Terror and Delay

Without the financial support of her father, Charlotte cannot gather the funds required to sail to America until Edme Mentelle volunteers to assist her, though he and his wife have little money. In the fall of 1793, Edme visits Brissot and Manon Roland in their prison cells. They had been at the forefront of the Revolution in its early years, but are now awaiting death because of the enmity of Robespierre. He smuggles out their memoirs, which were later published, at great risk to his life. His identity as Manon's secret confidant will not be revealed until 1896. Edme is simultaneously courting the favor of the revolutionary government by setting the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen to verse so that it may be sung, and inviting the Committee of Public Instruction to visit his course on geography. By the time Charlotte is able to depart, it has become illegal to do so, but somehow she manages, armed with the blunderbuss her father gave her. She witnesses Manon Roland being taken to the guillotine, but never learns of Edme's role in the preservation of her memoirs. Charlotte arrives in Gallipolis in April 1794, and she and Waldemar are united in marriage.