swered that he could do nothing,
for they had no confidence in him. It is a redeeming testimony. On the
evening of June 2 the more conspicuous Girondins, without being sent
to prison, were placed under arrest. In the capital, the victory of
the Jacobins was complete. They had conquered by the aid of the
insurrectionary committee, to which no man was admitted who did not
swear approval of the September murders.

Rout and extermination ensued upon the fall of the Gironde. They had
been scrupulous not to defend themselves by force, and preferred the
Republic to their party. While some remained as hostages in the power
of the foe, others went away to see what France would think of the
mutilation of its parliament. Their strength was in departments, and
in several departments the people were arming. In the west there was
no hope for them, for they had made the laws against which La Vendee
rebelled. They turned to the north. In Normandy the royalists were
forming an army, under the famous intriguer, Puisaye. Between such a
man and Buzot no understanding could subsist. There was no time for
them to quarrel, for the movement broke down at once. The people of
Normandy were quite indifferent. But there was one among them who had
spirit, and energy, and courage, and passion enough to change the face
of France. This extraordinary person was the daughter of M. d'Armont,
and she passed into the immortality of history as Charlotte Corday.
She was twenty-four. Her father was a royalist, but she had read
Raynal, and had the classical enthusiasm which was bred by Plutarch in
those as well as in other days. She had refused the health of Lewis
XVI., because, she said, he was a good man, but a bad king. She
preferred to live with a kinswoman, away from her own family, and her
mind was made up never to marry. Her bringing up had been profoundly
religious, but that influence seems to have been weakened in her new
home. There is no trace of it during the five days on which a fierce
light beats. In her room they found her Bible lying open at the story
of Judith. From the 31st of May she had learnt to regard Marat as the
author of the proscription of the Girondins, some of whom had appeared
at Caen in a patriotic halo. When the troops were paraded, on July 7,
those who volunteered for the march against Paris were so few that the
hope of deeds to be done by armed men utterly vanished. It occurred to
Charlotte that there may be something stronger