She had drawn her own picture of the people residing in the vicinity of large cities.

The burning of chateaux, during the outbreak and massacres of September, taught her subsequently that these seas of men, then so calm, have tempests more terrible than those of the ocean, and that society requires institutions, just as the waves require a bed, and strength is as indispensable as justice to the government of a people.
XIII.
The hour of the Revolution of '89 had struck, and came upon her in the bosom of this retreat.

Intoxicated with philosophy, passionately devoted to the ideal of humanity, an adorer of antique liberty, she became on fire at the first spark of this focus of new ideas;--she believed with all her faith, that this revolution, like a child born without a mother's sufferings, must regenerate the human race, destroy the misery of the working classes, for whom she felt the deepest sympathy, and renew the face of the earth.

Even the piety of great souls has its imagination.

The generous illusion of France at this epoch was equal to the work which France had to accomplish.