CORDELIERS CORDOVA. 



453 



immediately expired, with the words, " To me, my 

 friend ?" Meanwhile the maid remained calm and 

 tranquil as the priestess before the altar, in the 

 midst of the tumult and confusion. She was afterwards 

 conducted as a prisoner to the Abbaye. A young 

 man, who begged to die in her place, was also con- 

 demned to death. Her first care was to implore the 

 forgiveness of her father for disposing of her life 

 without his knowledge. She then wrote to Bar- 

 baroux as follows : " To-morrow, at five o'clock, my 

 trial begins, and on the same day I hope to meet 

 with Brutus and the other patriots in elysium." 

 She appeared before the revolutionary tribunal with 

 a dignified air, and her replies were firm and noble. 

 She spoke of her deed as a duty which she owed 

 her country. Her defender (Chaveau-Lagarde), full 

 of astonishment at such courage, cried out, " You 

 hear the accused herself ! She confesses her crime ; 

 she admits that she has coolly reflected upon it; 

 she conceals no circumstance of it ; and she wishes 

 for no defence. This unshaken calmness, this total 

 abandonment of herself, these appearances of the ut- 

 most internal tranquillity, are not natural ! Such ap- 

 pearances are to be explained only by political fanati- 

 cism, which armed her hand with the dagger. To you 

 then, gentlemen of the jury, it belongs to judge of 

 what weight this moral view may be in the scale of 

 justice!" His words could make no impression on 

 the minds of the judges. After her condemnation, 

 she thanked her defender with these words : " I 

 would willingly give you some token of the esteem 

 with which you have inspired me. These gentle- 

 men, however, have just informed me that my pro- 

 perty is forfeited ; but I have incurred some small 

 debts during my imprisonment, and I hereby transfer 

 the obligation to you." She was conducted to the 

 scaffold in a red mantle, and passed, with a smiling 

 countenance, through the crowd by whom she was 

 " pursued by shouts of execration. She retained her 

 presence of mind to the last. A voice from the 

 multitude exclaimed, " She is greater than Brutus !" 

 It was Adam Lux, a deputy from the city of Mentz, 

 who, fired with admiration, wrote to the tribunal, 

 requesting to die like Charlotte Corday. She was 

 guillotined July 17, 1793. 



Modern history presents many similar instances of 

 individuals who have been driven, by a sense of duty 

 operating on an excited imagination, to attempt the 

 lives of important men. Sand, the murderer of 

 Kotzebue, Louvel, who killed the duke de Berri, 

 Staps, who attempted the life of Napoleon, and 

 Loehning, a German student, who attempted to 

 destroy a political leader in Nassau, were all actu- 

 ated by this motive, which lias been, in late times, 

 much ofteuer the occasion of such attempts than the 

 desire of personal vengeance. 



CORDELIERS. This word originally signified 

 an order of Franciscan monks : secondly, a society 

 of Jacobins, from 1792 to 1794, were so called from 

 their place of meeting. These were distinguished 

 by the violence of their speeches and conduct. In 

 this club of the Cordeliers, Marat and Andre soon 

 began to raise their voices. The talents of Danton 

 also procured it some reputation ; and Camille- 

 Desmoulins published a journal under the name of 

 The Old Cordeliers, in which he at last took the field 

 against the ultra-revolutionists, and endeavoured to 

 unmask the notorious Hebert and his associates. 

 But when he was afterwards imprisoned and exe- 

 cuted, with Danton, the society sank, and, even 

 before the abolition of the Jacobin clubs, fell into 

 total oblivion. 



CORDILLERAS. See Andes and Mexico. 



CORDON, in a military sense ; troops so dis- 

 posed as to preserve, an uninterrupted line of com- 



munication, to protect a country either from hostile 

 invasion or from contagious diseases. In the first 

 case, it answers its purpose badly, according to the 

 new system of the military art, because a line which 

 is far extended can be easily broken through by 

 an enemy, and is not capable of an obstinate resist- 

 ance. 



CORDOVA, on the Guadalquivir; an ancient 

 and celebrated town in Lower Andalusia, capital of 

 a province of the same name, which was fonnerly a 

 small Moorish kingdom. It contains about 35,000 

 inhabitants, and lies in 37 52' 13" N. lat. It is 

 built on a gentle declivity of a chain of mountains, 

 forms an oblong quadrangle, and is surrounded with 

 walls and lofty towers. A part of the town is of 

 Roman, a part of Moorish origin ; many of the 

 buildings are in ruins, and a number of garden? 

 occupy a great part of the inhabited space. The 

 streets are narrow, crooked, and dirty ; the plaza 

 mayor, the principal market-place, however, is 

 distinguished for its size, its regularity, and the 

 beauty of the colonnade by which it is surrounded. 

 The remains of the residence of the Moorish kings 

 now form a part of the archbishop's palace. The 

 cathedral is a splendid building, originally a mosque, 

 erected in the 7th century, by king Abderahman, 

 strikingly ornamented with rows of cupolas, partly 

 octagonal and partly round, which are supported by 

 850 pillars of jasper and marble, forming nineteen 

 colonnades. The bridge over the river rests on 

 sixteen arches. Cordova has always carried on con- 

 siderable trade ; and, even under the Moore, the 

 leather exclusively manufactured there (cordovan) 

 was exported in all directions. At what period the 

 Romans laid the foundation of the town (Colonia 

 Patricia, afterwards Corduba) is not known. In 

 572, it was conquered by the Goths, and, in G92, by 

 the Moorish chief Abderahman, who afterwards 

 renounced his allegiance to the caliph of Damascus, 

 and made Cordova his royal residence. The pro- 

 vince of Cordova (3940 square miles, with 259,000 

 inhabitants) includes the fertile and beautiful valley 

 of the Guadalquivir and the mountains of Sierra 

 Morena, a part of which are constantly covered with 

 snow. 



CORDOVA ; a province of Buenos Ayres, about 

 100 leagues in length and seventy in breadth, 

 crossed by several chains of mountains, and watered 

 by several rivers. The principal town is called by 

 the same name, besides which there are some towns 

 and villages. The inhabitants feed a great number 

 of cattle and horses, which form their principal trade. 

 Serpents are numerous: some of them are of an 

 amazing size, and exceedingly dangerous ; others are 

 harmless. This province is but little known. 



CORDOVA ; a town of Buenos Ayres, and 

 capital of the province of Tucuman, founded in 

 1550, by Nunez Prado, and, about twenty years 

 after, erected into a bishopric ; 450 miles, by the 

 common road, N. N. W.Buenos Ayres; Ion. 65 10' 

 W. ; lat. 31 20' S. ; population, according to Mr 

 Bland, about 10,000. It contains about 1500 

 Spanish inhabitants, with about 4000 Negroes. It 

 has a handsome cathedral and a spacious market- 

 place. The college formerly belonging to the 

 Jesuits is a large edifice, now appropriated to public 

 purposes. The adjacent country is fruitful, abound- 

 ing in excellent pasture. 



CORDOVA, JOSE M., accompanied the liberat- 

 ing army sent to Peru by Colombia, and commanded 

 a division at the battle of Ayacucho. (q. v.) He 

 was known as a meritorious officer during the whole 

 period of the contest, after the year 1819 until its 

 conclusion, but was particularly distinguished at Aya- 

 cuclio, where his gallantry greatly contributed to lite 



