"The indignation in my own heart showed me the way," she said quietly.
"One would think," continued Chabot, "that you had practised with the knife before on some other——" He left the sentence unfinished.
The blood rushed to Charlotte's cheek. A fire of indignation and resentment burned in her usually tender eyes, making them blaze and flame until even the cold-blooded Deputy was moved to admire the beauty of this emotional woman, so fierce in the defence of her honor.
"You know well that I am no ordinary assassin," she exclaimed. "My hands are clean in the eyes of Heaven. My soul is guiltless before God."
The ex-priest took a step forward. "How dare you speak of God? You?"
"I dare speak of Him," replied the girl, in an impassioned voice, "because I believe that it was He who inspired me, as He inspired Judith of old, to make this sacrifice in the cause of liberty. I believe that He chose me to bear this message of His righteous vengeance to a people who have forgotten His name; that He nerved my arm to strike the blow at which you wonder. I have completed my task," she went on, in a quieter tone, "I leave the rest to others. I have avenged much innocent blood. I have prevented the shedding of much more." She turned proudly round and faced the Deputy with flashing eyes.
"I have killed one man," she said, "to save a hundred thousand!"
Chabot smiled grimly.
"Do you then imagine," he asked, "that you have murdered all the Marats?"
"I have destroyed one," she retorted. Her fearless gaze met the crafty eyes of her examiner, and they quailed before it.