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Servants in showy livery, and out-riders proudly mounted, invest the spectacle with a degree of grandeur, beneath which the imagination of a child sinks exhausted. Phlippon takes his little daughter in his arms to show her the sight, and, as she gazes in infantile wonder and delight, the discontented father says, "Look at that lord, and lady, and child, lolling so voluptuously in their coach.
The tribunal, having heard the public accuser deliver his reasons concerning the application of the law, condemns Jane Mary Phlippon, wife of Roland, to the punishment of death." She listened calmly to her sentence, and then, rising, bowed with dignity to her judges, and, smiling, said,
In the cheerful performance of her daily toil, she was ever pouring the balm of her peaceful spirit upon the restless heart of her spouse. Phlippon loved his wife, and often felt the superiority of her Christian temperament. Of eight children born to these parents, one only, Jeanne Manon, or Jane Mary, survived the hour of birth.
She was very unostentatious and simple in her style of dress, and never, in the slightest degree, affected the mannerism of mindless and heartless fashion. Madame De Boismorel, at one time eulogizing her taste in these respects, remarked, "You do not love feathers, do you, Miss Phlippon? How very different you are from the giddy-headed girls around us!"
"Your grand-daughter reads a great deal, does she not, Miss Phlippon?" "Yes, madam, reading is her greatest delight." "Ay, ay," rejoined the lady; "I see how it is. But have a care that she does not turn author. That would be a pity indeed." During this conversation the cheeks of Jane were flushed with wounded pride, and her heart throbbed most violently.
This picture is the symbolic definition of the social condition in which Madame Roland was born, and the precise moment between the labour of her hands and her mind. Her father, Gratien Phlippon, was an engraver and painter in enamel. He joined to these two professions that of a trade in diamonds and jewels.
The aspiring girl, with no disposition to come down to the level of those beneath her, and with still less willingness to do homage to those above her, was entirely unconscious of the mortifying condescension with which she was to be received. The porter at the door saluted Madame Phlippon with politeness, and all the servants whom she met in the hall addressed her with civility.
The pale cheek of the dying wife became flushed with animation as she once again breathed the invigorating air of the country, and the daughter beguiled her fears with the delusive hope that it was the flush of returning health. When they reached their home, Madame Phlippon, fatigued with the excursion, retired to her chamber for rest.
Her mother's death. Jane's father becomes dissipated. Meekness of her mother. Excursion to the country. Delusive hopes. Death of Madame Phlippon. Effects upon Jane. Recovery of Jane. Character of her mother. Jane's melancholy. She resorts to writing. Development of character. Letter from M. Boismorel. Reply to M. De Boismorel. Translation. Character of M. De Boismorel.
Phlippon was a philosopher, not a Christian. Submission was a virtue he had never learned, and never wished to learn.
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