Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/419

Rh course he could not sustain it. She was sentenced to death, and calmly thanked her counsel for his efforts on her behalf, adding, however, that the only defence worthy of her was an avowal of the act. She was then conducted to the Conciergerie, where at her own desire her portrait (now in the museum of Versailles) was painted by the artist Hauer. She preserved her perfect calmness to the last. There was a momentary shudder when she saw the guillotine, but she recovered immediately, and placed herself in position under the fatal blade without assistance from any one. The knife fell, and one of the executioners held up her head by the hair, and had the brutality to strike it with his list. Many believed they saw the dead face blush, probably an effect of the red stormy sunset. It was the 17th of July 1793. It is difficult to analyze the character of Charlotte Corday, we know so little of her ; but there was in it much that was noble and exalted. Her mind had been formed by her studies on a pagan type. To Barbaroux and the Girondins of Caen she wrote from her prison, anticipating happiness &quot; with Brutus in the Elysian Fields&quot; after her death, and with this letter she sent a simple loving farewell to her father, revealing a tender side to her cha racter that otherwise we would hardly have looked for in such a woman.

1em  CORDELIERS, the name given to the Franciscans in France, from the cords which they wore round their waists ; and also the name of a notorious club of the time of the French Revolution, so called because it met in a Franciscan chapel. Early in 1790 this club was thoroughly organized under tli3 presidency of Danton. Among its other mem bers were Marat and Camille Desmoulins, and the latter edited a paper expressing its views, under the name of Le Vieux Cordelier.  CORDERIUS, the Latinized form of name used by (1478-1564:), the author of the well- known Colloquia, a native in Normandy. He possessed special tact and liking for teaching children, and taught first at Paris, where Calvin was among his scholars, and, after a number of changes, finally at Geneva. He wrote several books for children ; the most famous is his Collo quia, which has passed through innumerable editions, being used in schools for three centuries after his time.

1em  Plan of Cordova. 1. Pases de la Victoria., 9. Triunfo and St 2. P. de S. Martin. 3. S. Nicolas de Villa, 4. S. Juan. 5. Compania. 6. S. Hipolito. 7. Cathedral 8. Bishop s Palace. Raphael. 10. Alcazar Nuevo. 11. Alcazar Viejo. 12. Campo Santo. 13. S. Pedro. 14. Campo S. Anton. 15. Sta. Maria iJagdalena. 16. Plaza dc la Corredera. 17. Jardin de S. Pablo. 18. S. Andres. 19. S. Lorenzo. 20. S. Pablo. 21. Sta. Murina. 2 2. Mulnmertu Tower.

CORDOVA (Latin, Corduba; French, Cordoue), a city of Spain, capital of a province of its own name in Andalusia, is situated on the southern declivity of the Sierra Morena and the right bank of the Guadalquivir, 75 miles north-east of Seville, and not far from one of the junctions on the railway system of Spain. Its walls, erected on Roman foundations, and principally Moorish in their superstructure, enclose a very large area ; but much of the space is occupied by garden-ground cleared from the ruins of ancient buildings. The streets are for the most part so narrow and crooked that it would be much more descriptive to speak of them as lanes ; and, with the exception of those in the Plaza Mayor, the houses are greatly dilapidated. As every building, however, is profusely covered with whitewash, there is little difference on the surface between the oldest and the most modern specimens. The southern suburb communicates with the town by means of a bridge of six teen arches across the river, exhibiting theusual combination of Roman and Moorish masonry, and dominated at the one end by an elevated statue of the patron saint, St Raphael, whose effigy is to be seen in various other quarters of the city. The most important of the public buildings are the cathedral, the old monastic establishments, the churches, the bishop s palace, the lyceum, the city hall, the hospitals, and the colleges. The old royal palace (Alcazar) is in ruins, only one wing being sufficiently entire to serve the purpose of a prison. The cathedral, which throws all the other churches into insignificance, was originally built as a mosque by Abderrahman I. on the site, it is believed, of a Roman temple. The exterior, with the straight lines of its square buttress towers, has a heavy and somewhat ungainly appearance ; but the interior is one of the most beautiful specimens of Moorish archi tecture in Europe. Passing through a grand courtyard about 500 feet in length, shady with palm, and cypress, and orange-trees, and fresh with the full flow of fountains, the visitor enters a magnificent and bewildering labyrinth of pillars. Porphyry and jasper and marbles of many a tint are boldly combined in a matchless mosaic. Part have come from the spoils of Nimes or Narbonne, part from Seville or Tarragona, some from the older ruins of Carthage, and others as a present to Abderrahman from Leo of Byzantium Of different heights, they have been adjusted to their present standard of 12 feet by being either sunk into the soil or lengthened by the addition of Corinthian capitals Twelve hundred was the number of the columns in the original building ; but many have been destroyed, and, according to some accounts, less than 700 remain. They divide the area of the building, which measures 395 feet from east to west by 35G feet from north to south, longitudinally into nineteen and trans versely into twenty-nine aisles each row supporting a tier of open Moorish arches, which in its turn gives the basis for a second tier with its pillars resting on the keystones of the tier beneath. The full height of the ceiling is thus about 35 feet. The Moorish character of the building was unfortunately impaired in the IGth century by the forma tion in the interior of a crucero or high altar and choir, in the Roman style, by the addition of numerous chapels along 