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162 shadow, was vested—the Commune and the armed sections commanded by Santerre the Brewer—took no steps to stop the massacres. This fact, among other indications, seems a proof that they originated and abetted them. And where, it may be asked, was Roland, the Minister of the Interior, all this time?

On Sunday, the 2nd of September, Madame Roland tells us, towards five o'clock in the afternoon—about the time when the prisons were invested—she was alone at home, when the Ministerial residence was surrounded by about two hundred men, loudly calling for the Minister and for arms. On their refusing to go, after having been vainly assured that Roland was not in, the brave woman sent some of the protesting servants to ask ten of the number to come and speak to her. Her calmness, her beauty, her high intrepidity, must have produced something like awe in those rough sans-culottes, who usually eyed with suspicion every person less tattered than themselves. Quietly inquiring on what errand they had come, and being told that they were citizens going to Verdun, who wanted arms, she pointed out to them that the Minister of War, and not of the Interior, was the person to whom they should have addressed themselves. They had been there already, muttered they; these Ministers were traitors! They demanded to see Roland. Matters wore a suspicious look, when one remembers the date; but Madame Roland, keeping her superb self-possession, proposed to take them over the place herself, adding further that, if they had to make complaints, it was to the Commune they should be addressed, or that, if they wished to see Roland, he was to be found at a Cabinet Meeting held at the Hotel de la Marine. Thereupon they retired. Madame