As a matter of fact, the Mountain feared Buzot but little. His irritability, haughtiness, lack of humor, made him of small importance as a leader in the Gironde. He could not move the Convention as Vergniaud; he had none of the wire-pulling skill of Brissot; he was important chiefly as the spokesman of Madame Roland’s measures. Buzot’s intimate relations to the Rolands seem to have been well understood. The contemptuous way in which Marat treated him shows this. Marat called him _frère tranquille Buzot_; and sneered at him for “declaiming in a ridiculous tone”; said the _frère tranquille_ had a _pathos glacial_; called him _le pédant Buzot; the corypheus of the Rolands_. In this chaotic and desperate struggle neither Roland nor Buzot were more active than Madame Roland. She had become a public factor by Marat’s accusations, and by Danton’s sneers in the Convention. She kept her place. At home she was as active as ever in assisting her husband. Many of the official papers of this period, which have been preserved, are in her hand, or have been annotated by her. Important circulars and reports she frequently prepared, and Roland trusted her implicitly in such work. She was his adviser and helper in every particular of the official work, and at the same time saw many people who were essential to them. This social activity brought down Marat’s abuse. She was “Penelope Roland” for him, and in one number of the journal under the head “Le Trantran de la Penelope Roland,” he wrote: “The woman Roland has a very simple means of recruiting. Does a deputy need her husband for affairs of the department, Roland pretends a multiplicity of engagements and begs to put him off until after the Assembly,—‘Come and take supper with us, citizen and deputy, we will talk of your business afterwards.’ The woman Roland cajoles the guests one after the other, even _en portant la main sous le menton de ses favoris_, redoubles attention for the new-comer, who soon joins the clique.”