Love at Dawn

15.Miniature of Andre's

Edith gave some coins to the guard of the prison in the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and saw her former idol in the cell.

Madame Roland was clearly emaciated and haggard, with even her waist-length hair appearing withered and yellowed, but still maintaining a powerless yet dignified posture that made Edith unconsciously hold her breath.

"Manon..."

"Thank you for coming to see me, Edith." Manon Roland stood up from the straw laid out on the ground for resting, her smile not revealing much agony.

Edith had intended to ask about her situation, but the desolate scene before her made her feel that any question was unnecessary.

A hawker selling newspapers and pamphlets passed by the small window of the prison, brazenly shouting about the execution and torture of this female prisoner.

"How ironic!" Madame Roland sneered, "I once personally took to the streets to call for liberty for the people, and now beneath this prison window they are calling for me to be stripped naked and nailed to the pillory!"

Edith agitatedly grabbed the iron bars of the cell, "Why didn't you escape at the time, Manon!"

"I surrendered voluntarily," Madame Roland's tone did not have the grandeur Edith expected, she covered her heart with her hand and murmured, "Only here can my love and my duty as a wife coexist."

Edith fell silent.

She took out the letter from her pocket: "I brought something for you. A boy from Citizen Buzot delivered it to me."

"Ah, please tell me about Buzot!" Upon hearing this name, Madame Roland's eyes flashed with a strange, almost pathological radiance. She leaped forward and shook the bars, as if trying to break them: "His letter! His letter!"

Edith sympathetically handed over the letter: "You can read it yourself."

Manon Roland as hastily unfolded the letter with trembling hands, but after reading only a few lines, tears filled her eyes and she pressed the letter to her chest."So he has already escaped to Calvados!"

Making no secret to Edith, she took out the miniature of her lover that was enclosed in the letter, and kissed it repeatedly in floods of tears.

Edith shook inwardly at the sight. Feeling that it was inappropriate to continue peering, she silently withdrew to the shadow in the corner.

"I am lucky," Madame Roland murmured, stroking the letter as if caressing her lover's body. "Finally, I can kiss you now without fear or shame. Finally, I can give myself completely to my love!"

Once again, she pressed the miniature to her bosom. "Promise me you will live on, my love! For if I were to die, my husband would not survive!"①

"Then, Manon, I should leave now," Edith said in a low voice, reluctant to interrupt the lady's reverie. "You...take care of yourself."

But as she turned to leave, Edith heard Madame Roland sigh behind her.

"Don't blame too much that Quenet of yours! In the face of the revolution's tumultuous waves, each one of us is nothing but a negligible pebble! "

The maiden paused for a moment, before walking slowly out of the dim prison.

-----------------

In these days, the fleeing Girondins were inciting federalist revolts in various places.

Had Madame Roland not spoken those words about gender alliance to Edith, the girl's revolutionary fervour, like that of the newsboy outside the ventlight and of most people of this era, would have already turned her admiration for this former idol into contempt, even hatred.