Helen Maria Williams

"This tribute of regret, paid from the sudden impulse of feeling at such a moment,..." - Williams, pg 38

The letters from Williams capture an elegant essence of emotion with her extraordinary use of descriptive language. She makes the reader feel as if they were truly there, yet seems to say you had to be there to fully comprehend. She credits the magnificence of the scene by describing the multitudes of spectators. "The people, sure, the people were the sight!" Once I read this, I realized what little effect she would have had writing only on the event. It's the spectators, the multitudes that give a sense of awe to the reader. She starts by saying, "I promised to send you a description of the federation: but it is not to be described!" Only a true storyteller first explains they couldn't possibly convey the event, then does it any way. Her words are full of passion. When she describes the Bastille, her words are so descriptive they could easily be fiction, something conjured in the mind of J.K. Rowling! To know that they are indeed of truth, pauses me. "Some skeletons were found in these recesses, with irons still fastened on their decaying bones." In my mind I can picture these rotting leftovers, but what really pains me is picturing how the bones came to be. They starved, shackled in a damp dungeon. She finishes her description by ranting about liberty for France for evermore. The settled and harsh truth is that this occurs endlessly in all corners of the world. While it is easier to read about this history, I am reminded of Coleridge's words referring me to the nearness of our own history.

While I think she goes off on a tangent considering Madame Sillery, I am absolutely enthralled by Williams' words concerning women and their share in the Revolution. Actually, I think it can apply to women throughout all of history. "...And we often act in human affairs like those secret springs in mechanism, by which, though invisible, great movements are regulated." I am one of those all-too-curious people that often considers the secret springs in mechanism. When I read this, I couldn't stop laughing. Fortunately, I think that women are becoming less secret in their roles in recent and future history.