s ink and poison. To
Charlotte Corday it appeared that in this one individual all that was
noble and beautiful in the Revolution was converted into all that was
hideous and ignoble; and she slowly began to perceive that even a feeble
woman like herself could remove that blot from France, if only she could
find the courage. . .

On the 13th of July, Charlotte Corday, accomplished her twofold
sacrifice. She gained admission to Marat's house and stabbed him in his
bath; she meekly but courageously accepted the consequences. After being
nearly lynched by the mob, she was tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal,
and sent to the guillotine.

The Prussians captured Mainz on the 23rd of July, the Austrians
Valenciennes on the 28th. These disasters enabled Robespierre and the
Commune to impose their views as to the conduct of the military affairs
of the Republic. Decrees were passed for purifying the army. The
aristocrat generals, Beauharnais, Biron, Custine, were removed, and,
eventually, were all sent to the scaffold. _Sans-culottes_, some honest,
some capable, many dishonest, many {190} incapable, replaced them.
Sans-culottism reigned supreme. Civic purity became the universal test;
and on this shibboleth the Commune inaugurated a system of politics of
which the Tammany organization in New York offers the most conspicuous
example at the beginning of the 20th century. Hebert was the party boss;
his nominees filled the offices; graft was placed on the order of the
day. The ministry of war and its numerous contracts became the happy
hunting ground of the Parisian politician,--Hebert himself, on one
occasion, working off an edition of 600,000 copies of his _Pere Duchesne_
through that ministry. And lastly one must add that the army of the
interior, the army facing the Vendee fell into the hands of the
politicians. An incapable drunkard, Rossignol, was placed in command
instead of Biron who, after two victories over the Vendeens, was
dismissed, imprisoned and sent to the guillotine.

It was perhaps necessary that a brave and dashing soldier of the old
school like Biron should be removed from command, if the decrees of the
Convention for prosecuting the war against the Vendee were to be carried
out. One of those decrees ordered that "the forests shall be razed, the
crops cut down, the cattle {191} seized. The Minister of War shall send
combustible materials of all sorts to burn the woods, brush, and heath."
That was th