The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-10-15
THE SLAYER OF MARAT
Charlotte Corday and the Act
 That Made Her Famous.
HER PLANS FOR THE MURDER

The Way They Were Worked Out and How They Were Put Into Execution. Her Own Tragic End and the Final
 Act of the Brutal Headsman. Among the instances of fanatic zeal
 for country and people the act of Charlotte Corday, who was born at i St. Saturnin, France, July 27, 176S, and who was beheaded at Paris July
 IT, 1793, stands out in tragic force. Her childhood and early youth were
 full of privation, although she was of noble family. She was educated at
 a convent in Caen and then went to l of Normandy.
 She had a serene and lofty beauty,
 was tall and graceful, and her manner
 was full of dignity.
 She spent all her leisure in reading, and her books were always those that
 related to heroism and devotion to i country. When the revolution broke upon France. Charlotte eagerly took up the reading of politics and public questions. When the Girondists were obliged to fly from Paris they went to Caen and began to hold meetings and form plans for future operations in Paris.
 The Girondists were the true repub- deans and got their name from Gi-
 ronde, as it was the deputies from this district that had formed the Re
 publican party in the national assem-
 bly,. The massacres had terrified them,
 and they had tried to stop the violent l measures in the reign of terror. Charlotte felt very madness of en- thusiasm as she listened to the fiery eloquence of these men who de- nounced Marat. Danton and Robe
 spierre escaped much of the censure
 due for their share in the frightful work of cruelty and death. It was upon Marat that the Girondists poured their eloQuence. for it was he who had pursued and ordered the death of their leaders in Paris. In the depths of her heart a purpose was formed to save
 her people from this monster and at any cost to herself. ,
 Into Charlotte's life tender and re
 spectful love had come to add it's in-
 fuence in these days of strange tumult | and calm purpose. She and a young
 man named Franquelin had been writ
 ing each other, and she had given him
 her portrait and told him that he might
 at least love that. When this lover
 marched away to Paris with the Giron- dists and the neighbOring volunteers, she bade him calm farewell, for she
 knew she was going to save him. After her execution FranQuelin went home to his native village in Nor
 mandy In the tender care of his moth CT he gradually failed. for his heart was broken the day his love perished. When he came to die he requested that
 Charlotte's portrait and letters be
 buried with him. and his grave holds them sacredly. Charlotte began to prepare for her journey to Paris and the tragedy she had planned. Every effort was made to hide the appearance of concealed purpose. When she arrived at Paris she at once set about her plans to find Marat. As a preparation she went to one of the shops of the Palais Royal and bought dagger shaped knife. pay ing for it GO cents. This she hid in the folds of her dress. Her plan had been
 
 where she thought the deed would be
 avenged by killing her o2 the spot. But Marat no longer went to the con-
 vention. He was ill with a disease that
 was slowly killing him, and his body was in state of disorder and irrup-
 tion that gave him an agony of suf- fering He was only comfortable when
 in the warm water of his bath. He
 lived on the first floor of house in
 the Rue des Cordeliers. and connected with his home were all the affairs of his journalistic work and from here all his pamphlets and journals were sent out
 After writing two letters asking for an interview, in which she would give
 him some important news about sus- pected persons, she got no reply. Then she took her way to the house, insisted
 that she must see him, and when for
 bidden entrance by Marats wife she still urged the importance of her err
 rand. Marat heard the sound of their
 voices and shouted out for a reason of
 the noise that bothered him. When
 told that 1t was the woman who had
 twice written him he bade her come in. The wife, against her will, let her pass.
 Marat was, in his bath. wrapped in an ink stained slteet, and was writing oD board laid across the bath. Ask ing her errand. he took down all the details she gave him. When he had the name of each Girondist who was at work in Caen he told her that in a
 week they would be brought to the guillotine. Then as she stood beside the bath she plunged the knife into
 his heart, and he died with cry to his wife to come to him.
 Just before her execution she wrote to the Girondists at Caen that she an- ticipated happiness with Brutus in the Elysian fields' after her death. and she also wrote tender and loving fare we'll letters to her relatives and
 friends.
 When she had suffered death the ex- ecutioner lifted up her head by the hair and struck it brutal blow with
 his fist. Just at that moment q gleam of the sun so fell upon it that there
 was the effect of blush upon the