She died forty years afterwards in a mad-house, for in the fate of the
revolution, she was stripped and whipped in the streets to madness by
the very women she had led.
These loathsome cohorts forced their way into the palace. They invaded
the rooms of the king and queen. They struck at him with pikes, and
forced upon his head the red bonnet of the Jacobins, while the most
wretched of her sex encircled the queen with a living wall of vice, and
loaded her with obscene execrations, charges, and epithets.
Although this outbreak has been charged to both the great political
parties, it is probably nearer to truth to say that it originated
spontaneously with that demoniac mob soon to rule France, and which from
this time carried all political organizations with it. The Girondists,
however, still retained enough of their constitutional conservatism to
be the only hope which royalty could have for its preservation. The king
again threw himself into their arms. Roland was reinstated in his
ministry, and the palace again received his wife.
Then every revolutionary element began at once to combine against the
king and the party which was thus supporting him. It was soon apparent
that the king and the Girondists could neither govern the country nor
save themselves if they acted together. The Gironde, from about this
time, pusillanimously conceded point by point to the anarchic demands
made by their enemies and the king's. Madame Roland did not join them in
this, but when she saw that her husband was but a minister in name, that
he and his associates were powerless to punish murder and prevent
anarchy, doubtless the vision which she had seen of a people regenerated
and free began to fade away.
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