never be weak . . . it is the natural impetuosity of your sex and the activity of an ardent imagination that give rise to these slight errors which resemble the illusion of dreams . . ."
The letter continues in this strain, and ends with the suggestive remark that the beautiful days which they have passed together at the Clos have not been followed by others, for since Bancal has left, she says, the thunder has never ceased to growl, its mutterings being ingeniously turned into a symbol of her inner life, as she concludes—"More thunder! How I like the grand and sombre colour given by it to the landscape; but were it terrible instead, I should not fear it."
Bancal des Issarts, at any rate, never went to live with the Rolands, but put the sea between them by going to England, where he remained for a considerable period, to study, it was said, its political institutions. The correspondence in the meanwhile was carried on briskly enough, and is the chief storehouse of materials for Madame Roland's life from the end of 1790 to March 1792, when her husband entered the Ministry. It gradually became more political in character, and two years from the date of their parting Bancal confided to Madame Roland his passion for a Miss W, whom M. Dauban, from several indications, ingeniously guesses to have been Miss Maria Williams, who then resided in Paris, and mentions Bancal in her Recollections of the French Revolution. Madame Roland, of whom this lady speaks with profound admiration, did everything in her power to advance her friend's suit with Miss W; but apparently to little purpose, for they never married.
Madame Roland's letters to Bancal in England form
