Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 6.djvu/51

MADAME ROLAND 233 went to the stake. Her beauty and her heroism excited the sympathy of the crowd, but they could not save her. She was a mistaken heroine, but her cour- age and fortitude were sublime. k^^^^g^V^^ MADAME ROLAND* By Ella Wheeler Wilcox (i 754-1 793) F 'rance has produced many remarkable women ; perhaps no other country can boast such an array of illustrious names ; they shine from the pages of French his- tory like fixed stars from the firmament. Among them, down the long vista of a hun- dred years, brilliant and beautiful, shines the name of Madame Roland, the spirit of the great French Revolution personified. Striking beauty, great genius, and won- derful courage in the hour of martyrdom, rendered this woman an unusual character in an unusual epoch. Surrounded by de- ceit, she was honest and fearless. In the midst of immorality and license, she was pure, and brave enough to resist temptation which came from without and from within, and she went to the scaffold with an untar- nished name and soul. Roland was known in her childhood, was Her father was a worker in enamel, who thrived well enough in his art when he was content to toil at it, but a restless spirit of speculation led him into ventures which brought him neither profit nor renown. Manon's beauty was a direct inheritance from both father and mother. Gratien Philipon was a handsome man, and vain and frivolous as he was hand- some ; but his beautiful wife was serious-minded, and much the superior of her husband in intellect as well as morals. Of seven children born to this couple, only one lived Manon, the subject of our sketch who inherited the combined Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess. Manon Philipon, as Madame born in Paris in the year 1754.