling political tragedy whose heroine she was destined to become. Her scrutiny disappointed her. Too critical to cheat herself with illusions, she nowhere discovered the man at once great and disinterested enough to regulate the terrible clash of class with class, and to evolve a fresh order from the threatening chaos.

The little gatherings at Madame Roland's apartment were far too modest to bear any likeness to a salon.