lution 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 refuge in Normandy, and proposed to make Caen
the headquarters of an army of volunteers, at the head of whom Felix de
Wimpffen, who commanded the army assembled for the defence of the coasts
at Cherbourg, was to have marched upon Paris. Charlotte attended their
meetings, and heard them speak; but we have 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
in Normandy were doomed to fail. She had heard of Marat as a tyrant and
the chief agent in their overthrow, 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 signal of a
counter-revolution, and ignorant of the fact that Marat was ill almost
to the point of death, and that others were more influential than he.

Apparently she had thought of going to Paris in April, before the fall
of the Girondins, for she had then procured a passport which she used in
July. It contained the usual description of the bearer, and ran thus:
_Laissez passer la citoyenne Marie, &c., Corday, agee de 24 ans, taille
de 5 pieds 1 pouce, cheveux et sourcils chatains, yeux gris, front
eleve, nez 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: "Citizen, I have just arrived from
Caen. Your love for your native place doubtless makes you desirous of
learning 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 to give me a brief interview. I will put you in a
condition to render great service to 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
audience, and it was only when she called a third time (July 13) that
Marat, hearing her voice in the antechamber, consented to see her. He
lay in a bathing tub, wrapped in towels, for he was suffering from a
horrible disease which had almost reduced him to a