ROLAND, Marie Philipon (1754-1793). Autograph letter signed (with initial 'P') to Monsieur Lanthenas, n.p. [Paris], n.d. [? December 1792 January 1793], displaying extraordinary courage in her increasingly dangerous situation, 'Je ne vous ai point parlé de ce que vous appelez mes périls, par ce que je ne les crois pas imminent, par ce que quand ils le seroient, je n'en demeurerois pas moins tranquille. J'ai trop de couage pour avoir besoin d'en montrer. J'estime trop peu la vie pour me soucier de la conserver ou de la perdre ... jamais ma tranquillite d'esprit ne fut plus grande et je sais fort bien que je serai toujours digne de moi, cela me suffit'; she does not fear the jealousy of the few people she sees, keeps her own opinion, and the two or three deputies she sees continue to reassure her friend (? Buzot), but the end of the revolution is not very clear, and she forsees that she will pay with her life, 3½ pages, 8vo, address panel on verso of 2nd leaf; together with autograph transcriptions of quotations of Algarotti's Pensées Diverses, with comments, 2½ pages, 8vo; the Warrant issued by the Comité Revolutionnaire Central, appointing Citizen Marchand to arrest Madame Roland 'et de la constitue prisonnière à l'abbaye pour demain etre interogée', 31 May 1793, manuscript in ink, printed heading of the Municipalité de Paris, one page, folio, integral blank leaf; and a letter signed by her husband, Jean Marie Roland (1734-1793), as Minister of the Interior, Paris, 28 May 1792, replying to a petition from the directors of military convoys, one page, folio. Madame Roland's remarkable letter is to a former close friend and associate. François-Xavier Lanthenas although he was still with her husband when they were both struck off the list of the Jacobins in November 1792, was shortly to join Robespierre, and Madame Roland wrote of him with bitter contempt in the memoirs which she completed before her execution. Lanthenas was also jealous of François-Leonard Buzot, who had taken his place in Madame Roland's affections, and may be the friend referred to here. She forsees that her husband will be judged well by posterity but their lives may be the price, 'j'ai la persuasion que mon marie y trouvera sa gloire, et la pressentiment qu'elle sera payée de notre vie. Peutêtre faut-il des victimes pures pour appeller la régne de la justice. Je ne m'éloignerai jamais de mon mari'. A fragment of the letter is published in the Correspondance, II, 477 (1902), from a Charavay catalogue of 22 November 1852. (4)