“Miss Corday was a native of this department, and had, from her earliest years, been very carefully educated by an aunt who lives at Caen.  Before she was twenty she had decided on taking the veil, and her noviciate was just expired when the Constituent Assembly interdicted all religious vows for the future:  she then left the convent, and resided entirely with her aunt.  The beauty of her person, and particularly her mental acquisitions, which were superior to that of French women in general, rendered an object of much admiration.  She spoke uncommonly well, and her discourse often turned on the ancients, and on such subjects as indicated that masculine turn of mind which has since proved so fatal to her.  Perhaps her conversation was a little tinctured with that pedantry not unjustly attributed to our sex when they have a little more knowledge than usual, but, at the same time, not in such a degree as to render it unpleasant.  She seldom gave any opinion on the revolution, but frequently attended the municipalities to solicit the pensions of the expelled religious, or on any other occasion where she could be useful to her friends.  On the arrival of Petion, Barbaroux, and others of the Brissotin faction, she began to frequent the clubs, and to take a more lively interest in political affairs.  Petion, and Barbaroux especially, seemed to be much respected by her.  It was even said, she had a tender partiality for the latter; but this I believe is untrue.—­I dined with her at her aunt’s on the Sunday previous to her departure for Paris.  Nothing very remarkable appeared in her behaviour, except that she was much affected by a muster of the recruits who were to march against Paris, and seemed to think many lives might be lost on the occasion, without obtaining any relief for the country.—­On the Tuesday following she left Caen, under pretext of visiting her father, who lives at Sens.  Her aunt accompanied her to the gate of the town, and the separation was extremely sorrowful on both sides.  The subsequent events are too well known to need recital.”

On her trial, and at her execution, Miss Corday was firm and modest; and I have been told, that in her last moments her whole figure was interesting beyond description.  She was tall, well formed, and beautiful—­her eyes, especially, were fine and expressive—­even her dress was not neglected, and a simple white dishabille added to the charms of this self-devoted victim.  On the whole, it is not possible to ascertain precisely the motives which determined her to assassinate Marat.  Her letter to Barbaroux expresses nothing but republican sentiments; yet it is difficult to conceive that a young woman, who had voluntarily embraced the life of a cloister, could be really of this way of thinking.—­I cannot but suppose her connection with the Deputies arose merely from an idea that they might be the instruments of restoring the abolished government, and her profession of republican principles after she was arrested might