Frequently tempted to take a share in the conversation, she bit her lips in order to check her desire.

Her soul of energy and action was inspired with secret contempt for the tedious and verbose debates which led to nothing.

Action was expended in words, and the hour passed away taking with it the opportunity which never returns.
The conquests of the National Assembly soon enervated the conquerors.
The leaders of this Assembly retreated from their own handiwork, and covenanted with the aristocracy and the throne to grant the king the revision of the constitution in a more monarchical spirit.

The deputies who met at Madame Roland's lost heart and dispersed, until, at length, there only remained that small knot of unshaken men who attach themselves to principles regardless of their success, and who are attached to desperate causes with the more fervour in proportion as fortune seems to forsake them.

Of this number were Buzot, Petion, and Robespierre.
XVII.
History must have a sinister curiosity in ascertaining the first impression made on Madame Roland, by the man who, warmed at her hearth, and then conspiring with her, was one day to overthrow the power of his friends, immolate them _en masse_, and send her to the scaffold.