Corday

Corday, d'Armans, Marie Charlotte (1768-1793), the "Angel of Assassination" of Lamartine. She was born at St. Saturnin of a noble family, having Corneille's blood in her veins. During a solitary childhood her sympathies with mankind were fostered by the reading of Voltaire's works, while a study of Plutarch filled her with old-world ideas of patriotic devotion. Although in favour of the Revolution she hated the excesses of the Jacobins, and went to Paris with the intention of avenging the wrongs of the Girondins, by slaying either Robespierre or Marat. After some difficulty she gained access to Marat with a pretended mission from Caen, and stabbed him as he sat in his bath. Brought before the tribunal she gloried in her deed, and scouted the defence of insanity set up by her counsel. A picture painted of her in the interval between her sentence and its execution is now at Versailles. She met death bravely, and it was said that her severed head blushed when struck by the executioner.