"If we do not die for liberty, we shall soon have nothing left to do but weep for her." -Memoirs of Madame de Staël and of Madame Roland (1847) The Private Memoirs of Madame Roland (1795) is a justification of the author's and others' roles in the French Revolution. Written while the author was imprisoned during the months before her execution, it was smuggled to a close friend, who published it in 1795 just as the Reign of Terror was ending. This English version appeared the same year.