LOTTE the murderess of Marat, born at St. Sat urnin des Lignerets, near Seez in Normandy, was descended from a noble but poor family, and numbered among her ancestors the dramatist Corneille. Charlotte Corday was educated in the convent of the Holy Trinity at Caen, and then sent to live with an aunt. Here she saw hardly any one but her relative, and passed her lonely hours in reading the works of the philosophes, espe cially Voltaire and the Abbe Raynal. Another of her favourite authors was Plutarch. On the downfall of the Girondins on June 2, 1793, many of the leaders took refuge in Normandy. Charlotte attended their meetings, and heard them speak; but there is no reason to believe that •she saw any of them privately till the day when she went to ask for introductions to friends of theirs in Paris. She saw that their efforts to rouse Normandy in their fa vour were doomed to fail. She had heard of Marat as a tyrant and the chief agent in their overthrow, and conceived the idea of going alone to Paris and assassinating him. In Paris she wrote to Marat : "Citizen, I have just arrived from Caen. Your love for your native place doubtless makes you desirous of learn ing the events which have occurred in that part of the republic. I shall call at your residence in about an hour; have the goodness to receive me and give me a brief interview. I will put you in a condition to render great service to France." She was twice refused admittance at Marat's door, but on her third visit (July 13) Marat, hearing her voice in the antechamber, consented to see her. She spoke to Marat of what was passing at Caen, and his only comment (as she alleged) was that all the men she had mentioned should be guillotined in a few days. As he spoke she drew from her bosom a dinner-knife (which she had bought the day before for two francs) and plunged it into his left side. It pierced the lung and the aorta. When she was brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal her advocate, C. F. C. Lagarde, put forward the plea of insanity. She was sentenced to death, and was guillotined on July 17, 1793, meeting her fate with complete calmness. Lamartine called her range de l'assassinat, and Ver gniaud said, "Elle nous perd, mais elle nous apprend mourir." See Oeuvres politiques de Charlotte Corday (Caen, 1863; some let ters and an Adresse aux Francais amis des lois et de la paix), with a supplement printed in the same year; C. Vatel, Dossiers du proces criminel de Charlotte de Corday . . . extraits des archives imperiales 0860, and Dossier historique de Charlotte Cot day (1872) ; Austin Dobson, Four Frenchwomen (189o) ; Dr. Cabanes "La vraie Char lotte Corday," in Le Cabinet secret de l'histoire (1897-19oo) ; E. Defrance, Charlotte Corday et la mort de Marat (19°9). Her tragic history was the subject of two anonymous tragedies, Charlotte Corday (1795), said to be by the Conventional F. J. Gamon, and Charlotte Corday (Caen, 1797), neither of which has any merit.