The Story Continues: Chapter 20 - My Capture

Chapter Twenty...
In which Charlotte is bound, captured and taken to prison.
As Simone and others rushed to Marat, I escaped into an antechamber. But I was immediately apprehended, my ears deafened by the wails of “Help!” and “Assassin!” Someone hit me with a chair. I fell to the floor. Someone else tied my wrists together with a rough rope. It hurt terribly, but I didn’t resist. I knew all along that it would come to this; I knew that killing Marat was as good as committing suicide.
I was questioned for hours, always the same demand. My interrogators wanted to know who was behind my act; who were my collaborators. Over and over I told them it was my idea; that I acted alone.
It wasn’t until midnight that was I placed in a coach and taken to the nearest prison. Though located close to Marat’s apartments, it took two hours to reach it, for a huge crowd had gathered wishing to see the murderess of Jean-Paul Marat. They menaced the horse and carriage, hurling death threats through distorted faces. I was frightened; I thought the people might tear me to pieces. This was not what I had expected. I thought they would rejoice. I thought they would carry me through the streets on their shoulders. Instead, they called me an “Enemy of the Revolution”.
Yesterday, I was transferred to the Conciergerie, the Revolutionary Prison, where most people these days leave by tumbrel - an open wooden cart used to ferry the condemned to their beheading at the Place de la Revolution. For this reason the Conciergerie is known today as, “the antechamber to the guillotine.”
I beg you to come visit me at the Conciergerie Prison, to bear witness to the conditions of my incarceration. But, please, we’ve come a long way. You must first take a rest and a bit of nourishment at another hotbed of the Revolution: Le Café Procope.
Next...
Charlotte is tried and convicted to death by guillotine.
Listen to Charlotte tell her story in her own words.
Download her StoryApp here.
Image:
Charlotte Corday. Original steel engraving drawn by A. Lacauchie, engraved by Roze, 1849. Digital image courtesy of www.antique-prints.de.