Had this lady lived
in the days of the Greek or Roman republics, the action she took
would have undoubtedly given celebrity to her name
and would have elevated her memory to the highest rank of civic virtue.
In this instance, this young lady anticipated the course of nature
if only for a few weeks, perhaps only a few days.
As for Marat, when she killed him, he had already been stricken
with a fatal disease.
Yet her error arose from the noblest and most sublime feelings of the human heart;
that she deliberately sacrificed her life to the purest love of her country.
her clarity of feelings towards this man would lead
to having to atone her error by a public execution, the heroism
she displayed, surely entitle her to the admiration of future generations.
We'll now look at the remarkable revolutionary story
of Charlotte Corday.
Marie Adelaide Charlotte, daughter of Jean Francois Corday d'Armans,
and Charlotte Godier, his wife, was born in 1768 at St.
Saturnin, Normandy.
Her family belonged to the Norman nobility,
and she was descended, on the female side, from the dramatist Pierre Corneille.
She was educated at the Abbey of the Holy Trinity at Caen and,
from her earliest youth, possessed a highly academic mind.
It was very uncommon in females, especially of this period, Yet
Charlotte devoted herself to the study of politics
and the theory of Government, Philosophy and ancient history.
These subjects brought about a need for a pure republican country, one
which she hoped to see come to fruition within her lifetime.
Initially, she was open to the prospect of revolution,
which was the dawning of freedom she had always hoped to see.
However, when things turned sour, the mean and corrupt activities of many,
Charlotte could only see a return to dark days
which would once again enslave the French people.
The Girondins
were overthrown, yet Charlotte had been an enthusiastic admirer
of their principles and looked to them as saviours of France.
She wasn't prepared for their weakness and cowardness,
which ultimately came to the fore later.
The mountain party were yet another organisation
intent on republicism, but their leader, in Charlotte's
eyes, was far from her desire, as a person to lead her country.
Jean-Paul Marat was chief, yet a man-monster, deformed both in mind
and person.
He was covered with leprosy, a vulgar man who would leer,
giving an accurate impression of his evil mindset.
He had risen through the ranks on the back of atrocities,
even though he always stated he had been just a passive player.
Yet his word was law, and no one would speak out of turn for fear of his wrath.
He enjoyed acquiring wealth but gloried poverty,
and his range of cruelty was left primarily unchecked by any authority.
He had formed principles of political faith in which, perhaps,
he sincerely believed but which were founded upon his inherent
love of blood and his hatred of every human being
who declared any talent or virtue above his fellow men.
The guillotine was not only the altar of this distorted man,
but he worshipped under the name of Liberty.
It was the instrument of his pleasures, for his highest gratification
was the writhings of the victim who fell under its axe.
Even Robespierre attempted to check his unquenchable
thirst for human blood but in vain.
Opposition only excited Marat to greater atrocities.
With rage and a howl of a demon, he would loudly declare that
rivers of blood could only purify the land and must flow.
In his paper entitled
"L'Ami du Peuple" he denounced all, he had doomed to death,
and the guillotine spared none he designated.
Charlotte read his report in a journal.
Marat had said that (that three hundred thousand heads were requisite
to consolidate the liberties of the French people).
Upsetting as this was, Charlotte knew this wasn't the way forward,
and peace could not fall on her beloved country while he stood in the way.
She said, "Is there not in the whole country
a man bold enough to kill this monster?"
Charlotte was, without doubt, a beauty previously unknown by many of the party.
Her eloquence and understanding of the matters at hand
made her more susceptible to Marat.
He hated the Girondins, but although they spoke good words,
their actions were nothing short of a whimper.
Marat saw this weakness and demanded
they die if only to save the republic.
Deeply affected by
the words of Marat, Charlotte would have to act.
Her idea was to destroy Marat with the hope his party would fall,
and her country could return to a life of good, honest
people who desired the peaceful republic she wished for and had always wanted.
Charlotte progressed with her plan but had to tell others.
Barbaroux was one of the Girondin leaders,
not a man she had met before but one she hoped would help.
Her father was contacted and told by Charlotte
that if things didn't improve, she might flee to England;
this never happened, her urge was strong to save her conutry.
In July 1793 in Paris, word had reached Duperret;
he was her primary contact after speaking with Barbaroux.
Yet this man was also weak and lacked any energy or talent.
It seemed no one was worthy of taking on the task in removing Marat from society.
On 11 July,
Charlotte attended a convention, which was her opportunity to kill Marat.
Still, word reached the growing crowd that Marat was too ill to leave his house,
for her pains, she had only the words uttered against her party
in a tirade of anger and calling for the demise of such mouths to cease.
Charlotte left, fueled by hatred and the words spoken at the convention.
The following day she called on a man named Prudhomme.
He was a historian whose words of the revolution
had cast a spell over Charlotte; his words engaged with her trail of thoughts.
Charlotte said, "no one understands the state of France.
Yet your writings have made an impression on me." Prudhomme respected this woman
before him and said she was most elevated and had a striking talent."
On 13 July, Charlotte went to the Palais Royal
and purchased a carving knife which fitted snuggly into its black sheath.
She then travelled back to her hotel where she stayed, Providence.
It was here Charlotte would now begin to make preparations
for the deed she hoped to carry out the following day.
Her papers were in order, and she had a certificate of baptism
that she would take with her to show her identity.
She knew escape was futile, and the only place she would go after
her act was to the revolutionary court.
On 14 July, Charlotte set out for Marat's house.
Upon arrival, a servant refused her entry even though Charlotte had pleaded,
stating her business was urgent and very important.
Yet the servant wouldn't budge, and Charlotte had to retreat,
but not before leaving a note to be handed to Marat.
The note said, "I.
am just arrived from Caen.
Your well-known patriotism leads me to presume that you will be glad
to be made acquainted with what is passing in that part of the republic.
I will call on you again in the course of the day;
have the goodness to give orders
that I may be admitted, and grant me a few minutes conversation
I have important secrets to reveal." "Charlotte Corday."
Later that day, Charlotte returned, this time
gaining access but still not being allowed to venture further.
Marat was in the bath in the adjoining room but heard the conversation;
thinking nothing of this, he shouted to allow the young lady in.
Charlotte seated herself by the side of the bath.
The conversation immediately took a path aimed
at the disturbances in the department of Calvados.
While Charlotte fixed her eyes upon Marat's expressions as if to scrutinise
his most secret thoughts, she then named several of the Girondin deputies.
Marat focused now " They shall soon be arrested,"
he cried with a howl of rage, "and executed the same day." He had scarcely
uttered these words when Charlotte's knife was buried in his chest.
" Help !" he cried, " help!
I am murdered." it was in vain and Marat was dead.
For Charlotte, this was, in
her opinion, the conclusion to a terror-filled France.
She could have escaped from the scene, but why?
Her mission was now resolved, and as she stared at this man,
this man she hated above anything else, her task was complete,
her worries disappearing, and her goal
of saving France was achieved.
In a short time, Marat's servant had brought a crowd of people to the room,
some beat her, but when party officials stepped in,
she was placed under their protection.
Again they were struck by her beauty and, more so,
her heroism in carrying out such a deed.
These people were more used to seeing death and the shedding of human
blood, yet standing before them was a girl not yet 25 years old
with dignity and a courageous attitude they found hard to accept.
When Danton
arrived a close friend to Marat, he treated Charlotte
with horrendous contempt, but it had no effect on this young woman.
After being thrown into a carriage and taken away, Charlotte feared for her
life; the people around threatened and tormented her in a furious rage.
If she had been set free, she would have been torn apart by the rabid crowd.
This singular thought now struck her conscience
and roused all her feelings of female delicacy.
Charlotte eventually arrived at the concierge.
She thanked her driver, "Not that I feared to die," she said, "
but it was repugnant to my woman's nature to be torn to pieces before everybody."
While held captive, many people came wanting to see this young woman.
It was with enthusiastic admiration for such a young creature
to attain the highest levels of heroism, which few if any, had ever achieved.
No man in the country could do what Charlotte had done, even though,
in reality, it was the one thing the whole nation desired.
Charlotte's examination before the revolutionary tribunal is remarkable
for the dignified simplicity of her answers.
It began
"Accused," said the president, "how happened it
that you could reach the heart at the very first blow?
Have you been practicing beforehand ?"
Charlotte cast an unbelievable glance at the questioner and said,
"Indignation had roused my heart, and it showed me the way to his."
Charlotte was sentenced to death, and all her property
was declared forfeit to the state.
She turned to her council and said, "I cannot, sir, sufficiently thank you,
for the noble and delicate manner in which you have defended me;
and I will at once give you a proof of my gratitude.
I have now nothing in the world, and I bequeath to you
the few debts I have contracted in my prison.
Pray, discharge them for me."
When the executioner came
to prepare for her execution, she asked him not to cut off her hair.
"It shall not be in your way," she said,
and taking her ribbon, she tied her thick and beautiful hair
on the top of her head so as not to impede the stroke of the axe.
In her last moments, she refused a priest's assistance;
upon this is founded a charge of her being an infidel.
But there is nothing to justify any further accusations upon her memory.
Charlotte Corday had opened her mind, perhaps unintentionally,
to freedom of thought in religion and politics.
Deeply read in the philosophical writings of the day,
she had formed her notions of faith.
She indeed rejected the Roman Church's communion; But,
because she refused the aid of man as a mediator between her and God,
is that a sufficient testamony that she rejected her Creator?
Even as the cart propelled her
to execution, crowds in the street, ever ready to insult the unfortunate, and glut
their eyes with the sight of blood, called out, "To the guillotine with her!"
Charlotte turned towards them and said, "I am on my way,"
A truly remarkable story came of Charlotte's death;
for many, it was still unbelievable, described
as a beautiful apparition many had not seen before.
But one man, Adam Lux, a deputy who would attend, said,
"This woman is surely greater than Brutus!"
He had only seen her for the first time on this day,
yet his infatuation was beyond reproach.
He sprinted to the final destination for Charlotte;
the guillotine glinted in the sunlight.
He took another look at her,
at which point the world in his eyes had become a void.
It was then he had resolved to leave it behind.
He then rushed home and wrote a letter to the revolutionary tribunal,
in which his words spoke of Charlotte and concluded by asking
to be condemned to death so that he could join her in a better world.
His request was granted.
Before he died, he begged the executioner to bind him with the same cords
used on Charlotte, and as his head fell, he was seen saying her name.
Charlotte Corday
was entirely absorbed by the her final solemn moments.
Still, she could never have perceived the effect it had on many,
including Adam Lux, who died in ignorance of it.
Charlotte reached the platform with the most beautiful demeanour.
One eye witness said she had, "a calmness of a soul at peace with itself."
The executioner removed her scarf covering her shoulders, yet
Charlotte showed no terror even now.
Fastened to the plank now seemed a relief,
and she eagerly wished for death under the public gaze.
It was, for Charlotte, not only herself
but a violation of every female throughout France.
When her head fell, the executioner lifted it, her eyes closed
but suddenly opened a stare of indignation upon this brute.
It was as if consciousness had survived the separation of the head from the body.
Although seemingly like an old wives tale, this fact was seen by many
at the execution and accounted in many testimonials,
with no one ever questioning its authenticity.
Charlotte had left the mortal world behind,
but at what cost to the country she loved?
Marat's party, furious at the loss of their leader,
attempted to rebuke the memory of Charlotte Corday.
They would state that she was not alone in this conspiracy
bringing others into their tirade of abuse.
But Charlotte was alone and was not known to have had any lover
or other acquaintance in her short life that she could bring into this situation.
Her whole life had been geared to that moment.
She felt engrossed in the love of her country
and the patriotism she exuded in its purest form.
Prudhomme later revealed that his friend had spoken with Marat before his death.
Piot, a teacher of Italian, had expressed a shocking view of the situation.
He said, "They who govern are a pack of fools.
France must have a chief, but blood must be shed to reach this point,
not in drops, but torrents.'' He also said
looking at the state of Marat, and he had no more than a month to live.
No monument has ever
been raised to Charlotte Corday by the nation.
Neither is it known where her remains were left.
Yet, in her conduct and undying love for her country,
she would make the ultimate sacrifice to save others and her nation.
Even to this day, it is difficult for some to understand
why she has yet to gain any gratitude from her beloved country of France.