long centuries! Quitting Cimmerian Coalitions without, and
the dim-simmering Twenty-five Millions within, History will look fixedly
at this one fair Apparition of a Charlotte Corday; will note whither
Charlotte moves, how the little Life burns forth so radiant, then
vanishes swallowed of the Night.

With Barbaroux's Note of Introduction, and slight stock of luggage, we
see Charlotte on Tuesday, July 9th, seated in the Caen Diligence, with a
place for Paris. None takes farewell of her, wishes her Good-journey:
her Father will find a line left, signifying that she has gone to
England, that he must pardon her, and forget her. The drowsy Diligence
lumbers along; amid drowsy talk of Politics, and praise of the Mountain;
in which she mingles not: all night, all day, and again all night. On
Thursday, not long before noon, we are at the bridge of Neuilly; here
is Paris with her thousand black domes, the goal and purpose of thy
journey! Arrived at the Inn de la Providence in the Rue des Vieux
Augustins, Charlotte demands a room; hastens to bed; sleeps all
afternoon and night, till the morrow morning.

On the morrow morning, she delivers her Note to Duperret. It relates to
certain Family Papers which are in the Minister of the Interior's hand;
which a Nun at Caen, an old Convent-friend of Charlotte's, has need of;
which Duperret shall assist her in getting: this then was Charlotte's
errand to Paris? She has finished this, in the course of Friday--yet
says nothing of returning. She has seen and silently investigated
several things. The Convention, in bodily reality, she has seen; what
the Mountain is like. The living physiognomy of Marat she could not see;
he is sick at present, and confined to home.

About eight on the Saturday morning, she purchases a large sheath-knife
in the Palais Royal; then straightway, in the Place des Victoires, takes
a hackney-coach. "To the Rue de l'Ecole de Medecine, Number 44." It is
the residence of the Citoyen Marat! The Citoyen Marat is ill, and cannot
be seen; which seems to disappoint her much. Her business is with Marat,
then? Hapless beautiful Charlotte; hapless squalid Marat! From Caen in
the utmost West, from Neuchatel in the utmost East, they two are drawing
nigh each other; they two have, very strangely, business together.
Charlotte, returning to her Inn, despatches a short Note to Marat;
signifying that she is from Caen, the seat of rebellion; that she
desires earnestly to see him, and "