Up to a certain point both of these parties necessarily made
common war upon the old order of things. But, beyond that point, it was
equally certain that they would attack each other. The Girondists would
wish to stop, and the Jacobins would wish to go on.
During the session of this assembly the influence of Madame Roland on
men of all modes of thought became most marked. Her parlors were the
rendezvous of eminent men, and men destined to become eminent. It is
impossible to discover, from the carping records of that time, that she
asserted her powers by an unwomanly effort. Men felt in her presence
that they were before a great intellectual being--a creative and
inspiring mind--and it shone upon them without effort, like the sun.
Among these visitors was Maximilien Robespierre, who afterwards took her
life. He was then obscure, despised, and had been coughed down when he
rose to speak. She discerned his talents, and encouraged him. He said
little, but was always near her, listening to all she said; and in his
after days of power, he reproduced, in many a speech, what he had heard
this wondrous woman say. In this time of his unpopularity she
unquestionably saved him from the guillotine by her own personal and
persistent intercession with men in power.
By the time that the session of this assembly drew near its close the
ground-swell began to be felt of that tempest of popular wrath which
eventually swept over France, and which the Jacobins rode and directed
until it dashed even them upon the rocks.
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