CORBLE-STEPS, or CROW-STEPS, steps ascending the gable of a house, common in old Scotch gables as well as in the Netherlands and elsewhere in old towns.

COR`BULO, a distinguished general under Claudius and Nero, who conquered the Parthians; Nero, being jealous of him, invited him to Corinth, where he found a death-warrant awaiting him, upon which he plunged his sword into his breast and exclaimed, “Well deserved!” in 72 A.D.

CORCY`RA, an Ionian island, now CORFU (q. v.).

CORDAY, CHARLOTTE, a French heroine, born at St. Saturnin, of good birth, granddaughter of Corneille; well read in Voltaire and Plutarch; favoured the Revolution, but was shocked at the atrocities of the Jacobins; started from Caen for Paris as an avenging angel; sought out Marat, with difficulty got access to him, stabbed him to the heart as he sat “stewing in slipper-bath,” and “his life with a groan gushed out, indignant, to the shades below”; when arrested, she “quietly surrendered”; when questioned as to her motive, she answered, “I killed one man to save a hundred thousand”; she was guillotined next day (1763-1793).

CORDELIA, the youngest and favourite daughter of King Lear.

CORDELIERS, (1) the strictest branch of the Franciscan Order of Monks, so called from wearing a girdle of knotted cord; (2) also a club during the French Revolution, founded in 1789, its prominent members, Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and Marat; was a secession from the Jacobin Club, which was thought lukewarm, and met in what had been a convent of the Cordeliers monks; it expired with Danton.

CORDERIUS, a grammarian, born in Normandy; being a Protestant settled in Geneva and taught; author of Latin “Colloquies,” once very famous (1478-1567).

CORDILLERAS, the name of several chains of mountains in S. America.

CORDITE, a smokeless powder, invented by Sir F. A. Abel, being composed principally of gun-cotton and glycerine.

CORDON BLUE, formerly the badge of the Order of the Holy Ghost, now the badge of highest excellence in a cook.

CORDOUAN, a lighthouse at the mouth of the Gironde.

COR`DOVA (70), a city on the Parana, in the Argentine; also a town (48) in Andalusia, Spain, on the right bank of the Guadalquivir, in a province of the name, 80 m.  NE. of Seville; once a Moorish capital, and famous for its manufacture of goat leather; has a cathedral, once a magnificent mosque.

COREA (6,511), an Eastern Asiatic kingdom occupying the mountainous peninsula between the Yellow and Japan Seas, in the latitude of Italy, with Manchuria on its northern border, a country as large as Great Britain.  The people, an intelligent and industrious race, are Mongols, followers of Confucius and Buddha.  After being for 300 years tributary to China, it passed under Japanese influence, and by the Chinese defeat in the war with Japan, 1894-95, was left independent.  The climate is healthy, but subject to extremes; rivers are ice-bound for four months.  Wheat, rice, and beans are grown.  There are gold, silver, iron, and coal mines, and great mineral wealth.  There are extensive manufactures of paper, and some silk industry.  Three ports are open to foreigners; but most of the trade is with Japan; exports hides, beans, and paper; imports cotton goods.  The capital is Seoul (193).