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CORDAY
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CORDAY D'ARMONT, See also:MARIE See also:ANNE See also:CHARLOTTE (1768-1793), See also:French revolutionary heroine, the murderess of See also:Marat, See also:born at St Saturnin See also:des Lignerets, near Seez in See also:Normandy, was descended from a See also:noble but poor See also:family, and numbered among her ancestors the dramatist See also:Corneille. Charlotte Corday was educated in the See also:convent of the See also:Holy Trinity at See also:Caen, and then sent to live with an aunt. Here she saw hardly any one but her relative, and passed her lonely See also:hours in See also:reading the See also:works of the pkilosophes, especially See also:Voltaire and the See also:Abbe See also:Raynal. Another of her favourite authors was See also:Plutarch, from whose pages she doubtless imbibed the See also:idea of classic heroism and civic virtue which prompted the See also:act that has made her name famous. On the outbreak of the Revolution she began to study current politics, chiefly in the papers issued by the party afterwards known as the Girondins. On the downfall of this party, on May 31, 1793, many of the leaders took See also:refuge in Nor-mandy, and proposed to make Caen the headquarters of an See also:army of See also:volunteers, at the See also:head of whom See also:Felix de See also:Wimpffen, w.no commanded the army assembled for 'the See also:defence of the coasts et See also:Cherbourg, was to have marched upon See also:Paris. Charlotte attended their meetings, and heard them speak; but we have no See also:reason to believe that she saw any of them privately, till the See also:day when she went to ask for introductions to See also:friends of theirs in Paris. She saw that their 'efforts in Normandy were doomed to fail. She had heard of Marat as a See also:tyrant and the See also:chief See also:agent in their over-throw, and she had conceived the idea of going alone to Paris and assassinating him,—doubtless thinking that this would break up the party of the Terrorists and be the See also:signal of a See also:counter-revolution, and ignorant of the fact that Marat was See also:ill almost to the point of See also:death, and that others were more influential than he. Apparently she had thought of going to Paris in See also:April, before the fall of the Girondins, for she had then procured a See also:passport which she used in See also:July. It contained the usual description of the See also:bearer, and ran thus: Laissez passer la citoyenne Marie, &c., Corday, dgee de 24 ans, faille de 5 pieds r pouce, cheveux et sourcils chdtains, yeux gris, front eleve, nez See also:long, bouche moyenne, menton rond fourchu, visage ovale. Arrived in Paris she first attended to some business for a friend at Caen, and then she wrote to Marat: " See also:Citizen, I have just arrived from Caen. Your love for your native See also:place doubtless makes you desirous of learning the events which have occurred in that See also:part of the See also:republic. I shall See also:call at your See also:residence in about an See also:hour; have the goodness to receive me and to give me a brief interview. I will put you in a See also:condition to render See also:great service to See also:France." On calling she was refused admittance, and wrote again, promising to reveal important secrets, and appealing to Marat's sympathy on the ground that she herself was persecuted by the enemies of the republic. She was again refused an See also:audience, and it was only when she called a third See also:time (July 13) that Marat, See also:hearing her See also:voice in the ante-chamber, consented to see her. He See also:lay in a bathing tub, wrapped in towels, for he was suffering from a horrible disease which had almost reduced him to a See also:state of putrefaction. Our only source of See also:information as to what followed is Charlotte's own See also:confession. She spoke to Marat of what was passing at Caen, and his only comment on her narrative was that all the men she had mentioned should be guillotined in a few days. As he spoke she See also:drew from her bosom a See also:dinner-See also:knife (which she had bought the day before for two francs) and plunged it into his See also:left See also:side. It pierced the See also:lung and the aorta. He cried out, "A moi, ma chore amie 1 " and expired. Two See also:women rushed in, and prevented Charlotte from escaping. A See also:crowd collected See also:round the See also:house, and it was with difficulty that she was escorted to the See also:prison of the Abbaye. On being brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal she gloried in her act, and when the See also:indictment against her was read, and the See also:president asked her what she had to say in reply, her See also:answer was, " Nothing, except that I have succeeded." Her See also:advocate, See also:Claude See also:Francois Chauveau See also:Lagarde, put forward in vain the plea of See also:insanity. She was sentenced to death, and calmly thanked her counsel for his efforts on her behalf, adding that the only defence worthy of her was an avowal of the act. She was then conducted to the Conciergerie, where at her own See also:desire her portrait (now in the museum of See also:Versailles) was painted by the artist See also:Jean Jacques See also:Hauer. She preserved her perfect calmness to the last. When she saw the See also:guillotine, she placed herself in position under the fatal blade without assistance from any one. The knife See also:fell, and one of the executioners held up her head by the See also:hair, and had the brutality to strike it with his fist. Many believed they saw the dead See also:face blush,—probably an effect of the red stormy sunset. It was the 17th of July 1793. It is difficult to analyse the See also:character of Charlotte Corday; but there was in it much that was noble and exalted. Her mind had been formed by her studies on a See also:pagan type. To C. J. M. See also:Barbaroux and the Girondins of Caen she wrote from her prison, anticipating happiness " with See also:Brutus in the Elysian See also:Fields " after her death, and with this See also:letter she sent •a See also:simple loving farewell to her See also:father, revealing a See also:tender side to her character that otherwise we would hardly have looked for in such a woman. Lamartine called her range de l'assassinat, and See also:Vergniaud said, "See also:Elie nous perd, mais elle nous apprend d mourir." See (Euvres politiques de Charlotte Corday (Caen, r863 ; some letters and an Adresse aux See also:Francais antis des lois et de in paix), with a supplement printed in the same See also:year; Louvet de Couvrai, Memoires (ed. See also:Aulard, Paris, 1889); See also:Alphonse See also:Esquiros, Charlotte Corday (2nd ed., 2 vols., Paris, 1841); Cheron de See also:Villiers, Marie Anne Charlotte Corday (Paris, 1865) ; Casimir See also:Perier, " La Jeunesse de Charlotte Corday " (Revue des deux mondes, 1862) ; C. Vatel, Dossiers du proces criminel de Charlotte de Corday . . . extraits des archives impericles (Paris, 1861), and Dossier historique de Charlotte Corday (Paris, 1872) ; See also:Austin See also:Dobson, Four Frenchwomen (See also:London, 1890) A. See also:Ducos, See also:Les Trois Girondines, Mme See also:Roland, Charlotte Corday .. . (Paris, 1896) ; Dr Cabanes, " La vraie Charlotte Corday," in Le See also:Cabinet See also:secret de l'histoire (4 vols., 1897–1900). Her tragic See also:history was the subject of two See also:anonymous tragedies, Charlotte Corday (1795), said to be by the Conventional F. J. Gamon, and Charlotte Corday (Caen, 1797), neither of which have any merit; another by J. B. Salles is published by C. Vatel in Charlotte de Corday et les Girondins (1864-1872). See further See also:bibliographical articles in M. See also:Tourneux, Bibl. de l'hist. de Paris . (vol. iv., 1906), and in the Bibliographic des femmes celebres (3 vols., See also:Turin and See also:Rome, 1892–1905) ; and also E. Defrance, Charlotte Corday et la mort de Marat (1909). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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