and influence. They were the
moderate republicans of the time, though at first they were inclined
to accept the constitution, and favor a limited monarchy. Its name
came from the earliest leaders of the party who were representatives
from the department of the Gironde. Its members labored to check the
violence and bloodshed of the times, and might be called the
respectable party of the period. Unfortunately they were in the
minority, and all the members of the party in the Convention who did
not escape, were arrested, convicted, and guillotined.

The Montagnards (mountaineers) or Montagne (Mountain) was the term
applied to the Democrats holding the most extreme views, though its
members were also Jacobins and Cordeliers. Among them were the most
blood-thirsty, unreasonable, and intolerant men of the time, for
Danton, Robespierre, Marat, St. Just, and others of that stamp,
affiliated with them. They took their name from the fact that they
were grouped together in the uppermost seats of the chamber of the
Convention. The Cordeliers was hardly more than another name for a
club of the same men, so called from the chapel of a Franciscan
monastery where they held their meetings.

[Illustration: Charlotte Corday and Marat.]

Jean Paul Marat was one of the most prominent personages of the
Revolution, whose infamy will continue to be perpetuated down to
generations yet to come, with other of his red-handed associates. He
was a Frenchman, though he spent considerable time in Holland and
Great Britain, where he practised medicine, having studied the
profession at Bordeaux. He made some reputation as a political
writer, and in Edinburgh obtained a degree. It is believed that he
was convicted for stealing, and sentenced to five years imprisonment
at Oxford under several _aliases_. Perhaps he was sincere in his
opinions, and he threw himself vigorously into the work of the
Revolution in Paris, issuing inflammatory pamphlets, which he caused
to be printed and circulated secretly. He established an infamous
journal, attacking the king and all his supporters, and especially
the Girondists, whose moderation disgusted him. His virulence caused
him to be intensely hated, and twice he was compelled to flee to
London, and once to hide in the sewers. In the latter he contracted
a loathsome disease of the skin which soon began to eat away his
life; and his sufferings from it intensified his zeal and his
hatred.

Marat was elected to the