difficult for a woman to forgive. Roland had been elected to the Convention for the Department of the Somme, and his wife urged him to resign his ministerial post, the responsibility of which—without the authority which should have attended it—preyed visibly on his health. But the majority of the Convention, considering his services of the greatest importance—and, indeed, he was indefatigable in attending to the circulation of grain and the due provisioning of Paris—pressed him to remain in office. It was then that Danton exclaimed in his forcible way, "Why not invite Madame Roland to the Ministry, too? Everyone knows that Roland is not alone in office." The deputies murmured disapprobation, and one of them very sensibly remarked that it could not signify to the country whether Roland had an intelligent wife capable of assisting him with advice, or whether the services he rendered emanated from himself alone. "This petty attack," he said, "is unworthy of Danton; but I will not imply with him that it is the wife of Roland who rules, for that would be accusing him of incapacity." There was much applause; and the result was that Roland remained in office.
Nowhere is the great political importance attributed by contemporaries to Madame Roland so decisively shown as here. She had now been pushed to the very forefront of the Revolution, visible to all eyes, a mark for envy, to become the favourite target for the venomous calumnies of Marat and the Père Duchesne. Her co-operation in composing and promulgating the numerous writings by which Roland sought to influence public opinion could not remain unknown. The office of one paper, l'Esprit Public, was believed to be under her management, and its articles "due to her
