CORDAY D'Alt51ANS, MARIE ANNE CHARLOTTE, commonly called CHARLOTTE CORDAY, who numbered among her ancestors the great tragedian Corneille, and was of noble family, was born at St. Saturnin, near Seez, in Normandy, In 1768. The republican priu ciples of the early revolutionists struck deep root in her enthusiastic mind, and her zeal for their establishment was heightened after the rise of the Jacobins and the overthrow and proscription of the Girondists, May 31, 1793, by the presence and conversation of those chiefs of the latter party who fled into Normandy in hope to rouse the people io their favour. Resolved to advance the cause which she had at heart by some extraordinary action, Charlotte Corday travelled to Paris, where having gained admission to tho galleries of the Con vention, she was still more incensed by the threats and invectives which she heard showered upon her own friends. Iler project took the farm of a determination to assassinate one of the principals of the dominant faction. Whether to deter them by terror, as an act of revenge, or at an example of what rho regarded publicustice, she J chose Marat, one of the most violent and bloody of the Jacobins, to be her victim. After two unsuccessful attempts, she obtained Ramis elon into the chamber in which he was confined by illness, July 15, under pretence of communicating importaut news from Caen ; and being confirmed in her purpose by his declaration that In a few days the Girondist, who had fled thither should be guillotined in Paris, else suddenly stabbed him to the heart. lie gave one cry and expired. Being Immediately arrested and carried before the Tribunal Revolu tionneire, she avowed and justified the act. " I have killed one man," she exclaimed, raising her voice to the utmost, "to save a hundred thousand; a villain, to rescue innocents; a wild beast, to give peace to my country. I wan a republican before the revolution, and I have
never been wanting in energy." But she indignantly denied that she had any accomplices, declaring that it was her own act, prompted only by a desire to render peace to her country. Notwithstanding her confession, the court, with an affectation of impartiality which iu this case could be ventured on, assigned her a defender, and went through all the formalities of trial. The speech of bar advocate (CHAUPEAII, LAOARDE] ie rather remarkable. He neither denied nor extenuated the act; and acknowledged it to have been long premeditated. " She avows everything, and seeks no means of justification; this, citizeo judges, is her whole defence :—this imperturbable calmness, this total self•abandonment—these sublime feelings, which, even in the very presence of death, show no sign of remorse, are not natural. It is for you, citizen-judges, to fix the moral weight of this consideration in the scales of justice." Charlotte Corday returned thanks to the pleader. "You have seized," she said, "the true view of the question ; this was the only method of defence which could have become me." She heard her sentence with perfect calmness, which she maintained to the last moment of her life. Her personal charms were of a high order ; and her beauty and animation of countenance, even during her passage to execution, added greatly to the interest inspired by her courage and loftiness of demeanour. She was guillotined July 17, 1793.
(Biog. Univ. ; Montgaillard, Hist. de Prance, &c., vol. iv., pp. 55-59; Miguet ; Lamartine, &c.)