Paris: With Pen and Pencil: Its People and Literature, Its Life and BusinessBartlett, D. W. (David W.)
History
Paris: With Pen and Pencil: Its People and Literature, Its Life and Business
Bartlett, D. W. (David W.)
Paris (France) -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- Social life and customs
"The blood that flows in torrents in my country dictates my resolve:
indignation caused me to quit my retreat. As soon as I heard of the
murder of my wife, I determined no longer to remain on an earth tainted
by crime."
I had occasion often while in Paris to cross the street of the _Ecole de
Medicine_. It is a rather pleasant street, and leads into the street of
_Ancienne Comedie_, named so after the _Theater Francaise_, which was
formerly located upon it. Just opposite it is a _cafe_ which Voltaire
used to frequent, and I have stopped to take a cup of chocolate in it.
But one day I hunted up number eighteen of the street of _Ecole de
Medicine_. The house was one which Marat used to occupy in the time of
the great revolution. We paused a moment upon the threshold, and then
passed up a flight of stairs and entered the room where Marat used to
write so many of his blood-thirsty articles. A little room at that time
opened out of it, and in the apartment was a bath-room. He often wrote
in his bath in this room.
The last day Marat lived, was the 13th of July, 1793, and it was spent
in this little room. He was the monster of the revolution, loved the
sight of blood as a tiger does, and his influence over the multitude
gave him power to sacrifice whoever he pleased. If he but pointed his
long finger at a man or woman, it was death to the victim. No one was
safe. Under his devilish prompting, already some of the truest
republicans in France had been beheaded, and every hour some unfortunate
man or woman fell beneath his hellish ferocity. Should a fiend be
allowed to personate liberty longer? Should a wretch whose very touch
scorched and blistered, whose breath was that of the lake of fire, any
longer be allowed to pollute France with his presence? These were the
questions which presented themselves to the mind of a young
country-girl. Who would have thought that the young and beautiful
Charlotte Corday would have taken it upon herself to answer these
questions and avenge the murdered innocents?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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