Then, with uproarious enthusiasm, the petition was voted. It was agreed that the next day, at eleven o’clock, the Jacobins should meet and hear the reading of it, after which it would be brought to the Champs de Mars, where it was to be signed by the populace, and thence forwarded to the adopted societies.
During this tumult, M. Duplay had taken hold of my arm, and drew me sharply on one side. He then pointed me out a woman standing outside one of the tribunes, who appeared to be taking the greatest possible interest in what was passing.
“Look at that woman,” said he; “it is the Citizen Roland Platrière—a good patriot.”
CHAPTER XLI.
CONCERNING THE BILL OF FORFEITURE.
Madame Roland was very far from having assumed at that period the important position that she afterwards held. As yet she had never fretted and fumed her hour upon the political stage. In fact, she was not yet a minister. I did not pay more attention to her than one commonly pays to a woman. She appeared to be about thirty years of age, of fresh complexion—heat of the blood, if one may say so. Her mouth was large, but filled with irreproachable teeth; her hands were large and muscular, but well-shaped; her nose was retroussé; her figure was good—small waist and well-filled hips, but, on the whole, having a decidedly voluptuous tendency. Thus was Madame Roland, in the evening of the 15th of July, 1791.
Just as I was observing her, I heard some one call M. Duplay.
Duplay turned round. It was M. Laclos who called him. He held a pen in his hand, and had a sheet of paper on his table. M. Brissot was sitting beside him.
“My dear Duplay,” said he, “I was about to write the petition for which all are going to vote, but my writing is too much like that of the secretary of the Duc d’Orleans. There is nothing wrong in the matter, I assure you. Here is M. Brissot, a member of the National Assembly, and he would not be likely to work against his colleagues. We must have some one whose handwriting is unknown. Your young man can write, I suppose?”
“Rather, I should say,” replied M. Duplay; “he is a scholar.”