1. marat, jean paul a fanatical democrat, born in Neuchâtel, his father an Italian, his mother a Genevese; studied and practised medicine, came to Paris as horse-leech to Count d'Artois; became infected with the revolutionary fever, and had one fixed idea: "Give me," he said, "two hundredNaples bravoes, armed each with a good dirk, and a muff on his left arm by way of shield, and with them I willtraverseFrance and accomplish the Revolution," that is, by wholesalemassacre of the aristocrats; he had more than once to flee for his life, and one timefoundshelter in the sewers of Paris, contracting thereby a loathsome skin disease; he was assassinated one evening as he sat in his bath by CharlotteCorday (q. v.), but his body was buried with honours in the Pantheon by a patriot people, "that of Mirabeau flung out to makeroom for him," to be some few months after himself cast out with execration (1743-1793).
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