4 4 p p p! YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY The Bastille Place de la Bastille, Paris o (Zapl TAc If en DBinyham 0 (| With a -Preface by James "BrecK. TerKjns )\ il o I Vol- 2 4 xfazaes PcfF^ Ccmpcmy Copyrighted, 1901, by James Pott & Company Contents CHAPTER I 1700 PAGE The Dues D'Estrees and Mortemart and the Comte D'Har- court — De Renneville — Fenou — Avedick — Du Plessis — De Sault Tavannes — Florence — Abbe du Bucquoy — Delisle — Freret — Princess of Nassau — Marquise D'Esclainvilliers — Diesback — Madame de Staal — Lagrange .... 9 CHAPTER II 1711 — 1716 Richelieu — Voltaire . . 53 CHAPTER III 1720 — 1730 Lenglet du Fresnoy — The Oldest Prisoner — Roy — Du Boulay — Abbe Prevost— Crebillon Fils . . . .85 CHAPTER IV 1740 Abbe Fleur — Latude — Abbe Nourry — D'Arnaud — Charles Edward — Labourdonnais — Bonis 90, CHAPTER V 1750 Resseguier — Abbe Mehegan — La Beaumelle — Milon — Da- miens— Freron — Abbe de Forges 136 3 Contents CHAPTER VI 1760 PAGE Edelsheim — Genard — Dutreil — Pasdeloup — Courland — Marmontel — De la Chalotais — Lally — Le Prevot de Beaumont . . . ... 163 CHAPTER VII 1770 Rozoi — Dumouriez — Reign of Louis XVI.— Malesherbes — Cures — Pacte de Famine — Guerre des Farines — Voltaire to Marin — Condamine — Catherine Theot — Marquis de Frateaux . . 196 CHAPTER VIII 1780 Linguet — Duvernet — Le Tellier — Hallot — Capin — Jacquet de la Douay — Brissot — Ferry — Sade — De Whyte — Solages — Rohan — Chamoran— Lenormand — Manuel — St. James — De Kergalaun — Pujade, Roche, Bechade, and Carrege — Bretons — Reveillon . . . 220 CHAPTER IX Closing Scenes— Baron de Bezenval — Dussault's " Seven Days '' — Droz — Lieut, de la Flue — Dr. Rigby — Paul Lacroix — Weber — Gouverneur Morris — Diary of Louis XVI. ... ... 253 CHAPTER X Accounts given by the " Gentleman's Magazine " — The " Annual Register "— Boucheron— Attack, Defence, Etc. — A Constituent— Guyot de Fleville— Denot — Blutel — Chateaubriand — Marmontel — Abbe Rudemarre — Dr. Rigby— Denis Pasquier— Duke of Dorset— The Count de Mercy Argenteau 308 4 Contents CHAPTER XI PAGE Various Opinions : — Taine — Lanf rey — Marat — Paul Lacroix — Rabaud St. Etienne — Burke — Fox — Macaulay — Sir James Mackintosh — Croker — Gouverneur Morris . . 359 CHAPTER XII What Became of Some of the Heroes of this Drama : Louis XVI. — Camille Desmoulins — Bailly — Brissot — Abbe Fauchet — Linguet — La Rochefoucauld — Lafayette — Pethion — Santerre — Mirabeau — Theroigne de Mericourt — Palloy — Latude — Marceau — Hulin — Marat — Rabaud St. Etienne — The Archbishop of Paris — Thuriot de la Rosiere — Dussault — Malesherbes ¦ — Manuel — Carra — Danton — De Renneville — Abbe Morellet — Philippe Egalite 386 CHAPTER XIII Anniversaries, Songs, Etc. . . 4°6 CHAPTER XIV The Demolition— Patriot Palloy— Hotel Carnavalet . . 432 CHAPTER XV Prisons and Punishments Since the Fall of the Bastille . 451 List of Illustrations Photogravures by Elson & Co., Boston page Place de la Bastille Frontispiece Picture of Mont St. Michel 20 From an engraving by IV. Miller, after a drawing by C. Stanfield, A. R.A. Voltaire 66 From an engraving Frederick the Great 103 From an engraving Cover of the Explosive Box sent by Danry (La tude) to the Marquise de Pompadour . .113 That portion of the text ivhich is a little effaced reads as follows : " / beg you, Madame, to open the package in private." Underneath, mention and date of the examination of Danry, with his signature and that of the lieutenant of police, Beranger. Original at the A r- senal Library^ Archives' of the Bastille, ji6q3 Jean Henri Masers Latude 133 Imprisoned in the Bastille for thirty five years, a victim of despotism. From an engraving by F. Bonneville, ajter a painting by Canu Porte St. Antoine 173 After an old aquatint engraving *Maximilien Robespierre 215 From a carbon photograph of the Painting by Adelaide-Labille Guiard " By permission of Braun. Clement & Co. List of Illustrations PAGE Cardinal de Rohan 240 From an engraving by C. P. Campion de Tersan; C. H . Cochin, del., '7(>5 Camille Desmoulins 263 From an engraving Taking the Proposition of the Besieged Bastille 282 Front an engraving Conducting DeLaunay, Commandant of the Bas tille, to Hotel de Ville 327 From an engraving States-General From an engraving by Prudhomme, after the painting by Couder 355 The Taking of the Bastille 386 From an engraving Celebration on Champ de Maj*s of Destruction ot the Bastille (July 14, 1790) .... 406 From an engraving Entrance to Conciergerie 452 From an engraving by B. Winkles after a drawing by T. T. Bury The Bastille CHAPTER I. 1700 THE DUCS D'ESTREES AND MORTEMART AND THE COMTE D'HARCOURT— DE RENNEVILLE— FENOU — AVEDICK— DU PLESSIS— DE SAULT TAVANNES —FLORENCE — ABBE DU BUCQUOY — DELISLE — FRERET— PRINCESS OF NASSAU— MARQUISE D'ES- CLAINVILLIERS— DIESBACK— MADAME DE STAAL —LAGRANGE Several young bloods were committed to the Bastille in 1700 for riotous conduct, beating the watch, and troubling the repose of quiet citizens. PONTCHARTRAIN TO THE DUC DE BEAUVILLIERS. " Versailles, 23rd June, 1700. " The King has ordered me to acquaint you with two things which concern the Due d'Estrees and the Due de Mortemart. The first matter, which specially concerns the Due d'Estrees, is that after having lost his carriage betting at a race, he went to the tennis court in the Rue Mazarine and played at billiards with La Ratte, a sharper, who was backed by the spectators as a certainty. Having lost all the money he had about him, he lost 600 louis on his word, a very ordi nary habit of his. . . .The money he loses by these 9 The Bastille ridiculous bets will soon ruin his family unless a stop be put to his extravagance. "The other 'adventure,' common to both dukes, is that they went to the house of a Flemish woman who had two girls living with her, and on their re fusal to open the door they broke all the windows and created a great scandal; they often pass their nights in this way. The police officers cannot help com plaining that the education of these young dukes should have been so sadly neglected." The " Archives " contain nothing to show what be came of the Due de Mortemart, but we see that the Due d'Estrees was taken to the Bastille by the Due de Bethune, and that something was done there for his education. Pontchartrain, writing to St. Mars on the 29th September, said that His Majesty would permit the Duke to have a mathematical master and a drawing master. On the 3rd October he was al lowed to see a person to teach him history, and in December he was visited by Father Bourdaloue, Jesuit, who probably gave him some religious instruction. On the 25th March, 1701, we find by the Journal of M. du Junca, that the Due de Bethune arrived at the Bastille with an order for the release of the pris oner, and drove him to Versailles to thank the King for restoring him to liberty. Neither of the Dukes above mentioned were more than eighteen years of age. In 1713 the Due d'Estrees was again committed to the Bastille; he had quarrelled with the Comte 10 De Renneville d'Harcourt. As both noblemen, owing to their birth, refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the mar shals who interfered to prevent a duel, the King sent them to prison, where they remained from the 26th June to the nth July, when they made friends and were released. Along with a number of other spies arrested in 1702 we find the name of Constantin de Renneville, who has left some interesting memoirs on the subject of his detention in the Bastille. The only fresh documents discovered by M. Ravaisson are the fol lowing: JOURNAL OF M. DU JUNCA. " On the 1 6th May M. Bourbon with two mus keteers brought in and handed over M. Constantin, who calls himself a noble, having remained for a long time in foreign parts for the affairs of the King, whom the Governor received and had placed in the second room of the Chapelle tower, alone and closely confined; which prisoner was arrested at Versailles." The other document is a report made by M. d'Ar- genson in 1709, in which it is stated that de Renne ville acknowledged that he had acted as a spy for the States-General. In September, 1703, we find a "good Protestant," called Fenou, taken to the Bastille, and three weeks after his incarceration Pontchartrain writing to d'Argenson and saying : " With regard to Fenou 11 The Bastille you must release him, giving him to understand that it is for three months, so that he may receive instruc tion in the Roman Catholic religion from M. Pollet, the Vicar of St. Nicholas, and that if he does not take advantage of this reprieve he will be imprisoned again; it is unnecessary to tell you not to restore the heretical books which he had in his possession." As we hear no more of Fenou, the probability is that M. Pollet made a favourable impression and perverted him. The correspondence on the subject of the arrest and imprisonment of Avedick, Patriarch of the Ar menians at Constantinople, who, as we have seen, was supposed by some persons to have been the Man in the Iron Mask, is highly instructive. We have selected a few documents out of the mass published in the " Archives," but these are sufficient to throw light on the duplicity of all parties concerned in this strange affair. The excuse for seizing upon Avedick in the first place was because, elected to fill the post of Patriarch by what were called in France the schismatics, he vexed the Armenian Catholics and especially the Jesuits, one of whose colleges he closed. The con sequence was, that M. de Ferriol, the French Ambas sador at Constantinople, at the instance of the good Fathers, purchased the removal of Avedick; but in 1704 the schismatics, who were much more wealthy than the orthodox Armenians, paid a sum of about £40,000 for his re-establishment. The Jesuits, fear ing reprisals, impressed upon M. de Ferriol the ne- 12 Avedick cessity of obtaining his removal once more. Not only was this effected, but the Patriarch was snapped up on his way to exile and sent to France, lest the schismatics should once more procure his return to office. PONTCHARTRAIN TO FATHER HYACINTHE.* " Versailles, 5th May, 1706. " It is fortunate that the Armenian Catholics have been able to procure the dismissal of the Patriarch of Constantinople,! but this dismissal must be maintained; and you are quite right to apprehend intrigues until he has been replaced and sent into exile. . . ." THE SAME TO FATHER BRACONNIER.t " Marly, 19th May, 1706. " I have been informed of the further removal of Avedick, Patriarch of Constantinople, which the Ar menian Catholics obtained by means of a large present ;§ his stay in Tenedos must lead to apprehen sion lest he should find means to re-establish him self. . . ." It was at this juncture that the captain of the ship who was engaged to convey Avedick from Tenedos to Cyprus, bribed by M. de Ferriol, the French Am bassador at Constantinople, handed the prisoner over to M. de Bonal, the French Vice-consul at Chio, who * Custodian of the Capuchins at Constantinople. t On the 25th February, Avedick was deposed for the third time. t Superior of the Jesuits in the Levant. § No less than £32,000. 13 The Bastille put the Patriarch on board a French ship and sent him to Messina, which then belonged to the Spaniards. As Louis XVI. had thrown several persons disagree able to Philip V. into prison, he thought that the Spanish Inquisition would take charge of Avedick, who had vexed the Jesuits at Erzeroum and elsewhere. In this violation of the rights of man, M. de Ferriol acted on his own authority; he was not, however, dis avowed, as we shall see. PONTCHARTRAIN TO M. SOULIER.* " Marly, 30th June, 1706. " You inform me of the arrival at Messina of a ship in which M. de Ferriol embarked the deposed patri arch of the Armenians, directing you to hand him over to the Inquisitor. . . . H.M. approves of what has been decided upon. This patriarch deserves harsher treatment, seeing the persecution he has ex cited against the Catholic Armenians. But it is to be feared that the Grand Seigneur will not approve of his subjects being treated thus; you must at all events say nothing about this matter." The Sultan certainly did disapprove of this abduc tion, but he could not prove it. PONTCHARTRAIN TO M. DE MONTMORT.t " Marly, 28th July, 1706. " I have received letters from M. de Ferriol in forming of the changes which have taken place at * French Vice-Consul at Messina. t Intendant of the galleys at Marseilles. Avedick Constantinople; the Patriarch of the Armenians of whom he speaks has arrived at Messina and has been confined in the prisons of the Inquisition. I shall take the orders of the King as to what is to be done." PONTCHARTRAIN TO THE MARQUIS DE BEDMAR.* " Versailles, 4th August, 1706. " I learn through M. de Ferriol, the Ambassador of the King at Constantinople, that he, having found means to cause the Patriarch of the Armenians, called Avedick, to be deposed and exiled, in order to avoid his re-establishment, had him seized on his way to exile, and ordered the captain, if unable to bring him to France, to leave him in Sicily and have him con fined in the prisons of the Inquisition. I learn that the captain was obliged to adopt this latter course. In consequence of a report made to the King, H.M. has commanded me to write to your Excellency that it is of the greatest importance that this unfortunate Patriarch should be detained in the prison where he is so closely as not to be able to write, because the daring act committed by M. de Ferriol might lead to remonstrances on the part of the Porte, and it would be difficult to avoid sending him back to Con stantinople where the authorities would feel them selves obliged to re-establish him, which would be the ruin of all the Armenian Catholics. M. de Ferriol and all the missionaries declare that he is the most ungodly, the most designing, and the man the most to be feared in the world." * Spanish Minister. is The Bastille It appears that when the Grand Vizier heard of the abduction, he called upon M. de Ferriol to deliver up Avedick, and threatened in case of refusal to have the Superior of the Jesuits arrested by way of reprisal. M. de Ferriol denied all knowledge of the matter, and the Superior of the Jesuits was not molested. On the 15th September, Pontchartrain wrote a sec ond letter on this subject to the Marquis de Bedmar in which he said: "The king is anxious for your reply because H.M. must take measures to avoid the char acter of his ambassador being compromised. The Patriarch must be forced to write that having been exiled several times and fearing for his life, he obliged the captain with whom he sailed to take him to a place of safety, and that on his way he touched at Sicily. This declaration ought to be written in his own hand and in Armenian." PONTCHARTRAIN TO M. DE FERRIOL. " Versailles, 15th September, 1706. " H.M. approves of the measures taken to prevent the false Patriarch Avedick from doing all the ill to the Armenian Catholics which he contemplated; but he has not been taken as far as Marseilles. The ship in which he embarked was driven by the wind on the coast of Sicily, where he was confined in the prisons of the Inquisition. ... It is for you to adopt pre cautions in case the Grand Vizier should take the mat ter up. It is fortunate that Avedick is not in our hands, for the ship having touched at Sicily, which belongs to the King of Spain who is at war with the 16 Avedick Grand Seigneur, his subjects will naturally become slaves; the detention of Avedick can be regarded as an accident with which we had nothing to do." PONTCHARTRAIN TO M. DE MONTMORT. " Versailles, ioth November, 1706. " I read to the King the letter which M. de Ferriol addressed you on the subject of Avedick. H.M., in order to prevent persecutions among the Catholics, to which his return would give rise, has determined to have him confined at Mont St. Michel, whither you must conduct him. . . . You must tell him that you are taking him to Versailles by order of the King, so as to have less trouble, and if his name and his ar rival are known at Marseilles you must spread the report that he died in prison. You must also write to M. de Ferriol that H.M. ordered you to send him back to Constantinople on his arrival from Messina, and that you were on the point of doing this when he died. You must add some details necessary to deceive M. de Ferriol himself. . . ." i Very strict instructions were given for the safe keep ing of Avedick at Mont St. Michel. THE MARQUIS DE BEDMAR TO PONTCHARTRAIN. " Madrid, 20th November, 1706. " I have received the letter which your Excellency did me the honour to write to me on the subject of Avedick, whom His Most Christian Majesty ordered should be detained in the prison of the Inquisition in 17 The Bastille this kingdom. I have the honour to inform your Ex cellency that I was unable to obey this order, the let ter of your Excellency having been handed to me after the departure of that man, who was embarked on board a French ship whose captain had orders to hand him over to M. de Montmort at Marseilles." PONTCHARTRAIN TO M. DE FERRIOL. " Versailles, 8th December, 1706. " The most difficult affair which you have on hand at present is that of Avedick. I thought that he would be got rid of by leaving him in the prison of the In quisition from which he would not have been released until it was convenient, and not being in France no one would have asked the King to set him at liberty. But the Vice-Consul of Messina, not having received my letters soon enough, seized the first opportunity of sending him to Marseilles. As it was hardly to be expected that he could be kept there without any one finding it out, H.M. desired him to be taken to Mont St. Michel. ... I have ordered M. de Mont mort, if he thinks that Avedick has been recognised by any one, to write and tell you that as he was on the point of sending him back he was attacked by a violent malady which carried him off in a few hours. . . ." PONTCHARTRAIN TO M. DE MONTMORT. " Versailles, 22nd December, 1706. " H.M. highly approves of the measures adopted for sending the person you were ordered to despatch to Mont St. Michel with secrecy; he finds these ar- 18 Avedick rangements all the better because the desire to see Paris and his disguise will hinder him from endeav ouring to escape or revealing his identity. The Su perior has received the necessary orders for placing him in a secure retreat where he will be able to com municate with no one but a discreet monk. You did well to inform M. de Ferriol of his illness and decease. I shall have his papers examined. . . ." PONTCHARTRAIN TO FATHER HYACINTHE. " Versailles, 5th January, 1707. " I have informed the King of what you say on the subject of the two Armenian patriarchs who are in the Levant, and of the unpleasant consequences of the Avedick affair in as far as they are concerned. H.M. informed of his arrival at Messina, and that he had been committed to the prison of the Inquisition, gave orders to M. Amelot to endeavour to obtain his liberty from the King of Spain; but having learned at the same moment his arrival at Marseilles, H.M. wrote to M. de Montmort to send him back to Con stantinople by the first vessel. I do not know if the disease with which he was attacked a few days after his arrival is serious and will not have a fatal result. More care is taken of him than he deserves, seeing the way in which the Porte treats the Armenian patri archs." It appears that Sari, who replaced Avedick, was obliged to embrace Islamism in order to save his head, while the Patriarch of Jerusalem was driven into 19 The Bastille exile and sixty of his flock sent to the galleys. " The Porte," says M. Ravaisson, " did not accept the fable imagined by M. Pontchartrain, and continued to demand Avedick, although unable to bring any charge home against M. de Ferriol." At this point the unfortunate Avedick, probably with a view to procuring his release, expressed a de sire to embrace Catholicism. In a letter of the 19th September M. de Pontchartrain wrote to General de St. Maur: " You must not allow yourself to be deceived by a feigned devotion. Avedick showed no attachment to the Catholic Church until he was confined at Mont St. Michel, and he certainly intends to deceive those who keep him by appearances. He was the great est persecutor of the Latin rite who had appeared for a long time. ... It is for you to judge if heshould be permitted to hear mass. . . ." PONTCHARTRAIN TO THE PRIOR OF MONT ST. MICHEL. " Versailles, 16th January, 1707. " I have received your letter announcing the ar rival of the prisoner sent to you by order of the King. H.M approves of your having given him a room with a fire-place, linen, etc., as he has no desire that the prisoner should suffer, provided that economy is ob served. As he is in your house against his will he should not be subjected to perpetual abstinence, and you can give him meat when he desires it. . You 20 Picture of Mont St. Michel Avedick must examine him to see if he is sufficiently instructed in the Catholic religion to hear mass." From several further letters written to the Prior we see that Avedick at this period fell really ill from cold and privation, and that up to April, 1707, M. de Pontchartrain was in great doubt whether a man de scribed by M. de Ferriol as a scoundrel and a hypocrite should be allowed to hear mass. In June he wrote to the Prior to know if he had confessed. PONTCHARTRAIN TO M. DE FERRIOL. " Versailles, 29th June, 1707. " H.M. is sorry to learn that the Armenian Catho lics continue to be persecuted with the same animosity as before the exile of Avedick, and he considers from this that Avedick was not the sole author of the per secutions. . . . He has even some scruples with regard to the condition to which he has reduced Avedick, who is not his subject, and whose crimes against religion are not sufficiently established to de cide whether he deserves his fate. H.M. also finds that you embarked in this affair very thoughtlessly, and wishes to know who gave you this bad ad vice. . . ." Father Hyacinthe was the culprit who had advised M. de Ferriol in this matter. PONTCHARTRAIN TO FATHER DE BOUGY. " Fontainebleau, 28th September, 1707. " The monk whom you sent to Mont St. Michel writes to me that he has seen the prisoner, but could 21 The Bastille not confess him, as he knows neither Turkish nor Armenian, the only two languages spoken by the pris oner. . . ." And in February, 1708, Pontchartrain wrote to the Prior of Mont St. Michel, saying that " H.M. is sorry to learn that up to the present you nave been unable to find an interpreter to enable Avedick to explain himself with regard to his spiritual wants and to confess. . . ." One is at a loss, after this, to understand the pre vious assertions made with regard to the desire of Avedick to turn Roman Catholic. PONTCHARTRAIN TO M. DE FERRIOL. " Versailles, 21st March, 1708. " The King desires you to adopt measures for ter minating the Avedick affair. H.M. has scruples about detaining him in prison, where he is deprived of that spiritual aid which he appears to insist upon, as he was not born his subject, and has committed no crime against him directly. . . . Nothing has been found in his papers which can be used against him." Louis XIV. began to think that he had got a wolf by the ears, especially when he heard that active search was being made for the missing Patriarch. In August, one of Avedick's domestics was discovered at Marseilles, and orders were at once despatched to M. de Montmort to have him placed in solitary confine ment in the hospital of the galley-slaves! 22 Avedick PONTCHARTRAIN TO TORCY. " Versailles, 31st August, 1708. " I have received the letter which you did me the honour to write to me, enclosing an extract from one from the Cardinal de la Tremouille with regard to the demands addressed to him by the Holy Office and the Propaganda to keep the Patriarch Avedick more strictly confined, and I have reported the matter to the King. H.M. has commanded me to inform you that it would be difficult to guard Avedick with greater care; no one sees him but the person who takes him his food, they understand each other only by signs, he is put in a separate place when he at tends mass on feast-days and Sundays. But I think you will do well in replying to the Cardinal to tell him not to say that the Patriarch is in France; al though they suspect this at Constantinople, they are not certain; if they were, M. de Ferriol, who is not in the good graces of the Grand Vizier, might suffer. . . . Armenians have visited Malta, Messina, and even Marseilles, but could learn nothing about the pris oner. . . ." It was at this period that the unfortunate Avedick was removed to the Bastille, " the Minister probably supposing," remarks M. Ravaisson, " that he would be able to procure an interpreter in Paris;" and in fact no sooner did Avedick arrive than he received the visit of the Abbe Renaudot, a learned Oriental scholar. The Abbe informed the Patriarch that he was the friend of some persons at Constantinople who 23 The Bastille took an interest in his fate, and that with great dif ficulty he had obtained permission to see him; that his object was to be useful to him. Avedick then related his story to the Abbe, who pretended to know nothing about it. In his narrative the Patriarch said not a word about the French; he even went so far as to speak of Father Hyacinthe in the highest terms. He attributed his arrest to Matyros, who supplanted him, and to the English ! In his report of this inter view — a report which extends over a great many pages — the crafty Abbe assured the Patriarch that if any injustice had been done it was without the knowledge of His Majesty, and that he would find means to carry his case to the foot of the throne. On his side Avedick wished to throw himself at the feet of His Majesty, and to demand pardon for any offence he might have committed. He also asked for a con fessor. In a second interview, at which the Governor of the Bastille was present, Avedick was persuaded to make a written statement to the effect that his arrest was due to the English, and that he wished to join the Roman Catholic Church; he also asked for a catechism. The Abbe added: " The Governor then said that he had given orders for clothes to be made for him, and he stood in need of them, for his cassock and his vest were in raes. ... It was agreed that a tailor should bring some patterns on Wednesday; he said that he could cut the stuff out himself." The Abbe then held out hopes of getting him sent 24 Avedick back to Constantinople, and dwelt on the wickedness of the persons who had caused him to be arrested, it being clear that, " in sending him to Messina their object was that nothing more should ever be heard of him; that it showed the visible protection of God that the Viceroy of Sicily was the Cardinal del Giudice, an honest man and a friend of his, as any one else would have had him taken to Spain and thrown into the prison of the Inquisition, from which he would never have been released . . . that he must not look upon his detention as an imprisonment, but as a neces sary precaution for protecting him, as there were a number of Armenians in Paris, very dangerous scoun drels who were in communication with the Eng lish, and capable of doing him great harm. . . . We told him several stories, with full details, of the knav ery, the lies and the treason of his compatriots " The Abbe had numerous interviews with the Patri arch, and much discussion with M. de Pontchartrain as to what should be done with Avedick, whose re lease was demanded by the Porte. There was also the question of giving him the sacrament, as the sin cerity of his conversion was doubted. Cardinal de Noailles was consulted on this subject. On the 25th July, 1710, the Abbe Renaudot wrote: " I do not examine whether Avedick speaks with sincerity or not; God alone knows. But it is certain that under no pretext of Christian morality can the sacraments be refused to a person who demands them. What with his corpulence, want of exercise and ennui, he may have an attack of apoplexy which will send 25 The Bastille him into the other world, in which case we shall have a weight on our consciences. . . . He has been left for four years without receiving the sacrament." At last, on the ioth September, the King gave or ders for the Patriarch to be taken in a close carriage to Conflans, the country seat of the Bishop of Paris, there to be examined by Cardinal de Noailles. PONTCHARTRAIN TO THE MARQUIS DES ALLEURS. " Versailles, 17th September, 1710. " In the event of any minister of the Porte send ing to ask for news of Avedick, you will have no dif ficulty in proving that you know nothing about him, or else you can ask for time in order to obtain informa tion from your predecessor on the subject." Matters had arrived at such a pitch that it had been deemed prudent to recall M. de Ferriol, who, however, did not leave Constantinople at once. The Abbe was now ordered to draw up a report on the whole affair. By this we see that he suspected Avedick of being aware of the truth, and of meditat ing revenge should he return to Constantinople. The Abbe wrote : " The question is one of abduction, not the abduction of a private individual but of a man having authority, in the country of the Grand Seign eur, abduction which cannot be justified, which no one therefore attempted to justify, but which has always been denied. Now, as it appears from what has since been written by M. des Alleurs that the Armenians 26 Avedick and the Turks believe the abduction to have been ef fected by the French, and as it would be difficult to prove the contrary, what remains to be done is to de clare to the Porte that H.M. never gave orders for this, that the corsair which captured Avedick and plundered him did not dare to land him in France ; that when he was brought to Marseilles he was not recog nised, as he spoke nothing but Turkish; that under these circumstances he was put in a place of safety where he was always well treated, and that as soon as it was known who he really was, measures were taken to satisfy him and send him home contented; that if he were not at once liberated this was because of the dangers with which he was menaced by his compatri ots and the English." The Abbe then suggested that the Government might pursue one of the five follow ing courses: (i) Detain Avedick by force and deny his presence in France; (2) Win him over by kind ness, give him a pension and persuade him to remain in France ; (3) Send him to Rome and place him in the hands of the Pope; (4) Send him to Persia; (5) Send him back straight to Constantinople. The Abbe dwelt at great length on the advantages and disadvantages of his five propositions; being evidently in favour of No. 3, he suggested that it would be well " to draw up an order on the part of the King by which it would appear that H.M. being informed of the outrage com mitted upon Avedick in violation of the law of nations and the friendship existing between himself and the kings his predecessors with the Sublime Porte, has ordered his ambassador and the various agents and 27 The Bastille officers of his harbours, etc., to inquire into and report upon this affair so as to punish the guilty parties." The King highly approved of this report, being most anxious to have done with the affair, and Pont chartrain sent his compliments to Avedick. PONTCHARTRAIN TO M. DE BERNAVILLE. " Versailles, 29th October, 1710. " I saw Cardinal de Noailles this morning, who told me that the King wishes you to take the newly con verted Patriarch on Saturday to Notre Dame to show him the ceremonies of a solemn mass which His Em inence is going to celebrate, and you must place him where he will be the least remarked by the congrega tion. I am persuaded that you will find it proper to have him dressed as a secular priest on this occasion, and you will not be sorry to learn that you will soon be relieved of his presence, H.M. having ordered me to cause a room to be prepared for him at the Nou- veaux Convertis, where he will have more liberty. You can announce this good news to him." Avedick was released from the Bastille, and trans ferred not to the Nouvcaux Convertis but to the house of M. de la Croix, the King's interpreter, where he was strictly watched. On the 14th February, 171 1, Abbe Renaudot wrote a letter to Pontchartrain in which he said that the Patriarch had been seriously ill, and on 'this letter Pontchartrain wrote the following marginal note: " Would it be a blessing, would it be a misfortune were 28 Avedick he to die? What do you think, if you please? I think it would be a misfortune; your opinion and reasons." This marginal note, seeing what afterwards oc curred, is of great interest. PONTCHARTRAIN TO M. DE LA CHAUSSEE, CONSUL AT ROME. "Marly, 18th February, 1711. " The Armenian Patriarch Avedick was carried away from the island of Scio and brought to France in 1706. M. de Ferriol accomplished this act without order or permission; the affair has caused great em barrassment and is not yet terminated with the Porte. Avedick, who has received all kinds of good treat ment since he arrived in France, having expressed the desire to embrace the Catholic religion, the Cardinal de Noailles received his abjuration on the 25th Sep tember last, and he demands no further favour from the King than permission to go to Rome in order to renew his profession of faith to the Pope. I am writ ing to-day to the Cardinal de la Tremouille to per suade His Holiness to grant this Armenian an asylum. . . ." And on the same day Pontchartrain wrote to the Marquis des Alleurs to render the fact of Avedick's conversion public at Constantinople as soon as the ves sel which was bringing home M. de Ferriol had got out of the roads of Smyrna. The Ambassador was to observe the effect created by the news on both Ar menians and Turks. .29 The Bastille There is nothing in the " Archives " to show what the Porte thought of this admission of Avedick's ex istence in France now acknowledged for the first time. Negotiations were next opened with Rome with the view of inducing the Pope to relieve France of the " newly converted Patriarch." PONTCHARTRAIN TO THE CARDINAL DE LA TREMOUILLE. " Marly, 29th April, 1711. " The King has seen with pleasure the zeal and dili gence which you have exhibited in the execution of his orders, and the success of your first steps in fa vour of Avedick; there is every reason to hope that the Pope will consent to receive the Patriarch at Rome, especially if excited and flattered by you on the glory which his Pontificate will derive. . . . The conversion of the Patriarch appears daily more sin cere and fervent; he goes regularly to mass, and reads good works, among others the ' Lives of the Saints,' which he wishes to translate into Armenian." Alas ! in the midst of these negotiations poor Ave dick died, and Pontchartrain the next day (22nd July, 171 1) gave orders for official reports to be drawn out showing that long before his death the Patriarch en joyed full liberty, that he received all possible tem poral succour during his illness, that no suspicion of violence or treason existed, and that he died a zealous Catholic. A copy of these authentic documents was to be despatched to the Marquis des Alleurs. 30 Avedick It is curious to remark that the death of Avedick should have corresponded in date with the refusal of the Court of Rome to take charge of him. On the 27th July, Pontchartrain wrote to the Cardinal de la Tremouille, saying that he had delayed replying to his last letter, that the King was dissatisfied with the irresolution of the Court of Rome, but that the death of the Patriarch had for the moment put an end to all difficulties. Perhaps the Abbe Renaudot had given it as his opinion that his death would be a blessing. To the Marquis des Alleurs, Pontchartrain wrote that " the death of Avedick was neither violent nor premature, but caused solely by the immoderate use which he made, unknown to his host, of brandy and other baneful drugs." This was evidently a falsehood. Avedick was buried according to the rites of the Catholic Church at St. Sulpice. As for the servant Cachadur, who had been arrested at Marseilles while seeking for his master, he was quiet ly packed off to Martinique on the death of Avedick; he was accorded a pension, and the authorities re ceived instructions to convert him and find him a wife. It was hoped that with the death of Arnault in 1694 the Jansenist controversy would come to a close. This was not the case. Father Quesnel stepped forward with his hundred-and-one propositions, and renewed the conflict with unabated vigour. Several of his ad herents were thrown into the Bastille and other prisons. 3i The Bastille PONTCHARTRAIN TO D'ARGENSON. " Fontainebleau, 26th September, 1705. " I send you an order to have M. du Plessis, a Flem ing, received in the Bastille." M. du Plessis, by making a hole in the wall and forcing open the doors, had managed to deliver Father Quesnel from the prison of the Officiality in Brussels, and to hide him in such a way that neither the police agents of France nor of Spain could find him. This exploit cost M. du Plessis five years in the Bastille. In April, 1706, we find Cassar Phoebus de Sault Tavannes confined in the Bastille for a couple of months for reasons set forth in the following letter : M. D'ARGENSON TO PONTCHARTRAIN. " 9th April, 1706. " I have just received a complaint from a girl called Boudiere, from which it appears that on the 7th inst. M. de Tavannes, an ensign in the Guards, accom panied by two friends, went into her room at noon, and wished to go to bed. She took to flight, but M. de Tavannes caught her, took her by the throat, drew his sword, and wounded her in the head and face. In the evening M. de Tavannes and his friends, followed by half-a-dozen soldiers of the Guards, returned, broke open the door, saying that they would run her through the body twenty times. This second scene of violence lasted half-an-hour." 32 M. de Montgomery For this disgraceful conduct and for other matters M. de Tavannes was confined in the gaol at Amiens, from which he escaped, and then in the Bastille. His father obtained his release, on condition of taking him into the country thirty leagues from Paris. In October, 1706, the Comte de Montgomery was confined in the Bastille on the charge of debauchery and for leading a scandalous life on his estates. LA VRILLIERE TO M. DE ST. MARS. " Versailles, 16th October, 1706. " I see by your letter that it is necessary for M. de Montgomery to have a valet, as he suffers from the gout. You can give him one, after having him ex amined to see that he brings nothing to aid him to make his escape. You must see that the valet does not leave the Bastille, and that, like his master, he holds no communication with persons outside." The poor Comte was destined to end his days in prison. LA VRILLIERE TO M. DE BERNAVILLE. " Versailles, 27th March, 1710. " I learn by your letter the death of M. de Mont gomery. It would have been better had he asked for a confessor; but at all events you are rid of him. You can do as you think proper as regards his burial, it being very indifferent to H.M. whether he be buried in one place rather than in another, and still more in what manner the ceremony is performed." 33 The Bastille This indifference on the part of His Most Christian Majesty probably arose from the fact of the Comte having belonged to the Reformed Religion. In December, 1706, the report having spread abroad that the Prince de Leon was going to marry Florence, a ballet-girl, who had been the mistress of the Regent when he was Due de Chartres, and who had borne him a son, who afterwards became Archbishop of Cam- bray, the lady was sent to the Bastille. M. D'ARGENSON TO PONTCHARTRAIN. " 12th December, 1707. " Florence was arrested this morning while the Prince de Leon was at Versailles. Her papers have been seized, but I have not yet had time to examine them. She told the officer who arrested her that she was not married, that she long foresaw what would happen, that she would be only too happy to retire into a convent, and that she had a hundred times asked the Prince de Leon to consent to this. I have in formed the Due de Rohan (the Prince's, father) of these details. . . ." The dangerous part of this liaison was that it had lasted for two years, and that Florence, still passion ately loved by the Prince, was again in a fair way to become a mother. The Prince was furious when he heard of the arrest of his mistress, and refused to see his father, his mother, and his aunt, Madame de Sou- bise, who had been chiefly instrumental in bringing about the catastrophe. If Florence was taken to the 34 Florence Bastille it was more to prevent the Prince from effect ing her release and marrying her than from a desire to treat her harshly. PONTCHARTRAIN TO D'ARGENSON. " No doubt M. de St. Mars will treat Florence with kindness; the Due de Rohan has offered to furnish all necessaries, he may add anything he wishes in the shape of furniture or food more exquisite than the ordinary good nourishment given to her at the Bas tille. . . ." CLEMENT, ACCOUCHEUR, TO M. D'ARGENSON. " 27th June, 1708. " The person whom you know has been brought to bed of a daughter; both are doing well. . . ." PONTCHARTRAIN TO D'ARGENSON. " 8th August, 1708. " I have written to Clement to release Florence. At the same time I have informed the Due de Rohan that the intention of the King is that he shall pay Clement and the other expenses (sic) which have been incurred for this person. . . ." Great difficulty was experienced in obtaining what was due from the Due de Rohan, who " was such a miser that," says M. Ravaisson, " he allowed his wife and children to die of hunger." The King insisted that the Due should pay the doctor and the nurse, and a long correspondence ensued upon this subject, 35 The Bastille the Due protesting and His Majesty insisting; and, in fact, the sum total for capture, board, doctor, nurse, female attendant, and the Major of the Bastille, was pretty high — 2,312 livres. Poor Florence was no sooner in the Bastille than she was forgotten by her faithless Prince, who eloped with Mademoiselle de Roquelaure, a lady who is rep resented as " ugly, hunch-backed, no longer young, and fully convinced that she was eternally destined to celibacy." The Prince, as may be imagined, met with little difficulty in persuading her to run away from her convent and to marry him, but the marriage was hardly consummated when the Princess was sent back to her cloister. The Prince married because his father promised to make him an allowance on that condition — a promise which was not kept. On the other hand, Madame de Roquelaure, who had placed her daughter in a convent to avoid giving her a dowry, refused all pecuniary assistance. The consequence was that the Prince and Princess had a very hard time of it, for the Due de Rohan lived to a ripe old age, and did not die until 1727. As for Florence, we find that after leaving the Bas tille she retired to a convent, where she probably end ed her days. Her daughter married a French General. At the commencement of 1707 a number of spies were arrested and thrown into the Bastille, and amongst these was the Abbe du Bucquoy, " a rogue and a scoundrel capable of anything." 36 Abbe du Bucquoy M. D' AVIGNON TO CHAMILLART. " Sth May, 1709. " I should not be performing my duty if I had not the honour to write to you on the subject of a pris oner, Soulanges, detained in the Bastille by your or ders, who, after sawing the iron bars of his window, aided by his comrades, descended with them into the ditch by means of cords made with their sheets; they were discovered by the soldiers on guard, with two other prisoners who were in the plot, Linch and the Abbe du Bucquoy, both in the Bastille by order of M. de Pontchartrain. The Abbe, having escaladed the walls, made his escape into Paris, favoured by a dark night, and the other two were taken back to prison. This happened at one o'clock this morn ing. . . ." This affair, reported by the Lieutenant of the Bas tille, caused a great sensation, and much afflicted the Governor, M. de Bernaville, who acknowledged that it was all his fault. In a letter to M. de Pontchartrain he said : " This unmitigated scamp, who made it a glory to break out of every prison, and who recently escaped from For-1'Eveque, has broken out of ours. I kept him according to order in the underground cell, without fire, and with no more light than was necessary for eating and drinking; but the severity of the winter excited my compassion. I had him re moved to a chamber well barred, but not well enough for him, since he made his escape. ... I cannot 37 The Bastille tell you how afflicted my officers and I feel; we are in despair. As for myself, I passed two nights without sleeping, and almost without eating, walking up and down all day long. I wish I had never put foot in the Bastille. I would give all my fortune and the revenue of the Bastille to find that fellow. . . ." In spite of all the activity of the police the Abbe managed to make good his escape into Switzerland, where owing to his daring evasion he obtained both money and consideration. He afterwards went to Holland, where he met with a hospitable reception, keeping well clear of his native land. As we have before remarked, the authorities did not quite disbelieve in the existence of the philosopher's stone and the transmutation of metals, and while throwing the alchemists into the Bastille allowed them to experiment on behalf of the Government. On the 27th March one of these impostors called Delisle was arrested after a correspondence which commenced in May, 1708, between M. de Pontchartrain and M. de Grignan. Delisle seems to have been patronised by the Bishop of Senez, who wrote to M. de Pontchar train that he had operated in his presence and had changed several iron nails into silver. " Three days afterwards he transmuted all the buttons of his justau- corps and vest into gold." Several other persons wit nessed these experiments, and the good Bishop de clared that, incredulous at first, all his doubts had been removed, and that he had been obliged to " surrender to the evidence of his senses." 38 Delisle PONTCHARTRAIN TO THE BISHOP OF SENEZ. " Marly, 7th November, 1708. " I have received the letter which you gave your self the trouble to write respecting the operations of Delisle and the confidence you repose in him, and I have read it to the King. It appears to me that H.M. would be glad to see the nail made by Delisle, if you would kindly send it to me in a box. I will take care to return it to you. You must add what you think concerning the designs of Delisle, and if he is in a position to work in order to render his discovery (too excellent to be believed in before being seen) of ser vice to the King." In the correspondence which ensued we find Delisle constantly asking for time to bring his discovery to a higher state of perfection, stoutly supported by the Bishop, and excusing himself from going to Paris. The Councillor of State, Nointel, was charged to in quire into this affair, and he appears, at length, to have lost patience and to have packed the poor alchemist off to the capital. THE BISHOP OF SENEZ TO M. DE NOINTEL. " 14th May, 1711. " You are no doubt aware that Delisle has been arrested at Nice and sent to Paris. ... I am greatly distressed at the way in which the poor captive has been treated, and the ignominy he has endured, having been bound hand and foot. ... I am, 39 The Bastille however, consoled by the thought that Delisle has at last determined to satisfy the King. . . ." And the Bishop begged that Delisle might have his cords removed, as there was nothing to dread from an unarmed man guarded by seven or eight archers. In spite of his great age, the Bishop announced his intention of starting for Paris. Delisle appears to have been wounded on the road to Paris, and to have been in very indifferent health when committed to the Bastille. BERNAVILLE TO PONTCHARTRAIN. " 1st November, 171 1. " Our maker of gold set to work yesterday. The Bishop of Senez brought the powders and bottles, and lighted the furnace in presence of M. de Nointel, M. de Launay, and three officers of the Mint, and after having worked with the bellows for three hours he made nothing. . . ." Upon this, the King ordered that Delisle should be examined; but by a letter dated 1st February, 1712, written by d'Argenson, who was to conduct the ex amination, to M. de Nointel, we see that the captive suddenly expired on the above date, d'Argenson be ing evidently of opinion that Delisle committed sui cide in order to escape the consequences of his mis deeds. At a very early age Nicholas Freret, another philos opher, exhibited great promise. In March, 1714, when twenty-five years of age, he pronounced a dis- 40 Freret course at the Academy of Inscriptions, on the origin of the French. " This discourse," says Delort, " was full of erudition, but perhaps too bold and too little fa vourable to French vanity. ... It excited the indignation of one of the members of the Academy, who denounced Freret to the sovereign authority, and the young scholar was thrown into the Bastille on the 26th December, 1714." It appears, however, from a letter written by Chan cellor Voysin to d'Argenson, that Freret was very much attached to the Jansenist party, " which is not astonishing, since his mother is the sister of Le Noir." Freret seems to have whiled away his time in the Bastille by re-reading his favourite Greek and Latin authors, making extracts, composing vocabularies in various languages, and working at a Chinese gram mar. This philosopher was treated with great con sideration, and was released in March, 171 5, having been three months and three days in captivity. In May, 171 5, we find the Princess of Nassau com mitted to the Bastille on the charge of debauchery. This lady, whose maiden name was Charlotte de Mailly de Nesle, belonged to the family which fur nished in succession three mistresses to Louis XV. The Princess is thus spoken of by St. Simon : " The Marquis de Nesle had a sister who had very little money, was running to seed, and did not wish to take the veil. He found a younger son of Nassau-Siegen, without breeches, who filled a subordinate post in the guards of the King of Spain in Flanders. The name flattered the Maillys, who arranged a marriage, at 4i The Bastille which hunger wedded thirst, which was very unhappy, and which gave rise to a good many scenes. . . . The husband was a very honest and brave fellow, al though poor, who had allowed his wife to brelander at her ease, who lived by this trade and the money she gained at cards. Ugly as she was, she had some vil lainous adventures which made a great noise. The husband got a'ngry; she decided to plead, and very strange things were said on both sides. The husband presented a petition to the King in which, very un necessarily, he asked permission to accuse his- wife of adultery. What was worse still, he accused her of attempting to poison him. The Maillys got fright ened of the scaffold, and obtained permission for the Princess to be taken to the Bastille. . . ." M. Ravaisson gives us the petition of the Prince, in which he details his misfortunes, and gives the names of his wife's lovers. D'ARGENSON TO PONTCHARTRAIN. " Paris, 4th May, 1715. " The Princess of Nassau has just been taken to the Bastille with all the respect which you did me the honour to recommend. This order has been executed in accordance with the wishes of H.M., of the Prince of Nassau, the Comtesse de Mailly, and the Marquis de Nesle, who was good enough to bring his sister here from the convent where she was staying. . . ." The Archbishop of Rheims appears to have effected a sort of reconciliation between husband and wife, in 42 The Princess of Nassau consequence of which the Princess was removed from the Bastille to the convent of Rethel, which she left on the death of Louis XIV. Under the Regency she returned to her old habits of dissipation, which, being in keeping with the epoch, probably passed unnoticed and unpunished. On the 26th January, 17 15, the Marquise d'Esclain- villiers was also taken to the Bastille by order of the King on the charge of debauchery. D'ESCLAINVILLIERS TO BERNAVILLE. " Paris, 20th March, 1715. " I have the honour to send you three pair of sheets, and before leaving I will send you some money to meet the expenses of the lady you have the kindness to keep. I am under a great many obligations for your attentions. . . . May I dare to beg you to ask Madame d'Esclainvilliers what has become of my two cravates of point lace, with the sleeves? I shall be very much obliged to you, for I cannot find them." More than once Madame d'Esclainvilliers implored her husband to pardon her. MADAME D'ESCLAINVILLIERS TO HER HUSBAND. " From the Bastille, 1st January, 1718. " I cannot allow the commencement of the new year to pass by without wishing you health, happiness, and a contented mind. I am persuaded, however, that you cannot have it too contented, knowing the painful position in which I am. I throw myself at your knees 43 The Bastille and demand pardon. Pardon a poor slave who, for the last three years, has been doing penitence over whelmed with all the bitterness in the world. In the name of God lighten my punishment by allowing me to go to a convent for my repose and salvation. . . . In the name of God and our three children, decide something in my favour. . . ." This letter had the desired effect, and the prisoner, who had been treated with a great deal of indulgence in the Bastille, was removed to the Ursuline Convent at Argenteuil. The actual crime committed by Madame d'Esclain villiers is shrouded in mystery. No mention of it is to be found. The last letter on the subject in the " Archives " runs thus : MAUREPAS TO THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. " 16th May, 1721. " Before the death of the late King, the Keeper of the Seals was charged with a serious affair affecting the family of M. Esclainvilliers. His wife, through the kindness of H.M., was confined in the Bastille, and the papers remained in the hands of your father who always kept them in a special place. ... I beg that you will send them to me." On the 10th April Pontchartrain announced to d'Argenson that a foreigner of the name of Diesback, who pretended that he could convert the baser metals into gold and silver, had been for four months in Paris, that several goldsmiths had been deceived, and that 44 Diesback His Majesty wished him to pay particular attention to the matter and to have the foreigner arrested if necessary. PONTCHARTRAIN TO D'ARGENSON. " 27th April, 1715. " There can be no doubt, according to what you say, that Diesback is a swindler who is endeavouring to make dupes on the pretext of having discovered the philosopher's stone and the transmutation of metals. It is very certain that if he were to remain free he would find many persons who, thirsting after gold, would fall into the snares set by this man, and it is to hinder this that H.M. desires you to arrest him and take him to the Bastille. ... It is important that this man should not escape, and that his papers and effects should be seized; we shall find a good many things among them." THE SAME TO THE SAME. " 2nd May, 1715. " I have shown the King the report handed to me by Guillier on the subject of Diesback; you will see that he considers this man very clever, and believes that he has discovered the means of separating the metals and of converting mercury. . . ." It is evident from the correspondence which ensued that both Louis XIV. and his ministers were half con vinced that Diesback had discovered the great secret, and Boudin, one of the Court physicians, was sent to 45 The Bastille the Bastille to see Diesback operate. On the 18th June, Pontchartrain in a further letter to d'Argenson on this matter wrote : " H.M. wishes Diesback to re main in the Bastille, where Boudin is to go to examine his operations. During the time that this man is con fined it will be well for you to speak to him and per suade him to work in good faith in case his science is certain, or to acknowledge the fraud if it be false." The report which Boudin made was not favourable except as regards Diesback's secret for dissolving metals, and he was therefore released from the Bastille on the 22nd July, a fact which proves that he had been confined in the first instance in order to operate for the Government. Boudin, in his report, said of Dies- back : " He is a poor devil who has never taken any one's money, and what will you do with him in prison? " Madame de Staal, or Mademoiselle de Launay, as she then was, was one of the victims thrown into the Bastille in connection with the great Celamare con spiracy,* because she obstinately refused to betray her * The Celamare- Alberoni conspiracy, which gained so many adherents in France, had for its object to induce Louis XV. to de prive the Duke of Orleans of the Regency, to convoke the States- General, and to place Charles XII. of Sweden at the head of an expedition destined to re-establish the Stuarts in England. The almost total destruction of the Spanish fleet by Admiral Byng proved a terrible blow to the conspirators, numbers of whom were arrested by order of Cardinal Dubois. The Due du Maine, a natural son of Louis XIV., was exiled to Dourlens, and the Duchesse, a Conde, to Dijon. Other culprits of less importance, like Mademoiselle de Launay, were committed to the Bastille. 46 Madame de Staal mistress, the Duchesse du Maine. She has left a lively account of her misfortunes in her " Memoirs." After dwelling upon the arrest of the Marquis de Pompa dour, M. de St. Genies, the Chevalier de Menil, and the Abbe Brigault, she says : " There were several in trigues distinct from ours, which all had Spain for headquarters, and were, carried on through our am bassador; the Due de Richelieu, committed to the Bastille some time afterwards, had his, and several other grandees of the kingdom were suspected of hav ing their's." Mademoiselle de Launay was first of all confined in her room in company with a musketeer, a taciturn man from whom she could elicit nothing; then she was put into a carriage with three musket eers and driven to the Bastille; she had not long been shown her chamber, when the Governor arrived ac companied by Rondel, her maid. This was in 1718. M. de Launay* had just succeeded M. de Bernaville. The prisoner asked for books and a pack of cards, and whiled away a portion of her time reading odd volumes of " Cleopatre," and playing at picquet with Rondel. She takes care to mention in her "Memoirs" how she arranged herself to the best advantage to re ceive M. de Maisonrouge, the King's Lieutenant of the Bastille, who had formerly been a captain-major of cavalry, but had never seen his regiment. At first this military gentleman, who, we are told, " was full of natural virtues, which were not disfigured by the roughness and country manners by which they were accompanied," refused to see either Mademoiselle de * No relation to Mademoiselle de Launay. 47 The Bastille Montauban or Mademoiselle de Launay, ejaculating : " What can I say to those peronnelles who will do noth ing but scream and cry? " However, M. de Maison- rouge at last decided upon paying Mademoiselle de Launay a visit, with what result we shall see presently. In the meantime the Governor brought her her linen and a purse filled with gold, the present of a friend called M. de Vallincourt. Everything was done to make her as comfortable as it was possible, and she says in her "Memoirs:" "Relieved of the greatest anxieties inherent to my position, I should have tasted repose, had my mind not been continually besieged by a terrible idea. Some days before being confined in the Bastille the Abbe Chaulieu had related the most fearful stories about what happened there; amongst others, that of a lady of quality who had been tortured without trial, and so severely that she remained all her life a cripple. He pretended that these means were often resorted to without any formality. This made a great impression on my mind, and I ventured one day when the King's Lieutenant came to see me to turn the conversation upon several things which I had heard were done in the Bastille. He treated most of them as children's stories. At length, lowering my voice, I said people pretended that the question was administered without trial. He made no reply. He walked up and down the room during this conversa tion. He took another turn and then left me abrupt ly. I was thunderstruck, and more persuaded than ever of the terrible treatment which awaited me." Mademoiselle de Launay afterwards discovered that 48 The Celamare Conspiracy the King's Lieutenant was deaf of one ear, and that she had addressed her question on the wrong side. She laughed heartily on making this discovery. The prisoner afterwards relates how, when she had been three weeks in the Bastille she was summoned to appear before the Keeper of the Seals; nor does she omit to state that before leaving her room she applied a little rouge, which she was not accustomed to do, so that her judges might learn nothing from the pallor of her face. Mademoiselle de Launay got through her examination, which was not a very severe one, satisfactorily to herself, and when it was over, instead of being put to the question, she was rather astonished when M. d'Argenson graciously asked her if she were well treated, and intimated that such was his desire. She tells us that she derived great amusement from a cat which had been called in to kill mice, and which had kittens, which kittens had more kittens, and in fact the prisoner witnessed several generations. To return to the " Memoirs : " " I had been for three months in this peaceful abode, when towards the end of Lent the Governor asked me if I wished to faire mes paques. I asked if I might have a confessor of my own choice. He said no, and that I must either take the chaplain of the establishment or go without con fessing. I was so suspicious of all the officers that I was tempted to put off this duty to a more convenient season. . . . However, fearing that the Regent, who entered into the most minute details of our con duct, would draw unfavourable conclusions from my refusal, I determined at all risks to confess. As I had 49 The Bastille various things to recall to mind which might get jum bled up, I asked the Governor for some paper so that I might set them in order and forget nothing. He re plied that nothing could be written in the Bastille with out being given to him to read." After this little trait concerning the religious scru ples of the Regent, who was reckoned to be the most dissolute man in the kingdom, we find that the pris oner had every reason to be satisfied with the chaplain. That she should have suspected this ecclesiastic in the first place is not much to be wondered at, considering that a large number of abbes were notoriously spies in the pay of the Government, and formed, as Lanfrey said, speaking of the priests and bishops of the First Empire, a kind of sacred gendarmerie. Several prisoners having been released, M. de Mai- sonrouge had some leisure time, a large portion of which he devoted to Mademoiselle de Launay, who says : " Without being aware of it, he conceived the greatest attachment that any one ever had for me. He was the only man by whom I think that I was really loved." In fact, the King's Lieutenant became so amorous, that he allowed Mademoiselle de Launay, in order to divert herself, to open a correspondence in verse with a fellow-prisoner called the Chevalier de Menil, who had also been arrested in connection with the Celamare conspiracy, and with whom she had a slight acquaintance. Verses were interchanged, and at last M. de Maisonrouge agreed to allow an inter view, introduced the Chevalier into the lady's room when she was in bed, and chatted with Rondel while 5o Madame de Staal he conversed with her mistress. Other interviews, some stolen, followed, and in the end the lady and the Chevalier fell passionately in love with each other, to the great grief of the simple-minded M. de Maison- rouge. In February, 1720, Mademoiselle de Launay was released, and as de Menil had already regained his liberty, she looked forward to uniting her lot with his. Alas ! the Chevalier turned out to be a gay deceiver. He was hardly beyond the walls of the Bastille when his passion cooled, and his fine promises were forgot ten. The King's Lieutenant was revenged. In 1735 Mademoiselle de Launay gave her hand to the Baron de Staal, an ex-officer of the Swiss corps commanded by the Due du Maine. There are portions of this lady's " Memoirs " writ ten with great spirit, filled with small talk, very clever in its way, and highly interesting at times. Carlyle quotes a letter which she wrote to Madame du Def- fand, giving an inimitable description of a visit paid by Voltaire and his divine Emilie to the Duchesse du Maine at her palace of Sceaux, pointing out that " she is by no means Necker's daughter, but a much clever er." In some things the little de Staal reminds us of Gourville; they both began life in a menial capacity, and both by their talent rose to enjoy the friendship of their patrons. Few persons, however, will endorse the judgment of Carlyle, and admit the quondam lady's-maid of the Duchesse du Maine, with all her in teresting babble, to be cleverer than Madame de Stael, the authoress of " Corinne," and that " bird of ill omen " persecuted by Napoleon. 51 The Bastille On the ist March, 1719, a man called Lagrange, implicated in the Celamare conspiracy, was committed to the Bastille. The only document which we find in connection with this prisoner is the following : COMMISSIONER CAMUSET TO D'ARGENSON. " 18th June, 1722. " Lagrange, a prisoner in the Bastille by virtue of an order signed by the King, died this morning. As he would neither confess nor hear of a reconciliation with God, he was refused Christian burial. The Gov ernor does not know what his position was beyond the fact that he was an officer, nor what religion he pro fessed. It is supposed, however, that he was a Catho lic, as he went to mass several times. I have told the Governor not to have him buried until you have de cided whether it shall be in consecrated ground or not." To avoid a scandal d'Argenson gave orders that La grange should be buried in the usual manner. 52 CHAPTER II. RICHELIEU— VOLTAIRE 1711-1716 At this period two celebrated characters, destined to become fast friends, the one a man of letters and the other a soldier and a courtier — the Due de Richelieu and Voltaire — became State prisoners. Neither had committed any serious crime, nor did either remain long in the prison to which, however, they were des tined to return more than once. Louis Francois Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, born 13th March, 1696, who had Louis XIV. for god father and the Duchesse de Bourgogne for godmother, was destined to be three times confined in the Bastille. When he was fourteen years of age this " precocious Cherubin," as Jules Janin calls him, the Due de Fron- sac, was presented by his father to Madame de Main- tenon, who shortly afterwards wrote to the Due de Richelieu saying : " Your son enjoys the favour of the King and of the whole court; he does everything well that he attempts, he dances to perfection, he plays at cards ' honestly,' he is a good horseman, he is polished, neither timid nor forward, gentlemanly, endowed with conversational powers, and in fact he is wanting in nothing. The Duchesse de Bourgogne treats him 53 The Bastille with great attention." In fact her Royal Highness treated " her doll," as she called Monsieur de Fronsac, with so much attention that the Court was scandal ised, and to save her reputation Cherubin was ordered to marry Mademoiselle de Noailles. This marriage, we are assured, was merely one of form. However that may be, the Due de Fronsac's conduct continued to give serious displeasure to his family, and he was consequently committed to the Bastille on the 22nd April, 171 1, on the express demand of his father, who himself had been anything but a model of virtue. The young scapegrace was driven to prison by his father, who threatened to allow him to rot there un less he changed his conduct. He afterwards learned, so he tells us in his " Memoirs," that his incarceration was the result of a council held by the King, Madame de Maintenon, and his father, who came to the con clusion that it was high time to put an end to his liaison with the Duchesse de Bourgogne. BERNAVILLE TO PONTCHARTRAIN. " Paris, 8th May, 171 1. " I have come to an understanding with the Car dinal de Noailles and the Due de Richelieu that the Due de Fronsac shall dine with me and remain here until five o'clock, and that he shall receive his masters in mathematics and languages in his own room. It would be impossible to leave him alone all day without injury to his health. His relatives may be certain that he will see no one here capable of setting him a bad example, and I presume to flatter myself you have a 54 Le Due de Fronsac sufficiently good opinion of me to be sure that noth ing happens in my presence or in that of M. de Lau nay, either in my room, or during our promenades in the courtyard and on the bastion, contrary to good morals. The Marquise de Chastelet (wife of the Lieu- tenant-General Governor of Vincennes), who did us the honour to dine with us, can tell you how we get on together. . . ." THE SAME TO THE SAME. " 14th May, 171 1. " The Due de Richelieu wrote to me yesterday that on the earnest entreaties of the Due de Fronsac he had consented that his wife should visit him in the Bas tille. She came yesterday evening with the steward. I received them in my apartment. The Due de Fron sac treated his wife very well, and showed himself grateful for the alacrity with which she had obtained permission to see him." M. de Bernaville then expressed himself highly sat isfied with the conduct of his prisoner; he had also much to say in favour of the Abbe de St. Remy, who shared the captivity of the young Duke and attended to his spiritual wants. In the " Memoirs of the Due de Richelieu " we find this account of the visit of his wife — wife only in name — to the Bastille : " One morning a woman appeared, whom he had never loved, and visited his prison. The lovely angel who came down from heaven to deliver Peter was not more radiant. The Due de Fronsac 55 The Bastille was dazzled; and his wife on perceiving this, wished to aid him in recovering his senses by overwhelming him with compliments and caresses; but the Duke remem bered that Louis XIV. and Madame de Maintenon sometimes ordered their courtiers to love their wives, and he suspected that Madame de Fronsac had been sent to the Bastille as if to tell him that he must love her because the King wished it." Under these cir cumstances the prisoner treated the " ambassadress " with the greatest respect and veneration, " but in giv ing an account of her mission to the King and to Ma dame de Maintenon, she had to tell them that she re turned to the Court as she had left it." In a letter dated the ist July, M. de Bernaville told M. de Pontchartrain that the Prince de Conti had honoured the Due de Fronsac with a visit, and that the Duke's masters were much pleased with his ap plication. The Duke, in fact, appears to have devoted much time to the study of Virgil, and it was remarked in after life that he was never tired of reading the " Bucolics." BERNAVILLE TO PONTCHARTRAIN. " 8th July, 1721. " M. and Madame de Cavoye came yesterday to pay the Due de Fronsac a visit; they prepared him by means of good advice to receive the visit of the Due de Richelieu. He came this morning, and there was much tenderness exhibited on both sides. The Duke spoke to him of his past conduct; he admitted his faults, and said that he would never forget the favour 56 Fronsac with Small-pox which the King had accorded him in sending him here to do penitence and to repair them, that he was happy to be here, and that he would do all he could to render himself worthy of the kindness of H.M. He declared that he was in no hurry to be released, and that he should regard it as a great misfortune were he to be promptly set at liberty. . . ." It was the Marquis de Cavoye, Grand Marshal of the King's household, who surprised the Due de Fron sac in the apartment of the Duchesse de Bourgogne. On the 28th September, M. de Bernaville informed M. de Pontchartrain that the Duke had been taken ill. M. de la Carliere, the doctor of the Bastille, was called in, and bled the patient in the foot; then came M. Barere, the surgeon of the Musketeers, brought by the Duchesse de Richelieu. The next day it was found that the prisoner had the small-pox, and M. de Bernaville forwarded to his chief the most minute de tails concerning the progress of the malady, then far more dangerous than it is now. BERNAVILLE TO PONTCHARTRAIN. " 3rd October, 1711. " There is no change in the condition of M. de Fron sac; M. de la Carliere has just left him, and finds that he is going on well; his confessor came to see him yesterday evening and asked him to take the sacra ment; he earnestly requested this favour and also ex treme unction. He received the communion at six o'clock with sentiments of piety which edified every 57 The Bastille one. I continue to take care of him, and to see that he wants nothing." " Minute by Pontchartrain : Read to the King. Reply: Continue to write punctually." By a letter of the 6th October, we see that the Duke was getting on well, had had a good night, had been able to take some broth, and had asked permission to send a valet-de-chambre to the church of Sainte Gene vieve to have a mass said, to touch the shrine with his pocket-handkerchief, and to bring him some con secrated wafers. On the 17th, the Duke was perfectly cured and got up; the windows were opened after " all kinds of gun powder had been burned in the room." BERNAVILLE TO PONTCHARTRAIN. " 1st November, 1711. " The Due de Fronsac went to mass yesterday for the first time since his illness, and performed his de votions to-day. The small-pox has done him good; he has grown considerably, and will not be marked." On the 5th November, M. de Bernaville informed M. de Pontchartrain that the Due de Fronsac had asked for permission to walk in the garden of the ar senal. This request irritated the Minister, who re fused even to mention the matter to the King; it was contrary to all regulations, he said.* * Had not Labourdonnais enjoyed this favour? 58 The Due de Richelieu At length, after having been kept in confinement for fifteen months, orders were given for the Due de Fronsac to be liberated. It was considered useless to detain him any longer in the Bastille. BERNAVILLE TO PONTCHARTRAIN. " 19th June, 1712. " I have just received the order which you sent me concerning the Due de Fronsac; he remained with us until the Duchesse de Fronsac came for him; he is very grateful for the diligence with which you pro cured his liberty. I cannot sufficiently praise his con duct and his behaviour toward myself during his stay here. All this is owing to your advice, of which he will stand in need at the Court; he hopes that you will not refuse it to him." The Due de Fronsac did not at once go to the Court. On leaving the Bastille he repaired to the army in Flanders, and was present at the fall of Friburg, Marchiennes, and Douai. To reward his conduct Marshal Villars sent him to Versailles to announce the capture of these places. The Due de Fronsac, whose father had died while he was campaigning, presented himself at Court as Due de Richelieu, and people were much astonished when he set to work to pay his father's debts. Before the end of the year Louis XIV. expired, and we are told that the Duke was one of the only nobles who wept for the departed monarch. 59 The Bastille D'ARGENSON TO BERNAVILLE. " 18th May, 1716. " The Parliament is actively prosecuting the Due de Richelieu and the Marquis de Gace; they were ex amined on Sunday, and to-day were visited by the surgeons." In the " Memoirs " of the Due de Richelieu may be found an account of the scenes of debauchery which disgraced the Regency, and if some of the details are exaggerated, there can be no doubt that when Louis XIV. died, the Court, freed from the constraint which his authority imposed, gave full play to its immoral tendencies. Richelieu was accused by the Comte de Gace of having revealed what had occurred at a secret orgy which took place at his house. Meeting the Duke at a masked ball, he whispered to the lady who was leaning on his arm: " Beautiful Princess, do not listen to a mask so perfidious in love." The pair at once left the ball-room, swords were crossed in the street, the Count was wounded in the arm and in two other places, slightly, while he ran the Duke through the body. The Comte de Gace was able to return to the ball, but his adversary, though not dangerously hurt, had to be taken home. This affair took place on the 17th February, 17 16, in presence of a number of people, and it made so much noise in Paris that the Parliament, which was always wrangling with the peers, determined to take it up. Richelieu was called upon to constitute himself a prisoner, upon which he 60 The Celamare Conspiracy appealed to the Crown, demanding to be tried by his peers. Several prelates, together with the Dukes of Sully, de la Force, de Chaulnes, St. Simon, de Luxem bourg, d' Antin, etc., petitioned the King in the same sense. Without waiting for the decision of the Crown, the Parliament issued a warrant against the culprits, who, however, were committed to the Bastille on a lettre de cachet. After a good deal of quarrelling between the peers and the Parliament, the latter pro ceeded to examine the combatants, who both swore that they did not fight a duel; no witnesses were forth coming. The peers were summoned by the King and asked for further information, but in the end the Duke and the Count were both acquitted, upon which, after dining together with the Governor, they embraced and were released, after having passed three months in the Bastille. A fight in which there was no chal lenge given or received, and in which there were no seconds, in fact a fight which was not premeditated, was never considered as coming within the edict against duelling. We now come to the Duke's third incarceration. Lemontey in his " History of the Regency," writing about the Celamare conspiracy, says : " A more brilliant hero played a part in the last episode of the intrigues of Alberoni. The Regent was informed that two emissaries of the Cardinal, the Baron de Schlieben and the Count Marini, the one a German, the other an Italian, were passing through France in order to hatch some plot at the Court of Prussia. These adventurers were thrown into the Bas- 61 The Bastille tille; the German remained there, but the Italian, more subtle, offered his services to France and returned to Spain. Alberoni, who was then searching some means to surprise one of our ports, accepted a propo sition made to him by Marini, to gain over the Due de Richelieu, colonel of one of the two regiments in garrison at Bayonne. It was difficult for an extrava gant youth, who owed all his reputation to his duels, to his reckless gambling, and to his scandalous gal lantries, not to be tempted by the glory of a State crime. The negotiations were carried on without any obstacle until the 29th March, when the Duke of Or leans, deeming matters sufficiently ripe, had Richelieu arrested. He was found to have a letter of credit from Alberoni in his possession, and several other doc uments clearly establishing his guilt, which he did not deny when examined by MM. Le Blanc and d'Argen son separately." On the 29th March, 1719, the Due de Richelieu, therefore, for the third time was committed to the Bas tille, and he appears to have been treated at first with a considerable amount of harshness. We are told in his " Memoirs " that he was thrown into an octagon dungeon which received light and air from a narrow longitudinal hole, that this cell was so damp that noth ing could resist the humidity, and that there was nei ther table, nor chair, nor bed, nor books in this dismal abode. It seems extraordinary that under these cir cumstances Richelieu should have been allowed a ser vant to share his captivity. M. Jules Janin, who was a member of the Academy, 62 The Due de Richelieu has given us the following description of the Duke's incarceration in his " Paris et Versailles il y a cent ans " — a description which differs a good deal from the " Memoirs " with regard to the treatment of the prisoner. " The Duke," said Jules Janin, " knew how to keep a secret, and denounced no one. He united courage to success in love. In his abyss he learned that the daughters of the Regent, Mademoiselle de Charolais (who was not a daughter of the Regent, but of Conde) and Mademoiselle de Valois, took pity on his wretchedness and defended him against their father. Following their example, all the ladies of Paris were filled with commiseration for the youthful noble, and repaired every day in their finest carriages and most charming toilettes to gaze on the walls of his prison, and to salute him with a smile as he walked on the battlements.* For a long time the Faubourg St. Honore, that terrible enemy which was then asleep, witnessed a procession of Duchesses, and became the rendezvous of Marchionesses; even the women he had betrayed and made his frivolous play-things, arrived * As fine English ladies went to see the highwayman Maclane in Newgate, or as all classes turned out to an execution at Tyburn. Of one of these did not Dean Swift write ? As clever Tom Clinch, while the rabble was bawling, Rode stately through Holborn to die in his calling, He stopped at the " George " for a bottle of sack, And promised to pay for it when he came back. His waistcoat, and stockings, and breeches were white, His cap had a new cherry ribbon to tie't, The maids to the doors and the balconies ran, And said, " Lack-a-day ! he's a proper young man." 63 The Bastille in hot haste at the same hour to contemplate in the distance the captive object of their affections. Their glances seemed to say : ' Young man, you are par doned! Alas! your inconstancy is not your fault alone, it is ours as well, and we forgive you, for our hearts are weak, and we dearly love you ! ' When he left the Bastille, redeemed by a young and lovely Princess at the price of her own liberty, the Due de Richelieu was hardly twenty-four years of age." According to the chronicles of the time, the Regent would not allow the Duke out of the Bastille until Mademoiselle de Valois consented to marry the Duke of Modena; and to this sacrifice the daughter of the Regent reluctantly agreed, in order to procure the freedom of her lover. Other scandalous tales were related on this subject; but it is to be hoped the de pravity of the Regent has been exaggerated by his detractors. According to Lemontey, Philippe of Orleans looked upon the Celamare plot as a matter so utterly con temptible that he scouted the idea of making it the occasion for shedding blood, and yet a similar crime committed under the reign of Louis XIV. had cost a de Rohan his head. It may be true, however, as the historian remarks, that this act of clemency was after all only an act of reciprocity, because the French Am bassador at Madrid, the Marquis de Saint Aignan, instructed by the Regent, had been indulging, in Spain, in a conspiracy very similar to that got up by Prince Celamare in France. St. Aignan and Cela- 64 Voltaire mare quitted their respective posts, and there was a sort of mutual amnesty. It is related that on the 25th August, 1786, the Duke took it into his head to revisit the Bastille, not as a prisoner, but for the sake of old acquaintance, and that in spite of his ninety years, five months, and twelve days, he ascended to the summit of those gloomy towers which were shortly to disappear, car ried away by a political convulsion which the vener able courtier was spared the pain of witnessing. We now come to the incarcerations of a man who for bad or for good has left such an indelible mark on the history of his times, a man whose keen and restless wit could be discouraged by neither imprisonment nor exile, a man of whom Macaulay has written : " It is due to Voltaire and his compeers to say that the real secret of their strength lay in the truth which was mingled with their errors, and in the generous enthusiasm which was hidden under their flippancy. They were men who, with all their faults, moral and intellectual, sincerely and earnestly desired the im provement of the condition of the human race, whose blood boiled at the sight of cruelty and injustice, who made manful war with every faculty they possessed on what they considered as abuses, and who on many signal occasions placed themselves gallantly between the powerful and the oppressed. . . . Religious persecution, judicial torture, arbitrary imprisonment, the unnecessary multiplication of capital punishment, the delay and chicanery of tribunals, the exactions of 65 The Bastille farmers of the revenue, slavery, the slave trade, were the constant subjects of their lively satire and their eloquent disquisitions. When an innocent man was broken on the wheel at Toulouse, when a youth guilty only of an indiscretion was beheaded at Abbeville, when a brave officer borne down by public injustice was dragged with a gag in his mouth to die on the Place de Greve, a voice instantly went forth from the banks of Lake Leman which made itself heard from Moscow and Cadiz, and which sentenced the unjust judges to the contempt and detestation of all Eu rope. . . ." Such is the sketch which Macaulay has given us of Voltaire in his essay on Ranke's " History of the Popes." It was perhaps well for humanity that he was persecuted not only in his youth but in his ma- turer years. This made the philosopher an ardent champion of all who suffered wrong. Referring to the state of society in the eighteenth century, Ravaisson observes that the cane was then the weapon usually employed in literary quarrels, and that a noble could not fight with a commoner. He adds that when Voltaire was beaten by the Chevalier de Rohan, the public and even the Administration were on his side, but when he spoke of a duel he was at once cast into the Bastille. It will be necessary to bear this fact in mind. We have connected the case of widow Aumary with that of the Patriarch, because she was committed to prison for selling some of his works and especially his tragedy of " Mahomet." 66 Voltaire Voltaire Hawkers of what were considered dangerous books were very severely treated, and even under the Re gency religion and morality were officially protected. The Court was dissolute beyond conception, and the Church was corrupt, but immoral and irreligious works were not to be tolerated. In Lemontey's " His tory of the Regency " (vol. i. p. 129) may be found the following curious paragraph : " Dubois disembarked in England a worthy minister of the Regency, with the gold plate of Louis XIV. for representations, a comic poet (Destouches) for secretary, rich silks and velvets of Lyons wherewith to bribe ladies in credit, and a large stock of licentious stories for the amusement of the King." REPORT. " 4th May, 1716. " H.R.H. directs Arouet Ms to be sent to reside at Tulle. " H.R.H. has been pleased to grant the request of Arouet's father, that instead of the town of Tulle his son be exiled to that of Sully-sur- Loire, where he has some relations whose advice and example may correct his imprudence and tone down his vivacity."* This is the first document concerning Voltaire which we find in the " Archives " of the Bastille. He was then a little over twenty years of age, and he had al ready been exiled for writing a poem called " Le Bour- bier." He was now .accused of being the author of * Poor Arouet pere used to complain that he had two sons, one who was mad in prose and the other in verse. 67 The Bastille some daring epigrams against the Regent and the Duchesse de Berri, whom he accused of unnatural crimes. THE ABBE CHEVRIER TO D'ARGENSON. " The young Arouet has written an epigram on the Prince de Bournonville and Alary." LA VRILLIERE TO D'ARGENSON. " 16th May, 1717. " The King desires that Arouet Ms be arrested and taken to the Bastille." BAZIN (EXEMPT) TO D'ARGENSON. " 16th May, 1717. " I have the honour to inform you that I conveyed Arouet to the Bastille according to the orders of the King. He joked a good deal on the road saying that he did not think any business was done upon feast days, that he was delighted to go to the Bastille if they could let him continue taking his milk, and that if they offered to release him in a week he would ask to remain for another fortnight, that he knew the house, as he had had the honour of going there several times to see the Due de Richelieu, but that he did not then imagine he would ever take up his abode there; that what consoled him was that he had nothing to re proach himself with." 68 Voltaire's Crimes Arouet junior was not released in a week nor yet three weeks, but only after an incarceration of eleven months, during which time, instead of studying law he wrote " La Ligue," which he afterwards gave to the world as " La Henriade," and also his first play called " CEdipe," which had a tremendous success, and which ran for forty-eight nights, quite a remarkable thing in Voltaire's time. A few days after his arrest the young Arouet was brought up for examination. " On the 2 1 st May, 1717, Francois Marie Arouet, twenty-two years of age, native of Paris, having no profession (he would not study the law as his father wished), was arrested." Then follows an account of his examination, which shows that he had been ar rested for a Latin inscription commencing : Regnante puero Veneno et incestis famoso and for some verses in French, " the cruel insolence of which," as M. Ravaisson remarks, " would in the days of Louis XIV. have been punished with impris onment for life." In addition to this he was accused of having lampooned the Government. Voltaire, in 1717, wrote a short poem on the Bas tille and his arrest, beginning : Or ce fut done un matin, sans faute, En beau printemps, un jour de Pentecote, Qu'un bruit etrange en sursaut m'eveilla. 69 The Bastille After a lively account of his arrest, and how he was taken to prison, the poem concludes : Me voici done dans ce lieu de detresse, Embastille, loge fort a l'etroit, Ne dormant pas, buvant chaud, mangeant froid, Trahi de tous, meme de ma maitresse. O Marc Rene, que Caton le Censeur Jadis dans Rome eut pris pour successeur, O Marc Rene, de qui la faveur grande Fait ici-bas tant de gens murmurer: Que quelque jour le bon Dieu vous le rende ! Voltaire afterwards changed his opinion with re gard to Marc Rene d'Argenson, Lieutenant of Police, and wrote his eulogy. We hear nothing more of the prisoner till we come to the following letter, written nearly a year after his arrest : THE KING TO BERNAVILLE. " ioth April, 1718. " I write you this letter on the advice of my uncle, the Duke of Orleans, to order you to set at liberty the sieur Arouet confined in my castle of the Bastille.* It is the intention of H.R.H. that the prisoner be taken to the village of Chatenay, where his father has a coun try house, and offers to detain him." The early part of Voltaire's life is enveloped in mys tery, and different reasons have been assigned by various biographers for his release. Some say that the Regent accepted some rather lame excuses writ- * His Majesty was at this period eight years of age. 70 Voltaire Beaten ten in verse by the poet; others that Voltaire owed the end of his captivity to the admiration which his " CEdipe " inspired in the mind of His Royal High ness, who granted him an interview and promised to look after his welfare. " Not my board and lodging, I hope," replied the wit. In like manner, Whycherley, when in the King's Bench, is said to have been released by James II. , who was so pleased with his " Plain Dealer," that he not only paid his debts, but gave him a pension. Voltaire did not tarry long at Chatenay with Arouet senior, who could do nothing with him. LA VRILLIERE TO VOLTAIRE. " nth July, 1718. " I have much pleasure in sending you the permis sion which the King has accorded you to spend a week in Paris." Voltaire was then sent to the French Ambassador in Holland to try his hand at diplomacy, but he got into innumerable scrapes, and in the end his father cut him adrift with a small allowance. We have nothing more to say to Voltaire until the year 1725, when after dining with the Due de Sully, he was attacked by some cut-throats in the pay of the Chevalier de Rohan and severely beaten. The Cheva lier is said to have become the hero of the Court for thus punishing the insolence of a poet whose airs of affected equality had irritated the nobility. " We should be very unfortunate," said the Abbe Caumar- 7i The Bastille tin, " if poets had no shoulders." In connection with this affair, we find the following documents in the " Archives." THE PRESIDENT BOUHIER TO MARAIS. " Dijon, ist February, 1726. " In all probability Voltaire will receive the same reply with regard to his caning, that the late Regent made on the first occasion : ' You are a poet and you have been thrashed.' That is the natural order of things — I mean for satiric poets. . . ." MAUREPAS TO HERAULT, LIEUTENANT OF POLICE. " 5th February, 1726. " S.A.S. has ordered me to write to you to find out the fellows employed by the Chevalier de Rohan to beat Voltaire, and to have them arrested. This must be done without any noise." " 23rd March, 1726. " S.A.S. has been informed that the Chevalier de Rohan is leaving to-day for Paris, and as he may make another attack upon Voltaire, or as Voltaire may com mit some folly, I beg that you will take precautions to prevent any ill consequences." Then comes the following letter from Voltaire : " I beg most humbly to inform you that I was as sassinated by the gallant Chevalier de Rohan, aided by six cut-throats, behind whom he boldly stationed himself. 72 Proposes Going to England " I always endeavoured from that time to repair, not my honour, but his, which was too difficult a task. " If I did go to Versailles it is false that I asked for the Chevalier de Rohan at the house of the Cardinal de Rohan." This letter, which was probably addressed to M. de Maurepas from the Bastille, is given by Delort with out any date. The fact is that Voltaire, after being " assassinated," went into the country to take some fencing lessons, and on his return to Paris repaired to the dressing- room of Adrienne Lecouvreur, where he found the Chevalier and challenged him. The Chevalier accept ed the challenge, but his family interfered and the poet was committed to the Bastille. There is no trace of the " cut-throats " of the Chevalier de Rohan having shared the same fate. DIARY OF ANQUETIL, THE KING'S LIEUTENANT AT THE BASTILLE. " To-day, 17th April, 1726, M. de Voltaire entered the Bastille by order of the King. He had sixty-five new golden louis of twenty francs each, but no other effects. The money was returned to M. de Voltaire after he had signed a receipt for it at the foot of his entry." GAZETTE DE LA POLICE. " 22nd April, 1726. " On the night of the 17th, Haymier and Tapin, ex empts, arrested Arouet de Voltaire, famous poet, in 73 The Bastille the Rue Maubuee, at the sign of the ' Grosse Tete,' and, by order of the King, took him to the Bastille." VOLTAIRE TO HERAULT. "24th April, 1726. " I implore you to have the kindness to alleviate my lot in the deplorable condition in which I find myself. " I have been sent to the Bastille for having pur sued, with too much haste and ardour, the established laws concerning honour. I was assassinated (sic) publicly by six persons, and I am punished for the crime of another because I did not wish to hand him over to justice.* " I implore you to employ your credit to obtain per mission for me to go to England, where I intended going some time ago." THE SAME TO THE SAME. " Calais, 5th May, 1726. " I have arrived at Calais, very grateful for the per mission I have obtained to go to England, very re spectfully afflicted at being exiled fifty leagues from the Court. ... I am obliged to inform you that I shall not go to London until I have re-established my health, which has been shattered by the grief I have endured. ... I have the permission, and not the order to leave the kingdom, and I venture to * M. Ravaisson says that Voltaire knew that the Parliament, which was very hard upon writers, instead of rendering him justice, would have found that M. de Rohan had not beaten him enough. 74 Threatened Once More say that it would be unjust for the King to banish a man from his country for having been ' assassinated.' If you desire, I will inform you of my departure. I shall always respect the orders of the King, which will be more dear to me when coming through your hands." L'ABBE BONARDY TO PRESIDENT BOUHIER. " 28th May, 1726. " Voltaire has left the Bastille, and is going to Eng land, so that his follies may be forgotten. Crebillon, on the other hand, of whom nobody thought, has just brought out Pyrrhus at the Theatre Francais, a tragedy which has been much applauded." Of Voltaire's short visit to our shores Victor Cousin wrote : " On arriving in England, Voltaire was merely a discontented poet; England sent him back to us a philosopher, a friend of humanity, the soldier of a great cause; she determined the direction of his mind, and gave him a fund of serious ideas of every descrip tion. . . . Voltaire has spread abroad and popu larised the philosophy of Locke. . . ." It was in England, too, that Voltaire was able to publish his " Henriade," thanks to the generosity of the King and the Prince of Wales. MAUREPAS TO VOLTAIRE, POET. " 29th July, 1727. " I forward the permission which the King has granted you to remain in Paris for nine months, to 75 The Bastille look after your affairs. I have no doubt that you will behave in such a manner as to efface the bad impres sion which H.M. has of you, and that the warning which I give you will meet with your serious atten tion." Voltaire did not return to France until 1729. THE SAME TO THE SAME. "9th April, 1729. " You can go to Paris when you like, and even re side there. As regards coming to Court, I think that you should dispense with that at present. I am per suaded that you will keep a watch upon yourself at Paris, and that you will do nothing calculated to get you into trouble." MAUREPAS TO THE KING'S LIEUTENANT AT THE CASTLE OF AUXONNE. " 3rd May, 1734. " The King has judged fit to have Arouet de Vol taire arrested and taken to the castle of Auxonne. You will give me notice of his arrival. The King or ders that under no pretext shall he be permitted to leave the interior of the castle." The chief crimes of the poet were turning the Vir gin Mary into ridicule, and insulting the House of Stuart. He had just published his " Lettres Philo- sophiques," which incensed the Parliament more than the Minister who gave the culprit time to escape be fore issuing his lettre de cachet. Voltaire fled into 76 Publisher forre Germany, and his work was burned by the public ex ecutioner. MARAIS TO PRESIDENT BOUHIER. " 6th June, 1734. " As yet we have seen nothing of Voltaire. It is said that his lettre de cachet has been annulled. He enjoys great credit among the women; he chatters, he is presumptuous, he speaks of everything that he knows, and even of that he does not know." " 15th June, 1734. " You are no doubt delighted, and so is all France, with the exception of a few bad sectaires, with the de cree of Parliament condemning Voltaire's ' Philoso phical Letters ' as scandalous, as contrary to religion, good morals, and the respect due to foreign powers. The public executioner has done justice to this work. . . ." THE ABBE LEBLANC TO PRESIDENT BOUHIER. "June, 1736. " Let me say a couple of words about Voltaire. He has just gained an action against his new publisher; he had the boldness to plead himself. He is going to bring another action against Jorre, who published his ' Lettres Philosophiques,' and this will be a more serious affair. This poor wretch, who has been thrown into the Bastille for this, and had all his books con fiscated, is totally ruined, and knows not what will become of him. . . ." 77 The Bastille THE SAME TO THE SAME. " 13th July, 1736. " The ridiculous affair of Voltaire is finished. Jorre was a scamp who was more than paid for his print ing. He has been obliged to give up all the letters capable of doing mischief. ... I learn that Rous seau has just published a satire against Voltaire; it was sent secretly to Paris, and will soon be published." The following note is published in the " Archives " of the Bastille: JOURNAL OF COMMISSIONER POUSSAT. " 30th March, 1744. " There is a great stir at the residence of the Mar quise du Chatelet. Her husband has arrived at Cirey, and has written letter after letter for her to come and keep him company. It required infinite trouble to determine Voltaire to make this journey. Since he has come to a decision he is in fearful temper, treats the lady with the greatest harshness, and makes her cry all day long. The day before yesterday there was a discussion which lasted through a portion of the night. Voltaire, counting upon supping alone, had his things laid on a narrow table. Madame du Chatelet, having arrived for supper, wished to have a larger table; Voltaire insisted on having the small one, and, upon further remonstrances, declared that he was master in his own house, that he had too long played the dupe, and said several other severe things. These 78 "Mahomet" disputes, which are frequent, are a subject of raillery in the house. The secret motive for this respective ill- humour is occasioned by Voltaire's passion for Mdlle. Gaussin. This actress comes to see the poet when he is unable to go and see her. Madame du Chatelet is furious, but does not dare to push matters to ex tremes, for fear that her lover should make up his mind to leave her. The journal of what passes be tween these victims of love and good sense would be singularly interesting." One sees in Carlyle's " History of Frederick the Great " that plates, and even knives, sometimes flew across the table. Numbers of persons were thrown into prison for publishing, selling, or hawking Voltaire's works. CHEVALIER TO DUVAL. " Bastille, 6th July, 1750. " D'Hemery brought us yesterday the widow Amaury, upon whose person I found the book of Cleon, and, on having her searched, several other works, to gether with a small portfolio. . . ." We learn from other letters that the crime of having sold the " Mahomet " of Voltaire, and a pamphlet con cerning Frederick the Great, was imputed to this widow. The tragedy of " Mahomet " had been per formed in August, 1742, with great success, but, owing to the allusions made to the clergy and to religion, it created so much scandal that it had to be withdrawn 79 The Bastille from the stage. The Turkish Ambassador, too, felt insulted at the manner in which the Prophet had been treated. Under these circumstances, Voltaire thought it prudent to leave France. This is what has occurred: Probably fearing a cabal, Voltaire got La Noue to produce his tragedy at Lille, where, according to the " Histoire de la Censure Theatrale en France," " all the clergy were present at the third performance." The ecclesiastics applauded the piece, and found noth ing to condemn in it. Relying on the approbation of Cardinal Fleury (to whom the play had been shown), and on that of the clergy of Lille, Voltaire sent " Ma homet " to M. de Marville, in order that it might be examined. Crebillon was opposed to its represen tation, but M. de Marville, who was not so severe, put his vise on the manuscript and returned it to Voltaire. The tragedy was therefore performed; but the next day there was a great stir in the Parliament. Some people saw in this work an attack upon religion, and others a political danger. In a letter addressed to M. de Mar ville, the Procurator-General, Omer de Fleury, set forth the objections of himself and his colleagues in an epistle which terminated thus: "It is said that you prosecute the Jansenists, and that you let another scoundrel alone, that you cause crime and irreligion to triumph, and, in fact, that one must be endowed with the most consummate insolence to per form such an abominable piece." M. de Marville, who knew that the tragedy had been approved of by Cardinal Fleury, sent this letter to M. de Maurepas, who replied thus: "Although, 80 Censor Crebillon at bottom, of the same opinion, His Eminence thinks that such a subject should not be risked on the stage. He approves of you telling the comedians to feign the illness of an actor, so as to dispense them with per forming the piece on Thursday, and getting M. de Voltaire to withdraw the play, in order to avoid a scandal." Voltaire dreading the Parliament, withdrew " Ma homet," but, in 1 75 1, he was authorised to submit it again for examination. Crebillon re-read it, and re fused to alter his previous decision. The author got the Due de Richelieu to ask for a new censor; the Keeper of the Seals consented, and d'Alembert was charged to read the tragedy of his friend. Without the slightest hesitation he quashed the decision of Crebillon. Shortly afterwards, Crebillon died, and the Cure of St. Severin, for saying a mass for the repose of his soul, in the name of, and in presence of the French actors, was openly punished by Monseigneur de Beau mont, the Archbishop of Paris. Voltaire, who had been at war with him for twenty years, defended his memory against an intolerant Church which ill re paid those who had served her. In his preface to " Mahomet," we find Voltaire defending himself against his enemies. The Prophet orders an assassination, and makes use of religion to encourage a young man to commit this crime, and consequently Voltaire was accused of preaching mur der. He said that this act was held up to reprobation, and that one might as well accuse Hermione of en- 81 The Bastille couraging regicide, Electra the murder of one's mother, and Medea that of one's children; say that Harpagon formed misers, the Joueur gamblers, and Tartufe hypocrites.* The most curious part of the affair is that Voltaire had dedicated his tragedy to the Pope, and this was the letter which he wrote to Benedict XIV., the best and the wisest of the two hundred and sixty succes sors of St. Peter, as Macaulay has called him.f _ " Paris, 17th August, 1745. " Most Holy Father, " Your Holiness will pardon the liberty taken by one of the most humble and greatest admirers of your virtues in dedicating to the chief of the new faith a work written against the founder of a false and bar barous religion. " To whom could I more suitably address the satire of the cruelty and the errors of a false prophet than to the Vicar and Imitator of the God of peace and truth? " Will Your Holiness allow me to lay at your feet both the book and the author? I dare to ask your protection for one and your benediction for the other. * It is only fair to remember that in order to deceive the vigi lance of the ecclesiastical authorities, authors dissimulated their attacks under a variety of garbs. They attacked the Roman Catholic priesthood under the guise of priests of Jupiter, Druids, or Japanese monks, as Fontanelle made use of vestals to depict the cloister. The allusions were so transparent that no one was deceived. Voltaire himself said : " After playing ' Tartufe ' and ' Mahomet ' we must not despair; we shall be able to put Caiaphas and Pilate on the stage." t " Essay on Frederick the Great." 82 Benedict XIV It is with sentiments of the deepest veneration that I prostrate myself, and that I kiss your holy feet." The above letter and the Pope's reply, which ran thus, were in Italian: BENEDICT XIV., POPE, TO HIS DEAR SON. " Salutation and apostolical benediction. " A few weeks ago I was presented, on your behalf, with your admirable tragedy of ' Mahomet,' which I have read with the greatest pleasure. Cardinal Pas- sionei afterwards presented me, in your name, with the beautiful poem of " Fontenoy.' M. Leprotti com municated to me your distich for my portrait, and Cardinal Valenti yesterday handed me your letter of the 17th August. Each of these marks of kindness would deserve a distinct recognition, but perhaps you will permit me to thank you in a general manner. You cannot doubt the singular esteem with which your well-recognised merit inspires me. " As soon as your distich was published in Rome, we were informed that a French man of letters, hear ing it spoken of in society, remarked that there was a false quantity in the first verse. He pretended that the word hie, which you employ as short, ought always to be long.* " We replied that this was a mistake, and that this * Voltaire's distich ran thus : Lambertinus hie est, Romae decus, et pater orbis, Qui mundum scriptis docuit, virtutibus ornat. 83 The Bastille syllable was employed indifferently by the poets as long or short, Virgil having made it short in this line: Solus hie inflexit sensus, animumque labentem. and long in this one: Hie finis Priami fatorum, hie excitus ilium. " This, perhaps, was replying pretty well for a man who had not read Virgil for fifty years. Although you are an interested party in the difference, we have so high an idea of your frankness and your straight forwardness that we have no hesitation in taking you for judge between your critic and ourself. It only remains for us to give you our apostolical benediction." In thanking the Pope, Voltaire reminded His Holi ness that Virgil uses hie both as long and as short in the following line: Hie vir, hie est, tibi quern promitti saepius audis. Such was the intimate correspondence which took place between the chief of the Roman Catholic re ligion and the French poet concerning a work for the selling of which the widow Amaury was taken to the Bastille. 84 CHAPTER III. 1720-1730 LENGLET DU FRESNOY — THE OLDEST PRISONER — ROY— DU BOULAY— ABBE PREVOST— CREBILLON FILS In 1722, the Abbe Nicholas Lenglet du Fresnoy was cast into the Bastille; he is described by M. Ravaisson as a man of wit and learning, and, above all, an in defatigable compiler and courageous editor, never frightened of the Bastille ; with no more morality than a cat, doing anything for money, even to playing the spy. His pen was at the service of any one who would purchase it; his unworthiness was such that it dis armed the wrath of the Minister, and he remained for a long time in the Bastille without being on bad terms with the Government. Isaac Disraeli, in his " Curiosities of Literature," speaks of the Abbe as a sort of curiosity in human nature, a remarkable author of immense book-knowl edge, hardy originality, and a freedom verging on cynical causticity; his mordacity, his sarcasm, his derision, his pregnant interjections, his unguarded frankness, and often his strange opinions, are all dwelt upon; and then we are told that " He had oc cupied his old apartment in the Bastille so often that, 85 The Bastille at the sight of the officer who was in the habit of conducting him there, Lenglet would call for his night cap and snuff, and finish the work he had then in hand at the Bastille, where he told Jordan that he made his edition of ' Marot.' He often silently restituted an epithet or a sentence which had been condemned by the censeur, at the risk of returning to prison once more." One work, says Mr. Disraeli, he was afraid to print for a long time — a work on appa ritions and visions. He kept it by him for fifty-five years before he ventured on its publication. Towards the close of his career he took to chemical experi ments, which injured his health. " The most impor tant result was the invention of a syrup in which he had great confidence, but its trial blew him up into a tympany (sic) from which he was only relieved by having recourse to a drug, also of his own discovery, which, in counteracting the syrup, reduced him to an alarming state of atrophy." Referring then to the part he played as a spy, Mr. Disraeli says: " His most important discovery was that of the famous conspiracy of Prince Celamare, one of the chimerical plots of Alberoni; to the honour of Lenglet he would not engage in its detection unless the Minister promised that no blood should be shed. These successful incidents in the life of an honourable spy were rewarded with a moderate pension. Lenglet must have been no vulgar intriguer; he was not only perpetually confined by his very patrons when he re sided at home, but I find him early imprisoned in the citadel of Strasburg for six months, it is said for pur- 86 Abbe du Fresnoy loining some curious works from the library of the Abbe Bignon, of which he had the care." He lived to eighty years of age, when he fell asleep over a " modern book," tumbled into the fire, and was burned to death. Delort, in his " Detention of the Philosophers," gives us the list of the Abbe's imprisonments: Sep tember, 1 718, to December, 1719; June, 1724, to June, 1726; March, 1743, to June, 1743; January, 1750, to March, 1750; December, 1751, to January, 1752. He also passed some time in other prisons — Stras- burg, Vincennes, and For l'Eveque. The last time that the Abbe was committed to the Bastille was for a crime which is thus curtly referred to in the " Archives ": NOTE BY DUVAL. " Lenglet du Fresnoy, accused and convicted of having written a letter, signed the Chevalier de Lus- san, to the Comptroller-General, in which he declares that the Minister has acted to the detriment of the revenues of the King, that he has attacked the people — that is to say, the poor and needy — that he has pledged 500,000 livres of the King's revenues, that he has employed 9,000,000 livres of the King's rev enues for the India Company, that he has rendered the King responsible for 1,200,000 livres by the crea tion of life annuities." This was a dangerous charge to bring against a pow erful Minister; but then it was not made openly. 87 The Bastille The Abbe, with his seven imprisonments in the Bastille and elsewhere, was as incorrigible as Roger Palmer, Lord Castlemaine, the little husband of the lovely Barbara, one of the mistresses of Charles II. , or Charles III., as she called him, he being the third Charles on her list. His lordship, or cuckoldship, was seven times in the Tower for Jesuit plots and other matters before finally retiring to Wales to bury his marital and other misfortunes in gloomy solitude. Begis, in his " Gaol-book of the Bastille," furnishes us with the following document : DECLARATION SIGNED BY THE ABBE LENGLET DU FRESNOY ON LEAVING THE BASTIILE. " Being at liberty, I promise, in conformity with the orders of the King, to say nothing of the prisoners or other things concerning the Bastille, which may have come to my knowledge. In addition to this I acknowl- ledge that all my gold, silver, papers, and effects, which I brought to the said Castle, have been restored to me. In faith of which I have signed the present. Done at the Royal Castle of the Bastille, 24th January, 1752. " (Signed) Lenglet du Fresnoy." " 10th Deer., 1722. — The oldest prisoner in the Bastille died the other day. He had been there for thirty-five years. He was dressed like a Jacobin when he was captured, and was suspected of having wished to poison Louvois, but there was no proof against him. When he was examined he replied in a jargon which none of the King's interpreters could under- 88 Unknown Prisoner stand, so that they never knew his name nor his country, nor why he was dressed as a Jacobin, and he passed thirty-five years without books or papers." So runs a paragraph in the " Journal de Barbier," in which we also find under date : " ioth August, 1723. — The Cardinal (Dubois) died to-day at Versailles. He departed this life Archbishop of Cambrai, and he never went there, which is very surprising. The Prime Minister will soon be forgotten by every one but the Duke of Orleans He was a man of talent, and possessed his entire confidence. He never did much harm, and yet he was little liked, being proud and violent. This news will be welcomed by the exiles and the prisoners in the Bastille." Barbier also mentions the arrest of several other persons who were thrown into the Bastille at this time, and whose names we do riot find mentioned by M. Ravaisson. There were the Comte de Belle Isle and La Jonchere, the former accused of assassination and the latter of peculation. On the 8th March, 1724, Barbier wrote: " Great commotion. M. Gras- sin, Director-General of the Mint, has been arrested and taken to the Bastille. He is worth four or five millions, and owns a good deal of property around Mormant." However, M. Grassin was not detained in the Bas tille; he was examined and released. On the same night, Captain Conches, of the Dra goons, aide-de-camp to M. de Belle Isle, was sent to 89 The Bastille the Bastille. A man of forty-five years of age, who played the beau, who spent three hours at his toilette, and even rouged himself. Barbier, in fact, mentions a number of arrests and committals, but none of the charges against the accused seem to have been proved. If people were arrested on frivolous pretexts, or on insufficient evidence, they seldom remained long in durance vile. We find in the " Archives " the following letter: MORVILLE, FOREIGN MINISTER, TO D'OMBREVAL. " 13th February, 1724. " I beg you will enlighten me as far as you can on the subject of the Marquis de Bonrepas, who has been confined in the Bastille for four or five years. As well as I remember, he is a cavalry officer; an elderly man, since he served the late King for forty years. As I have to make a report concerning this officer, in consequence of representations addressed to the King from abroad, I shall be obliged if you will inform me of the motives of his imprisonment." The Marquis was implicated in the Celamare con spiracy. M. d'Ombreval, in his reply, stated that he was an old soldier, very poor, who was reconciled to his prison life. We are assured that he received an offer of liberty with bad grace, as if he did not like to be disturbed in possession, and that he was with difficulty persuaded to exchange his residence at the Bastille for a pension at the Invalides. Delort has included Roy, the licentious young poet, 90 Roy among his philosophers, giving us to understand at the same time that his arrest and incarceration in the Bastille had nothing to do with letters, but was caused by friponneries au sujet des papiers royaux, or tricks played with royal papers. However, the " Archives " tell a different tale. MAUREPAS TO D'OMBREVAL. " Versailles, 9th December, 1724. " I send you the King's order to arrest Roy and send him to the Bastille. As it is a question of putting a stop to pieces which are becoming too common, and of which he is suspected of being the author, H-M. wishes you to seize his papers, and that with the greatest possible amount of secrecy and circumspec tion." D'OMBREVAL TO THE DUC DE BOURBON.* " December, 1724. "Roy was arrested on the nth December, seals were placed on his papers, and he was taken to the Bastille. He declares that his misfortune is due to M. de la Grange, poet, who resides in Holland, and is his sworn enemy. . . . The Commissioner Camuset is taking an inventory of his papers." PRESIDENT BOUHIER TO MARAIS. " Dijon, 23rd December, 1724. " The poet Roy is, then, in the Bastille; I thought that his impertinent verses against Collo- * Louis Henri de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, named Premier 2nd December, 1724; exiled in June, 1726; died at Chantilly, 1740. 91 The Bastille redo (the Spanish Ambassador) would conduct him thither. . . ." De la Grange was both a poet and a spy, and Roy was quite right in suspecting that he had been betrayed by his brother scribbler. POLICE GAZETTE. " ist March, 1725. " Paris resounds with the arrest of Roy, and a great many persons approve of the measures adopted with regard to him. Several works which have appeared, such as the ' Calotte du Chatelet,' and a piece called the ' Coche,' are attributed to his pen. . . ." REPORT OF D'OMBREVAL. " March, 1725. " Roy has been in the Bastille for nearly four months, and it appears that the punishment has had a beneficial effect on the mind of the poet, since he is determined not to write any more satirical works. It is to be presumed that the dread of a severer punishment will deprive him of the taste of criticising persons whom he considers are not his friends. " I think that he may be released and exiled to ninety leagues from Paris." And Roy was released, but was not cured. Roy's exile was of very short duration. 92 Moncriff MARAIS TO PRESIDENT BOUHIER. " 25th August, 1734. " Roy has written a new piece on the Generals, on the occasion of an ode by M. de Moncriff, which is nothing but an indifferent song, for which he deserves to be thrashed. . . . Roy is still irritated with the Academy (like Linguet) because it will not receive him. . . ." THE ABBE LE BLANC TO BOUHIER. " Moncriff, on his return from the army, denied having written the verses attributed to him. Having met Roy he boxed his ears and kicked him. The poet took this quietly, although he had his sword by his side, and complained that he had been attacked by three assassins. An army contractor claims to have written the verses, and wishes to cane Roy — first, to make him acknowledge that the verses were written by him (the contractor) ; second, to make him declare that they are good. As for Moncriff, he struts about Paris with head erect and cane in hand, saying every where that it is to give Roy his due. This is the difference between poets who serve in the army and those who do not." PRESIDENT BOUHIER TO MARAIS. " Dijon, 14th October, 1734. " If Roy did not merit the bastinade for his ode against Moncriff, he deserved it for other matters. It 93 The Bastille may be said that he is the man described by Horace as ' pus atque venenum.' " According to Delort, Roy, after being released from the Bastille, was committed to St. Lazare for an attack on the Academy, which was deemed an unjustifiable piece of insolence on the part of so depraved a fellow. When the Comte de Clermont, of the blood royal, was elected to the Academy, Roy was furious, and wrote a stinging epigram on the occasion. The Count, after the fashion of the day, employed a nigger to beat him, and the chastisement was so severe that the poet, who was then over eighty years of age, went home and died. The Comte de Qermont, in addition to being a General, was the Abbe of Saint Germain-des-Pres, and, after he lost the battle of Crevelt, against Ferdinand of Brunswick, in 1758, where the French, totally de feated, retired in " full cackle of universal flight," there appeared in Paris the following quatrain, which may have been due to the pen of Roy : Moitie plumet, moitie rabat, Aussi propre a l'un comme a l'autre, Clermont se bat comme un apotre, Et sert Dieu comme il se bat.* After this we hear no more of " Jingling Roy, who concocts satirical calumnies," and who collects and reprints old ones. * Half feathers, half bands ; as fit for one as the other, Cler mont fights like an apostle, and serves God as he fights. 94 The Abbe Prevost Alexis Louis Frangois du Boulay, Doctor of the University of Paris, was committed to the Bastille in 1727, and, according to Fougeret, remained there until the advent of Louis XVI. to the throne, when the registers of the Bastille were revised, and a large number of prisoners released. The unfortunate doctor had been forty-four years in prison; on regaining his liberty he could find no trace of his family; his wife had long been dead, and a public edifice had been erected on the spot where his house had stood. Like a prisoner already mentioned, he wished to return to the Bastille, but in the end he shut himself up with an old servant, and passed the remainder of his days in the most complete solitude. We find in the " Archives " several documents re lating to Antoine Franqois Prevost d'Exiles, better known to us as the Abbe Prevost, a most prolific writer, out of whose 170 volumes " Manon Lescaut " alone has held its ground. The first document is a letter addressed to M. Herault. " 30th November, 1728. " The Lieutenant of Police is most humbly begged by the Superior-General of the Congregation of St. Maur to have arrested a fugitive member of the order, who about a fortnight ago left the house of St. Germain-des-Pres without any reason, and without a brief of translation. He twice left the Jesuits, and has been with the Benedictines for the last eight years. His name is A. Prevost, of Hesdin, a man of middle height, fair, blue eyes, high colour, and full face. His 95 The Bastille principal acquaintances are among the Jesuit Fathers; he walks about Paris every day with impunity; he is the author of a little romance which has for title ' The Adventures of a Man of Quality ' (the Chevalier Des- grieux). This work has made a great noise in Paris. He is about thirty-six years of age, and is dressed as an ecclesiastic." By a letter from Marais to President Bouhier, dated the 17th October, 1734, we find that Dom Prevost became reconciled with the Benedictines in that year, and we hear nothing more of him until 1741. THE ABBE PREVOST TO BACHAUMONT. " I thought that I was on the eve of surmounting all my difficulties, of terminating my affairs happily, of reappearing in society, and of imposing silence on the malignity of my enemies, by laying bare all the secrets of my solitude, which consist in a great deal of work, innocence, repose, and simplicity, et ecce iterum; to-day I am forced to leave the kingdom for an adventure without example. Those who doubt my innocence may learn it from the Prince de Conti, from M. de Maurepas, and from all those who are acquainted with my affair. Their protection is a guarantee that my absence will be short. . . ." THE ABBE LE BLANC TO BOUHIER. " Sth February, 1741. ". . . The Abbe Pr6vost is at Brussels; a lettre de cachet was issued to put him into the Bastille. The 96 Chinese Tales Prince de Conti, who was informed of this, gave him twenty-five louis to make his escape;* he was the author of a gazette in which all the most scandalous adventures of Paris were detailed, and in which the true and the false found a place." The author of " Manon Lescaut " and 170 volumes, including translations of Richardson and Hume, had a narrow escape of the Bastille, figuring only in the "Archives." • MARAIS TO THE PRESIDENT BOUHIER. " 5th December, 1734. " We have the ' Contes Chinois,' which are attrib uted to Crebillon the younger; they are prohibited for their obscenities, and for certain portraits easily recog nised. This little author wished to marry Gaussin, the actress; she had promised him her hand, and had told him to have the marriage contract drawn up. He came from Fontainebleau to Paris, and then returned to Fontainebleau with the contract in his pocket; but in the interval she had found a rich lover, M. Andreoth, of Milan, and she coolly told him that, having a lover, she had no need of a husband. She will no doubt figure in some tale." Voltaire was a great admirer of the dark-eyed Gaussin. * The Abbe is said to have applied for the post of chaplain to the Prince, who said, " But I never go to mass." " And I never say mass," replied the Abbe. 97 The Bastille THE EXEMPT ROUSSEL TO HERAULT. " Paris, 8th December, 1734. " According to the order of the King, which you did me the honour to give me, to arrest Crebillon the younger and take him to the Bastille, this has been done." PRESIDENT BOUHIER TO MARAIS. " Dijon, 10th December, 1734. " We knew nothing of the ' Contes Chinois ' ; if they be prohibited, this is a means for causing them to be more demanded, and sold at a higher price. His adventure with the Gaussin appears very pleasant." Cardinal Fleury appears to have had the author arrested to save him from the clutches of a number of persons whom he had insulted. Both the Crebillons enjoyed Court favour, and the younger filled for a long time the post of Royal Censor. The prisoner did not remain in the Bastille more than a few days. 98 CHAPTER IV. 1740 ABBE FLEUR— LATUDE— ABBE NOURRY— D'ARNAUD —CHARLES EDWARD— LABOURDONNAIS— BONIS. Among the obscene works published in the first half of the eighteenth century, one of the most obscene was certainly the " Histoire de Dom B. . . . Portier des Chartreux," which, one is informed in the title page, was revised, corrected and augmented under the eyes of the Pope. This scandalous volume, not ill-written, and illustrated with a certain amount of talent, got a good many persons into trouble, for it not only offended morality, but religion, by relating the illicit loves of monks and nuns. This did not prevent more than one abbe being concerned in its publication and sale. DUBUT TO MARVILLE. " 17th February, 1741. " The Abbe Nourry admits having distributed ' Dom B. . . .'; but the money he received he handed to the Marquis de Camus. It was at the solicitation of Madame d'Olinville, the sister of the Marquis, that he meddled with this distribution. ... It was Blangy who did the engravings." 99 The Bastille Blangy and his wife were both arrested and sent to the Bastille, where they remained for about six months. On the ioth of March, the Oilier, mistress of the Marquis de Camus, was committed to the Bastille for distributing the work in question. DUBUT TO MARVILLE. "21st March, 1741. "... The Marquis and the Abbe Nourry, since the arrest of the Oilier, do not leave each other; they are doing all they can to procure her release from the Bastille. The Marquis does not allow a single copy to appear. The Abbe Nourry is the author. . . ." THE SAME TO THE SAME. " 14th April, 1741. " I have the honour to inform you that I have arrested the Abbe Nourry, and taken him to the Bastille, for having distributed a book bearing the title of ' Dom B. . . .' the depot of which was in his house." On the 26th April, a man called Brulot was sent to the Bastille for selling " Dom B. . . ."; but he re mained there only four days. On the ioth June, Dameret and two other persons were confined in the Bastille for a month on the same charge. Although Cardinal Fleury died at this time, arrests in connection with this ignoble work continued for some time after his decease, and among the persons 100 Baculard d'Arnaud incarcerated may be mentioned one Gamache, a book binder, accused of having bribed the servant of the King's chaplain to hide a copy of " Dom B. . ." in the apartment of thatworthy ecclesiastic. Other works, some obscene and others political, helped to keep the Bastille pretty well peopled at this period. Among the former were " L'Art de F. . .," the " Religieuse en Chemise," the " Almanach de Priape," " Therese Philosophe," "Arrets d'Amour," " Plaisirs Secrets d'Angelique." Among the latter were the " Lettres Philosophiques," and some other works of Voltaire, the " Liberte de Penser," " L'Ency- clopedie," etc., etc. Baculard d'Arnaud was another of Delort's philoso phers who got into trouble with his pen. In his youth he was taken up by Voltaire, who drew him to the Prussian Court, and had him received as a member of the Academy of Berlin;. but he afterwards quarrelled with the patriarch, who would hardly have been pleased to read the following remark which occurs in a police report : " D'Arnaud is a pupil of Voltaire, and no better than his master as far as his sentiments are concerned." In the " Archives " we find the fol lowing report concerning this " philosopher." MARVILLE TO MAUREPAS. " Baculard d'Arnaud was taken to the Bastille by order of the King on the 17th February, 1741, because he is the author of some very licentious verses which are absolutely contrary to good morals. As he is in 101 The Bastille a position to pay for his board at St. Lazare, and as it would be useless for him to remain any longer in the Bastille, I think it will be well to have him transferred to St. Lazare. [It will be remarked that d'Arnaud did not sin for a morsel of bread. The remainder of this report runs thus:] The Chevalier de Mouhy having had a work printed without permission, the ' Thousand and One Favours,' with his portrait on the title page, the sale of this work has caused great scandal. It attacks both religion and good morals. On a report made to Cardinal Fleury, His Eminence approved of M. de Mouhy being arrested and taken to the Bastille." The Chevalier, who was released on the 9th May, then wrote an abject apology to M. de Marville, de claring that he had been driven by want to yield to the demands of the booksellers. " When editor of the Mercury," he said, " I always took care to exalt my country and those who govern it with so much wisdom, and, as a good Frenchman, to inspire for eigners with admiration and respect for France. How ever, no matter how innocent the means employed to support and bring up four boys destined for the service of the King, I do not wish to continue writing without your permission; I repeat that I would rather perish than displease a magistrate so worthy of being adored. . . ." Notwithstanding all these fine sentiments, the Chevalier got into fresh trouble four years later, as witness : 102 Frederick the Great Frederick the Great and d'Arnaud POUSSOT TO MARVILLE. " 16th February, 1745. " I have the honour to inform you that I have arrested the Chevalier de Mouhy, and taken him to the Bastille, for having published prohibited news." Another abject letter was addressed to M. de Mar ville, and the consequence was that the recalcitrant Chevalier, after remaining six weeks in prison, was exiled to Rouen, where we lose sight of him. To return to d'Arnaud, we find that this licentious young poet, after being transferred to St. Lazare, remained there for a couple of months only, and that the Government paid for his board. So much for Baculard d'Arnaud, called by Carlyle, in his " Life of Frederick the Great," " a conceited, foolish young fellow, much patronised by Voltaire, and given to write verses which are unknown to me." Yet, up to the year 1749, Voltaire addressed d'Arnaud in the most affectionate terms — " mon cher enfant," etc. — and did patronise him; but then came a storm, traces of which we find in the correspondence of Vol taire, who was wounded to the quick by the shafts of his young adversary, who was after all no David. VOLTAIRE TO THE KING OF PRUSSIA. " Paris, 16th March, 1750. Enfin d'Arnaud, loin de Manon S'en va, dans sa tendre jeunesse, A Berlin chercher la sagesse Pres de Frederic Apollon. Ah! j'aurais bien plus de raison D'en faire autant dans ma vieillesse. 103 The Bastille D'ARNAUD TO VOLTAIRE. "31st May, 1750. " Mon maitre, mon ami, mon pere dans les arts, De l'un de tes enfants que ta muse encourage," etc., etc. And on the 26th June we find Frederick the Great addressing some flattering stanzas to d'Arnaud, the last of which ran thus : Deja l'Apollon de la France S'achemine a sa decadence; Venez briller a votre tour, Elevez-vous s'il baisse encore. Ainsi le couchant d'un beau jour Promet une plus belle aurore. Voltaire was furious when these verses were shown to him, jumped out of his sick bed, and determined at once to start for Berlin, on his fifth and last visit to Frederick, in order to show that his sun had not yet sunk below the horizon. It is shrewdly suspected that the Prussian monarch penned his flattering verses to the " conceited and foolish d'Arnaud " in order to procure the pleasure of Voltaire's company at Berlin. If so, his stratagem perfectly succeeded. Nor had Voltaire much to complain of. In his correspondence we find him thus flagellating his rival : VOLTAIRE TO M. LE COMTE D'ARGENTAL. " Potsdam, 14th November, 1750. ". . . You know, my dear angel, that I had the misfortune to inspire my pupil, d'Arnaud, with the most noble jealousy. This illustrious rival came here 104 D'Arnaud recommended by the wise d'Argens and awaited as the person who consoled Paris for my decadence. He arrived by the coach, alone of all his band, and gave himself out for a seigneur who had lost his titles of nobility, his poetry, and the portraits of his mistresses on the road, the whole wrapped up in his night cap. . . ." Afterwards came a little recrimination. In a letter dated the 24th February, 1751, Frederick wrote to Voltaire saying, among other things : " On arriving here you exacted in rather a singular manner that I should no longer employ Freron to write me news from Paris, and I had the weakness to consent. . . . D'Arnaud had offended you: a generous man would have pardoned him ; a vindictive man hunts down those whom he hates. In a word, although d'Arnaud gave me no cause for complaint, it was on your account that he had to leave. ... I preserved peace in my house until your arrival. . . ." VOLTAIRE TO D'ARGENTAL. " Potsdam, 15th March, 1751. " I could not accompany our Chamberlain to Paris, through mud and snow, in which I should have been buried. D'Arnaud and the pack of scribblers would have been too glad. D'Arnaud, animated with the true love of glory, and not yet grown sufficiently illus trious by his own immortal works, has behaved to me like a miserable, envious, lying little scoundrel, and 105 The Bastille made Berlin too hot for him. He seduced my clerk, and stole bits of La Pucelle to ruin me. . . ." Thus was the rising slain by the setting sun, thus did the master, the friend, the father, slay his dear child. BARBIER. " October, 1746. " Since the return of Prince Edward from Fontaine bleau, all the English men and women in Paris have been arrested and sent to the Bastille. My Lord Molton, who had been here for two years, was arrested at Fontainebleau, on leaving the Ambassador of Naples, with whom he had been supping, and taken to the Bastille. . . ." Why these arrests Barbier could not say. It will be seen that they were effected two years before the Pretender, in the interest of peace, was turned out of France. This is what we find. On the ioth December, 1748, a force of 1,200 French Guards surrounded the Opera, and as Prince Charles Edward was getting into his carriage, he was seized by four sergeants, who took him to a neighbouring house, where their officers were waiting for them. The major said : " Prince, I arrest you in the name of the King," and he asked him for his sword. As Charles Edward refused and endeavoured to free him self, his arms were tied with silk ribbon. He was then put into a carriage and six, and taken to Vincennes. As for the friends of the Pretender, his domestics, etc., to the number of thirty-nine, they were com- 106 Charles Edward mitted to the Bastille. Berryer, in a letter to Maure- pas, said that he had set thirteen of the persons arrested at liberty, and had recommended the Governor of the Bastille to treat the remainder with politeness and humanity. MAUREPAS TO BERRYER. " 14th December, 1748. " Prince Edward having given his word of honour to leave France, H.M. has appointed the Marquis de Perussis to accompany him to Pont-de-Beauvoisin. The Prince wishes to take with him Stafford and Sher idan, an Irishman. He has chosen Stuart and O'Brien (his valets) to be present when the seals are removed. You must go to the Bastille and release these four persons at once. . . ." THE SAME TO THE SAME. " 19th December, 1748. " I forward you the King's letter, which is necessary for the release of the prisoners confined in the Bastille in connection with Prince Edward." The Prince, who spent five days at Vincennes, reached the frontier on the 23rd December. His arrest was considered a most disgraceful affair, and naturally gave rise to a quantity of epigrams, which brought ¦""— — *he authors into acquaintance with the Bastille. The arical party was especially irritated at the idea of Catholic Prince being forcibly ejected in order to ¦ase a Protestant monarch; and half-a-dozen abbes, 107 The Bastille who ventured to criticise the conduct of the Govern ment in doggerel verse, were arrested. We shall presently see what Bonis wrote. In March, 1748, the King ordered Labourdonnais to be confined in the Bastille on the complaint of the French East India Company, who accused him of peculation. Ordered by M. de Maurepas to return to France he was snapped up by an English privateer and taken to London. " The prisoner," writes M. Ravais son, " was received as a hero. He learned in London the orders given respecting him, and he demanded permission to go to France as soon as judgment had been pronounced on his past conduct. A director of the English Company offered to go bail for him. This generosity increased the suspicion against Labour donnais. M. de Maurepas could not imagine that an Englishman would risk his money for an enemy of his country, and this decided him to prosecute." The English Government was satisfied with the parole of their prisoner, whose conduct contrasted so favourably with that of Dupleix. Three days after he arrived in Paris he was arrested and conveyed to the Bastille, where he was treated with the most unjustifiable harshness. BERRYER TO M. DE LAUNAY. " 1st March, 1748. " The officer who will hand you this letter is charged by the King to take M. de Labourdonnais to the Bastille ; although I am aware of your zeal, I beg that 108 Labourdonnais you will redouble your attention so that this prisoner may speak to no one and hold no communication with any person outside the walls." BERRYER TO AUQUETIL. " 14th April, 1748. " You can tell M. Labourdonnais that his wife is at Lisbon, and that she is in good health." HERMENT* TO BERRYER. " 19th April, 1748. " This morning, for the first time, I saw a sick man in the Third Tower; he is in a sad condition both of body and mind, and this gives reason to fear some fatal event, especially as for three weeks he has been unable to eat or sleep. . . ." In Michaud and other biographies one finds that Labourdonnais was allowed neither pen, ink, nor paper, that he had to sharpen a sou wherewith to make a pen out of a piece of wood, that he manufactured ink out of vert-de-gris and coffee, and paper out of his pocket handkerchief, which was stiffened with boiled rice. MACHAULT TO DE LAUNAY. " 19th October, 1748. " I have received the letter of M. de Labourdonnais, and I return you my answer, which I beg you will read to him. You will see by my reply that I consent * The King's doctor at the Bastille. 109 The Bastille to receive the reports which he proposes to make on the commerce of India. I beg that you will give him paper for this purpose, taking precaution," etc. THE SAME TO THE SAME. " 28th October, 1748. " You can tell this prisoner that he ought to have confidence in the equity of his judges; besides, he can write to me if he has anything more to say. I will make no use of what he writes to damage him." D'ARGENSON TO DE LAUNAY. " Marly, 12th May, 1749. " Permission for this prisoner to walk in the court yard three times a week, for one or two hours at a time, and keep a sharp look-out on him." MACHAULT TO BERRYER. "6th May, 1750. " The commissioners having assembled yesterday for the affair of M. de Labourdonnais, have passed judgment on his request, and have decided that he may communicate with his counsel. I see no reason, after this decision, for keeping him in solitary con finement. . . ." And this after de Labourdonnais had been more than two years in prison. In June he was allowed to walk in the garden of the Bastille and to see his wife. Every visit was duly reported. rro Bonis CHEVALIER TO BERRYER. " 19th January, 1751. " Yesterday Madame de Labourdonnais saw her husband from 3 to 7 p.m. This is her 141st visit. The prisoner is in good health." On the 3rd February, 1751, Labourdonnais was acquitted, but he left the Bastille a ruined man, shat tered in both body and mind. Four years later he died in poverty. Let those who wish to see what manner of man Labourdonnais was turn to Orme's " History of India." In June, 1749, a tutor called Bonis was committed to the Bastille for having written some verses on the subject of the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, by which Louis XV. restored all the conquests made by his generals and consented to banish Prince Charles Ed ward from France. The Prince was arrested as he was leaving the Opera, sent to Vincennes, and then escorted to the frontier. Indignation was universal, and the clergy denounced in violent terms the sacrifice of a Catholic Prince to the vengeance of English Protestants. Bonis was a Jesuit, and he and fourteen other members of the Order were arrested and kept in prison about three months on the charge of abusing the Government. Cutting verses like those below were addressed to the French Guard, in connection with this affair. Cet essaim de heros, qui sert bien son Roi. A Malplaquet, Dettingen, Fontenoy, Couvert d'une egale gloire. Ill The Bastille Des gardes en un mot le brave regiment Vient, dit on, d'arreter le fils du Pretendant. II a pris un Anglais. Ah Dieu ! quelle victoire ! Muses, gravez bien vite au temple de memoire Ce rare evenement. Va, deesse aux cent voix, va l'apprendre a la terre, Car c'est le seul Anglais qu'il ait pris dans la guerre. In the year 1749, Jean Henry, alias Danry, alias Daury, alias Danger, alias Gedor, alias Mazers de La tude, together with Allegre and nine other persons, were committed to the Bastille on the charge of writing anonymous letters. The name of Latude is tolerably well known in connection with the Bastille. He was the illegitimate son of Jeanneton Aubrespey and an unknown father. M. Ravaisson says of him: " It will be seen that this prisoner had a mania for changing his name. This is what all scamps do, and this one, who was among the greatest, could not fail to follow a custom so dear to those who wish to avoid the eyes of the police." Latude, as we shall call him, was suspected of having sent a packet of poison to the Marquise de Pompadour. ST. MARC TO BERRYER. " 30th April, 1749. "... Allow me to acquaint you with my suspicions against Latude. First, it is of some importance to observe that he is an assistant-surgeon, having gone through the last campaign with the King's armies, where it appears that he did not make his fortune, since he is reduced to the most abject misery — proof 112 Cover of the explosive box sent by Danry [Latude) to the Marquise de Pompadour Original in the Arsenal Library, records of the Bastille, Il6gj Latude that he is a libertine and a bad fellow, for I am in formed that all the assistant-surgeons in the army who attended to their profession, gained a great deal of money. ..." D'ARGENSON TO BERRYER. " Marly, 2nd May, 1749. " The King approves of the precaution you have taken to secure Latude and send him to the Bastille in company with the assistant-apothecary with whom he was on terms of intimacy. It is most important to clear up this affair. . . ." On the 14th June, Latude made a confession in writing. He said that he had been driven by want to resort to a stratagem for procuring money, and that he had posted a box, containing some harmless substance, addressed to Madame de Pompadour; that having posted this box in Paris he at once set out on foot for Versailles to warn Madame de Pompadour that she was about to receive a box which it would be dangerous for her to open. Latude's idea was that he would be handsomely rewarded for giving timely warning to the King's favourite of an attempt on her life. Unfortunately for Latude some of the substances contained in the box were not considered inoffensive, and his story was not believed by the police. BERRYER TO D'ARGENSON. *' 19th July, 1749. " Looking at what you have done me the honour to inform me on the subject of Latude, who was sent "3 The Bastille to the Bastille last May, it appears to me that his release is very distant. In this case do you not think that it would be well to transfer him to Vincennes, as we require room in the Bastille? " As M. Ravaisson remarks, Berryer had little idea when he wrote the above letter that the unfortunate Latude would, with short intervals during his escapes, pass thirty-three years in prison. Neither Louis XV. nor his mistress was cruel, but both of them dreaded poison. The former had always before his eyes the death of his father and his mother, and the latter dreaded the fate of the Duchesse de Chateauroux, one of her predecessors, whom she was convinced had been poisoned by Latude at the instigation of Maurepas. Latude was allowed tobacco, but not paper. In October he was visited by Guesnay, the King's doctor, who could obtain nothing from him but a few dis connected sentences; and on the 24th November the Governor of Vincennes, where Latude then was, wrote to inform Berryer that his prisoner refused all nourish ment and could not leave his bed. However, on the afternoon of the 25th, he was coaxed into taking some broth. Latude's mind seemed much disordered. A man called Allegre was arrested nearly a month after Latude, accused of the same crime, that of wishing to poison Madame de Pompadour. Latude and Allegre became brother captives. 114 Latude CHEVALIER TO BERRYER. "nth June, 1750. "Allegre is very sad since his last examination; yesterday he wished to give his buckles, which are very fine, to Baron, the turnkey, saying: ' I see that I shall die here. No, I shall never get out, or if I get out it will be to carry my head to the scaffold; it is as well that you should profit by them as another.' Baron declined to receive the buckles." BERRYER TO CHATEAU VILLARS. " 28th June, 1750. " I send you the description of a prisoner who has just escaped from Vincennes. He is called Latude. The Comte d'Argenson, from whom I have received a letter, begs me to tell you that nothing is more press ing or more important than the recapture of this prisoner. . . ." On the 30th June the unfortunate Latude was once more in the clutches of the enemy. NOTE BY DUVAL. " Latude wrote a letter to Madame de Pompadour, in which he asked for pardon and gave his address, throwing himself upon her generosity. It was thus known where he was. He was reinstalled in the Bastille on the 30th June. Benoit, a girl who did Latude's commissions during his evasion, as also two of the turnkeys and two soldiers of Vincennes, were sent to the Bastille for negligence. Latude was con- "5 The Bastille fined in a cell for eighteen months. When he was let out of the cell he wrote a number of letters to the Minister; in one he sent him all the letters in the alphabet begging him to form them into words capable of moving him to pity." When recaptured, Latude related how he had es caped. He was walking in the garden when a spaniel" jumped up against a door and opened it. He slipped out without being seen and ran across the fields until he fell down from fatigue; then he made his way to Paris and wrote the letter referred to by Duval. BAISLE TO BERRYER. " Bastille, 15th July, 1750. " I have the honour to inform you that this morning M. de St. Marc brought Allegre, doctrinaire, to the castle." BERRYER TO GUESNAY. "25 th February, 1751. " Latude has pressed me to forward a letter which he has written to you. You will find it enclosed. It seems to me that you would afford him great pleasure were you to pay him a visit; this complacency might induce him to make a clean breast of it. . . ." On the 3rd March, 1751, Allegre made a written confession very similar to that made by Latude, and declared that the charges he had brought against M. de Maurepas and the Archbishop of Albe were false. 116 Latude B AISLE TO BERRYER. " Bastille, 3rd May, 1751. " Guesnay presented himself to-day without an authorisation in order to see Latude. Taking every thing into consideration, I thought it my duty to depart from the usual custom, and to allow the prisoner to see this doctor." THE SAME TO THE SAME. " 8th September, 1751. " During the night Allegre stabbed his guardian twice with a knife; fortunately the wounds are not dangerous. I cannot imagine how he concealed the knife when he was searched. This prisoner denies the fact; I have had him put in a cell." In consequence of the above assault, Latude was subjected to a strict search. A knife, two pieces of iron, four lottery tickets, and thirty-nine francs were found on his person; and yet, as Chevalier declared, he had only three francs when he entered the Bastille. He refused to make any revelations. CHEVALIER TO BERRYER. " 3rd September, 1753. " To-day Latude had his irons struck off and his beard shaved; he was given a bed, mattress, bolster, blanket, sheets, and some seed for his birds, in con formity with your order of the first of this month. " This prisoner desired more, to wit, another room, "7 The Bastille another bed, table, chairs, and lights. I told him that his demands were excessive. . . ." A few days afterwards, Chevalier wrote a very curious letter to Berryer, in which he related how, when the turnkeys had gone to fetch the prisoner's dinner, he paid a visit to the Baziniere Tower, where he suspected matters were not going on as they should do. And what did he discover? That Allegre in his cell was conversing with Rhinville, the prisoner above him, while Rhinville was conversing with a man called Julie confined in the chamber over his. ' They said,' reported Chevalier, ' that the food ought to be better, but that one could not be astonished, as the major and aide-major joined together to defraud them.' " Allegre asked Julie for news of a woman called Louison, and he replied that he was well acquainted with her, and that she was never better off than to-day. After this Julie gave an account of the last voyage made by Rys from Compiegne to La Mu- ette, and of two ballets which were performed there. Then Julie let down some tobacco with a string to Rhinville, who did not find it good, saying that it was too dry; he offered him some; Julie declined; after which Rhinville gave Julie a description of all the prisoners in the Bastille, and I really believe that he did not omit one. I am still overwhelmed with as tonishment. The hour for dinner having arrived, I withdrew." Chevalier later in the day wrote that he had dis covered an old letter written by Allegre which he 118 Latude had found in a hole, adding : " I enclose, too, a letter from Latude, written upon linen with his blood; he sent for us at 8 p.m. to tell us to send to the market for some fish, saying that he could eat neither eggs, artichokes, nor spinach, and that he must have fish, which he would pay for out of his pocket. As this was refused he flew into a tremendous rage. This prisoner also asks for linen, for which I do not write, as he has seven shirts, four of which are quite new. This ' article ' has also enraged him. He complains that I will not give him paper to write to you; but I have never refused this. I went to see him at noon and took him some. He began to write; he kept me waiting more than an hour, after which he wished me to return the linen upon which he had written with his blood. I told him that in the Bastille, prisoners should write upon paper and upon nothing else, and that I must report the affair to you. He got out of temper, and said that he could not finish his letter, which he tore up and burned before me, this finished by an apology, after which I withdrew." What Latude wanted with more linen we shall presently see. It was evident that both he and Allegre gave their gaolers considerable trouble. We next come to one of the most extraordinary documents to be found in the " Archives." NOTE BY DUVAL. " Latude was put into the same room with Allegre at the Bastille. They found means to correspond by letter with all the other prisoners ; they raised a stone 119 The Bastille in the chapel under which they placed their letters. It is to be remarked that la Beaumelle was then a prisoner; he passed himself off as a woman in his letters to Allegre, and as he had a great deal of wit, and as the latter was very inflammable and wrote very well, Allegre fell violently in love with la Beaumelle — to such an extent that although they had reciprocally agreed to burn their letters for fear of accident, Allegre kept those of la Beaumelle, his sweetheart, as he could not brirrg himself to destroy them. The consequence was that, having been discovered during a visit made to his chamber, he was put in a cell." It is not said whether poor inflammable Allegre was made aware of his error, but he did not long remain underground. BERRYER TO CHEVALIER. " 28th December, 1753. " As you tell me that the water is about to flood the cells, I beg that you will withdraw the three pris oners confined in them, to wit — Allegre, whom you can reinstall in the room with Latude, and you must give the other two the worst rooms." NOTE BY DUVAL. " 1756. " He was no sooner out than, with Latude, he de vised means of escape. To this effect they worked for eighteen months unravelling their shirts, with the threads of which they made a rope ladder of nearly 300 feet; they made rungs out of the wood given to them 120 Allegre and Latude's Escape for their fire. They concealed all this under the floor. Afterwards they loosened the iron bars in the chimney. When their work was finished they covered over the rungs and an iron bar, so that they might descend without noise." CHEVALIER TO BERRYER. " 26th February, 1756. " Allegre and Latude escaped last night from the Bastille by the chimney and from the top of the towers; they descended into the ditch by means of a rope lad der, and in the ditch they pierced the wall by which it is flanked and got through the hole." Latude in his " Memoirs " gives an account of the immense amount of labour required to " unseal " the iron bars in the chimney. It took him and Allegre six months to perform this task. After describing other preparations for the flight, he says: "When all the cords were ready we measured them; they measured 1400 feet; afterwards we made 208 rungs for the wooden ladder and the ladder of ropes; and to prevent the rungs of the ladder of ropes from mak ing a noise by swinging against the wall, we covered them with the lining of our dressing gowns, our coats, and our waistcoats. We worked night and day for eighteen months." To effect their escape the prison ers had to climb up their chimney first of all like sweeps, then to let themselves down into the ditch, in which they found 4 feet of water, and afterwards, with the iron bars torn out of their chimney, they had to make 121 The Bastille a hole in a wall 4^ feet thick. This last operation, sometimes interrupted by the passing of patrols with torches, occupied the fugitives more than eight hours. Thanks to a letter filled with abuse which Allegre wrote to the Marquise de Pompadour from Brussels, where he considered himself in safety, Allegre was arrested before he had been many weeks in the enjoy ment of liberty. He was taken to Lille, and from thence transferred to his old prison, where we see that he was allowed paper to write to M. Berryer, a blanket, and snuff. As for Latude, having written to his mother, his letters were intercepted and he was arrested at Amsterdam. He was reinstalled in the Bastille on the 15th June, 1756, was put in irons, and was con fined in a cell where he had to lie upon straw and was not allowed a blanket. In this terrible state he remained for forty months, and was not removed until the Seine overflowed and there was a foot of water in his cell. A " Note by Duval " gives us this information, and adds: " Latude in his cell forwarded several projects, which were adopted by the minister without procuring him his liberty." Latude was no doubt thus harshly treated because by his escape he got several of his gaolers into trouble. The Governor was blamed by the Minister; Chevalier had to pay 1000 francs for the iron bars which had been wrenched out of the chimney; a sub-officer was put in the cells, and the same punishment was inflicted upon Baron, the turnkey, who had been previously stabbed by Allegre. 122 Back in Prison BERRYER TO CHEVALIER. " Paris, 23rd November, 1756. " I am quite willing to alleviate the condition of Latude, and you can take off half his irons, those off his hands or his feet." CHEVALIER TO BERTIN. " nth December, 1757. "You will find enclosed a letter from Latude; he is one of the two prisoners who escaped from the Castle on the night of the 26th February, 1756, and who was caught and brought back, as well as his comrade Allegre. Since then they are in irons, and sleep upon straw; in the way of clothing and food they are treated like the other prisoners in the Bastille." Latude was always asking for permission to write, and at times his letters produced a good effect. BERTIN TO CHEVALIER. " Paris, 28th December, 1757. " Latude complains of his food. I begged you to speak to the Governor, who promised to set matters right. I beg that you will ask Latude if he is better treated, and that you will tell him he can write to me on the subject." We gather from another letter that not only La tude, but all the other prisoners, reaped benefit by 123 The Bastille this appeal; also that Latude was advised instead of writing to M. Bertin, the Lieut.-General of Police, to address himself to the Marquise de Pompadour, to demand pardon, to implore the clemency of the King, and not to say that he was innocent and was suffering unjustly. CHEVALIER TO BERTIN. " 17th August, 1758. " Latude demands permission to write to his family. This prisoner is obstinate, and up to the present has refused to accept the breeches which M. de Roche- brune had made for him, which are very good, lined with excellent skin, with silk garters, and got up in the best style." ROCHEBRUNE TO CHEVALIER. " 8th January, 1759. " I beg you to permit the haberdasher to furnish Latude with a pair of woollen stockings and a winter nightcap. ... I beg you will send me the measure of his foot, so that I may send him some slippers. I forward some gloves lined with fur, so that he may choose a pair. . . ." Allegre was also to have some winter clothing, and the authorities showed every disposition to treat these unfortunate prisoners as humanely as was consistent with their duty. 124 Latude Tablets CHEVALIER TO BERTIN. " 23rd January, 1760. " Latude is as usual incorrigible, and plays the devil; he is always wishing to write to you. He has just sent me two large packets by the turnkey; one addressed to Madame de Pompadour and the other to M. Ber ryer; they are tablets made of bread-crumbs on which he writes very well. . . ." CHEVALIER TO M. DE SARTINE. " 2nd May, 1760. " Latude sent us yesterday two more tablets, which we will hand to you the first time you come to the Castle. This prisoner made a great noise to-day." THE SAME TO THE SAME. " 25th June, 1760. " Several years ago I informed your predecessors that Latude was incorrigible, to-day he broke out in his usual way; but it is impossible for me to repeat his insults, as I have too much respect for the persons he mentioned. This prisoner has a voice of thunder, which can be heard all through and outside the Bas tille. . . ." This conduct was considered insupportable, as pris oners were continually entering and leaving the Bas tille, and could hear what Latude said. " In the long run the falsehoods he uttered, being repeated through out the kingdom, were believed," said Chevalier. 125 The Bastille There is no trace, however, of Latude being punished for his algarades; but we find that Allegre was deprived of sheets and towels for having made a bad use of them, that even the straw with which his mat tress was stuffed was cut short to prevent him twisting it into a rope, and that in July, 1761, a proposition which he made for the manufacture of Greek fire was forwarded to the Court. In October, 1761, Latude was reported for " swear ing like the devil," and declaring that he wished his poultry to be larded. In March, 1762, he wrote a very impertinent letter to the Governor, and in July, " when a tailor was or dered to make him a dressing-gown, a jacket and breeches, he wished to be measured, whereas, accord ing to the rules of the Bastille, the tailor cuts out new clothes on the pattern of the old ones, and does not see prisoners. Latude expressed himself in the vilest terms on the subject of these regulations." In the month of August, Allegre was condemned to eat out of earthenware, as he would insist on writing upon his plates and dishes. SARTINE TO CHEVALIER. " Paris, ioth January, 1762. " I hear that Latude has recommenced his extrav agances, and made a noise which was heard by people passing under his window. Tell him that if he does not behave himself, I shall punish him severely; how ever you can inform him that the first time I go to the Bastille I will pay him a visit." 126 M. de Sartine Several letters written at the beginning of 1763, show that M. de Sartine allowed an oculist to treat Latude, who complained of his eyes, and that M. Grandjean visited the prisoner for six months. He remained subject to bursts of fury, but with all that, he was not considered as dangerous as Allegre. CHEVALIER TO SARTINE. " 19th June, 1764. " I have the honour to inform you that Allegre continues morning and night to break all his pottery and glass, and the punishment of being put in irons makes no impression upon him. This has been going on for six months. The prisoner would wear out the patience of the most virtuous Capuchin." In August, 1763, M. de Sartine wrote that he had spoken about releasing Latude at Court, but was told that he must remain a little longer in prison and have patience. In June, 1764, M. de Sartine gave orders for Latude to be informed that he thought seriously of him, and that he would do well to remain quiet. THE SAME TO THE SAME. " 26th June, 1764. " Allegre, by way of continuing his prowesses, has torn one of his mattresses to pieces, and thrown it out of the window; he has also torn up his shirts, which cost the King twenty francs apiece, and his pocket- handkerchiefs, which were of cambric. . . . This pris- 127 The Bastille oner has nothing on his body but his waistcoat and his breeches. If he be not mad, he plays the madman very well." THE SAME TO THE SAME. " 29th June, 1764. " The windows in Allegre's chamber have shared the same fate as his furniture, his linen, etc. I have just had the pieces of glass with which his room was strewn removed, lest he should lame himself. I called in M. le Coq (the doctor of the Bastille) to see him; M. le Coq asked him if he had any pain; he replied that he had not, and that he was quite contented. This prisoner inspires pity; it is very unfortunate that he should be in such a condition. . . ." It was proposed to place a guardian in the room with Allegre, but in the end it was deemed that this expedient was too dangerous. Another doctor was called in who reported Allegre to be sound in body, adding: " He probably pretends to be mad; I have long been acquainted with the wickedness of this man. ... It will be impossible to bear with him in the Bastille unless he be closely chained." The consequence was that Allegre was removed to Charenton and confined in a new cage. According to a report of the Superior he recovered his calm and often talked with him very reasonably; he said that his long confinement had driven him mad; he used no bad language to the monks or servants, and declared the cooking to be better at Charenton than at the Bastille. 128 Latude In August, 1764, Latude appears to have managed somehow to forward a letter to the Parliament, denouncing M. de Sartine. He told the turnkey that he would be put into a cell for this. SARTINE TO CHEVALIER. " 3rd September, 1764. " On reception of this note I beg you will have Latude confined in a cell until further orders ; he abuses my kindness." NOTE BY DUVAL. " Latude was transferred to Vincennes on the 13th September, 1765, and made his escape on the 23rd No vember." ST. FLORENTIN TO GUYONNET. " 24th November, 1765. " I am exceedingly angry to learn the escape of Latude, and I hardly know how to announce it to the King. In spite of all you say I cannot conceive how you could have permitted the prisoner to take exercise, without being authorized. You know of what consequence it was that he should not escape." It would seem as if Louis XV. must have feared for his own life, for Madame de Pompadour had been dead a year when Latude, taking advantage of a fog, slipped away from Vincennes for the second time. It will be remarked that the gaolers of Latude and of Allegre were disposed to treat both those unfort unate prisoners with indulgence. M. de Sartine him- 129 The Bastille self several times spoke to the Ministers under whom he acted in favour of Latude, but the reply was al ways the same — that the moment had not yet arrived for granting him his freedom. NOTE BY DUVAL. " Latude wrote to M. de Sartine, that if he would grant him his liberty, and give him 30,000 francs to recompense him for the plans he had drawn up (on finance, public works, and military matters) he would forget the cruelties he had suffered, and there would no longer be any question of them. M. de Sartine replied to the signals which Latude demanded in case he consented; but not having perceived them Latude went to Fontainebleau to demand justice from M. de Choiseul, who had him arrested and taken back to Vincennes on the 17th December, 1765." GUYONNET TO SARTINE. " 4th January, 1766. " Latude wishing to speak to me, I went to see him; I found him in despair at being confined in a cell. I told him that I was merely executing the orders I had received. ... I promised him that I would write to you. It is true that this cell, horrible at all times, is still more terrible in this hard weather. . . ." SARTINE TO GUYONNET. " 6th January, 1766. " On the reception of your letter I wrote to M. de St. Florentin, advising him to ameliorate the fate of 130 Latude Latude by letting him out of his cell. I beg you to tell this prisoner that it does not depend upon me to re lease him from the place where he is. . . ." ST. FLORENTIN TO SARTINE. " Versailles, 8th January, 1766. " I cannot but approve of your proposal with respect to Latude, since you are sure of the chamber in which you would confine him; but you must not allow him to have writing materials." j& In November, 1772, Latude gave evident signs of insanity; he told a person sent to visit him, that M. de Sartine had received 50,000 crowns from Madame de Pompadour to keep him in prison, that H.M. had been " assassinated " (by Damiens) because he had promised Madame de Coislin to send the Marquise de Pompadour away and to take her as his mistress, and that a demon having revealed this to the Marquise the King was stabbed. He said that he had 180 cases of witchcraft to prove, and that it would take the emissary of M. de Sartine three weeks to write them out. In September, 1775, the year following the death of Louis XV., Latude was transferred to Charenton. NOTE BY DUVAL. " In 1777, Latude was permitted to see Allegre at Charenton; he was at the Catacombs among the rav ing madmen. Latude, with tears in his eyes, told him his name and asked him if he knew him; he said he did not, and that he was God. 131 The Bastille " Latude was set at liberty on the 5th June, 1777, and exiled to Montagnac, but amusing himself by writing his ' Memoirs,' he was once more arrested and taken to the Petit Chatelet on the 13th July, 1777, and transferred to Bicetre on the 1st August, where he was put in an underground cell, on bread and water, until the 23rd March, 1784, when he was set free and again exiled to Montagnac. Several persons of distinction interested themselves in his fate during his evasion, amongst others the Prince de Conti, M. de Castries, Marshal of France, etc., solicited his liberty." The above is the last document in the " Archives " concerning the two prisoners. M. Ravaisson tells us that Allegre was still at Charenton in 1788; but that the date of his death is unknown. " As for Latude," he adds, " he remained in Paris and received a pension of 400 francs a year from the Royal Treasury, which was very little, but then a public subscription had been made in his favour; in 1793 the heirs of Madame de Pompadour were condemned to pay him a pension of 70,000 francs; only a portion of which he received, as they had already given him a farm, where he passed the rest of his life in obscure and tranquil competence; he died at the age of eighty." M. Ravaisson, while looking upon Latude as a thorough scamp, naturally condemns his long captiv ity, which he pronounces as " astonishing at first sight." He, however, explains it in the manner to which we have already referred. Both the " Well-be- 132 fean Henri Masers de Latude Latude loved " and his stately mistress lived in continual dread of dying a violent death. Although poisoning had gone out of fashion since the last reign and the days of the CJiambrc Ardcnte, a sort of chronic panic existed in Court circles. M. Ravaisson is of opinion that Latude would have been released much sooner, but for his escapes, which damaged the prestige of the fortresses in which he was confined; he observes too, as a curious fact, that in 1774, when Louis XVI. on his accession to the throne set every one free, he considered it necessary to make an exception in the case of Latude. " One would have thought that the first act of M. de Mau repas, on resuming office, would have been to release his quondam accomplice." We may add that an Englishman, who was guilty of an offence very similar to that committed by Latude, and who tried to extort money from the Prince of Wales by offering to betray a plot to poison him, was, in 1886, sentenced to seven years' imprisonment. Anon we shall catch another glimpse of Latude, whose captivity excites almost as much interest as that of Silvio Pellico, but who was a far different style of man from the Italian patriot. Cardinal Fleury had not been long in the grave when the Treasury was empty. The millions amassed under the wise administration of His Eminence, were dissipated by the Court in frivolous pleasures or foolish and unsuccessful wars, and, as M. Ravaisson remarks, " The richest country in the world was re duced to the most curious expedients to save itself 133 The Bastille from bankruptcy. Among these expedients was the issue of lottery tickets, which were eagerly bought up by the public. For every eighty million francs paid into the Treasury, one million was offered to the pub lic in the way of prizes. There can be no two opinions as to the immorality of this proceeding. Quantities of lottery tickets were forged; but when the police managed to lay their hands on the culprits they were punished with the greatest severity." In January, 1749, the Abbe Fleur and three other men were committed to the Bastille on the charge of forging lottery tickets. One of the prisoners, who was half an idiot, was discharged in April. BERRYER TO D'ARGENSON. " On the 1 6th December, the Chamber of the Ar senal tried the case of the forged tickets of the Royal Lottery, and the three prisoners sent to the Bastille as implicated in this affair were placed at the bar; two of them were condemned to death, and the third was acquitted. The next day, Fleur, a priest, and St. Etienne were hung at seven p.m. on the Place de Greve." A long report was furnished to M. Berryer con cerning this execution. The Abbe Fleur could not believe that the sentence of the court would be carried out. He behaved with great violence and refused to leave the prison; he declared that he had not made his peace with God, and that he must confess. With much difficulty he was got to the Hotel de Ville, and 134 The Abbe Fleur when he was at the foot of the fatal ladder he swore that nothing would persuade him to ascend it. At length it was agreed that he should confess while the executioner was preparing him for the rope; he re mained a long time at confession, and when that cere mony was over he declined to ascend the ladder. The executioner had to resort to force; the Abbe resisted, and when half-way up kicked the assistant executioner in the pit of the stomach, and was nearly falling down himself together with the executioner; at length he was hauled up to the top of the ladder and the rope was got round his neck; in a half-strangled voice he again demanded a confessor; the confessor ascended the ladder, but finding that he wandered from the ques tion he handed him the crucifix to kiss, and rede- scended. The Abbe made a further resistance, and as the rope tightened round his throat he got his legs round the rungs of the ladder, and it was very difficult to get them out. " There," says the report, " the mat ter ended; never did any one die harder." M. Ravaisson informs us that the women of the markets declared it was a great shame to hang so fine a fellow. 135 CHAPTER V. 1750 RESSEGUIER — ABBE MEHEGAN — LA BEAUMELLE — MILON— DAMIENS— FRERON— ABBE DE FORGES The Chevalier de Resseguier was committed to the Bastille in 1750, for having written the following stinging epigram against Madame de Pompadour. His case is interesting, as showing that the celebrated mistress of Louis XV. was not always vindictive. The epigram ran thus : Fille d'une sangsue, et sangsue elle-meme; Poisson d'une arrogance extreme, Etala en ce chateau, sans crainte et sans effroi, La substance du peuple et la honte du roi. It was not to be wondered that the author of this attack on the daughter of the army contractor, Pois son, who then enjoyed the royal favour, should have found his way to the Bastille. THE MAJOR CHEVALIER TO BERRYER. " 19th January, 1751. " For the last two days the Chevalier de Resseguier has a most woeful countenance; he frets himself to such an extent that he has not the strength to eat or drink." 136 Chevalier de Resseguier D'HEMERY TO CHEVALIER. " 3rd February, 1751. " I have the honour to inform you that I have re ceived orders from the King to transfer the Chevalier de Resseguier to Pierre-en-Cise. . . ." BORY, COMMANDANT OF PIERRE-EN-CISE, TO BERRYER. " Pierre-en-Cise, 8th February, 1751. " Yesterday I received the Chevalier de Resseguier, whom you sent from the Bastille; but M. d'Hemery, who brought him, has handed me no special instruc tions, and the Comte d'Argenson, who countersigned , the lettre de cachet, has inserted no unfavourable clause. From this I augur well in favour of the prisoner, whose talent and politeness greatly interest those who know him. However, as he has had the misfortune to offend the King, I dare not take upon myself to grant him any of the alleviations of which this place is capable, and I shall await your instructions. The Chevalier has committed an inexcusable fault, but he appears to repent it sincerely." MEUNIER TO BERRYER. " ioth February, 1751. " The woman Sireuil lives in the Rue des Moulins; she is the wife of a former valet de chambre of the King, whose father was the tailor of H.M. She is about twenty-eight years of age, pretty, witty, and makes verses; she was the mistress of the Chevalier de Resse- 137 The Bastille guier when he was arrested. ... He made her ac quaintance at the house of M. Titon, where he met her at dinner, thanks to the Abbe Raynal, who was the friend of the Chevalier, and very intimate with the lady." The Abbe Raynal above-mentioned is the celebrated historian and philosopher who wrote the " History of the Parliament of England," " The Divorce of Henry VIII.," and many other works, and to whom Buona parte, artillery officer, wrote on the 24th June, " year 1st of liberty," sending him a sketch of his " History of Corsica." Berryer, in reply to Bory, gave him orders to treat the Chevalier like a man of birth, to give him the best room possible, and books to amuse himself with. How ever, he was to have neither pen, ink, nor paper, and was to receive no visits. MADAME POISSON VARNIER TO D'ARGENSON. " I cannot renounce the confidence which I have in you; I know that the Chevalier de Resseguier praises your kindness. . . . M. Bory will certify his repentance, and how necessary it is that he should attend to his affairs. The severity of his punishment astonishes as much as it interests me; his youth might excuse his imprudence. I know no one better in every way — a man of real merit. It is your duty to protect persons of his description, and I should be flattered to owe you the life and repose of one whose health will never resist his misfortunes." 138 Abbe Mehegan The Chevalier had the good fortune to have for friend and protector, Madame Poisson Varnier, the cousin of the Marquise de Pompadour. NOTE FROM M. DUVAL. " October, 1752. " The Chevalier de Resseguier has been released from Pierre-en-Cise; he dare not return to Malta, hav ing written some verses against the Grand Master." It was through an equerry of Madame de Pompa dour that the Chevalier de Resseguier had found means to gain access to that lady. The equerry had formerly been ia the service of the Resseguiers at Toulon. RESSEGUIER TO BERRYER. " Guignes, 6th September, 1754. " You are aware of all the changes which have taken place in my destiny, and with what generosity Madame de Pompadour has laboured to improve it ; she herself condescended to send me my recall and to add a letter, the style of which, full of humanity, has rendered it more precious than even that which opened for me the doors of the kingdom." And the Chevalier was free. Among the other Abbes arrested at this epoch was the Abbe Mehegan, who appears to have been a rather dissolute ecclesiastic. 139 The Bastille D'HEMERY TO BERRYER. " 12th August, 1751. " I have the honour to inform you that I have ar rested the Abbe Mehegan and taken him to the Bas tille, in virtue of an anticipated order of the King of the 8th June last. The Commissioner de Rochebrune first of all examined his papers, but found nothing sus picious. This Abbe has, however, acknowledged that he is the author of Zoroastre; he lodged in the Rue de Vaugirard at the house of the widow le Roux." On the 14th August the Abbe wrote a long letter to Berryer in which he explained the circumstances under which his crime was committed. He was dining out, and the conversation fell upon Zoroaster, who was terribly ill-treated. The Abbe defended him, asserting that he had followed the natural religion, the only light capable of guiding him in the ab sence of the torch of revelation. " I was flattered, and asked to put what I had said in writing." The Abbe then gave an account of how he had laboured for twenty-four hours at his work, and how he was seized with a vertigo of vanity on hearing it applauded. The pamphlet, he said, was printed without his authority; but he admitted having corrected the proof sheets. The Abbe thus concluded a most piteous appeal to be released: "While waiting to appear before you, I hope you will deign to give orders so that I may have a comb, a barber, and some historical works to while away this fearful solitude." 140 Abbe Mehegan " Good," wrote the Major of the Bastille on this letter. LANGUET, ARCHBISHOP OF SENS, TO BERRYER. " Sens, 31st August, 1751. " Madame de Mehegan, who inhabits this town, has learned that her son was committed to the Bastille ten or twelve days ago. I believe that the Bastille, like Paris, is under your department. She implores my influence not to demand the release of her son, but, through you, to request H.M. to keep him there until she can take measures to pay his debts; he is very dis orderly in his conduct as well as in his writings, as he receives a pension of 1000 livres from the Bishopric of St. Claude. I venture to send you this petition on the demand of a mother who, although very noble and virtuous, has the misfortune to have so wild a son. . . ." A year later Madame Mehegan herself wrote to Berryer, saying: " I have learned with as much pain as surprise that you think of releasing my son shortly from the Bastille. He has no doubt got some of his friends to intercede with you; but permit a mother who has done everything for him, and who has been repaid with the basest ingratitude, who has been plunged into grief and overwhelmed with insults, that it would be well for him to make a more lengthened sojourn in the Bastille in order to give him leisure to reflect on his evil ways." And the mother of the prisoner went on to give a long list 141 The Bastille of the ill deeds of her son, who, she said, was de graded in body and mind, who sought bad company, who was lost to all sense of decency, and who had ruined her. " Should you release him," she added, " I am not in a position to support him, nor my daughter. I have been obliged to furnish a small room with straw chairs and a little linen." And in fact the poor lady showed that she had been reduced to the most lamentable straits, and she begged hard that the Abbe might be kept in durance vile until the month of February, when some money would be due to him. The Abbe was released on the 18th February, 1753, and we know not what became of him afterwards. In May, 1753, M. de la Beaumelle was sent to the Bastille for writing in a disrespectful manner of the House of Orleans, and in a work entitled " Mes Pensees," saying: " Happy is the State whose King has no mistress; provided that he has no confessor." Louis XV., who had both, was much irritated. In " Mes Pensees," de la Beaumelle made a deadly enemy of Voltaire by declaring that there had been better poets before him, but never a poet so highly paid. To this he added: "The King of Prussia overwhelms men of talent with favours, just as a little German prince does a buffoon or a dwarf. The King of Prussia in his palace is surrounded by wits, as the German princes are by monkeys." After remaining in prison about six months, de la Beaumells was released, but he was committed once more in August, 1756, for accusing the Court of Aus- 142 La Beaumelle tria of having poisoners always in its pay. He was treated with great indulgence, and after a while shared a chamber with the Abbe d'Estree, who was confined for having said that the wife of Marshal Lux embourg was three or four years older than she really was. The Marshal was furious, and the culprit was kept in prison for two years. De la Beaumelle and the Abbe were delighted with each other at first, but this state of affairs did not last long. DE LA BEAUMELLE TO D'ARGENSON. " Bastille, ist April, 1757. " Monseigneur, " I have been here for the last eight months; I have lost an excellent place; I have lost 15,000 francs by the seizure of my books; I have lost my health, which is only sustained by a pint of milk per diem, and all this for a book sold with permission and republished with permission. ... I implore you to put an end to my woes since the Empress Queen is satisfied. . . ." The above and other piteous letters did poor de la Beaumelle write to persons having authority, con descending even to lick the hand of Voltaire, whom he suspected to be the author of his misfortunes. CHEVALIER TO BERRYER. "30th May, 1757. " Very often the Abbe d'Estree and de la Beaumelle fall out and abuse each other like hackney cabmen; H3 The Bastille this is astonishing. I have the honour to warn you of the matter, fearing evil consequences may result. . . ." ST. FLORENTIN TO BERRYER. "26th August, 1757. " I send you an order from the King, as you pro pose, to release de la Beaumelle from the Bastille, to gether with an order for him to retire to Languedoc, his birthplace. . . . You will warn him to take care what he writes in future." CHEVALIER TO BERRYER. " 2nd September, 1757. " The Abbe d'Estree is in despair since the release of de la Beaumelle, and did not go to bed last night; he has eaten nothing to-day, cries bitterly, and is in a piteous condition. His great grief is that he thinks de la Beaumelle was more culpable than himself, and to see him free overpowers him, although at the bot tom of his heart he is very glad that de la Beaumelle has been released. If the grief of this prisoner con tinues he will go mad." The Abbe did not recover while he remained in the Bastille, from which, however, he was released three months after his fellow-captive. As for de la Beaumelle, he is chiefly known to us as one of the thorns in the side of Voltaire. We find him mentioned several times by Carlyle, in his " His tory of Frederick the Great." Thus: " Poor devil! 144 The Royal Chamber he got put into the Bastille too, by-and-by, royal per sons being touched by some of his stupid foot-notes. De la Beaumelle had a long course of it, up and down the world, in and out of the Bastille." " This is the ninety-fifth anonymous calumny of de la Beaumelle's that you have sent me," writes Voltaire. " He says he will pursue you even to hell," wrote one of Voltaire's kind friends from Frankfort. One may gather a fair idea of the libels of which de la Beaumelle was capable from the following extract from a letter which Voltaire wrote to M. Lacombe from Ferney, in August, 1767: "As regards the memoire concerning the absurd calumnies of de la Beaumelle, it was more necessary for foreigners than for Frenchmen. People in Paris know very well that Louis XIV. did not poison Louvois; that the Dauphin, the King's father, did not come to an understanding with the enemies of the State to hand Lille over to them; that M. le Due, father of the present Prince de Conde, did not cause Vergier to be assassinated; but at Vienna, Baden, Berlin, Stockholm, and St. Petersburg, they may be deceived by the audacity with which de la Beaumelle utters these abominable impostures." And writing on the 1st September to M. Vernes, the Patriarch, referring to de la Beaumelle, said: " I am very tolerant, but not for the calumniators. We must protect innocence with one hand, and crush crime with the other." The reason why Voltaire was so wroth with de la Beaumelle was because he had a trick of writing ad- M5 The Bastille ditions to his works and selling them as genuine. In a letter to d'Argental, poor Voltaire wrote: " There can be no doubt of de la Beaumelle being the author and editor of this abominable work. This is the second time that he has printed my own works stuffed with everything that his hatred could dictate. There are horrors even against the King. This libel is a crime of lese-majcste, and it is sold with impunity in Paris." When the French Parliament was exiled to Pontoise a curious state of affairs ensued. " As Justice could not remain in suspense," says Densaze, the King on his own authority created a special Chamber, destined to replace the Parliament, and which assumed the title of " The Royal Chamber." But the respect for the Parliament was so deeply implanted in the minds of the people that the Royal Chamber did not dare to sit in the Palais de Justice, but met, first in the cloister of the Augustine Monastery, and then at the Louvre. " All Paris," says Voltaire,* " persisted in turning this Chamber into ridicule; and it became so ac customed to this that it assembled in laughter and made fun of its own decrees." However, there hap pened a somewhat serious affair. A robber of the name of Saudrin was condemned to be hung by the Chatelet, and appealed to the Royal Chamber, which confirmed the sentence. But the Chatelet contended that Saudrin could appeal only to the Parliament, and it consequently refused to hang the culprit whom it had itself condemned to death. The member of the Chatelet, one Milon, who drew up the report on this * " Histoire du Parlement de Paris," Chapter lxvi. 146 Damiens affair, was committed to the Bastille; whereupon the Chatelet ceased to administer justice. In spite of this we are assured that Paris remained perfectly quiet and continued to amuse itself. The police sufficed to main tain order, and as there was no possibility of having cases tried, would-be pleaders had to settle their dif ferences between them. " It seemed," remarked Vol taire, " as if chicanery had been exiled with those persons who had been instituted to repress it." On the 5th January, 1757, the cold was intense, and the courtiers at Versailles were shivering in their fur cloaks as they stood in the entrance hall waiting for the King to descend. It was the inten tion of His Majesty to drive across the park to Trianon to sup. There was the usual crowd of footmen and their torches and an escort of musketeers surround ing the royal carriage. Louis XV. descended the staircase leaning heavily on the arm of M. de Beringh- en, his grand equerry. Suddenly the King cried out that some one had pushed against him, adding: " It is that drunkard there who struck me with his fist; is it with a pin that he has pricked me? " The King put his hand under his coat, and withdrew it covered with blood. " That was the gentleman," he said, pointing to Damiens, " let him be arrested, but not killed." It was not with a pin that His Majesty had been pricked, but with a weapon hardly more formidable — a very small penknife. All attention was centred in the King, and such was the confusion caused by this unexpected event that Damien- might have easily slipped away. 147 The Bastille He made no attempt to escape. M. de Machault had him seized and immediately tortured. His legs were burned with a red-hot iron. He maintained, as he did to the last, that he had no intention of killing the King, but merely of giving him a salutary lesson. Louis XV. is said to have been terribly alarmed, and to have " trembled between his sheets " on being put to bed. The wound was trifling, but the King was impressed with the idea that the penknife was poisoned. In the absence of the official confessor His Majesty confessed to the almoner of the Grands Com mons* The official confessor, a Jesuit, arrived at n p.m. The King repeated the list of his sins, and re ceived absolution, " which was repeated every minute during the night by the almoner of the quarter." ST. FLORENTIN TO SAUVIGNY. " 6th January, 1757. " The report of the fearful attempt on the King's life is of a nature to cause so just an alarm in the minds of all his subjects that I do not lose a moment in diminishing your apprehension and acquainting you with the facts of this horrible event, and the state in which H.M. is. I shall take care to keep you informed of all that happens. . . ." ST. FLORENTIN TO BEAUMONT, ARCHBISHOP OF PARIS. " 6th January, 1757. " You are already acquainted with the terrible ac cident which has befallen the King. H.M. was bled * The kitchens ! 148 Louis JCV. a Saint twice shortly after being wounded. The wound is healthy, there is no fever, he is perfectly tranquil, and would be inclined to sleep if the wound were not on the right side, which is the side upon which H.M. is accustomed to lie. In spite of his satisfactory con dition, the piety of H.M. induces him to ask you to order prayers of forty hours, and to expose the Holy Sacrament in all the churches of Paris." A JESUIT TO THE ABBE. . . . " The King having gone to his room called for a confessor and extreme unction. The Abbe de Raige- court gave him absolution as if to a dying man. He asked for the almoner from the Grands Commons, who gave him a kind of confession. The surgeons did not deem it necessary that the King should receive ex treme unction. . . . Madame de Pompadour is in her apartment, and has not been to see the King. . . . The guilty man says that this would not have hap pened if four bishops had been decapitated. Yesterday a paper was pasted on our door accusing us of the blow which struck the King. ... If Madame de Pompadour goes away who will govern? " And on the 9th January: "The Parliament has met; there is no more talk of a bed of justice. . . . The King has not yet seen the Marquise de Pompa dour. It is said that she will be sent away, although she has not yet received her conge in form. She ap pears determined to go; however, she had herself bled yesterday. The Te Deum is to be sung to-mor- 149 The Bastille row. . . ." And later in the evening the Jesuit wrote: " The affair of the Marquise de Pompadour is by no means decided; she has seen the King twice. Some persons say that she will go, but without noise or violence; others, that matters will be arranged and that she will remain. I lean towards the latter opin ion. . . . The assassin of the King is very ill; the fact of having tortured him prematurely in the guard-room, in presence of the Keeper of the Seals, is severely blamed." On the ioth, the Jesuit had more news to com municate. He wrote: "The bigots in Court and town again say that Madame de Pompadour will go; and this because they desire it, which you know is a bad rule for forming a judgment. It has been ob served that the King has sent away two young girls which Label (one of his first valets) was keeping for him in what is called the petit menage. It appears that the Prince de Soubise will leave in February. ..." * The next day the Jesuit wrote: " I would willingly pay you a visit, but I am detained by the fireside ; first, by the severity of the weather; secondly, for fear of being called Ravaillac in the streets, and treated as such by the populace. . . . The Keeper of the Seals is much blamed for administering the preparatory 'question' to Damiens; the burns have given him a fever which has gone to his head, and it is feared that he will die. . . . The great question at Court is what * The Prince de Soubise did leave, took the command of the army, and was shamefully beaten at Rosbach by Frederick the Great. ISO Damiens will become of the Marquise de Pompadour. . . . The King sees Father Desmaretz every day; I do not think that he will plead her cause; she has had herself bled, and prolongs her feigned or real illness, while waiting for the King to be cured. . . . The most execrable and seditious placards have been posted up in Paris, which show the depth of the evil." As the Duchesse de Chateauroux had been banished from the royal presence when Louis XV. was supposed to be dying at Metz, in 1744, to be recalled when His Majesty recovered, so Madame de Pompadour ex pected that, in her turn, she would receive her conge, on the principle that when the devil was sick the devil a saint would be. However, in the end the whole weight of the storm fell on the Jesuits, who were driven from the kingdom, to the great delight of the Marquise and the philosophers. Damiens himself was not committed to the Bastille, but was taken to the Conciergerie, where he was placed under the guard of four sergeants and the assistant- surgeon of the Parliament. A cook attached to the King's household was confined with them, and pre pared the repasts, lest Damiens should take poison. But if Damiens himself was not thrown into the Bastille, no less than forty persons were incarcerated in that fortress in connection with his attempt on the King's life; some suspected as his accomplices, some for excusing his crime, others for writing lampoons. Among these victims were the wife of the culprit, his daughter, his father, his brother, his nieces, three abbes, two widows, and two lads of thirteen years of 151 The Bastille age. Some of these prisoners were detained only a few months, others for several years. Not a few were transferred to other prisons, and it consequently does not appear in the " Archives " of the Bastille how long their incarceration lasted. One prisoner, the Baron de Venae, remained in the Bastille until 1781 — twenty- two years — and a man called Tapin twenty years. It is strange to observe that, although kept in prison so long, the Baron de Venae was not treated harshly; he was allowed writing materials and books, and more fuel than other prisoners. Some suspicion fell upon the Dauphin, who, though not destined to reign himself, was the father of the three last Bourbon Kings, Louis XVI., Louis XVIIL, and Charles X., as Philip IV. was the father of the three last Capets, Louis X., Philip V., and Charles IV., and Henri II. the father of the last three Valois, Francois II., Charles IX., and Henri III. That the Dauphin should have been suspected of being concerned in a plot to assassinate the King, arose from the fact of his having long held aloof from the Court, and of his supposed sympathy with the Jesuits. In " Louis XV. et sa Famille " M. Honore Bonhomme says, that while the Jesuits pretended that the Dauphin died of grief on account of their expulsion from the kingdom, the philosophers who during his life re proached him for his intolerance and fanaticism showed themselves inclined to reckon him as one of their num ber because, as La Harpe said, a copy of Locke was found under his pillow after his death and because he said, " Let there be no persecution." 152 Damiens Condemned Although so many persons were thrown into prison in connection with this attempt it never was proved that Damiens had any accomplices. If he had, he never betrayed them; the most cruel tortures failed to wring from his lips a word calculated to implicate any one else in his crime. If sedition was rife in Paris and feeling indifferent, such does not appear to have been the case in some of the other cities of France, if we are to believe the " Archives." D'HERONVILLE (LIEUT.-GOVERNOR OF GUIENNE) TO ST. FLORENTIN. " Bordeaux, 14th January, 1757. " I found the whole of this city in the greatest con sternation; the prayers of forty hours were commenced this morning; every one rushed to church; the Jews and the Protestants also prayed for the King in their places of worship. The theatre is closed, business has ceased. . . . The same feeling animates the entire province." THE DUC DE VILLARS TO D'ARGENSON. " Aix, 17th January, 1757. " I have received your letter informing me of the fearful attempt on the person of the King. . . . The courier was awaited with impatience. A crowd sur rounded the Post Office, and many persons went out to meet the courier to know if he brought good news. . , . When I announced that the life of H.M. was not in danger they expressed their joy with shouts of de- 153 The Bastille light and clapping of hands, which lasted all the even ing. The satisfaction was unanimous. ... I hear that the delight of the inhabitants of Marseilles, at the second news, was equal to the terror with which they were at first seized." ST. FLORENTIN TO PROVOST MARSHAL VANNES. " 6th March, 1757. "As the trial of Damiens is drawing to a close, it will be necessary for all the brigades in the vicinity of Paris to march to the gates of the capital on the day that scoundrel is executed. . . ." This shows as if a riot was apprehended. Damiens was condemned to be quartered alive after undergoing the question. His sentence was signed by five Princes of the Blood, twenty-two Dukes, etc., etc. Bouton, an exempt, who was so close to the place of execution that his horse ate the straw destined to burn the unfortunate Damiens, has left a terrible re port, which makes one's blood run cold and wonder how any civilised people, or even savages, could have resorted to such diabolical cruelty. The tortures in flicted on Damiens are said to have been more severe than those inflicted on Ravaillac. The report of Bouton may be thus summarized: " We entered the Conciergerie at 6 a.m., on learning that Damiens had been transported to the chamber where the question is applied. . . . Before the ques tion, M. Gaudot and two officers, of which I was one, 154 Bouton's Report entered the chamber with eight guards, who were destined to carry Damiens wherever it was necessary. At 6.30, the usher of the chamber entered and had Damiens unbound, placed on his knees, his head un covered, and read out his sentence; at each article he appeared to applaud by bowing his head; he after wards asked me to send for a confessor; I replied that this was only done after the question. The Presi dent Mole, the Councillors Severt and Pasquier, and four or five others, entered the question chamber at 7 a.m., and made Damiens sit on a stool, where he was bound with leather straps to iron rings sealed into the floor. Being thus bound, M. Gaudot held a gold snuff-box in his hand, Damiens said: ' Sir, you have a very handsome gold snuff-box.' The Presi dent sent the criminal lieutenant, with the officers and guards, out of the room. A few ushers, surgeons of the question, and two executioners remained. " Damiens was examined, and then the question of the boot was applied by the questioners of Paris. There were twenty other executioners present from various places in the provinces, all remarkable for their curious faces. During the question, Damiens cried out a good deal and spoke, but we could not hear what was said. " After the question the Cure of St. Paul went up to the chamber, and the other gentlemen came down. There was no prince there. Damiens was then carried into the chapel, where he was strapped up as before and placed in a chair; he was then exhorted by the Cure of St. Paul and the Abbe Marsilly. A good hour afterwards the salut was sung by a prisoner and 155 The Bastille the host raised. When the salut was being sung, I saw Damiens beating measure with his right hand. After the benediction had been given, Damiens was carried from the chapel and placed in a cart in which there was some straw; an executioner stood in the front of the cart and another behind, holding him by the collar. The cart was escorted by guards, and several officers followed it on horseback." Nothing seemed to escape the observation of Bouton during this hideous performance. He tells us that all the horses were blacks or bays, but that M. Gaudot rode a white one, with housings of blue velvet em broidered with silver; the officers' horses had housings of red or scarlet velvet, etc. After passing through a number of streets the cart stopped in front of Notre Dame. Damiens was taken out by the executioners and placed on his knees ; he made the amende honorable once more, holding a torch which had been given to him at the Conciergerie. After this he was again strapped up and taken to the Place de Greve and into the Hotel de Ville, where he remained three quarters of an hour with the gentlemen of the Parliament. He was given something to drink, and was ordered out tor punishment. A fire had been prepared on the pave ment, and in an iron cauldron pitch, sulphur, wax, and lead had been melted together, and over this oil was poured. Then comes a long description of the scaffold, after which Bouton goes on to say that Damiens, during the preparations, which lasted more than half an hour, was lying on the ground, and was being ex- 156 Damiens Tortured horted by the Cure of St. Paul and the Abbe Mar- silly. He was stripped naked, and had nothing but a shirt round his loins, and on his right leg were to be seen the linen bandages which covered the wounds made at Versailles when he was arrested. Ropes were attached to all his members; then his right arm was stretched out. In his hand was tied the knife with which he had struck the King; it was an ordinary knife with a horn handle, having a large blade on one side and a small one on the other; it was with the latter that the King was wounded. The son of Samson, the executioner, showed the knife to Bouton. Next comes a minute description of the way in which the unfortunate Damiens was secured with iron belts and screws; and then the sulphur was lighted, but it did not take fire well, and the hand which held the knife was very slightly damaged. Afterwards an executioner tucked up his sleeves, took up his steel pincers, and set to work — first on the calf of the leg, then on the thighs, then on the breast. This execu tioner, although stout and strong, had great difficulty in tearing away the pieces of flesh he caught hold of with his pincers; he was obliged to twist his pincers round two or three times. After this, Damiens, who shrieked a great deal, but who did not swear, raised his head and looked round. The executioner dipped an iron spoon in the cauldron and threw its contents in profusion on each wound. Then horses were harnessed to each of his members. Breton, the usher, asked him if he had anything to say; he replied that 157 The Bastille he had not. He cried as we are told the damned do: " Pardon, my God, Pardon! " In spite of all his suf ferings he several times raised his head and looked boldly round. The ropes with which he was bound made him suffer inexpressible torture. The confessors approached several times and spoke, to him; he will ingly kissed the cross which they presented to him; he put out his lips and said: " Pardon, Lord," etc. The horses, each held by an executioner, now gave a pull, and the same ceremony was repeated a quarter of an hour afterwards; then again and again without success. Damiens raised his head and looked round. It was found necessary to add two more horses to those harnessed to the thighs, which made six horses; but this did not succeed. At last Samson, the exe cutioner, seeing there was no hope of making a finish of it, sent to ask the gentlemen of the Parliament if they would like him to cut Damiens in pieces. Orders, however, were given to make fresh efforts; but the horses turned restive, and one of those harnessed to the thighs fell. The confessors returned and spoke to him again. " I heard Damiens say, ' Kiss me, gen tlemen,' " continues Bouton. " The Cure of St. Paul not daring, the Abbe Marsilly kissed him on the«fore- head. The executioners began swearing, upon which Damiens told them not to swear, but to attend to their trade; he said he was not angry with them, and he begged them to pray God for him, and to ask the Cure of St. Paul to do the same when he said mass." After several more attempts and an application of the knife — the details are too ghastly for translation — 158 Damiens Executed this terrible tragedy was brought to a close by the trunk of the victim being burned. It was not until eleven o'clock at night that the troops present at this execution returned to their quarters. The hideous spectacle had lasted some sixteen hours. The effect was much the same as when the Marquise de Brin- villiers was done to death. The mob admired the forti tude of Damiens, and were more inclined to look upon him as a hero than a regicide, or would-be regicide.* M. Ravaisson, who naturally condemns this bar barous treatment of Damiens, says that never did the wound inflicted by a penknife produce such results. He says that these were disastrous for the country which was about to enter on a campaign. M. de Sou bise was given the command of the army, and the Due de Choiseul took in hand the War Office and the Foreign Office. We know how Soubise lost the battle of Rosbach and was lampooned in Paris, where every event ends with a song or an epigram such as this : Soubise dit, la lanterne a la main: J'ai beau chercher, ou diable et mon armee Elle etait la pourtant hier matin Me l'a-t-on prise, ou l'aurais egaree? * George Selwyn, who never lost an opportunity of attending an execution, went to Paris to witness the tortures inflicted on Damiens. Jesse, in his " Memorials of George Selwyn," says : " On the morning of the execution he mingled with the crowd in a plain undress suit and bob wig, when a French nobleman, ob serving the deep interest he took in the scene, and imagining, from the plainness of his attire, that he must be a person in the humbler ranks of life, resolved that he must infallibly be a hang man. ' Eh bien, monsieur,' said he, ' etes vous arrive pour voir 159 The Bastille In fact, Soubise lost 3,000 killed, 7,000 prisoners, and he knew not what had become of the remainder of his 30,000 men. Writing of this same epoch, Carlyle, in his " History of Frederick the Great," says: " Nor is this all on the part of magnanimous France; there is a Soubise getting under way withal, Soubise and 30,000 men who will reinforce the Reichs, were it on foot, and be heard of by-and-by! So high runs French en thusiasm at present! A new sting of provocation to His Most Christian Majesty, it seems, has been Fred erick's conduct in that Damiens affair (miserable at tempt by a poor mad creature to assassinate, or at least draw blood from Most Christian Majesty!); about which Frederick, busy and oblivious, had never, in common politeness, been at the pains to condole, com pliment, or take any notice whatever. And will take the consequences, as due! " * The last document of interest in connection with this tragedy, which we find in the " Archives " is this ST. FLORENTIN TO BERRYER. " 24th April, 1757. " I enclose the passports for Damiens (senior), his daughter, and his wife, which have been made out in ce spectacle? ' ' Oui, monsieur.' ' Vous etes bourreau? ' 'Non, monsieur,' replied Selwyn, ' je n'ai pas cet honneur; je ne suis qu'un amateur.' " * We have seen how Frederick, by a Cabinet Order of the 3rd June, 1740, abolished torture in Prussia, and his philosophical mind must have been filled with disgust on learning the barbari ties practised in Paris, because His Most Christian Majesty had been wounded with the small blade of a penknife. 160 Freron the name of Gillemaut, which they have decided upon taking. The King approves of you giving to each of them 300 francs by way of charity. . . ." And it is not said that this money was refused. BERRYER TO CHEVALIER. " Paris, 24th January, 1757. " You will receive M. Freron at the Castle of the Bastille; you will give him two apartments, permit him to take exercise, and let him have books and writing materials, so that he may amuse himself. You will allow him to hear mass, if he likes. . . ." THE SAME TO THE SAME. " Paris, 25th January, 1757. " Not wishing to hamper M. Freron in the con tinuation of his work, you will receive the proof sheets from M. d'Hemery, etc., etc." Freron had been arrested for having published an extract from a work on Spain, which was deemed in sulting to that country. He was detained only a week. Another of Delort's philosophers was the Abbe Desforges, who was committed to the Bastille for pre suming to write a work entitled, " The Advantages of Marriage, and how necessary and salutary it is for Priests and Bishops of the present day to marry Chris tian Girls." The police at once and without waiting for orders took this affair in hand, and reported upon 161 The Bastille it. From this report we gather that, having found in the apartment of Desforges 2,000 copies of this work, they were seized and taken to the Bastille. " And this work," wrote the Lieutenant of Police, " being very bad and contrary to ecclesiastical dis cipline, to the Fathers of the Church, and to tradition, I likewise had arrested and conveyed to the Bastille, awaiting the good pleasure of the Comte de St. Florentin, the author, the Abbe Desforges!" The Court approved of what had been done, but the culprit was not detained long in prison. Arrested on the 30th September, 1758, he was released in May, 1759, on making the usual promise to hold his peace with regard to all he had seen or heard during his captivity. 162 CHAPTER VI. 1760 EDELSHEIM — GENARD — DUTREIL — PASDELOUP — COURLAND— MARMONTEL— DE LA CHALOTAIS— LALLY— LE PREVOT DE BEAUMONT In the works of Frederick the Great * we find a pleasant account of how M. d'Edelsheim became ac quainted with the inside of the Bastille in the days of the " Seven Years' War." " The English," as His Majesty remarks, " had captured that year Guade loupe, Quebec, and Niagara; the squadron of M. de la Clue had been defeated at Lagos, and the fleet of M. de Conflans beaten by Admiral Hawke, who burned a number of French vessels, while others ran aground in the Vilaine ; the squadron of M. Le Fort f gained a complete victory over them near Masulipa- tan; they lost Fort St. David, and were again beaten in the Mogul, where the English made themselves masters of their large establishments in the neigh bourhood of Pondicherry. So many reverses were calculated to disgust France with a war in which she sustained nothing but loss, and in which she could hope for no advantage." * CEuvres de Frederic, t. v., p. 40. t Probably Colonel Forde, who captured Masulipatan. 163 The Bastille We are then told that France and England were in favour of peace and the assembling of a congress; that the King of Prussia also desired a prompt solu tion, having too many enemies, whereas Austria wished to drag matters on, having too many friends. In this state of affairs the King of Prussia sent M. d'Edelsheim to Paris to sound the Count of Versailles and to make a report to him and to the King of Eng land on the subject. " M. d'Edelsheim," adds Fred erick, " was sufficiently well received in Paris; he was informed in a vague manner that the success of his negotiation would depend upon the more or less promptitude with which the differences between France and England could be settled; but, having learned that the King of Prussia proposed to indem nify the King of Poland at the expense of the ecclesi astical princes of Germany, whom he intended to secularise, His Most Christian Majesty could not give his consent to such a step. M. d'Edelsheim conveyed this reply to the King at Freyburg, and then set out for London, to communicate matters to His Britannic Majesty." Voltaire played a considerable part in this negotia tion. To him Frederick wrote: " Do you think there is any pleasure in leading such a dog of a life; seeing and causing the butchery of people you know nothing about, losing daily those -you do know and love; see ing your reputation constantly exposed to the caprices of chance; passing year after year in uneasiness and apprehension, risking your life and your fortune? " It was to put an end to this intolerable state of af- 164 Baron von Edelsheim fairs that Baron von Edelsheim had been despatched to France. To return to " The Works of Frederick," we find: " M. d'Edelsheim, who had left some trunks in Paris, returned to France. He did not disguise him self, and repaired openly to the house of the Bailli de Froulay, the ambassador of the Knights of Malta. This ambassador, doubting the sincerity of the inten tions of the King of France to make peace, persuaded M. d'Edelsheim to put off his departure for a few days, so as to allow time for the interrupted negotia tions to be renewed. What was the surprise of M. d'Edelsheim the next morning to find himself arrested by means of a lettre de cachet and taken to the Bastille! The Due de Choiseul repaired thither the same day and assured the prisoner that he had been unable to devise any other expedient for conversing with him at leisure without giving offence to the Austrian Ambassador, who watched every step he took; he added that the place was a capital one for a secret negotiation, that he would willingly detain him there in order to enjoy the pleasure of conversing with him frequently, and that he would furnish him with means for forwarding his despatches to the King with safety and celerity. He afterwards complained bit terly of the Austrians, who observed him so closely. ' For,' added he, ' here is M. de Starhemberg, who knows every one employed by the King of Prussia in this negotiation; he has just received a courier from Vienna, informing him of all that is passing here.' The real cause of this scandalous behaviour was a de- *65 The Bastille sire to get possession of the papers of M. d'Edelsheim, amongst which the Due de Choiseul hoped to find the instructions of the King, which would throw light upon his intentions. He found nothing but creden tials, which the emissary had had no occasion to use. Ashamed of this sterile discovery, the Duke had M. d'Edelsheim released the next day and ordered him to leave the kingdom." When peace was concluded three years later, says a French historian, it was shown that the war had cost France 1,350,000,000 fr. and nearly all her col onies, and that England had destroyed her navy and her merchant marine. " The war had broken out over some wretched habitations, and the English gained 2,000 leagues of territory, while humanity lost a mill ion of men." On the 15 th October, 1761, Father Griffet wrote to M. de Sartine, saying that he had just been to Vin cennes to see Genard, who seemed to be very excited, and whose head was slightly deranged by his long cap tivity. SARTINE TO SAINT FLORENTIN. " 18th October, 1761. " Genard, detained by order of the King at Vin cennes since the month of January, 1757, having been transferred there from the Bastille, where he was con fined in 1756, asks to be taken back to the Bastille. He was arrested for a comedy which he wrote against the King and Madame de Pompadour, which piece was never represented or printed. This man finds 166 Genard Vincennes unpleasant, and his despair is so great that unless he be removed from there he will go mad. In the name of humanity one cannot refuse to change his prison. The Minister is implored to forward three orders to this effect, one to transfer him from Vin cennes to the Bastille, and the two others for his release from Vincennes and for his return to the Bastille " (!) There is nothing to show when Genard was re leased; but we find him mentioned again in the " Archives," not very honourably, three years after date of M. de Sartine's letter. MADAME MALLARD, NURSE TO THE DUC DE BERRI, TO SARTINE. " Versailles, 20th March, 1764. " Genard, whose fetters I have just broken, at least partially, whom I have overwhelmed with favours since his release, whom I recommended to the Con troller-General, whose wife and child I have supported for four years, this monster has just robbed me of 1,308 livres. ... I implore the protection of your grandeur to enable me to recover my money, and at all events to have Genard confined in a cell at Bicetre, since eight years of prison have not improved him. ..." SARTINE TO MADAME MALLARD. "28th March, 1764. " In accordance with your desire I have given orders for Genard, who is detained at Bicetre on the 167 The Bastille order of the King, not to be allowed to write to any one. It does not appear how long Genard remained in confinement, whether he preferred Bicetre to the Bas tille, what ultimately became of him, or whether the nurse to the Due de Berri (Louis XVI.) got back her money. In 1762, Charles Francis Emanuel Nadau Dutreil, accused of bad conduct in the defence of Martinique, was tried by court-martial, condemned to military degradation, to have his sword broken, his Cross of St. Louis torn from his breast, and to be imprisoned for life. On the 20th August the prisoner was committed to the- Bastille, where he remained about three weeks. Two other officers shared the same fate. They were transferred from the Bastille to the Isle of St. Mar guerite, where they probably remained until the Revo lution broke out. There is no further trace of them in the "Archives." The French officers accused of misbehaving them selves, and severely punished at this epoch, were not always responsible for the disasters which befell them. Duruy, in his " Histoire de France," describing this period says: "While England lavished all her solici tude on her marine, the French Government left our colonies without ships, without soldiers, and without money; unfortunate differences destroyed discipline; gentlemen officers, called ' red officers,' full of con tempt for commoners, or ' blue officers,' refused to 168 French Disasters obey them. Everywhere there was squabbling and distrust, and consequently service was badly per formed. The English blockaded our ports, and not a vessel could leave them without falling into their hands; thirty-seven ships of the line and fifty-six frigates were captured, burned, or driven ashore. The English disembarked on the coasts of Normandy and Brittany. . . . The incapacity of Conflans brought about the destruction of the fleet of Brest. In 1763, the English seized upon Belle Isle. Our littoral from Dunkirk to Bayonne was, as it were, besieged. . . . Canada was lost, and with it La Guadaloupe, St. Do mingo, Martinique, Grenada, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Tabago, St. Louis, etc." It was infamous on the part of the French Govern ment to leave their officers without support and to punish so cruelly their want of success. Dupleix, a few years before, had complained that, instead of send ing him money and good soldiers to hold India, which was then in his grasp, the Cabinet had sent him noth ing but la plus vile canaille. It is true that the force with which Clive performed such prodigies deserved no better name at first. D'Alembert, writing to Voltaire on the 31st March, 1762, says: " I have said enough of fools and their folly. All that would be nothing if we had not lost Martinique, and if every one, even the Russians, was not laughing at us." And on the 4th May following: " As for us, unfortunate and funny nation, the English make us play tragedy abroad and the Jesuits comedy at home. The evacuation of the College of Claremont 169 The Bastille occupies much more attention than that of Mar tinique. ..." Martinique was restored to France at the end of the war, but only to be captured again and to be finally restored in 1814. The assertion that we lavished all our solicitude on our navy may have been true as long as danger lasted, but not when danger had passed, if the fol lowing verse, which Carlyle says has some briny humour in it, contains the truth: Till Hawke did bang Monsieur Cong-flang,* You sent us beef and beer; Now Monsieur's beat, we've nought to eat Since you have nought to fear. On the 28th June, 1767, Jean Baptiste Pasdeloup was committed to the Bastille for hawking irreligious books. According to Carra: " His mother, who was a bigot, seized the opportunity to employ all her in fluence so that her son, with whom she was highly dis satisfied, should remain in the Bastille at the expense of the King." Jean Baptiste was detained in the Bastille for five years, and was released on undertak ing to serve his country in the colonies, but as he could not pass a medical inspection he was banished. Carra adds: " His detention was very long, and he uselessly cost the King money; it was high time to release him, for he was driven to despair, and would certainly have committed suicide. He had passed four winters with out fire and without clothes." His mother, who was * Conflans. 170 The Prince of Courland partly the cause of his long detention, was in her turn committed to the Bastille in July, 1771, together with her daughter, who was fourteen years of age, for selling political pamphlets. The widow Pasdeloup and her daughter were released on the 12th Decem ber. It is very unlikely that Jean Baptiste was treated as harshly as Carra would have us believe in his " Memoirs of the Bastille," Carra being given to ex aggerate. On the 8th January, 1768, Charles Ernest, Prince of Courland, was committed to the Bastille on the charge of forgery. The Prince appears to have been arrested when in his night-shirt, just as he was stepping into bed; he sadly wished to obtain possession of a small packet of white powder, but was prevented by the exempt, or tipstaff. This powder had the quality of effacing ink; the Prince had made some experi ments with it in presence of the Empress of Russia, who had kept a box. Prince Charles Ernest was the son of the celebrated John Ernest Biren, who, from equerry to the Empress Ann of Russia, became her favourite, and governed the empire in her name. . Prince Charles, who was an unmitigated swindler, was detained in the Bastille a little over three months, when he was released on condition of paying his debts, which amounted to no less a sum than 49,353 livres. The debts, by the way, were acquitted by the Bishop of Wilna, a near relative of the prisoner, with whose after career we have nothing to do. 171 The Bastille At this epoch Marmontel was accused of writing a satire against the Due d'Aumont; he immediately .wrote to the Duke and denied the charge, and in a letter to the Due de Choiseul protested his innocence. All in vain; he was ordered to constitute himself a prisoner after dinner. He himself relates in his " Memoirs " that, having dined with M. de Vaudesir, whose only son afterwards ran through a large prop erty and died, in the Bastille, an insolvent, he bid his host farewell and went to the residence of the Lieu tenant of Police. M. de Sartine was much astonished to see him, and said: " When we dined together with the Baron d'Holbach I little thought that when we met again it would be to send you to the Bastille." M. de Sartine then said he had not received any orders, and asked Marmontel to call back at 10 a.m. the next morning. The day following he repaired to the Bas tille with his introducer. " I was received," he wrote, " in the Council Hall by the governor and his staff, and I began to perceive that I had been well recom mended. The governor, after reading my letters, asked me if I wished my valet to remain, on condition, however, that we should inhabit the same chamber, and that he should not leave the prison before me. I consulted my domestic, Bury, who said he would not quit me. My packets and books were superficially visited, and I was ushered into a vast chamber, in which there were two beds, two tables, a chest of draw ers, and three straw chairs. It was cold, but the gaoler made a good fire, and brought plenty of wood. At the same time he gave me pen, ink, and paper, on con- 172 Porte St. Antoine Marmontel dition of giving an account of how each sheet was employed. While I was arranging my table for writ ing the gaoler asked me if I found my bed comfortable. After having examined it I said that the mattresses were bad and the blankets unclean. In a minute all was changed. I was asked at what time I would like dinner. I replied at the hour other people dine. The Bastille had a library, and the governor sent me the catalogue, giving me a choice of books. I declined with thanks for myself, but my servant asked for one of the novels of Prevost, which they brought him. . . . I had brought with me ' Pharsala ' and the ' Commen taries of Caesar.' Here I was then, before a good fire, meditating over the quarrel between Pompey and Caesar, and forgetting mine with the Due d'Aumont. On his side was Bury, as much of a philosopher as my self, amusing himself by making the beds placed in the two opposite angles of the chamber, lighted at this moment by a fine winter day, in spite of two strong iron gratings, which allowed me to see the Faubourg St. Antoine. " Two hours afterwards the bolts of the doors were drawn, and two gaolers brought in a dinner, which I thought was mine, and served it in silence. One of them placed three little dishes covered with plates in front of the fire; the other laid the cloth. . . . Then Bury begged me to take my place, and helped me to soup. It was Friday. The soup was made of white beans and very fresh butter, and there was also a dish of beans, which I found very good. The dish of salt cod, which he brought to me for a second service, was 173 The Bastille better still. The little atom of garlic with which it was seasoned would have tickled the palate of the most epicurean Gascon. The wine was not excellent, but passable. There was no dessert. Naturally some thing was wanting; but, on the whole, I found that one dined very well in prison. " As I was rising from table, and Bury was about to sit down (for there remained enough dinner for him), behold my two gaolers, who return with pyramids of new dishes in their hands. At the sight of this service of fine linen and china, and fork and spoon in silver, we recognised our mistake; however, we made no remark until the gaolers had retired, when Bury said to me : ' Since you have eaten my dinner, sir, perhaps you will allow me to eat yours? ' ' That is only just,' I replied, and the walls of the cham ber were, I think, greatly astonished to hear laughter. The dinner was gras, and consisted of an excellent soup, a succulent slice of beef, the kg of a boiled capon running with fat, a small dish of artichokes, some spinach, a fine pear, some grapes, a bottle of old Burgundy, and a cup of the best Moka. This was Bury's dinner, with the exception of the coffee and the fruit, which he was good enough to reserve for me." After dinner the governor paid the philosopher a visit, and asked him if he would like a chicken for his supper. One day a gaoler spoke in the highest terms of M. Abadie, and said that when he was made gov ernor it was as if a ray of sunlight had penetrated into the dungeons; he declared that nearly all the prison- 174 Marmontel ers were as well fed as Bury. Marmontel was detained in the Bastille only eleven days. In a letter to d'Alembert, 24th July, 1760, Voltaire says that the King was indignant at the temerity at tributed to Marmontel in insulting the Due d'Aumont. In a note we are assured that the author of the libel was not Marmontel but one Cury, whom the philos opher refused to betray. Marmontel was one of Voltaire's proteges. VOLTAIRE TO PALISSOT. " Ferney, ioth March, 1767. " You have touched the right chord, sir. I have seen Freret, the son of Crebillon, and Diderot ar rested and thrown into the Bastille; nearly all the others persecuted; the Abbe de Prades treated like Arius by the Athanasians; Helvetius not less cruelly oppressed; Tercier deprived of his employment; Mar montel despoiled of his modest fortune; Bret, his ap- probator, dismissed and reduced to poverty. ... It only remains for me to end my life in this retreat, where I am safe from the persecutors." Diderot was not confined in the Bastille, but in Vincennes, while neither the younger Crebillon nor Marmontel had much to complain of. In 1762 troubles broke out in Brittany, and at last became so serious that in 1765 the King called for a report. The consequence was that M. de la Chalotais, Procurator-General of the Parliament of Brittany, and 175 The Bastille several other persons, were arrested and confined, first in the Castle of Taureau, then in a monastery at Rennes, then in the Castle of St. Malo, and then in the Bastille. One of the most serious offences of which M. de la Chalotais was guilty, and which led to his arrest, was that of writing a report against the Jesuits. Duruy, in his succinct history of the period, writes to this effect: " The Parliament of Brittany had had long disputes with the Due d'Aiguillon, governor of that province. The Procurator-General, de la Chalo tais, had loudly accused the Duke, who had got rid of his accuser by throwing him into prison. D'Aiguillon, however, was dismissed; the Parliament of Rennes brought an action against him, and this action was re ferred to Paris, as the Duke was a peer of the realm. The Parliament of Paris was about to condemn the Duke, when the King, in a bed of justice, stopped the proceedings. Then the magistrates, or Members of Parliament, declared that ' to their great grief they were not sufficiently free to pass judgment on the property, the life and the honour of His Majesty's sub jects.' The administration of justice was suspended. It was at this moment that Choiseul was dismissed and his place given to d'Aiguillon. This exile was the forerunner of severe measures against the Parliament. On the night of the 20th January, 1771, 169 magis trates were aroused from their slumbers by the arrival of two musketeers who asked them to sign ' yes ' or ' no ' to an order to resume their functions. Only thirty-eight signed ' yes,' and these retracted the fol- 176 Parliaments Suppressed lowing day. The next night the musketeers handed them lettres de cachet exiling them to various places. At the end of the year there were more than 700 magistrates in exile. Public opinion took the affair up seriously. All the Princes of the Blood, with one exception, and thirteen peers, protested against this interference with the laws of the State. The Parlia ments of Toulouse, Besancon, Rouen, and the cour d'aides of Paris addressed the following words to the King: ' Sire, for the first time since the origin of the Monarchy we have seen the confiscation of prop erty and of office pronounced on a simple allegation and by a decree of your council. The people had for merly the consolation of being able to lay their griev ances before the kings your predecessors; but for the last century and a half the States General have not been summoned. Up to the present the intercession of the Courts supplied that of the States General, al though imperfectly, but to-day the only resource left to the people has been taken from them. The nobility which approaches the throne is forced to be silent, and access to the throne appears closed to even Princes of the Blood. . . .' And King Louis XV., on the verge of the grave, was asked to appeal to the people. Richelieu and Louis XIV. had destroyed the nobility, or what Taine calls ' the natural leaders of the people.' Louis XV. went a step further and destroyed the magistrature. The only civil support which remained to the throne was the clergy." Bonnechose, in his " French History," refers thus to this serious matter: " The latter years of the war 177 The Bastille with England were marked by the abolition of the order of the Jesuits in France. Their intolerance, their ambition, and their intrigues had excited against them the philosophers, the people, and the Parlia ments, all of whom watched for an opportunity of inflicting a blow on the society. They found it in the bankruptcy of the Jesuit Lavalette, who failed for several millions. The society, on being legally sum moned to make good the deficit, refused to give any thing more than their prayers for the victims. The Procurators-General, especially de la Chalotais, of the Parliament of Brittany, brought actions against the members of the Order.. The Jesuits defended them selves feebly, numerous sequestrations were directed, and the institution was assailed from all sides. An assembly of bishops, convoked by the King, pro nounced in favour of the society, which, however, was secularised by the Parliaments in 1762." In the end, the Jesuits were driven, not only from France, but from Spain, Portugal, Naples, Parma, and Rome, Clement XIV. having consented to their destruction. Brittany, which was not totally annexed to France, commenced this turmoil; a spirit of independence per vaded the province, which retained certain ancient rights not sacrificed when Anne of Brittany married Charles VIII. of France. In addition to the spirit of hostility against the Jesuits, the Bretons were highly indignant at being heavily taxed to pay for disastrous wars and the pleasures of the Court. It was in the height of the struggle that de la Chalotais, his son, and several other members of the Parliament of Brit- 178 The Jesuits tany were arrested ; by them the Due d'Aiguillon was regarded as a Jesuit, and this rendered his yoke intol erable. The case of de la Chalotais excited the indignation of the philosophers, and especially of Voltaire, almost as much as those of Calas, la Barre, and Sirven. We append a few letters which passed between Vol taire, d'Alembert, and de la Chalotais, and which throw light on the spirit of the times. D'ALEMBERT TO VOLTAIRE. " 31st March, 1762. " You say nothing about the memorandum of M. de la Chalotais. My opinion is that it is a terrible ' book ' against the Jesuits, especially as it is written with moderation. It is the only philosophical work which has up to the present been directed against that canaille. This spirit of philosophy is far from reigning in our Parliaments. . . ." VOLTAIRE TO M. DE LA CHALOTAIS. " Aux Delices, 17th May, 1762. " I was dead, sir, when I received the letter with which you honoured me. I hope to live to see the effect of your excellent Compte Rendu. . . . Your in dictment has been published in Geneva, and has spread through Europe with the success which the only philosophical work written by a member of the bar deserves. Let us hope that, after having purged France of the Jesuits, people will feel how disgraceful 179 The Bastille it is to remain subject to the ridiculous power which established them. . . ." THE SAME TO THE SAME. " Aux Delices, nth July, 1762. " I am almost blind, and yet I write ; it is because the passions give force, and the sentiments with which your goodness inspires me constitute a passion. You confound the Jesuits and you instruct historians. Al though I never leave my cottage now, I would pay you a visit were you in a neighbouring province. . . ." We may remark here that Robertson, in his chapter on the Jesuits, to be found in his " History of Charles V." so much admired by Voltaire, derived most of his materials from the " terrible book " of de la Chalo tais. THE SAME TO THE SAME. " 3rd November, 1762. ". . . You are Procurator-General of a province where an Italian * gives away benefices. It is true that for a long time the English were greater fools than we are; but see how they have renounced their errors. They have no longer monks nor monasteries, but their fleets are victorious; their clergy write good books, and get children; their peasants render bad land fer tile; their commerce embraces the world, and their philosophers have taught us truths of which we had no conception. . . ." * The Pope. 180 M. de la Chalotais And on the 28th February, 1763, the Patriarch of Ferney wrote another letter to M. de la Chalotais, a long letter on the education of children, well worth perusal, which terminated thus: " I am very weak, very old, very ill, but I defy any one to be more alive to your merits than I am. I cannot express with how much respect and esteem I have the honour to be, etc., etc." And once more, on the 21st July, Voltaire wrote to thank M. de la Chalotais for sending him a new chef-d'oeuvre for which all Frenchmen should be thankful. " When France," added the patriarch, " has no longer an Italian master who has to be paid, she will say: ' It is to M. de la Chalotais that we owe this.' " The next letter shows that de la Chalotais must have been harshly treated at this time; or at all events that he was deprived of writing materials. VOLTAIRE TO D'ALEMBERT. " 7th August, 1766. " As you can well imagine, my dear philosopher, my blood boiled when I read the defence of de la Cha lotais, written with a toothpick; this toothpick has ' engraved for immortality.' Woe to the person who can read this without his blood boiling. But the mis fortune of the Athenians is to be cowardly. . . . They groan, they hold their tongues, they sup, and forget." A full account of the trial of M. de la Chalotais was published in 1767 — 3 vols, in 4to — with his curious epigraph: " Ad perpetuam sceleris memoriam." We 181 The Bastille find in a petition which the Attorney-General wrote on the 15th January, 1766, the following words: " I am in chains; I find means to write a petition; I entrust it to Providence. Should it fall into the hands of some honest citizen, I beg he will see that it reaches the King, and even that he will render it public, so as to justify myself and my son." This is the petition which was written at St. Malo, with the aid of a toothpick, and ink composed of a little water, soot, vinegar, and paper in which sugar and chocolate had been wrapped up. And on the nth August Voltaire wrote to the same dear philosopher: " You must know that at present there are eighty-three Jesuits at Rennes, not more, and that these scamps, as you may imagine, do not go to sleep over the de la Chalotais affair. His defence has conciliated the public, and rendered his persecu tors odious." And d'Alembert replied, on the 29th August, from Paris: " With regard to M. de la Chalotais, all the lawyers agree that every rule has been violated in the proceed ings taken against him, and that the King (Louis XV.), so full of good intentions, has been odiously deceived in this affair. All France is awaiting the verdict, and in the meantime the persecutors are the objects of public execration. Farewell, my dear mas ter, my wrath renders me ill, and prevents me from writing any more. . . ." De la Chalotais was released from the Bastille on the 22nd December, and exiled to the town of Saintes. 182 The Annual Register It was probably upon learning this that Voltaire wrote to M. Damilaville: " As you imagine I ought to say nothing about M. de la Chalotais, I am merely very much obliged to you for letting me see how good and how wise the King is. . . ." And, in fact, directly Louis XV. read the report on the de la Chalotais affair he ordered his release from the Bastille. We shall turn for a moment to the pages of M. de Marteville (" Rennes Moderne," t. iii., p. 113), to see the end of this affair, in which there was perhaps as much political as theological animosity — a quarrel in which the doctrines of Loyola, over-taxation, and abuse of privilege, were mixed up. " Matters had reached this point in 1774," says the author, "when Louis XVI. thought that the best way of inaugu rating his reign by a large measure would be to restore the Parliaments. M. de la Chalotais returned to Rennes and resumed his duties. He died in 1785, that is to say, he did not live to see the Revolution." After a few observations upon the manner in which the Parliaments and the royal authority ruined each other by their disputes, M. de Marteville adds: "At a year's interval the son of M. de la Chalotais and the unfortunate Louis XVI., the first King who loved the people and the last parliamentarian who wished to confine the royal authority within just limits, lost their heads on the scaffold." The case of M. de la Chalotais appears to have ex cited a good deal of interest in England, a full ac count of it being published in the Annual Register 183 The Bastille for 1770, which speaks of the "unremitting ven geance " with which the Due d'Aiguillon for four years pursued the venerable Attorney-General of Brittany. De la Chalotais is described as a man of genius, learn ing, and integrity, as good-hearted, and an ornament to human nature. Referring to his arrest, the Annual Register says: " Thus, at the age of seventy and up wards, was a worthy man torn from all the ease and comfort necessary at that time of life ... to be dragged about from prison to prison, from dungeon to dungeon, for only daring to be honest and for fulfilling his duty to God and his country. In this situation we find facts of so horrid a nature that if they had not composed a part of the charge which was brought and supported by the Parliament, we should not have thought proper to mention them." The facts referred to were — an attempt to poison the prisoner, persons bribed to bear false witness, and a sham trial, which ended in M. de la Chalotais being condemned to death. We are assured that the scaffold was erected whereon the execution was to take place. The second fact is certainly true; but the other two are doubtful. We may add that there was something of a personal char acter in the hatred which the Due d'Aiguillon bore M. de la Chalotais, who had a sharp tongue and was given to say bitter things. In 1758 the English landed on the coast of Brittany, and, having got the worst of it, were obliged to return to their ships. This success was hailed with great delight in Paris, where the Duke was extolled as a hero; but in Brittany he was accused of having shown the white feather, and of 184 Lally having, in the heat of action, retired to a windmill. Upon this, de la Chalotais said that the French troops had covered themselves with glory while the Duke had covered himself with meal. In the first chapter of his " French Revolution," Carlyle exclaims: " For lorn enough languished d'Aiguillon some years ago; covered, as we said, with meal; nay, with something worse. For de la Chalotais accused him not only of poltroonery and tyranny, but even of peculation; which accusations it was easier to get quashed by back stairs influence than to get answered." On his return to Rennes to resume his functions in the Parliament, M. de la Chalotais exclaimed: " I arrive here on the nth November, 1775. It is this day ten years ago that we were arrested. I am about to lead a new life, thanks to Louis XVI. and the Queen; but I much fear that it will not be long. . . . I feel nearly all the infirmities of old age, fruits of a war as long as that of Troy." On the 1st November, 1762, Thomas Arthur de Lally, denounced to the Government as the sole cause of the loss of the French possessions in India, was thrown into the Bastille on an order from the King, countersigned by Choiseul. There can be little doubt about Lally having been to a great extent an innocent victim, whose ruin was caused by his violent temper, general unpopularity, and jealousy on the part of the naval commander, Comte d'Ache. The harshness with which he was treated in the Bastille excited the greatest indignation in England. Admiral Byng, said 185 The Bastille the English, was tried by a court-martial and executed at once, whereas Lally was kept for years pining in prison, while Parliament deliberated on his fate, and the manner in which he was executed was a disgrace to a civilised nation. In England, Lally found a num ber of apologists. When he assumed command at Pondicherry he was unacquainted with the country; his allies refused to second his efforts, his troops mu tinied, he had no squadron to aid him; he gained nine battles, took ten places, and retired only before su perior forces; he tried to put a stop to peculation, pillaging, insubordination, etc.; and those who should have seconded his efforts became his mortal enemies. Voltaire, in his " Historical Fragments on India," gives a list of the charges brought against Lally by his enemies, among which figured: No. 88. Having condemned a hairdresser, who had marked a negress on the shoulder, to be marked in a similar way. — No. 104. To have been sometimes drunk. — No. 105. To have made a Capucin sing in the street. — No. 106. To have said that Pondicherry resembled a house of ill-fame, where some people wished to caress women, and others to throw them out of the window. — No. 108. To have paid visits to Madame Pigot, who had run away from her husband.* — No. 144. Of having sold Pondicherry to the English, etc. According to Voltaire, the true causes of the disas ters which the French experienced in India were these: * Voltaire remarks as an extraordinary fact that whereas Lally was of Irish, his antagonist, Pigot, Governor of Madras, was of French, origin. 186 Lally " The superiority of the English fleets, the attentive obstinacy of that nation, its credit, its ready money, its spirit of patriotism, which is stronger in the long run than the mercantile spirit and cupidity." When Pondicherry surrendered, Lally became a prisoner of war, and was sent to England. There, like Labourdonnais before and Villeneuve after him, trust ing in his innocence, he asked and obtained permission to return to France to stand his trial. He wrote a letter to Choiseul very similar to that which, under analogous circumstances, Admiral Villeneuve wrote to Decres, when he also, after the loss of Trafalgar, was permitted to return home to answer for his con duct. Lally wrote to Choiseul: "I bring you my head and my innocence." Choiseul, yielding to the clamour of Paris, ordered Lally to be thrown into the Bastille. He was taken to the same chamber where Labourdonnais had been confined, and there he lan guished for fifteen months before he was examined. On the 6th May, 1766, Lally was sentenced to death by the Parliament of Paris, and three days afterwards the sentence was carried out. Carra thus describes the execution: " The Parliament condemned him to have his head cut off, and the execution took place on the 9th May. The previous evening, at ten o'clock, he was trans ferred from the Bastille to the Conciergerie, to hear his sentence; there were watchmen at the corners of all the streets, and at the gate of the palace, and a de tachment of infantry at the gate of the prison. He showed great uneasiness when he arrived, because the 187 The Bastille Mayor of the Bastille left him without bidding him adieu. He exclaimed: " Je suis f . ..." They said all they could to reassure him. He passed the night be tween fear and hope. He related that he had fought nine battles, and had been beaten only once, that he had distinguished himself at Fontenoy, etc., etc. Worn out with having spoken so much, he flung him self on his bed without undressing, and slept for about an hour. When he awoke his alarm returned. At eight o'clock they asked him to take something to eat, but he refused, so that he might speak to his judges with greater calmness. At noon he was taken to the chapel. He shuddered when the usher told him that he must go down on his knees to hear his sentence. He hesitated at first, but at length obeyed. He showed signs of impatience more than once during the reading, and he rose and recoiled with horror when the usher came to his condemnation. ' But what have I done? ' he exclaimed. The sentence read, the cure of St. Louis approached to offer him the consolations of religion. 'Ah! sir,' cried Lally, 'leave me a moment alone,' and he went and sat in a corner of the chapel, covering his face with his hands; then he drew out a compass which was concealed in the sleeve of his coat, and smote himself in the side, an inch be low the heart. Those who were present rushed for ward and seized his arm, to prevent him from repeating the blow. " The first President being informed of what had happened, ordered the hour for the execution to be advanced; but, instead of a hired carriage, accorded 188 Lally on the demand of the family of the criminal, it was decided that the execution should take place as usual. In consequence, the executioner seized hold of M. de Lally, who at this moment gave vent to impreca tions. ... To prevent him from strangling himself by swallowing his tongue, after the manner of the negroes, it was decided that a bit should be placed in his mouth. At half-past four o'clock the criminal was gagged with much difficulty, placed in a tumbrel, and taken to the Place de Greve. " After showing considerable weakness at first, once on the scaffold, he behaved with heroic firmness. He went on his knees and stretched out his neck; but the son of Samson missed his aim, and cut off merely a. portion of the pericranium. His father pushed him aside, seized the sword, and with a single blow severed the head from the body." It is said that the popularity of the French Parlia ment was greatly damaged in the eyes of the people by the condemnation of Lally, and this disgraceful act still fills every honest mind with horror and indigna tion. But what says Macaulay on this subject in his Essay on Sir James Mackintosh's " History of the Revolution " : " The worst of the bad acts which brought discredit on the old Parliaments of France, the condemnation of Lally, for example, or even that of Calas, may seem praiseworthy when compared with the atrocities which follow each other in endless suc cession as we turn over that huge chronicle of the shame of England (the earlier volumes of the State Trials). The magistrates of Paris and Toulouse were 189 The Bastille blinded by prejudice or bigotry . . ." — and there was some excuse for them. In several of his letters, written before and after the catastrophe of Pondicherry, Voltaire referred to Lally. To Comte d'Argental, 15th February, 1760, he wrote : " We have at Pondicherry a Lally — a devil with an Irish head, who will cost me, sooner or later, 20,000 francs a year, the best part of my pittance. . . ." Again, on the 25th July: " My dear angel must first of all know that all my joy is over. We have been more thoroughly drubbed in India than at Minden. I tremble lest Pondicherry should be lost. For the last three years I have been crying out, ' Pondicherry ! Pondicherry ! ' Ah ! what folly to have quarrelled with England for an ut et Annapolis with out having 100 vessels! Good God! how stupid we have been! But it is true that some twenty Jesuits have been hung at Lisbon. That is something, but it will not give us back Pondicherry." VOLTAIRE TO THE DUC DE RICHELIEU. " Ferney, 21st July, 1761. " I have always wished to take the liberty of ask ing you what you think of Lally's affair. We always commence in France by putting a man in prison for three or four years, and then trying him. In England he would not have been sent to prison until he had been condemned. He would have had to give bail. . . . Labourdonnais was four years in the Bastille, and 190 Lally when he was declared innocent, he died of scurvy, which he had contracted in that fine castle." And again, to the Duke, on the 17th May, 1766: " I have not as yet seen any report for or against that poor Lally. I knew him to be an Irishman, rather foolish, very violent, and somewhat interested; but I should be very much astonished if he should turn out to have been a traitor. I am persuaded that he never thought himself guilty; if he had done so he would not have returned to France. There be destinies which are very singular. This globe is covered with follies and misfortunes of all descriptions. . . ." In a letter to Voltaire, d'Alembert said, June 25th, 1766: " Lally's gag disgusted even the populace. . . . Like you, I am persuaded that Lally was no traitor. ... I believe that Lally was an odious man, a bad man if you will, who deserved to be killed by any one, except by the executioner. The robbers of Canada were more worthy of the hurdle, but then they had relations in office, whereas Lally had merely a few Irish priests for relations, whose only consolation it will be to say masses for his soul. . . ." VOLTAIRE TO M. GAILLARD. " Ferney, 25th January, 1769. " Then you knew Lally. Not only did I know him, but we worked together, with M. d'Argenson, when he wished to invade England on the proposition of that 191 The Bastille Irishman. Fortunately the affair failed. It is very certain that his bad temper brought him to the scaf fold. He is the only man who ever lost his head for being brutal. He is probably wandering about the Elysian Fields with the shades of Calas, the Marechale d'Ancre, Urbain Grandier, etc." A few years later some tardy justice was rendered to the shades and to the children of the unfortunate Irishman. On the 23rd March, 1778, the Privy Council quashed the decision of the Parliament of Paris, which had condemned Comte de Lally to death, and re ferred the affair to the Parliament of Rouen, from whence it was carried before the Parliament of Dijon, and then dragged languidly on until the Revolution. Voltaire, who was dying when he heard that the sentence had been quashed, roused himself up from the state of lethargy into which he had sunk, and wrote to the young Comte de Lally: " I die contented; I see that the King loves justice." One thing which helped to rehabilitate Lally, both with the Parliament of Paris and with the public, was the discovery that he had died poor. According to the report of the Council of Pondicherry, Lally was possessed of 17,000,- 000 fr.; when he was condemned to death the Court ordered that 100,000 crowns should be confis cated, and given to the poor, but the estate did not realise that sum, a fact which showed that, no matter what Lally's other faults may have been, he had not indulged in peculation. 192 Prevot de Beaumont On the 17th November, 1768, M. le Prevot de Beau mont relates he was torn from his bed, and two hours later found himself in the Bastille. He had been incautious enough to accuse the Government of specu lating in grain and starving the people. The most serious part of this business was that the King was included in the charge brought by the prisoner. Although le Prevot de Beaumont remained a captive for twenty-two years, his confinement in the Bastille did not last more than eleven months, during which time he had not much to complain of beyond his loss of liberty. In the narrative of his captivity * he says: "The Governor gave me writing to do for him, and from time to time sent me a basket of all sorts of wine from his cellar. . . . Nothing accorded to the most favoured was denied me. Coffee, sugar, honey, chocolate, tea, brandy, beer, liqueurs, wood, candles, fruit, all these were brought to me in abundance by my turnkey. If all the other prisoners in the Bastille had been as well treated as I was they could have had little reason to complain of aught but loss of freedom." In spite of this kind treatment, it is only to be supposed that le Prevot de Beaumont was removed from the Bastille by way of punishment, probably owing to his violence, and was thence transferred to Vincennes, where he remained for fifteen years, during which time he complains he was on twelve occasions confined in dark and horrible cells, loaded with fetters, and nearly starved to death. After having been fear- * Page 34- 193 The Bastille fully persecuted by M. de Sartine during a number of years, as he himself relates, he sent that Minister, in 1774, certain hints which proved of great service to him. M. de Sartine testified his gratitude by sending the prisoner " a copy of M. de Sacy's translation of the Bible (done in the Bastille), some pocket-handker chiefs curiously painted, representing sporting scenes in England, the map of England, and a dressing- gown." Rather a strange medley. Le Prevot de Beaumont afterwards relates how he received the visit of Malesherbes in his prison, and repeated to that virtuous Minister all the charges he had brought forward on the subject of the Facte de famine. It was in 1775 that this visit took place, shortly after the accession of Louis XVI. to the throne. To Malesherbes the prisoner bitterly complained (p. 91) that he was not allowed writing materials. And then we read (p. 102): " I had just finished, in five years, ' L'Art de Regner,' or ' La Science,' a work so considerable that it would have furnished matter for twenty octavo volumes." It does not say much for le Prevot de Beaumont that Malesherbes did not recommend his release; nor did the Baron de Breteuil, when he went round the State prisons on taking office; on the contrary, in 1784, the prisoner was removed to Charenton, being con sidered as out of his mind. At the end of the year le Prevot de Beaumont was transferred to Bicetre, also by way of punishment, and from thence he was re moved to Bercy in 1787. This was his last prison. He writes in his " Memoirs ": " With what pleasure 194 Le Pacte de Famine did I behold from my windows, by means of a telescope, the Bastille being battered down, on the 14th July, 1789, learn in the evening the capture of that place and of the governor, and the demolition of the fortress a few days later! " Two months after the fall of the Bastille, le Prevot de Beaumont recovered his liberty, and there is no further record of him to be found. We shall shortly refer to the Pacte de famine, which created much excitement throughout the kingdom. 195 CHAPTER VII. 1770 ROZOI— DUMOURIEZ— REIGN OF LOUIS XVI.— MALES HERBES — CURES — PACTE DE FAMINE— GUERRE DES FARINES — VOLTAIRE TO MARIN — CONDA- MINE — CATHERINE THEOT — MARQUIS DE FRA- TEAUX On the 14th July, 1770, the following note was sub mitted to M. de St. Florentin: " De Rozoi, detained by order of the King in the Bastille since the month of May, unceasingly demands his liberty. He was arrested because he proposed publishing an attack on the Ministry. He declares that his captivity ruins him by preventing him from continuing the works upon which he is engaged. He is only twenty-seven years of age. His youth excuses him, and his re pentance appears to be sincere." On the day following, de Rozoi, who had already been confined in For-1'Eveque, was liberated. This victim of tyranny, who was a staunch Royalist in spite of For-1'Eveque and the Bastille, was guillotined on the 25th August, 1792, by torchlight, shouting " Vive le Roi! " with his last breath. It is true that in the space of twenty-two years he had had time to forget the harshness with which he had been treated by what 196 Dumouriez, his executors considered an arbitrary and tyrannical power. The Due de Broglie, in his " Secret du Roi," gives us a curious sketch of Louis XV. and his foreign policy. He tells us how the King had two ministries at the same time, one active, the other consultative, adding: " While he too often abandoned the exercise of his power to courtiers protected by favourites, it was in the dark that he sought for free and independent advice; it was under the triple seal of a correspondence in cypher that he gave vent to all the feelings worthy of the throne and all the desires for the public welfare which remained at the bottom of his heart." Hence there was a ministerial diplomacy and a confidential diplomacy, which were often at variance with each other, and which led to singular complications. " In the front of the stage," says the Due de Broglie, " there was an exhibition of licentious frivolity, while good sense, morality, and patriotism too often took refuge behind the scenes." Dumouriez was a victim of this double diplomacy, to which he owed his acquaintance with the Bastille. He was sent by the King and his confidential advisers on a secret mission to Sweden, whence he was to go to Berlin. The Due d'Aiguillon, Minister of Foreign Affairs, got wind of what was going on, and either sus pected or pretended to suspect a dangerous conspiracy. On reaching Hamburg, Dumouriez was surrounded by the Duke's spies, and, two days before he was to start for Berlin, he was arrested by d'Hemery, who, ac- 197 The Bastille cording to the " Memoirs " of the General, was a very amiable and gentle man. Dumouriez might have pro tested against being arrested in a free city, but, having nothing to reproach himself with, he accompanied d'Hemery to France, and arrived at the Bastille at the end of October, 1773, at 9 p.m. In his " Memoirs," we find that he was received by the Major, a pedantic- looking old Jansenist, who had him carefully searched, and who deprived him of his money, his knife, and even his shoe buckles, lest he should strangle himself by swallowing them. He said he was hungry, and asked for a chicken, which he would pay for. The Major asked him if he was aware that it was Friday? Du mouriez replied: " You are charged with the keeping of my person, and not my conscience. I am ill, for the Bastille is a malady; do not refuse me a chicken." Dumouriez had his chicken. He was shown into his chamber, where he found a dirty bed, a wooden table, a straw chair, and a jar of water. The turnkey, a rough, hulking fellow, lighted his fire, left him a candle, and went in quest of his supper. While waiting, Dumouriez read the inscriptions on the walls: names, sentences, prayers, and some indecencies. He supped, went to bed, and fell asleep. The following morning the prisoner was aroused by a terrible noise of keys. The turnkey brought him some bread and wine, and told him to get up, as the Governor wished to see him. At nine o'clock he was ushered into the presence of the Comte de Jumilhac, and Dumouriez was much astonished that so kind- hearted a man should have accepted so terrible an em- 198 Dumouriez ployment. If he- behaved towards the other prisoners as he behaved to Dumouriez, they must have. blessed Providence that he was Governor. He was an old soldier, a man of pleasure; he was good, sensible, and polite; he did not interfere with the details of the Bas tille, which were left to the Major. We are then told that Jumilhac was the brother-in- law of M. Bertin, Minister of State, who was charged with the private speculations of Louis XV., and that no doubt M. Bertin had told the Count to render the captivity of a man who had been thrown into prison for obeying the King, as light as possible. Dumouriez was soon on the best terms with the Governor, who, after solemnly informing him that during the time he had to remain in solitary confinement, he could have neither pen, ink, nor books, not even a Prayer-book, finished by lending him some new novels and telling him to hide them. Every day he was taken down to have a chat with the Count. As for his table, he had nothing to complain of. The Due de Broglie recounts that " Twenty years later, Dumouriez, who had es caped from the Terror and was living in London as an emigre [on a good pension], spoke of this kind treat ment, saying that if he had allowed himself to be caught in the prisons of liberty he would not, perhaps, have been so well treated as in those of tyranny. The books lent to Dumouriez were not all novels; there were among them serious works, and even classics, which he studied with care. One day, during the cam paign of 1792, talking with one of his aides-de-camp, he said: ' Have you ever read Statius? ' ' No,' replied 199 The Bastille the officer. ' And Silius Italicus? ' 'No.' ' Ah! ' cried Dumouriez, ' it is clear that you have never had time to read. It is because you have not been in the Bas tille!' The aide-de-camp was the Due de Chartres, afterwards the King Louis Philippe; and I have this anecdote from the Due d'Aumale." Dumouriez himself says that " my imprisonment and ridiculous prosecution formed one of the most characteristic anecdotes of the reign of a weak and dissimulating monarch who at bottom was good and just. My solitary confinement lasted for a week. I saw the good Governor every morning, who did not fail to bring me books and to tell me stories of the women of Paris. He carried his benevolence so far as to send me lemons and sugar to make lemonade, a small provision of coffee, some foreign wine, and every day a dish from his table when he dined at home. These attentions lasted for six months, and we separated the best of friends." " The first act of the Revolution was to destroy the Bastille, as an insupportable monument of despot ism because the first cry of liberty was raised against lettres de cachet, and against the tyrannical kidnapping of citizens who were spirited away without the inter vention of the law. And the monsters of anarchy have re-established all these excesses, the arbitrary arrest of citizens, and solitary confinement, with a re finement of cruelty which never existed under the kings. Sham criminals are publicly tried, but to be brought before the revolutionary tribunal is to be condemned beforehand. A ferocious populace sur- 200 Eustache Farcy rounds vulgar and barbarous judges, and drink in an ticipation the blood of the prisoner, especially if he be rich. Every condemnation is followed by applause. Matters have reached such a point that anarchy has degraded humanity. . . ." After further expressing his indignation at the horrors perpetrated by the Jacobins, Dumouriez relates how he managed to enter into communication with a fellow-prisoner, one Eustache Farcy, a Picard gentleman, captain of a Piedmontese regiment, who had been for twenty-two years in the Bastille for having hawked a song written against the Marquise de Pompadour. The General was then removed to another cell, which he thus describes: " This new apartment had an ante-chamber. It was a very fine room, 26 feet long and 18 feet wide, with a good fireplace. There was only one window, which made it dark. Near the fireplace was an excellent bed, which had been made for Mademoiselle Tiercelin, mistress of Louis XV., who passed a month there for being too ambitious." On installing the prisoner in his new abode, Du mouriez says that the Major, in order to show his erudition, remarked: " Monsieur, you have the finest room in the castle, although it does not bring good luck. The Constable St. Pol, the Marshal de Biron, the Chevalier, de Rohan, and the General Lally in habited it, and they all lost their heads on the scaffold." Dumouriez found fewer inscriptions in this cell than in the first. However, Labourdonnais had traced on the walls some " very powerful reflections," the 201 The Bastille unfortunate Lally some sentences in English, and de la Chalotais some paraphrases of the Psalms. He also found there the name of the Duke of Courland. Underneath one of the paraphrases of de la Chalotais Dumouriez wrote the following quatrain: N'adresse point au ciel une plainte importune, Et, quelque soit le cours de ton sort incertain, Apprends de moi que l'infortune Est le creuset du genre humain. Dumouriez, after remarking that the Comte d'Artois, afterwards Charles X., copied the above lines into his album in 1789, goes on to inform us that his immediate predecessor in his new apartment, which in no way resembled a dungeon, was a young priest, whose name he does not mention, who had been forced to take orders, and who, having protested against his vows in order to inherit some property, and to marry a young lady with whom he was in love, was thrown into the Bastille. He remained there for two years, at first in the cells and then in the chamber occupied by Dumouriez, where he wrote his " Me moirs," which were so touching that they procured him his liberty. He gave a copy to his gaoler, which the General read with great interest. Dumouriez then informs us that after a while he obtained permission for his two domestics — old soldiers — to be confined in the same room with him. His valet de chambre, he says, was an excellent cook. " One was very well fed in the Bastille," he adds; " there were always five dishes for dinner and three for supper, without counting the dessert." 202 Dumouriez After remaining in the Bastille for six months, M. de Sartine arrived to announce that he was to be transferred to Caen. He felt no pleasure in leaving his prison; he was sorry to quit the Governor. Be fore being released he had to promise that he would never reveal anything that had passed in the Bastille, but this he regarded as a mere formality. At Caen, Dumouriez had several rooms at his dis posal, and a garden to walk about in. He was there for five months. At last Louis XV. died, and the whole Cabinet was changed. Dumouriez adds: " By a very curious coincidence, a professor of rhetoric at Caen, the Abbe Berenger, was charged to pronounce the panegyric of the deceased monarch; it was neces sary for him to quote some traits of the life of that Prince; he was advised to consult the prisoner at the Castle, who, being a man of letters, and having passed his life in public affairs, would be able to give him the information he required. The Abbe came to me, and I aided him to write a Latin panegyric of the late King, in whose name I was in prison." Louis XVI. had Dumouriez at once released, and M. du May, when the General arrived at Court, told him in a public audience, that the King was sorry for the unjust and long vexation he had endured, and had ordered that amends should be made to him by usefully employing his talents. According to Dumouriez, during the six months he spent in the Bastille, there were never more than nineteen prisoners, and at one time there were only seven. 203 The Bastille Dumouriez, who saved France in the Argonne — the French Thermopylae — had afterwards to fly from the wrath of the Convention, and to take refuge on our shores. He is said, while a prisoner in the Bastille, to have drawn up a plan for its defence, but we have been unable to find any trace of it. In 1774, Louis XV. died, and with his death com menced a milder and more humane regime. He was succeeded by his grandson, Louis XVI., a man of feeble character, and the best intentions. The names of the men by whom he delighted to surround him self sufficiently indicate the policy he wished to pur sue; nevertheless it was upon his head that the revo lutionary storm was destined to fall. Yet he and Turgot loved the people, and so did Malesherbes. Caillard, in his " Life of Malesherbes," says that it required a lettre de cachet to make him take office — let us say a little gentle pressure. Be this as it may, one of the first acts of Louis XVI. and his Minister was to release all the victims of despotism, and to open the doors of the State prisons to all persons unjustly confined. In a history of Louis XVI. we find it mentioned that: " Malesherbes had in his department lettres de cachet. As Minister he worked at repairing the acts of injus tice he had condemned when he was a magistrate. It has often been said that he opened the State prisons. These words convey a false impression. He inquired into the condition of those prisons, visited the Bas tille, Vincennes, and Bicetre, and liberated the cap- 204 Malesherbes tives whose detention was evidently unjust. . . . Many persons believed in the necessity of lettres de cachet, to save the honour of families and to maintain public tranquility. Few people openly opposed the right of the King to arrest and imprison, and Louis XVI. would probably have refused to abolish lettres de cachet. Malesherbes proposed that this redoubt able weapon should no longer be left in the hand of a Minister, but should be confided to a council or tri bunal composed of respected magistrates, whenever an order for detention was solicited by a family against one of its members; this order ito be accorded only by unanimity, and after hearing the parties. . . . These views obtained the approbation of Louis XVI., but the tribunal was never appointed."* The number of prisoners confined in the Bastille under Louis XVI. is thus given by the Revue de la Revolution of 1883: 1. Voluntary prisoners 12 Time of detention, 4 2. No information 17 " 1 3. Insubordination 11 " " 15 4. Spies 8 " " 4 5. Swindling, etc 5 " " 38 6. Madmen 7 3 7. For indecent assault 7 " " 2 8. Men of letters 24 " " 28 9. Publishers, booksellers, and hawkers 38 " 10. Meal riots 31 " years. 11. Necklace affair 11 12. Breton affair 12 13. Divers 7 14. Confined under Louis XV. 8 * Droz, " Histoire de Louis XVI., 205 vol. 1., p. 14 5 6 1 9 38 178. The Bastille We have merely given the years, and not the months of detention. The above table shows that there were 190 prisoners committed to the Bastille during the reign of Louis XVI., and, counting the 8 committed under Louis XV., who remained in prison for 38 years, the 198 prisoners suffered on an average less than 12 months' confinement, or deducting the prisoners of Louis XV., and the voluntary prisoners, 6 months. It is curious to find that more prisoners were sent to the Bastille by those truly Liberal Min isters, Necker and Turgot, than by Calonne, who was more of a courtier than a politician. The voluntary prisoners above referred to were for the most part domestics who shared the captivity of their masters. There were, however, exceptions, to whom we shall refer presently. In the list of swindlers occurs the name of Alexis Anould, a police spy, who obtained 5,000 louis to ac complish a mission to London. Although the mis sion turned out a failure he kept the money. He was arrested, and detained in the Bastille until he disgorged all that remained. This took him five months. A swindler of another description was Jean Nao Tolanda Trivohin, who passed himself off as the son of the King of Golconda, and the grandson of the great Mogul, in which capacity he made many dupes. The following characteristic letter from Voltaire concerning two ex-prisoners of the Bastille was written at this date : 206 Freron and de la Beaumelle VOLTAIRE TO M. MARIN. " Ferney, 17th May, 1776. " You perceive, sir, that there is a Providence; not only have I buried in the same year de la Beaumelle and Catherin Freron, but I have received an invitation to attend the funeral of Catherin. A woman who is either his widow or his near relative has written me a letter, very well turned, asking me not only to par don the defunct but to get his daughter married, seeing that I arranged the marriage of the grand daughter of Corneille. I replied that if Catherin Freron were the author of the ' Cid ' and of ' Cihna,' I should have great pleasure in giving his daughter a dowry. There is not much chance of me going to Paris to amuse myself at a wedding; I am too old and too ill. If I could accomplish the voyage it would be to embrace you. I should much prefer supping with you to marrying Mdlle. Freron." Among the persons who were committed to the Bastille, in 1775, in connection with La guerre des farincs, or flour war, we find M. de Saffray de Bos- labbe, councillor and King's attorney for the police of Pontoise; Dubois, mayor of Beaumont; Jouffroy, cure of Ferroles, who aided his parishioners to pillage corn; Pasquier, la Martiniere, le Cavelier, Dourdan, and de Bon, all cures, who acted in the same manner as Jouffroy. La Martiniere even advised the people from the pulpit not to restore the corn they had stolen. None of these culprits, with the exception of Dour- dan, were detained for two months in the Bastille. 207 The Bastille Dourdan preached not only revolt, but indulged in low personal abuse of Ministers, and he paid the pen alty of his violence and bad taste by remaining in durance vile for two months and eleven days. Sev eral other persons of less note, and who were neither magistrates nor ecclesiastics, were punished in a similar way. We must explain here that several French his torians have accused both Louis XV. and Louis XVI. of having speculated in corn, and of having gained large sums of money in this infamous traffic at the ex pense of the people, who were often reduced to a point of starvation. A calm review of facts shows that this accusation was not justified, though the laws respect ing corn were undoubtedly bad, hampering as they did its free circulation, and thus rendering it difficult for one province to succour another. It was protec tion applied internally. Hence we read of the Pacte de famine, La guerre des farincs, and all kinds of absurd and atrocious stories which found credence at the time, and have since become history. M. Gustave Bord, and other writers of to-day, have endeavoured, not unsuccessfully, to remove the imputations cast on the two last monarchs of the ancient regime in reference to this matter. Taine observes * that " under Louis XVI., it was conclusive for the people that the dearth was fictitious. In 1789 an officer heard his men expressing their firm conviction that the Princes and the courtiers, in order to starve Paris, had flour thrown into the Seine. * " Les Origines de la France Contemporaine," Vol. I., p. 492. 208 The "Pacte de Famine" Turning to a quartermaster, he asked how it was pos sible to believe in such a piece of folly. ' It is quite true,' replied the quartermaster, ' and the proof is that the sacks were tied with cordons bleus.'* ... In this way were forged in the dregs of society a filthy and horrible romance a propos to the Pacte de famine, the Bastille, the expenditure and the pleasures of the Court. ..." M. Gustave Bord explains, in the Revue de la Revo lution, that the Pacte de famine had its head-quarters at Corbeil, a few leagues from Paris; that the director of this company, which enjoyed a monopoly, was, in the reign of Louis XV., an ex-baker and miller called Malisset, who had discovered an improved manner of grinding corn. Under Louis XVI. Malisset was suc ceeded by the brothers Leleu. The Corbeil company had the privilege, which was no doubt tyrannical, of being able to sweep up corn where it liked at a certain price; at the same time it was bound to keep Paris supplied with flour. It owned a number of large water-mills, and Corbeil had the advantage of being connected with Paris by the Seine. For centuries Corbeil and the country round had furnished the capital with bread. The leading idea of the states men of Louis XV. and Louis XVI. in this affair was to secure tranquillity in Paris by keeping down the price of bread. One of the defects of this system was that the country for thirty leagues round the capital was exhausted, and it is supposed that it was in this region that the legend of the Pacte de famine took its * Blue ribbon of the order of the Holy Ghost. 209 The Bastille rise. To remedy this evil the Abbe Terray, when he came into power, directed that the corn for provision ing Paris should no longer be taken within but beyond this zone. In 1773 he persuaded the King to pur chase the mills of Corbeil, so as to be able to control prices, and so far from making a good bargain His Majesty seems to have lost £40,000 a year by the transaction. In 1782 Louis XVI. was so pleased with the way in which the brothers Leleu had con ducted matters, that he gave them letters of nobility. They imported large quantities of corn from England and other countries in times of scarcity, thus keeping down the price of bread, and incurring the bitter en mity of the corn-dealers and the farmers, with whose business they necessarily interfered. It is something in the favour of the company to say that it inspired the confidence of such men as Turgot and Necker, who were aware of the difficulties with which the com pany had often to contend, such as bad harvests and hard weather. Hungry people, however, could make no allowance for the mills at Corbeil being frozen up, the Seine being one sheet of ice, and the roads blocked with snow and infested with brigands, who everywhere plundered the convoys of corn. Baron de Bezenval, in his " Memoirs," shows us that all the troops in the large district he commanded were engaged in protect ing markets and escorting convoys. This was called La guerre des farincs. The people set all their mis fortunes down to the account of the Court, and those who lived in the zone plundered to feed Paris were quite justified in complaining. 210 The Mills of Corbeil In 1790 the Corbeil company was dissolved, but that did not bring plenty, for great distress prevailed during the early part of the Revolutionary period. It is related that in those days when a dinner was given the guests had to bring their own bread, for no one could receive more than his ration. Writing of 1792 and the dearness of grain which then prevailed, Lamartine said: " The Government was rendered responsible for the severities of nature. Secret emissaries, armed bands went among the towns where markets were held, and there disseminated the most alarming reports stigmatising the corn-dealers as monopolists, which was almost equivalent to a sen tence of death. The fear of being accused of starv ing the people put an end to all business. . . ." The Revolution therefore did not give the people food. In 1793 that ignoble scamp, Bertrand Barrere, pro posed the creation of a Grenier d'abondance in Paris, which was really equivalent to going back to the sys tem of the ancient regime. It remained for Napoleon Bonaparte to carry out this scheme, and to build that immense store-house which stretched along the bank of the Canal of St. Denis from the old site of the Bas tille to the Seine, which was about 400 yards in length, some 90 feet broad, and 75 feet high. Here, until shortly before the fall of the Second Empire, the bakers of the capital, who enjoyed a monopoly, were bound in return for their privilege to keep in the Grenier d'Abondance 180,000 sacks of flour, or enough to feed Paris for three months. We may add that this vast 211 The Bastille building was burned to the ground in 1871 by the Communists, and that the author of this work wit nessed its destruction. In February, 1779, Brun de Condamine was com mitted to the Bastille. According to Charpentier, his only crime was having invented some inflammable cannon-balls, which would have given the French fleet a great superiority over that of England. M. de Sar tine, who was then Minister of Marine, refused to adopt the invention, and Condamine was thrown into prison, where he remained for three months without any examination. Becoming impatient, the captive conceived the idea of making his escape, and he suc ceeded in removing several iron bars from his window, and in manufacturing a rope ladder without arousing the suspicions of his gaolers. According to the turn keys of the Bastille, the story of M. de Condamine's evasion, if published, would have thrown that of Latude into the shade. The prisoner managed to descend into the ditch, but there his ladder broke and he was captured. The consequence was that he was confined in a cell, where he was detained for a week. On the conclusion of peace in 1782 he was released, the Government according him an indemnity of 600 livres. Charpentier, who appears to have made the acquaintance of de Condamine, recommended the vic tim to bring his case before the States-General. Among the people of unsound mind thrown into the Bastille was Catherine Theot, who believed her- 212 Catherine Theot self now to be the mother of God, now to be a new Eve, then a Messiah charged with the regeneration of the human race. Catherine Theot was not detained in the Bastille for more than one month and seven teen days; Jumelle and his wife, Marie Lallier, and Michel Hastain, disciples, were also detained there for a few weeks. In the " Memoires Relatifs a la Revolution Fran chise " one finds this spinster, sixty-nine years of age, described as having " passed a great portion of her life in the Bastille ; her imagination, affected by a long sojourn in cell and cage, had contracted, like that of Dom Gerle* in the austere retreat of the cloister, that silent and melancholy habit of. contemplation which produces sombre and religious ideas. . . . Cath erine Theot, tall, bony, almost transparent, like the Sibyl of Cumea, preached not only the dogma of the immortality of the soul, but she promised the immor tality of the body." According to this prophetess, or second Witch of Endor, as Lamartine calls her, she was to live until the age of seventy, and then to re cover her youth and beauty. In the year of this re generation the earth was to tremble three times, the idols and their temples were to be overthrown, and the thrones of kings were to crumble into dust, moun tains were to be levelled, seas dried up, and the Na tional Convention struck with lightning and utterly blasted. We might leave Catherine Theot and her mad * A Carthusian monk who sat in the Convention, and was one of Catherine Theot's most devout disciples. 213 The Bastille ravings here but for the part she was destined to play in the approaching tragedy of the French Revolution. After being liberated from the Bastille, she was re moved to a hospital, where she remained until she calmed down. Then she took a garret and founded a sect. In August, 1794, there was held in Paris the Feast of the Supreme Being. Robespierre, who had been unanimously elected President of the National Con vention, thought upon that day that he had laid his hand upon the dictatorship. But " the sea-green in corruptible," as Carlyle delights to call him, had bold and bitter enemies — Collot d'Herbois, Vadier, Tallien, Bertrand Barrere, and others who were determined to shake off his yoke. No little astonishment was created when it was discovered that Robespierre fre quented the meetings held in the house of Catherine Theot. Jacobin spies joined the sect, and reported all that passed. It was soon known that " the Mother of God " looked upon Robespierre as the son of the Supreme Being; that Robespierre had given a letter of civism to Dom Gerle, and that a letter written by the sibyl had been found in the bed of the would-be Dictator. These facts formed a sufficient basis for an attack upon Robespierre. Vadier was told off to at tack him in the Convention; but it was Barrere who drew up the report. According to that veracious person there was nothing spoken of in Paris or in the Departments but Catherine Theot; even the armies resounded with her miracles, and numbers of soldiers adhered to the sect before joining their colours. All 214 Maximilien Robespierre Robespierre these bigots, simpletons, demi-savants, doctors, law yers, idle capitalists, etc., etc., hated the Revolution and corresponded with the emigres in London; they were all Royalists, egoists, and counter-revolutionists, of both sexes, whose enthusiasm had been excited by the prestige of corporeal immortality. The truth is, that the sect numbered in all some forty persons, and as for the number of soldiers who dabbled in these mysteries, in the hope of becoming invulnerable, they consisted of one veteran, who had already lost an eye in the service of his country. Barrere's report further set forth that " In the garret of Catherine Theot, assassinations and all the plots capable of producing public calamities take birth; there is the workshop, where the daggers of supersti tion are sharpened and the torches of fanaticism lighted. . . ." The plan of Robespierre's enemies was to magnify the importance of Catherine Theot and her followers, to accuse him of wishing to become a prophet like Mahomet, of plotting to seize upon a spiritual as well as a temporal dictatorship, and at the same time to cover him with ridicule. He was accused of wishing to turn the extravagances of " the Mother of God " to his own account, and of smiling at the destruction of the religion of Jesus Christ. When Vadier rose to accuse him on the 9th Thermidor, he said: "I shall speak with the calm of virtue. I accuse Robespierre of having called the report made on the conspiracy of Catherine Theot a ridiculous farce, and of having said that she was a woman to be despised, whereas 215 The Bastille we shall prove that she was in correspondence with Pitt, with the Duchesse de Bourbon," etc. Catherine Theot, poor half-witted creature, was thrown into the Conciergerie, where she died five weeks later, at the age of seventy years, the age which she herself had laid down as the limit of her first ex istence. Her death, however, does not seem to have been attended by any of those signs and portents which she foretold, nor was her regeneration operated on the Place du Pantheon. Lamartine, in his " History of the Girondists," has devoted several pages to this affair. He says that Catherine Theos, as he calls her, perceived in Robe spierre another Saul, and proclaimed him the chosen of God; that Dom Gerle, who sat next the Deputy for Arras in the Constituent Assembly, and whose admiration appears to have been equally divided be tween the " Mother of God " and the " Son of the Supreme Being," often spoke to Robespierre of the prophetess. According to Lamartine, Robespierre was not superstitious; but for several reasons he tolerated, if he did not encourage, the meetings at the house of Catherine Theot. He adds that " the opinion of the public, rightly or wrongly founded, was that he desired to realise in his person a supreme pontificate." It is then related how Madame de Sainte Amaranthe and her lovely daughter, who> had married M. de Sartine (the son of the ex-Minister of Police), Mdlle. Grandmaison, an actress, who had been the mistress of M. de Sartine, the Marquise de Chastenais, and others, received the kiss of peace 216 Robespierre from the infirm sibyl and were received into the sect. Robespierre was soon on terms of intimacy with Madame de Sainte Amaranthe, at whose house he was received as a Dictator. Wishing to detect Robe spierre in ridiculous and treasonable practices, the Committee of Public Safety watched all his actions. Afraid of attacking him directly, they first ordered the arrest of the Marquise de Chastenais, M. de Sar tine, and the whole Sainte Amaranthe family, not ex cepting a lad who had hardly attained his sixteenth year. Mdlle. Grandmaison and her domestic Biret were also arrested, and they were all involved in a charge of conspiracy with a man called Ladmiral, who had attempted to assassinate Collot d'Herbois, and with Cecile Renault, a young girl who had called at the house of Robespierre to see what a tyrant was like, and who was suspected of being another Char lotte Corday. Mixed up in this conspiracy, too, were Montmorencies, Rohans, Sombreuils, the Prince of St. Maurice, etc.; in all, sixty-two persons, including the father, mother, and brothers of Cecile Renault, and the porter of the house where Ladmiral had at tempted to assassinate Collot d'Herbois, and his wife, who were guilty of not having evinced sufficient pleasure when the assassin was arrested. Robespierre was compelled to listen in silence while Vadier read out his report on this affair, covering him with ridicule and throwing suspicion on his incorruptibility. The sixty-two prisoners were found guilty, and were con veyed in eight tumbrils to the place of execution, where they were guillotined one after the other. At 217 The Bastille the close of his touching account of this tragedy, Lamartine adds that " this carnage excited the people against Robespierre." Vadier thus concludes his report on the Catherine Theot affair: "We should ill understand the infernal genius of the English if we did not attribute to their inventions and manoeuvres in Paris the establishment of that trade in fanaticism and of speculations in bigotry opened in the Rue Contrescarpe. ... It is there that the English search for their auxiliaries, perturbators, recruiters for La Vandee, assassins, etc." " On Wednesday, 3rd March, 1779, died Louis Mathieu Bertin, Marquis de Frateaux, Knight of the Royal and Military Order of St. Louis, ex-captain of cavalry, detained in the Bastille by order of the King, seventy-two years old, and Thursday the 4th buried in the cemetery of this parish by the cure of St. Paul, etc." This certificate was duly entered in the register; but it was covered over with a sheet of paper which was sealed upon the leaf of the register with eight seals in red wax, bearing the arms of the King with his inscription, Chateau Royal de la Bas tille; and the probability is that these seals were not broken until the taking of the Bastille in 1789. " The death of a prisoner," adds the "Archives" of the police, from which the above is taken, " was not to be divulged; it was a mystery known to the King, to the Minister, and the Cure of St. Paul alone." The Marquis was confined for twenty-seven years on 218 Marquis de Frateaux the demand of his family. His principal crime seems to have been writing lampoons against Madame de Pompadour, and his family, to prove their loyalty, begged that he might be confined for life. Char pentier informs us that this prisoner, " strange to say," was arrested in England, that he never left his apart ment, and that it was M. de Jumilhac, his brother-in- law, who carried out the severe orders of which he was the victim. 219 CHAPTER VIII. 1780 LINGUET — DUVERNET — LE TELLIER — HALLOT — CAPIN— JACQUET DE LA DOUAY— BRISSOT— FER RY — SADE — DE WHYTE — SOLAGES — ROHAN — CHAMORAN— LENORMAND— MANUEL— ST. JAMES — DE KERGALAUN — PUJADE, ROCHE, CARREGE, AND BECHADE— BRETONS— REVEILLON "Few people," says Barrere, in his "Memoirs of Linguet and Dussault," " led so agitated a life as Si mon Nicolas Henri Linguet, who was born at Rheims on the 14th July, 1736, fifty-three years to the day before the taking of the Bastille. He was at first destined for letters, but the inconstancy of his tastes led him in other directions. On leaving college he became secretary to a nobleman, and then aide-de camp to a general. Quitting the pen for the sword, and living at the same time by the theatre and the Church, he wrote parodies for the Opera Comique and pamphlets in favour of the Jesuits. Turn about poet, historian, soldier, lawyer, and journalist, he changed his country as he did his profession." And in fact we find him now in Poland, then in Portugal, in Spain, in Holland, in Switzerland, and afterwards in 220 Linguet England. Of the most aggressive character, his name was struck off the roll of barristers by the Order, and this radiation was confirmed by Parliament; and such was his violence that he was abandoned by the Advocate-General Seguier, who had up to that time befriended him. He stood for the Academy, and, on being rejected, started a journal, and lashed that learned body with such fury that the " Immortals " demanded the suppression of his newspaper. Voltaire complained that he had traced their portraits with a licence exceeding that of Aretin. He attacked the Due de Duras, academician, first gentleman of the chamber, and marshal, as well as the Ministers, M. de Vergennes and M. de Maurepas. It is hardly to be wondered at that a man who made such an unscrupu lous use of his versatile talents should have found his way to the Bastille. It was not only in France that Linguet made himself impossible. He had been wel comed to Vienna by Joseph II. , who gave him a pen sion and a title, but he ill requited that hospitality, and was banished. As Barrere says : " After having been turn about, the friend and the detractor of the philos ophers, after having written in favour of the Jesuits and against the monks, written on religious subjects and composed licentious works, insulted or flattered the great, he carried the delirium of his democratic opinions even further than his servile admiration for tyranny had previously gone." Another biographer tells us that Linguet did not plead for the judges, but for the public, that he offended the gravity of the law, that he indulged in calumny, invective, and vituper- 221 The Bastille ation, attacking even the Bench; that he took up cases so bad that none of his colleagues would accept them; and that a lawyer who behaved so extravagantly to day would be treated much in the same way as Linguet was in 1780. The only difference would be that he would be legally punished, whereas Linguet was arbi trarily punished, as in his day there was no court of correctional police charged to deal with offences such as he committed. Such was the man whose " Memoirs " did so much to excite popular fury against poor old de Launay and the Bastille; a man " who one day defended Tiberius and Nero, and attacked Titus and Trajan, and who then loaded Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette with calumny." The Attorney-General, Vaucresson, warned the young lawyers to avoid the audacious effrontery and the indecent apostrophes of Linguet. Linguet was arrested on the 27th September, 1780, and remained in the Bastille until the 19th May, 1782. Then he took refuge in England, where he wrote his " Memoirs on the Bastille," which were eagerly de voured on both sides of the channel by credulous per sons. It is true that in the year 1783 Mr. Thomas Evans, Chancery barrister, wrote a refutation of these mendacious " Memoirs " in which he said: " The difference between the Tower of London and the Bastille is not such as you describe. Persons ac cused or suspected of treason are confined in both places, and there is no real difference between the Tower of London and the Bastille as regards the way in which prisoners are treated. The Governor of the 222 Linguet Tower is appointed by the Crown, in virtue of the royal prerogative ; he receives his orders from the Min isters, and in their execution he is not subjected to the inspection of either House of Parliament. The garri son employed under the command of the Governor of the Tower is subject to his orders, which are de cisive and absolute. When persons are committed to the Tower for treason, the Minister who signs the order directs how they are to be treated, and these orders are executed to the letter. If the Minister deems fit, a prisoner is deprived of all communication with his friends; and the liberty of taking exercise, and the use of pen, ink, and paper are not less restricted than at the Bastille. There is no superior power to which prisoners can complain of their incarceration, or who can lessen its rigour, with the exception of the Minister who has ordered the detention, whose severity is often fatal." France and England were then at war, but this did not prevent Linguet from praising us at the ex pense of his own country. Mr. Thomas Evans also said: " You complain bitterly of the small amount of food sometimes given to prisoners in the Bastille, and then, feeling it to be impossible to support this asser tion, you insinuate that it was with murderous inten tions that our table was abundantly served." And in a note the author adds: " It is perhaps necessary to observe here, and my information is very authentic, that M. de Launay, Governor of the Bastille, had the kindness to send a bill of fare to M. Linguet, who 223 The Bastille marked with his own hand the dishes he found to his taste; and that he was so far from priding himself on his philosophy in this matter that he always chose the most succulent, and in sufficient quantity to satisfy five or six epicureans. These bills of fare have been preserved. A commissioner and an officer of police visited him once a week through kindness, and generally brought a dozen bottles of good champagne. These were emptied gaily. . . ." A number of other persons have since refuted Lin guet. To excite popular opinion, he said that the walls of the Bastille were from thirty to forty feet thick. Mere thickness did not much matter. They were from six to twelve feet thick. The state ment made by Linguet merely shows how inac curate were his " Memoirs." On reading the passage where he made out that the Governor of the Bastille wished to poison him, Laharpe indignantly exclaimed: " Of a truth this man, with his lies and his unreason, would spoil the best cause. Certainly whoever has been confined in the Bastille has a right to complain; and even Cartouche would interest me by saying, ' I ought to have been tried, and I was thrown into a dungeon.' But who will believe Linguet when he says that they wished to poison him? Our Govern ment is far from poisoning persons. ... If Linguet be alive it is that they did not wish him to die." Some of Linguet's grievances excite a smile. The breeches given to him were too short, his logs of wood and his sheets of paper were counted, he had not a feather bed, and he, a " man of letters." had to make 224 Linguet his bed. Then the bronze figures which supported the clock were hung in chains, and a picture in the chapel represented St. Peter also in chains. In addi tion to this, sensitive prisoners were shocked to see the stanchions which had supported the scaffold of Marshal Biron still in the wall. According to Linguet, no less that 150,000 persons were committed to the Bastille during the reign of Louis XV. ! Louis XV. reigned for sixty years; the Bastille hardly ever contained more than fifty pris oners. Supposing the Bastille to have been kept constantly full, and that each prisoner passed a year within its walls, that would allow for only 3,000 prisoners ! That Linguet was a man of talent is beyond doubt. Voltaire thought of entrusting him with the case of the Chevalier de la Barre. But he was entirely desti tute of all probity, and in reality he was no more the enemy of tyranny than he was the friend of the op pressed. He was aggressive all round. When he pleaded, it was to display his powers and to gratify his vanity rather than to gain his cause. When the Revolution broke out which swept away the Bastille, this ex-prisoner of the Bastille was one of its first vic tims. The people of the faubourg judged Linguet's character severely but justly; they knew that he had not suffered captivity in the cause of the new princi ples, and that he was no martyr to the cause of liberty. In October, 1793, Linguet was arrested, and had little time allowed him to reflect on the difference between the old and the new order of things. He was dragged 225 The Bastille before the Revolutionary tribunal, which played with him as a cat plays with a mouse. In his case it was not " la mort sans phrases." The sanguinary tribunal read out to the accused his defence of Nero and his attacks against Montesquieu, and then sent him to the scaffold, where the guillotine put a period to life's fitful story. Barrere, by the way, has left us a graphic descrip tion of the close of Linguet's eventful life. He says that: "When the Revolution broke out, Linguet, whose passions had been calmed by age, was living in retirement near Ville d'Avray, and it was in this peaceful and shady retreat that the Terror laid hands upon him. In vain his companions in misfortune en deavoured to tranquillise him with regard to his fate. One circumstance might have saved him. At the moment of his arrest he was suffering from a serious malady. The Terror might have spared its victim, but Linguet asked to be tried, which was to ask to be condemned. Before the Revolutionary tribunal the voice of the orator, whose vehement eloquence was feared, was stifled by irony and insult. His papers were said to include a letter which he had written to Louis XVI. offering to defend him. He accepted the responsibility of this generous act, and was con demned to death just two months before Robespierre perished. On ascending the fatal car his eyes looked round in search of a minister of that religion which gives to the innocent mind force to support the iniquities of man." Linguet left behind him a history of France in 226 Linguet manuscript, which manuscript was employed in the manufacture of cartridges by patriots. Brissot, who had been a friend and admirer of Lin guet, and had known him in London after his release from the Bastille, exclaimed, when he became a mem ber of the Cordeliers in 1790, and an ardent partisan of the Revolution: " Linguet a tribune of the people! Linguet a friend of liberty! No, no; and neither Ca- mille Desmoulins nor Danton will be able to persuade any one of that. ... I one day ran over his ' Memoirs,' eternal monument of shame and infamy, in which the arbitrary executions and the seizure of la Chalotais and his friends are justified; he excuses the committee appointed to condemn them, and their long and cruel detention! He afterwards complains of the horrors he experienced in the Bastille. . . . And to day he appears as a supporter of liberty, and a friend of the people. A friend of the people ! Yes, after the fashion of Marat, whose lieutenant he is worthy to be, since he did not hesitate to become the apologist of Nero." The following is an appeal made by Linguet, pray ing to be released: " Monseigneur. — I am assured that no one knows where I am, and I have no difficulty in believing this; but the King, you and I are in the secret; therefore you will not be surprised by the rhyme of these verses (sic). " I implore you to be kind enough to lay them at the feet of H.M. with the good wishes of the most 227 The Bastille imprudent, perhaps, but also of the most submissive and most unfortunate of his subjects. " The moment is favourable for obtaining a pardon, and the remainder of my life will be spent in justifying it. " Linguet." There is no date to this letter, nor anything to indi cate to whom it was addressed — probably to M. de Maurepas in 1785, on the birth of the Dauphin who afterwards perished so miserably in the Temple. The verses which Linguet desired to have placed at the feet of His Majesty ran thus: J'apprends de ces canons qui roulent sur ma tete En ebranlant tout mon plancher, Que la reine vient d'accoucher, Qu'un dauphin nouveau ne met le royaume en fete. Louis, c'est le temps du pardon: Permets pour te flechir, que j 'implore le nom Du gage precieux qui grossit la famille. De monter du plaisir mon cceur fran^ais petille, Mais en conscience peut-on Se rejouir a la bastille? In La Revue de la Revolution of July, 1883, we find that during his detention in the Bastille, Linguet found means to publish the " Proces de trois rois, Louis XVI. de France, Bourbon, Charles III. d'Es- pagne, Bourbon, et Georges III. d'Angleterre, fabri- cant de boutons, plaide aux tribunaux des puissances europeennes, etc. Translated from English. Lon don, 1 781," which was far from complimentary to their Majesties. The following riddle in verse, written in Linguet's time, was somewhat prophetic: 228 Duvernet Mon premier sert a pendre; Mon second mene a pendre; Mon tout est a pendre. My first being Un, or flax ; my second guet, the watch ; and my whole Linguet. Theophile Imarigeon Duvernet, priest, having ren dered himself suspicious to Ministers by publishing works on religious intolerance, etc., was committed to the Bastille in 1780. Had he not written that " the nation which wishes it always succeeds in becoming free; that the insurrection of the Americans was a .good example for Europe; that every ill-governed society had a right to regenerate itself; that a citizen who was a man of letters should not dread the Bastille"? It having been discovered, a short time after his arrest, that the works of the Abbe had been filled with the most abominable indecencies and calumnies, un known to the prisoner, by a bookseller called Janet, M. Amelot, the Minister of Paris, went to the Bastille to see the Abbe and to have him set at liberty. In stead of thanking the Minister, the offended Abbe overwhelmed him with reproaches, and spoke to him so sharply on the levity with which men of letters were thrown into the Bastille, that M. Amelot left him in prison for seven months longer.* It appears that during his confinement the Abbe wrote a life of Voltaire and several novels, and that he also made a catalogue of the library of the Bastille, which con- * " The Abbe," says Charpentier, " consoled himself with the thought that M. Amelot was a blockhead." 229 The Bastille sisted of 700 volumes, " not ten volumes of which could be of any use to a man with a moderate amount of instruction." This was one of the reproaches which the indignant Abbe addressed to M. Amelot when the Minister said: " What have you to complain of? You have all you want; you have books in the library." The Abbe added: " Whena Minister wishes to revenge himself on a man who has had the courage or the want of tact to expose his blunders, nothing is spared to have him arrested; gold, silver, pensions are lavished in profusion to procure his arrest in England, in Holland, or in the depths of Germany. Often it costs the State one or two thousand louis to lay hand on an author guilty of having spoken disrespectfully of a Minister; but when it comes to affording prisoners some consolation by purchasing books, everything is refused, and I dare to state that since the Bastille exists the Government has not spent ten louis on books. ..." It seems that the Abbe had been once before in the Bastille, but only for five weeks. According to a work published in 1787, "Twenty good families demanded his liberty, several pretty women spoke in his favour, and the Administration, after a few little customary hesitations, restored the Abbe to his friends." In December, 1780, a pamphleteer called le Tellier was committed to the Bastille on the charge of writing a libel against the Queen. He was not detained in prison for more than six months, and was afterwards exiled to Caen. During the Revolution, le Tellier be- 230 Hallot and Others came professor at the College of the Quatrc Nations. He appears to have been arrested twice in 1793 and a third time in 1794, when he learned to his cost, as did Linguet, that it is more dangerous to trifle with the tyranny of the mob than with the Court. He was sent to the scaffold owing to his relations with the Giron- dins, and because some verses against Marat were found in his pocket. Charpentier, who expatiates on the gross injustice done to le Tellier in 1780, says never a word of his fate under the Revolution. On the ioth January, 1781, doctors differing, we find that Louis Charles Hallot, belonging to the faculty, was cast into the Bastille on the charge of having written a pamphlet against his colleagues. Their resentment did not last long, and, on their re quest, the prisoner was released on the 29th January, his incarceration having lasted nineteen days. In 1 78 1 a curious arrest was made, to wit, that of Jean Baptiste Capin, who for thirty-one years had been a turnkey in the Bastille, and who was about to retire on a pension. Capin was found guilty of having, for filthy lucre, conveyed a letter to a prisoner from be yond the walls. After a few weeks' confinement as an ordinary prisoner, the ex-turnkey was exiled to twenty leagues from Paris. In October, 1781, the police agent Jacquet de la Douay was committed to the Bastille. He was charged with the inspection of foreign works, and it was discovered that he not only sold prohibited 231 The Bastille books for his own profit, but that he republished those most in request. In November, 1782, this prisoner was transferred to Charenton; but a year after wards he returned to the Bastille, where he remained until the 9th July, 1789. He was, therefore, released just five days before the capture of the place, and had thus the honour of being the last prisoner regularly discharged. The gaol book of the Bastille sets forth that, " At 11 o'clock in the evening, 9th July, 1789, sieur Jacquet was set at liberty, in virtue of a lettre de cachet dated the 5th, countersigned Villedeuil. The sieur Vosgien undertook to convey him to the diligence of Bergenson; he is exiled to Lons-le-Saulnier, his country." We read in the Register of the Bastille: " The 28th February, 1784. — Surbois, inspector of police, brought the Comte de Solages from Vincennes, at 10.30 this evening. The King's order, countersigned by de Bre- teuil, is dated the 31st January. He is lodged in the 2nd chamber of the Bertaudiere tower. " The 4th April, 1789, handed to the Governor 700 livres, pension of the Comte de Solages for the three current months, for which I have given a receipt, with explanations according to custom, for causes known to the Lieut.-General of Police." The Count, who was first thrown into Vincennes in 1782, was confined on the demand of his father, on account of his habits of dissipation. Charpentier says that " M. de Solages, during the 232 De Solages, Whyte, and Sade period of his captivity in two different prisons, never underwent the slightest examination and never re ceived a letter from any of his relations or friends, although he wrote frequently to them during his captivity. On being released, he learned the death of his father, all whose property had been seized to pay his creditors. He knew nothing of the Assembly of Notables, and had heard nothing of the States-Gen eral sitting at Versailles. When he heard the first shots fired by the assailants of the Bastille, he asked the cause, and was told that the people had revolted owing to the high price of bread. When the people entered the Bastille his turnkey had just brought him his dinner, and the door was open." On the 29th February, 1784, the inspector of police, Surbois, took de Whyte to the Bastille. He is mad, and for this reason his entry was signed by the in spector of police who brought him here. Two more entries, the first the 14th August, 1788, and the second the 16th February, 1789, mention the prisoner Whyte de Malleville as completely out of his mind. Who Whyte de Malleville was is a mystery which has yet to be cleared up. Charpentier, who saw him at Charenton shortly after the capture of the Bastille, says : " This prisoner spoke such good English that he is believed to be an Irishman; we are assured that he is a relation of M. de Sartine." The gaol book also shows that the infamous Marquis de Sade, transferred like his fellow prisoner from Vin- 233 The Bastille cennes, was lodged in the Bastille the same day as de Whyte, that on the 16th March he was visited by his wife, who brought him six pounds of candles, and obtained permission to visit him twice a month. In May the Marquis received from his wife a pair of sheets, nineteen reams of paper, half a pound of guimauve paste, a bottle of ink, a bottle of syrup, and a box of chocolate. In fact, the Marquis was regularly visited by his wife, who always arrived at the Bastille laden with gifts. On the 5th June, 1789, the Governor suspended the permission given to the Marquis to walk about, as he endeavoured to force his way past two sentries. On the 2nd July he several times shouted from his window that the prisoners were being murdered. On the 4th July the Marquis was transferred to Charenton. The Marquis de Sade, in addition to writing the most loathsome works, had been imprisoned at Pierre- en-Cise, and afterwards condemned to death by the Parliament of Aix, for acts of the grossest immor ality. He was delivered from Charenton by the people in 1790, on leaving which asylum his wife refused to see him. He conducted himself with moderation during the Revolution, but during the Consulate, having been rash enough to present " Justine " and " Juliette " to Bonaparte, with a dedication, the First Consul, with his own hand, wrote an order to the Prefect of Police to send the author back to Charenton as an incurable and dangerous lunatic. And in Charen ton he remained till he died, the ruling passion strong 234 The Ferrys in death. He could not walk in the courtyard without tracing obscene figures on the gravel. On the 19th March, 1784, the brothers Ferry, Italians, one the almoner and the other an equerry of the Duke of Valentinois, were arrested, it is sup posed for lampoons, and detained in the Bastille for about two months, when they were released and or dered to return to their native land. It is probable that M. Jules Ferry, who was Mayor of Paris during the siege, Minister of Public Instruc tion and Fine Arts in 1879, and Prime Minister, first in 1881 and then in 1883, is descended from the Ferrys named above. On the 1 2th July, 1784, Brissot de Warville, better known as Brissot, was committed to the Bastille on the charge of being the author of a pamphlet against the Queen, really written by the Marquis de Pelle- port,* who had been arrested the day previous. The next entry in the gaol book is " ioth Sept., 1784. — Brissot de Warville was set at liberty to-day by order of the King." One of Brissot's biographers says : " It required four months and the powerful solicitations of Madame de Genlis and the Duke of Orleans to establish his innocence. Four years after wards, on the evening of the 14th July, the conquerors of the Bastille, at whose fall he was present, placed the keys of the castle in his hand. . . . Condemned * The Marquis de Pelleport spent five years in the Bastille for writing " Le Diable dans un Benitier " and other lampoons. When in the army he appears to have been twice cashiered. 235 The Bastille to death on the 30th October, 1793, with twenty-one of his colleagues, Brissot was guillotined the next day, at the age of thirty-nine years." Brissot, in his " Memoirs," says that he was three times in prison, adding : " The Bastille appeared to me like a tomb in which I was buried alive, and my grief consisted in not being able to fix any term for this sepulchral existence. I did not fear death, first because I was innocent, and next because I knew that the Government preferred condemning to the pain of life rather than the pain of death. I cheated my grief and my ennui in the Bastille by reading, de claiming, meditating, and composition; I believe that I left it a better though not a more prudent man. " You are aware of the cause for which, under the regime of liberty, I was thrown into the Abbaye. I experienced much more painful sensations there than in the Bastille. The men who cried the public papers came under my windows to shout out the lampoons published against me. I one day even heard a cannibal song which contained jokes on my approaching exe cution, and the populace roared with laughter. It appeared to me that I had been transported to a land of anthropophagists." Nor could Brissot understand the police allowing a prisoner to be insulted before being found guilty. And the idea that he, Brissot, a republican of twenty years' standing, should be accused of Royalism! Brissot furnished Charpentier with some notes concerning his arrest — notes published in " La Bastille Devoilee," part iii., page 75. In these Brissot says 236 Brissot that he went to England in 1782 to study the con stitution of that island, its financial condition, its arts and literature. After a year's labour, he wrote a work on England and the situation of that country in India. In 1784 he returned to Paris, and was arrested on the day fixed for the ascension of the Abbe Miolan's balloon. Two days afterwards he learned that he had been arrested on the charge of having written a lampoon. " Several satirical pamphlets," he said, " circulated through France, in spite of, or rather owing to, the most severe prohibition. These lam poons ought to have been treated with contempt. The French Ministers seemed to dread them; they bought them up, and they swarmed. It was supposed that London was the hot-bed of these productions; I resided there, I wrote there, and hence I inspired suspicion. . . . Wretches who got their living as in formers denounced me, and were believed. You remember the amusing scene in ' Gil Bias,' where two or three brigands, disguised as familiars of the Inqui sition, rob a Jew. The novelist has accurately painted the proceedings of these informers. Such a one writes — set down that he writes lampoons. He speaks of the rights of man — set down that he indulges in fearful attacks on the King. He aids some unfortunate French exiles — set down that he is the accomplice of ruffianly refugees." Brissot soon convinced M. Lenoir of his innocence, and was informed that if he would pledge his word not to return to England he would be released. On asking the reason of this strange condition, he was 237 The Bastille informed that it was due to the hatred which the Minister bore England, and because he feared the spread of Liberal ideas. In conclusion, Brissot stated that Providence after wards indemnified him for "the burning grief " he endured in the Bastille, and all the losses occasioned by his detention; for "when the Bastille was taken, I know not by what chance, the keys of that horrible prison were brought to me." " It is pretended," wrote Madame de Genlis, " that I had a liaison with Brissot, which is absolutely false, although I had some relations with him before the Revolution." Madame de Genlis then relates that, owing to her well-known sentiments of humanity, a number of unfortunate persons addressed themselves to her, among these Brissot, of whom she had never heard, and who wrote to her from the Bastille. Madame de Genlis, interested in his fate, appealed to the Duke of Orleans in his behalf, and a fortnight afterwards he regained his liberty. Poor Brissot experienced harsher treatment under the Revolution, during which he played a prominent part, being one of the leading members of the Girondist party. When the Girondists fell he was thrown into the Abbaye, and thence transferred to the Con ciergerie. Lamartine has given a touching account of the imprisonment, trial, and execution of Brissot and his political friends. In his " History of the Girondists " (t. iii., p. 183), he says, referring to their last moments: "Thirteen remained in the larger dungeon; some conversed in whispers, some wept, 238 Cardinal de Rohan others slept. At eight o'clock they were allowed to walk about the corridors. The Abbe Lambert, the pious friend of Brissot, who had passed the night at the door of their cell, was still waiting for leave to com municate with them. Brissot, perceiving him, sprang forward and clasped him in his arms. The priest offered him the assistance of his ministry, but Brissot gratefully though firmly refused. ' Do you know any thing more holy than the death of an honest man, who dies for having refused the blood of his fellow creatures to a set of scoundrels? ' he exclaimed." Brissot, however, admitted the immortality of the soul, and the existence of Providence. Very shortly after he had perished on the scaffold the Duke of Orleans, who had procured his release from the Bas tille, was also guillotined. In the Register of the Bastille we find the following entries : "The 16th August, 1785. — At 11.30 p.m., the Cardinal de Rohan, Grand Almoner, Bishop of Stras- burg, Commander of the Orders of the King, was brought to the Bastille by the Comte d'Agoult. The Marquis de Launay, Governor, went to fetch the Cardinal, and brought him here in a carriage, as well as the Comte d'Agoult. The King's Lieutenant, the Chevalier de St. Sauveur, has given up his apartment for this night, to allow time for furnishing the apart ment on the first floor. " The 17th August. — At 1 a.m. two of the Cardinal's valets arrived with packages ; the said valets slept each 239 The Bastille in a closet of the apartment; they are, like their master, locked up; they are called Bradner and Screibert. " At 8 a.m. the Baron de Breteuil and M. de Crosne came and passed half an hour with the Cardinal. "At n a.m. the Governor took the. Cardinal out in his carriage. They returned to the castle at 8.30. "The 18th August. — Monseigneur the Prince de Conde came at 11.30, and remained a quarter of an hour with the Cardinal de Rohan. The Governor was present during the visit. According to ancient custom the Prince of the blood should have remained in his carriage, and the prisoner should have been taken to him; but the Prince asked to see him as a relative." Other persons of quality called to see His Eminence, also his surgeon, three abbes, and a valet de chambre. The Cardinal had been arrested for the part he played in the affair of the Diamond Necklace, and those two arch impostors, Cagliostro and Madame de Lamotte Valois, were thrown into the Bastille at the same time as their dupe. The woman Oliva, who had impersonated the Queen in this affair, was also ar rested. After a good many entries of little interest, we come to the 24th March, 1786, when we find the woman Lamotte confronted with the Comte de Val- bonne, the woman Oliva, and the Comtesse Dubarry. The Cardinal de Rohan, too, was confronted with the woman Oliva. " 30th May, 1786, two ushers of the Parliament came to fetch Cagliostro and to take him to the Palace. " At 6 o'clock the Governor and the King's Lieu- 240 Cardinal de Rohan Cardinal de Rohan tenant accompanied the Cardinal de Rohan to the Palace, where they are to spend the day in the cabinet of the Registrar, who has lent it so that the Cardinal may have a decent place within reach of the Court. " At 6.30 Cagliostro was brought back by the ushers. At 7 the Cardinal returned; he was dressed in violet. After having spoken for a moment at the Palace, he was invited to sit down, which he did, and this invitation they say is without precedent. "The 31st May, at five o'clock, the Cardinal was accompanied by the Governor and the King's Lieu tenant to the Palace. Cagliostro was brought back by an usher at seven o'clock. The Cardinal returned at ten o'clock, having been acquitted. " On the 1st June the Cardinal and Cagliostro were released from the Bastille. Madame de Lamotte Valois had been transferred to the Conciergerie, and Mademoiselle Oliva had been confined of a son." Baron de Bezenval, in his " Memoirs," devotes one or two pages to this curious affair. They are worth perusing, as throwing light upon the character of the epoch which immediately, preceded the breaking out of that Revolution, the symptoms of which were becoming alarmingly apparent. The Baron says : " The King exhibited the greatest possible modera tion in this case. He caused the Cardinal to be asked by what tribunal he would like to be tried, and the Cardinal having chosen the Parliament, H.M. gave him permission to see M. Target as often as he liked All his family were allowed into the Bastille. 241 The Bastille " It is customary, when a man labours under a criminal accusation, that he should be confined in the prison attached to the court. However, the King sometimes departed from this rule, and such was the case in the present instance. He issued ' patent letters,' permitting the Cardinal to remain in the Bastille, which led to the presumption that H.M. regarded him as not only culpable towards the law, but culpable as his subject and as his commensal* to whom he would do justice after the Parliament had returned its verdict. For this reason he would not part with his person. " The trial had hardly commenced when the clergy remonstrated, and claimed the right of trying the Cardinal. This demand, which would have been an im portant affair two centuries ago, did not create the slightest sensation. The Court of Rome then played a comedy, calling upon His Eminence to appear before a tribunal of Cardinals to render an account of his con duct, under pain, if he did not obey before the expira tion of six weeks, of being suspended. This step on the part of the Court of Rome had no greater success than the representations of the French clergy. " On the denunciation of Cardinal de Rohan, it was determined to arrest Madame de. Lamotte, at Bar-sur- Aube, where she had a house, purchased apparently with the proceeds of the necklace. . . . She did not appear alarmed upon seeing the exempt. Her husband offered to accompany his wife, but was told that there was no writ against him, a fault which increased the number of those committed by the Minister in this * The Cardinal dined at the royal table. 242 Cardinal de Rohan affair. M. de Lamotte, upon second thoughts, fled to London, and, when they wished to arrest him, was not to be found. " The dissatisfaction of the public against all these proceedings, joined to the opposition which everything emanating from the Court willingly encountered, caused the Cardinal to be pitied. This feeling, in fact, had gained so much force before the end of the trial that every one said he was innocent, and the verdict was awaited with great interest. "At Pentecost of 1786, the affair being sufficiently examined, the Parliament assembled to pronounce its decision. M. de Fleury, the Attorney-General, branded the Cardinal and wished to have such penalties im posed upon him that he would never have been able to acquit them, and would probably have remained in prison for the rest of his life [or until the fall of the Bastille, three years afterwards]. " The Cardinal was very warmly defended by M. de Barillon and M. Seguier, and the Parliament, by a majority of five votes, acquitted the prisoner. " Madame de Lamotte was condemned to make amende honorable with a rope round her neck, to be fustigated and branded on both shoulders, and sent to the Hospital for the remainder of her days. " M. de Lamotte was condemned by default to the same penalties. " M. Cagliostro was acquitted, etc. " The Palais de Justice was crowded, and the joy was universal when it was known that, the Cardinal was declared innocent. The judges were applauded, 243 The Bastille and received such an ovation, that they had much difficulty in getting through the people, so high did party feeling run and so bitter was the animosity against the Queen and the Court. " The Baron de Breteuil, who had the gout in the chest, was charged to inform the Cardinal that he was at liberty to leave the Bastille." The Cardinal was dismissed from his post of Grand Almoner, and exiled to the Abbey of the Chaise- Dieu. This affair was very near producing curious con sequences, to wit, the abolition of Cardinals in France. Louis XVI. considered that this high ecclesiastical dignity was incompatible with the obedience which every Frenchman owed to the crown. The King, too, objected to see a subject enjoying a title equal to that of a Prince of the blood, and drawing 50,000 crowns a year from the treasury to live in splendour. Louis XVI. had not time to carry out this reform; but it is said that before appointing the Bishop of Metz to suc ceed the Cardinal de Rohan as his Grand Almoner, he made him promise to renounce all idea of receiving the scarlet hat. In November, 1785, a man called Chamoran and his wife were arrested, Chamoran on the charge of having written a libel. Charpentier tells us that these two persons were thrown into the Bastille on a false pre text, and to furnish the Government with an excuse for not giving them up to the English authorities, who demanded their extradition on the ground that they 244 Chamoran had committed an atrocious crime in that country. In fact, this couple had robbed a person called Mackay of the large sum of 300 guineas, by threatening him with instant death if he refused to sign a checque for that amount. Mackay was afterwards tied down in such a way that he could not move without the risk of blowing himself up by bringing a strain to bear on a string which was tied to the trigger of a pistol, the muzzle of which was inserted in a barrel of gun powder. Fortunately for Mackay, he was safely re leased by some neighbours. Chamoran and his wife, who were probably spies in the pay of the French Government, remained in the Bastille for about six months. On the 4th February, 1786, one Franqois Lenor- mand, who owned a clandestine printing-press, and who published and hawked obscene works, was com mitted to the Bastille. The most interesting fact in connection with the incarceration of this prisoner is thus mentioned in the Revue de la Revolution for July, 1883 : " It was the printing-press of Lenormand which was found in the Bastille on the 14th July, 1789, when the prison was captured by the people, and which Dussault mistook for an unknown instrument of torture." Lenormand remained for three months in the Bastille. Louis Pierre Manuel was also condemned for lam poons, and was committed to the Bastille in February, 1786. He was detained a prisoner two months only. 245 The Bastille After having largely contributed to heap calumnies on the ancient regime, Manuel was arrested and exe cuted by his old political friends in 1793, for publishing a pamphlet entitled " A Philosophical Glance at the Reign of St. Louis," and for protesting against the execution of Louis XVI. On the 1 st February, 1787, Baudard de St. James and Collin, his valet, entered the Bastille, where they remained until the 26th March. M. de St. James appears to have asked M. de Calonne to procure an order for his incarceration from the King, so that he might be placed beyond the reach of his creditors, who probably came to terms with the prisoner. It is pleas ant to find the Bastille several times in this lustre turned into a kind of sanctuary. In September, 1787, the Comte de Kergalaun and his valet were committed to the Bastille. The Count was a son of one of the deputies of the Parliament of Rennes, who had boldly shared the disgrace of M. de la Chalotais, and was suspected of intriguing with the Parliament, which had been transferred to Troie. As no proofs against the Count were forthcoming, he was released after a month's detention, and his servant Rasin, who had shared his captivity, was also restored to liberty. In 1787, Pujade, Roche, Bechade, and Carrege, were committed to the Bastille on the charge of forgery, and there they remained until the old fortress fell. 246 The Bretons Concerning them Charpentier says that, after being released by the people from the Bastille, they remained in Paris for several days without Messrs. Tourton and Ravel being able to procure their arrest. The reason of this was that the King had appointed a special com mission to try the affair, which was consequently taken out of the hands of the ordinary tribunals. In the Register of the Bastille we find : " The 15th July, 1788, between 3 and 7 a.m., MM. de Montluc, de Chatillon, and ten other gentlemen were brought to the Bastille, each by an officer of the Paris Guard and an Inspector of Police. The lettres de cachet were countersigned by the Baron de Breteuil. These twelve Breton gentlemen had been delegated by the nobility of Brittany to present a petition to the King on the reforms to be accomplished in their province. " Packets of linen, etc., sent to the prisoners have been handed to them. " M. de Crosne, who visited the twelve gentlemen, has received different letters from them; he ordered pen, ink, paper, knives, scissors, watches, and exercise to be allowed to them. He has permitted three of these gentlemen who had servants to keep them. " The 2 1 st August. — A billiard table has been hired and placed in the room of the Major of the Bastille for the amusement of the Breton gentlemen. " The 1 2th September. — M. de la Fruglaye (one of the gentlemen) received the visit of his son, who was permitted by the Governor to dine with his father, and with five other gentlemen who dined together. " At 8.30 all the Breton gentlemen were set free." 247 The Bastille The Parliament of Brittany had met in defiance of the King's express command, had passed violent reso lutions, and had been dispersed by the military. Riots and confusion ensued. Upon this the nobles sent a deputation to Versailles, which deputation, as we have seen above, was committed to the Bastille. It was certainly a most extraordinary proceeding that on the very verge of the Revolution the Govern ment of Louis XVI. should have attempted to deprive the Bretons of their franchises, which French kings had sworn to respect when their province was united to the crown. Under Louis XV. the Bretons had braved death and prison in defence of their liberties. When the twelve gentlemen returned to Brittany, after their sojourn in the Bastille, they met with an enthusiastic reception. Their President, M. de la Fruglaye, was entertained at a banquet. A pasty representing the Bastille was set upon the table, and when the pie was opened it was found to contain, not four-and-twenty blackbirds, but twelve sparrows, who immediately flew away; and the twelve sparrows were the twelve Bretons who had regained their liberty. The Comte de Champagny, who wrote a pamphlet on this affair, informs us that a few years afterwards M. de la Fruglaye was thrown into one of the Revo lutionary prisons, where he received very different treatment from that experienced in the Bastille. We now come to the case of Reveillon, the last prisoner who entered the Bastille, who entered it as a sanctuary on the ist May, and left it on the 28th. 248 STORMING THE BASTILLE, Reveillon What then became of him we know not. His case is thus referred to in the gaol book : "The 1 8th April, 1789. — M. Mesurier, bearer of a letter from the Comte de Puysegur, Minister of War, has brought some sabres, pistols, lances, pertuisanes, and muskets, which have all been placed in the Baziniere Tower. " The 19th April. — The Governor has ordered that all the workmen of the company of sub-officers shall remain in the barracks during the day; precautions have been taken with regard to the great gatherings which will be occasioned by the election of deputies for the States-General. " The 27th April. — The workmen of the Faubourg St. Antoine assembled in great numbers to punish, they say, a man called Reveillon, a dealer in paper and furniture, and also a man called Henriot, for defama tory language employed by them at a meeting of the Third Estate, with regard to the working men of said faubourg. " They have plundered the house of Henriot. Looking-glasses, hangings, in fact all the furniture, has been burned in the market-place. The Gardes Franchises arrived at the end, and acted as spectators. Every one retired about eleven o'clock. " The 28th April. — The rising of the previous evening being apparently appeased, no guards were placed in the faubourg. The said working men have reassembled, recruited by men from other faubourgs, armed with sticks, pikes, etc. " Noon. — The troops have arrived — Gardes Fran- 249 The Bastille caises and detachments of the regiment Royal Cravate, who for some days had been quartered, by way of pre caution, at Charenton. Owing to their feeble number they were obliged to withdraw to the top of the faubourg, and the brigands sacked the house of Reveillon, and burned everything it contained. A reinforcement has arrived and charged the insurgents; there were 200 or 300 killed, wounded, or captured. They evacuated the faubourg at six o'clock. " They broke into the shops, and carried off the comestibles, and sometimes even the money and other things. This lasted about two hours. " The 29th April. — From 6 a.m. a respectable body of troops in the faubourg; two guns patrolling as far as the Palais Royal. "At 6 p.m. two insurgents were hung; their cart was escorted by the horse and foot watch, etc. The faubourg was guarded by the Swiss, Gardes Fran- chaises, Royal Cravate, Cavalry of Burgundy, etc. " The 30th. — Everything quiet. " The 1st May. — At 4 a.m. Reveillon came to the castle on an order from the King, and was lodged in the Comte Tower. This prisoner demanded to be con fined for his security. " The 22nd May. — At 2 o'clock, at the entry of the Faubourg St. Antoine, one man was hung and five were flogged, branded, and manacled for the rising in the said faubourg. The place of execution was sur rounded by troops. " The 26th, 27th, and 28th.— Reveillon has received a great many visits since his arrival." Follows list of 250 Reveillon visitors, among whom we note Voltaire's old friend and ex-captive, the Abbe Mord-les. " The 28th. — At 9 p.m. Reveillon left the castle. With the order for his entry he had that for his release, countersigned by M. de Villedeuil. " The 29th. — M. de Crosne, with a Councillor of Parliament, came to see the castle, escorted by the Governor ; they ascended the towers. " The 1st July. — A sergeant and twelve sub-officers have arrived by way of a reinforcement. " The 7th July. — At 4 a.m. a detachment of the Salis-Samade regiment, composed of thirty men and Lieutenant Deflue, arrived at the Bastille to reinforce the garrison." Taine tells us that the effigy of Reveillon was paraded through the streets, and was afterwards burned. What was the crime of Reveillon? It was rumoured among the people that this manufacturer of coloured paper had said that a workman, with his wife and children, could live upon 15 sous a day; the rioters were determined to avenge this insult with fire and sword. The rumour was utterly unfounded, for Re veillon paid his humblest workmen 25 sous a day, and during the preceding winter he had supported 350 of his men through charity. What matter ! His house was sacked from roof to basement, and everything was burned — linen, furniture, carriage, cocks and hens. Citizens drank indiscriminately all the liquors they came across (as the French sailors did in 1885, when they plundered Missionary Shaw's house in Madagas- 251 The Bastille car) — wine, paints, and even varnish, so that, accord ing to Gustave Bord, not a few died, which is by no. means surprising. The evening before the house of a man called Henriot had also been sacked for a similar crime; but we do not learn that Henriot, all whose goods and chattels were burned in the market place, sought refuge in the Bastille, like his fellow- sufferer. By the way, the Chronique de Paris, 27th August, 1789, informs us that the prize for Virtue was awarded by the Academy to Marie-Barbe Pecheus, the servant of the Sieur Reveillon, who during the fatal days of the 28th and 29th April showed the greatest courage in the midst of the bandits who were pillaging the house of her master; who was twenty times on the point of being killed; who, in spite of her great age of sixty-nine years and the weakness of her sex, never abandoned the place of this horrible scene, frightening the scoundrels, striking them with respect, and tearing from them their prey. This was the way in which Marie-Barbe Pecheus crowned forty years of virtue, fidelity, activity, etc. 252 CHAPTER IX. CLOSING SCENES — BARON DE BEZENVAL — DUS SAULT'S "SEVEN DAYS "-DROZ— LIEUT. DE LA FLUE — DR. RIGBY— PAUL LACROIX — WEBER — GOUVERNEUR MORRIS— DIARY OF LOUIS XVI. We have now arrived at the period of the French Revolution, which swept like a hurricane over the country, venting its first fury on the Bastille. Many writers have treated the capture of the old fortress as a most glorious exploit; some have even gone so far as to declare that it was generous on the part of the people to begin by demolishing a State prison used for the incarceration of the upper classes. Other writers have it that the Bastille was attacked because it was a strong strategical point not to be left in the hands of the King, and because it contained arms and ammunition which might be used against the people. Others again, that the assailants were ani mated by one idea only, that of releasing the victims of despotism and breaking their fetters. As a matter of fact, the Bastille had long ceased to be a State prison. When it fell, only seven victims were dis covered — Tavernier, who had been thrown into prison in 1749, on the charge of having conspired against 253 The Bastille the life of Louis XV. ; a prisoner called de Whyte, or de Whyte Malleville by some writers, and Major White by the Duke of Dorset, a poor fellow who was out of his senses; the Comte de Solages, confined on the re quest of his family; and four persons committed on the charge of forgery. As for the Bastille being a strong strategical point, that had long ceased to be the case; the guns on the battlements were mounted on naval carriages and could not be depressed; they were only fit, and they were only used, for firing royal salutes. The last salute they fired was when the Dauphin was born, that Dau phin who was afterwards done so cruelly to death in the Temple. Again, the battlements were com manded by the roofs of the houses in the Faubourg St. Antoine. We shall read how the besiegers clam bered on to the roofs of these houses and fired on the gunners. Nor were there any military stores in the Bastille, no ammunition worth speaking of, and no rations. The Bastille may have been a terrible place in its early days, but in 1789 it was like a lion sick unto death, whose teeth had been drawn. It could could never have been half as formidable to Paris as the fort of Mont Valerien, constructed when Louis Philippe was King, whose guns — not guns mounted on old naval carriages and " playthings of Marshal Saxe " — command the entire capital. The Commu nists of 1871 felt the force of its fire. As for the amount of heroism displayed in the capt ure of the Bastille, even Republican authorities differ. Let the readers judge from the various accounts which 254 The Bastille "in Extremis" we have collected — accounts written, some by actors in the scene, some by spectators. They will probably come to the conclusion that the Bastille was not carried by assault, and that, as was said when Napoleon on his way to Egypt captured Malta, it was fortunate that there was some one inside to open the gates. When Carlyle described how the men of the Revo lution carried their hatred of things royal so far as to burn the shirt of St. Louis, he exclaimed: " Might not a patriot have had it?" "And might not the Bastille have been preserved as a show-place like the Tower? Shall we be ever proud of destroying that old historical building because atrocities were for merly committed there? Let one fancy an insurrec tion in London, the Court and the Parliament at Windsor and on very bad terms with each other, the City in a ferment, the upper classes trembling for life and property, a committee sitting at the Mansion House and usurping the functions of the regular Gov ernment, and the Guards fraternising with the people. With this state of affairs existing outside the walls of the Tower, let one fancy that venerable building ill- armed, without ammunition, insufficiently garrisoned with pensioners and beefeaters (without beef), one- half of the garrison disaffected, and the Constable vainly expecting orders and receiving nothing but dep utations from the Mansion House imploring him not to shed blood or fire on the City, and begging him to admit a civic guard to keep the Tower for the Queen. Let one fancy negotiations interrupted because the mob would continue firing. In the end the Constable 255 The Bastille consenting to capitulate on the condition of himself and his garrison being allowed to retire unmolested, and this condition sworn to, the Constable and some of his officers and men inhumanly butchered and their heads paraded through the streets upon pikes. Should we ever feel proud of such a tragedy? " Let us now see what Baron de Bezenval, a Swiss officer who had risen high in the French service, has to say of the days preceding the capture of the Bastille. There were, at the beginning of July, 1 789, twenty regiments cantoned within two or three leagues from Paris, including a strong force of cavalry, Berchiny Hussars, Royal Dragoon, Dauphin Dragoon, Royal Cravate, Chasseurs of Lorraine, Nassau Regiment, Swiss Regiment of Salis-Samade, etc. In fact, a force quite sufficient to have reduced Paris to obedience, and to have saved much effusion of blood, had it been only properly handled and used at the right moment. We find, however, Baron de Bezenval writing: " As the disorder increased from hour to hour my embar rassment redoubled. What was to be done? If I threw the troops into Paris I should kindle civil war. Precious blood, no matter on which side, would flow without any benefit to public tranquillity. Efforts were made, almost under my eyes, to seduce my troops." And as this irresolute commander could ob tain no orders from Versailles, he considered that the best thing he could do was to evacuate Paris. The Baron, who was in command of Paris and the 256 Baron de Bezenval outlying provinces when the Revolution broke out, has left a graphic account of the events which so rapidly followed each other at this time. He traces the Revolution " to the weakness of the King, the decline of the nobility, the falseness and impolicy of the clergy, and the insolence and cupidity of those factious persons who had gained the ear of the Na tional Assembly, supported by the gold of England." The Duke of Orleans was afterwards included in this black list, and accused of fomenting sedition by means of paid orators, who mounted chairs and tables in the Palais Royal, and declaimed against the Court. There was a great scarcity of corn in and round Paris, and troops had to attend the markets to pre vent them from being pillaged. " But," says the Baron, " up to the 12th July, 1789, when the Revolu tion broke out, I had had the satisfaction of preserving peace throughout the wide extent of my command, without a single person having been molested, or a single complaint made against the troops, although the great number of detachments which I was obliged to furnish prevented me from being able to send officers with them all. The precise orders which I gave were punctually executed, so perfect was the discipline of the army at this epoch." Things, however, soon began to wear a gloomy aspect in Paris, where a great number of foreigners were remarked, and desperate-looking characters clothed in rags and armed with sticks. We have already spoken of the pillage of the shop of one Reveillon, who fled to the Bastille for safety. The 257 The Bastille Baron says that he and M. du Chatelet were warned in the month of May of what was coming, that a crowd had assembled in the Faubourg St. Antoine, and that the paper manufactory of Reveillon was threatened. According to the Baron, Reveillon was an honest man, charitable, highly esteemed, and did not deserve the fate he experienced. A detachment of Gardes Franchises — thirty men and a sergeant — was sent to protect his premises. The news soon arrived at headquarters that Reveillon's establishment had been plundered without a shot having been fired by the troops. The consequence was that some grena dier companies were despatched to the scene of action, with orders to fire, and the state of the faubourg growing more alarming, fresh detachments were moved up to support the grenadiers. A conflict en sued between the mob and the soldiery, who had merely to suffer from stones and tiles thrown from the house-tops, for the people had no firearms. The Swiss Guard coming up, the faubourg was reduced to tem porary obedience. The mob had lost about 500 men. Necker was then the idol of the people. His ulterior conduct imposed silence on the Baron, who goes on to say, however, that the clouds accumulat ing, fresh troops were ordered up to the capital, and that not a regiment arrived without Necker being dis satisfied; all the reasons advanced for this measure disappeared in presence of the umbrage which the National Assembly would take on seeing the liberty of its deliberations threatened — the National Assem bly which at each moment openly braved the King, 258 General Pusillanimity supported those who resisted his authority, and anni hilated what the Baron calls those two " breaks," religion and the tribunals. Matters had come to a sad pass with the Court — the Church and Law all out of gear, and to add to the difficulties of the situation the troops, whose dis cipline had been perfect, began to waver. The French and Swiss Guards had been consigned to their quar ters, so as to be ready for any emergency, but " one morning, when it was least expected, several com panies of the French Guard broke out of barracks, and, in spite of the efforts of their officers, thronged the wine-shops of Vaugirard, and spent sums of money far beyond their means." This money, according to the Baron, and also women, which incentives the soldiers could not resist, were furnished by the Duke of Orleans. The insubordination of the French Guard was also due to other causes; the men could not endure being confined to barracks, and in addi tion to this they had just lost their colonel, Marshal de Biron, whom they loved, who maintained strict discipline, but who did not torment the men. He had been succeeded by M. du Chatelet, who changed all this, and who was consequently most unpopular. Everything now went rapidly to the bad, what with a feeble Government, which received instead of giving the law, and a pusillanimous nobility, which tranquilly allowed itself to be despoiled of its rights, which allowed its castles to be burned, and sought safety by leaving the country. The French Guard was now irretrievably lost to 259 The Bastille the cause of law and order, corrupted by wine, women, and money; and what the Baron then says must be borne in mind, for it constitutes an apology for poor de Launay, the venerable Governor of the Bastille. " To have the French Guard on one's side was assuredly to be master of Paris. What a force would it not have required to get the better of 3,600 bold and vigorous men, accustomed to a good military discipline, quartered in a city imbued with revolu tionary principles, and seconded by 500,000 or 600,000 inhabitants! " The population of Paris at this epoch was, accord ing to Dulaure, only 600,000 souls, who paid more taxes than the inhabitants of the kingdoms of Sar dinia, Sweden, and Denmark all put together. Baron de Bezenval estimates the population of the French capital at 800,000 souls; but of these only 200,000 were disaffected. On the 30th June, the people having learned that some of the men of the French Guard guilty of mutiny had been incarcerated in the Abbaye, the rumour was propagated that they had been punished for refusing to fire on the people, and that they were about to be transferred from the Abbaye to Bicetre, a place which the Moniteur said " was destined for the vilest criminals, and not for gallant fellows like them." There was a rush made to the Abbaye; the doors were forced, the mutinous soldiers were released, and were carried in triumph through Paris on the shoulders of their liberators. Baron de Bezenval did not see any thing very serious in all this, and considered that 260 Royal Fatuity matters might still have been set straight could people in high places only act with vigour. No one had been killed or wounded in this affair, but the conse quences were of the most disastrous character. The matter was brought before the National Assembly by a deputation which came to solicit its mediation in procuring from the King the pardon of the released soldiers. A few members protested that it was not for the Assembly to deliberate on a question which was beyond its province, and concerned the execu tive; but the majority expressed the opinion that the revolt in Paris was due to the conduct of the Govern ment, the violation of the rights of the States-Gen eral, and the usurpation of authority. After a long discussion the Assembly declared that it groaned over the troubles in the capital, that it implored the people to remain tranquil, and it ended by demanding the clemency of the King in favour of " persons who might be culpable." This was a direct interference on the part of the Assembly in favour of the rebels. Louis XVI. accorded the pardon, and military disci pline was at an end, not only in the French Guard, but in all the regiments quartered in Paris. Unable to count upon the garrison in the capital, the Government ordered a concentration of troops round Paris, which excited the indignation of Mira- beau, who, with his usual passion and eloquence, pro posed that the King should be requested to have these troops sent away. This motion was carried. The Government replied that scandalous scenes had been enacted, that it was its duty to watch over the 261 The Bastille public safety, and that the troops were destined to maintain law and order, to ensure and protect lib erty. Matters grew worse and worse, until, on the even ing of the ioth July, the chiefs of the revolutionary movement gave a banquet in the Champs Elysees, in which a number of men belonging to various regi ments fraternised openly with the insurrection. We shall now turn to Dussault's " Seven Days " and other accounts of passing events. On the 1 2th the busts of the Duke of Orleans and of Necker, covered with crape, were carried through the streets; there was plundering of armourers' shops, burning of city gates, and other scenes of violence. The cavalry, which had remained' faithful, interfered; and the Prince de Lambesc received orders to enter the gardens of the Tuileries with a detachment of Royal Allemand, and to dispf1- the crowd without making use of their arms, ^ms order was executed slowly and politely. The Prince de Lambesc, seeing that a woman carrying a child had fallen down, halted his troops to give her time to get up, and the officers took off their hats when intimating to the crowd the orders they had received. This did not prevent the troops from being pelted with stones. A charge was then ordered, and the Prince de Lambesc smote a man called Chauvet with the flat of his sabre. The next day the revolutionary journals were loud in their maledictions against the barbarity of the royal troops and the infamous conduct of the Prince de Lambesc, who was accused of " letting loose his sav- 262 Camille Desmoulins The Green Cockade age hordes in the Tuileries, trampling under foot with his horse women and children, and killing with his own hand an unfortunate man who had thrown himself upon his knees to implore pardon." The next day the deceased Chauvet was seen drinking with patriots at the door of the " Caveau," sound in wind and limb. Dussault thus records these things: " Sunday, 12th July, 1789. — At noon the report was spread that Necker had been dismissed. The consternation was general; the theatres were closed. The Palais Royal was quickly thronged with people. Camille Desmoulins sprang upon a table, and cried 'To arms!' He drew his sword, and exhibited a pistol and a green cockade. An excited crowd plucked the leaves from the trees; these were the first symbols of the Revolution. The signal for civil war, which made peaceful citizens grow pale, was given. The Prince de Lambesc and his regiment of cavalry (Royal Allemand) were in the Tuileries. A soldier of the French Guard was shot down by a dragoon. An old man called Chauvet was wounded by the Prince. The armourers' shops were plundered, but no gold nor silver was taken. It was decided that the districts should arm." According to Droz, Paris at this moment was in fested with a hideous population of about 40,000 raga muffins who had no occupation; the Government em ployed half of them in making a tunnel through the heights of Montmartre. On the night of the 12th July these people spread through the streets, of the 263 The Bastille capital and committed all kinds of excesses. They broke into the rich convent of St. Lazare, smashed the furniture, robbed, and got drunk. They also plundered the Royal Garde Meuble; and scamps who entered in rags came out clad in suits of ancient ar mour. One of them brandished the sword of Henri IV! At 9 a.m. on the 13th July, the people seized upon a depot of arms belonging to the city, and distributed among themselves 360 muskets. The green cockade was exchanged for one of red and blue — the colours of Paris. At ten o'clock the tocsin was sounded at the Hotel de Ville and the various churches. Volun teers began to assemble — la Basoche, etc. The pres ence of the Provost of the Merchants was considered necessary. He arrived, and was applauded by an immense crowd. " My friends," he said, " I am your father, and your demands shall be satisfied." It was determined to establish a permanent com mittee at the Hotel de Ville, which should labour to restore public tranquillity. At 1.30 M. de Flesselles announced that the director of the manufacture of arms at Charleville had promised him 12,000 muskets, which were to be followed by 30,000 more. His word was believed. The command of the city troops was offered to the Due d'Aumont, who asked for twenty- four hours to reflect. The Marquis de la Salle was named second in command, and he swore, without hesitation, that his life and fortune should be always at the service of the Commune. " In the evening there was a great ferment; it was 264 Abbe le Fevre said that we were going to be assailed by troops from various quarters. We were begging for powder on all sides, when we learned that 5,000 lbs. were being secretly removed from Paris. They were seized by the people, who did not trifle with regard to this article. This powder which was intended to rid the oppressed of the oppressor, was placed in one of the lower halls of the Hotel de Ville, and an abbe, our colleague, was told off to distribute it." This brave and respectable abbe, le Fevre by name, was several times on the point of losing his life while performing this dangerous duty. One patriot fired off his musket over a barrel of gunpowder; another shot at the abbe with a pistol; during the night the maga zine was broken into by means of hatchets, which, striking against the nails of the door, emitted sparks; and, lastly, a drunkard staggered in with a lighted pipe, and sat smoking on a barrel, until the abbe pur chased his pipe, and threw it away.* No less than * Dussault, in a note, tells us how the Abbe le Fevre, on the 5th October following, was, at n a.m., dragged with a rope round his neck, by some furies, to the top of the steeple of the Hotel de Ville, where but for two courageous women he would have lost his life. The rope by which the Abbe was suspended was cut by an officer of the National Guard, without due precau tion, for he fell twenty feet and never recovered from the shock. The Abbe lost all his fortune during the Revolution, and in 1820 was living on the charity of the Comte de Chabrol. We may add that in 1798 the Hotel de Ville therefore had a narrow escape of being blown up. It had another narrow escape in 1848, when once more the head-quarters of an insurrection. A short time after the Provisional Government had ceased to exist several barrels of gunpowder were found in a cellar, and in one 265 The Bastille 50,000 pikes were turned out in thirty-six hours. The most violent motions were now being made in the Palais Royal; the National Assembly and the Per manent Committee, sitting at the Hotel de Ville, had lost all hold of the people. Conspiracy was every where ripe, and the bursting of the storm was appre hended at every moment. " At 2 a.m.," says Dussault, " the alarm was given to four of our colleagues. It was said that 15,000 men from the Faubourg St. An toine were marching upon the Hotel de Ville, which was not in a position to defend itself. M. le Grand de St. Rene swore that he would sooner blow up the building than surrender, and he was the kind of man to do it. He immediately ordered the City Guard to bring him six barrels of gunpowder, and to place them in the next room. The evil-minded people grew pale when the first barrel was brought in, and retired. Such was the desperate state of affairs; those who had helped to sow the storm were about to reap the whirlwind." On the committee — sitting at the Hotel de Ville, on barrels of gunpowder — we note the Marquis de la Salle, who had been entrusted with the command- in-chief of the troops on the refusal of the Due d'Au mont to accept the post. He sat as an electeur noble; the Abbes Fauchet and Bertolio as ecclesiastical elec tors. There were also two bankers, a doctor, a mer chant, an agent of the King's troops, a St. Domingo of them was a match ready for lighting. It was not, however, until 1871 that the Hotel de Ville, that head-quarter of insurrec tion, was burned to the ground by the Communists 266 Cruel Dilemma councillor, etc. Dussault, who was a scholar well versed in Grecian and Roman lore, represented the Academy. The Revolution had two centres — the Hotel de Ville, which was moderate, and the Palais Royal, which was violent. At the Palais Royal the most sanguinary motions were discussed, a price was set on the head of the Comte d'Artois, and a proscrip tion list was drawn up, on which figured the names of the Prince de Conde, the Prince de Lambesc, Mar shal de Broglie, who commanded the King's troops, Baron de Bezenval, Foulon, Berthier, etc., while the most fearful threats were levelled against the Queen and the Duchesse de Polignac. Among the leading spirits of the Palais Royal were Camille Desmoulins, St. Huruge, Danton, Marat, Santerre, etc. The proposal to attack the Bastille when made on the 13th July, says Droz, met with few adherents. Nearly all the electors, and nearly all the men of com mon sense, deemed it neither useful nor possible to gain possession of that fortress. It was supposed that the Bastille was in a position to offer a vigorous resistance, and that the artillery on the ramparts would carry death and destruction through the ranks of any force venturing to assault the place. What that dread artillery accomplished in the hour of need, we shall see hereafter. " The electors," adds Droz, " desired to defend liberty, but not to overthrow or degrade the royal authority. If they could tide over the crisis by act ing with prudence, the public misfortunes might be 267 The Bastille repaired; but if they gave way to violence and resorted to arms, in the event of defeat, Paris would be sub jected to the most terrible reprisals; and in the event of victory, it would be exposed to fall under the yoke of the most uncompromising democrats. These were the motives which induced the best citizens to reject the idea of attacking the Bastille." On this 13th July all was confusion worse con founded. The King was at loggerheads with the As sembly, the Assembly with the Hotel de Ville, the Hotel de Ville with the Palais Royal. While M. de Gouy d'Arcy, to the applause of his colleagues, was declaring in the Assembly that " despotism is draw ing round us foreign troops as if meditating a blow against the country, and saying, ' yesterday I heard the cannon thunder, I saw blood flow and dead bodies cover the plain,' " the Revolution was gaining ground. While the Hotel de Ville was organising its militia, 48,000 strong, in the defence of public liberty, the Revolution was gaining ground; the Revolution which was about to sweep away King, National As sembly, and Committee of Electors, otherwise Com mittee of Hotel de Ville or Permanent Committee. In Doctor Rigby's letters we find that on the 13th " All the prisons, with the exception of the Bastille, were thrown open upon this day, and we saw Lord Massareene, an Irish nobleman, pass through the streets. He is said to have been a captive twenty- three years; he was dressed in a white frock, like a cook, and had a bar of iron on his shoulders." It appears that his Lordship had been duped by a Syrian 268 Les Invalides adventurer, and confined in the Chatelet for debt. On his release, he at once returned to England, and, falling on his knees, thrice kissed the ground, exclaim ing : " God bless this land of liberty." According to the Duke of Dorset, Lord Massareene was confined in the prison of La Force. On the evening of the 13th, a deputation from the Hotel de Ville waited upon M. de Sombreuil, Govern or of the Invalides, to ask for arms — the 32,000 mus kets which were in store. They declared that they were surrounded by brigands, who threatened to pil lage and burn their houses; and they pretended to be terribly alarmed. M. de Sombreuil informed Baron de Bezenval that, in his opinion, the muskets were re quired for offensive and not defensive purposes, and that he had ordered twenty pensioners to take out the ramrods and unscrew the locks of these weapons; but in six hours only twenty had been disarmed. The spirit of sedition had invaded the Invalides; the pen sioners had their pockets filled with money, and bales of seditious and mutinous songs were freely distrib uted among them. If the Committee of the Hotel de Ville, between hammer and anvil, were not really alarmed, it had ground for apprehension, and, at heart, it probably dreaded the mob more than the regiments of whose presence in Paris it complained. Dussault tells us that during the night the Prefecture of Police was broken into by a band of armed citizens carrying torches, who spread terror wherever they passed. The people bar ricaded their doors and looked out of their windows; 269 The Bastille but no one dared to venture into the streets. A gen eral search was made for arms and ammunition; a quantity of powder was found in a barge which was bound for Rouen ; but muskets were still wanting. The mob called upon the Hotel de Ville to supply them. M. de Flesselles, the City Provost, to get rid of them sent them in search of arms where he knew none ex isted. He afterwards paid for this with his life. The Committee ordered the Deputies of three of the dis tricts to search the Chartreux Monastery for arms; but they found none there; nor were they more suc cessful at the Arsenal. At the Hotel de Ville several boxes, which were supposed to contain muskets, were broken open; but nothing was found in them but linen. The night of the 13th July finished in the midst of chaos, tumult, and general preparation for slaughter. At break of day on the 14th the mob returned to the Invalides in quest of arms, accompanied by men of the French Guard and clerks of the Basoche. They demanded muskets. M. de Sombreuil closed the gates, and advanced to parley. But there was treason in the Hotel; the pensioners admitted the mob, the muskets were seized, and the rioters being armed determined to besiege the Bastille. Baron de Bezenval, unable to obtain any orders from Marshal de Broglie, had carried out his intention of withdraw ing from Paris, and leaving the capital in the hands of the mob. He does not appear to have made even an effort to carry off the muskets without which the mob would have had no fangs. And yet we shall find this 270 The Bastille Summoned same Baron de Bezenval accusing poor old de Lau nay of want of vigour. In his account of the 14th July, Dussault says: " We were told that hussars had appeared in the Fau bourg St. Antoine, and that soldiers had been seen loading and pointing the guns of the Bastille; blood is about to flow. An officer of pensioners came to inform us on the part of the Governor of that fortress, that he would promise not to fire and to remain neutral, provided we would remain quiet; this was not our intention nor that of good citizens." Dus sault then informs us that the people in the first in stance rushed to the Bastille to demand arms and ammunition, but that insensibly they grew more bold. Thuriot de la Rosiere, an elector, summoned the Gov ernor to surrender, in the name of his district. After the action had commenced the Committee of the Hotel de Ville, anxious to avoid bloodshed, also sent a deputation to the Bastille, and a second deputation on the failure of the first, but with no better success. The summons was conceived in the following terms: " The Committee of the Paris militia, considering that there should not exist in Paris any military force not under the orders of the city, has charged the deputies which it sends to the Marquis de Launay, Governor of the Bastille, to ask him if he be disposed to receive into that place the troops of the Parisian militia, who will guard it in conjunction with the troops which are at present there, and who will pass under the orders of the city. " (Signed) De Flesselles, etc." 271 The Bastille Two deputations, one from the Hotel de Ville, and one from the Commune, were politely received by de Launay, " who had breakfast served up, and they ate and drank together." The delegates, we are told, were able to verify the means of defence, and to ascer tain the feeling of the garrison. M. de Launay was already exceedingly anxious, seeing the tumult which raged in Paris, and because he, like his superior, Baron de Bezenval, was left without orders; at least, none since the 5th July, when he received the following letter: " Sir, " I send you M. Berthier, an officer of the staff, to gather information with regard to the Bastille, and to see, with you, what precautions must be taken, as well for the building as for the sort of garrison you may stand in need of; therefore I beg you will give him every information on these matters. The alarm expressed in your first report caused me no anxiety, because I was sure that I was right; and you see noth ing has happened to you. The future is different, and that is why I wish to know all about your post." Berthier was shown over the Bastille, and de Lau nay explained, with regard to his previous report, that he had received warning that he was going to be attacked, and he thought it right to inform the Baron of the precautions he had taken. What was the position of the Bastille at this mo ment? After the riot in the Faubourg St. Antoine, the King's Lieutenant at the Bastille had had the 272 The Bastille Reinforced powder which was in the Arsenal transported to that fortress, lest it should fall into the hands of the mob. We have seen how the Committee of the Hotel de Ville sent to the Arsenal in search of ammunition. On the ist July, seeing that matters were not calm ing down, the garrison of the Bastille was reinforced by a sergeant and twelve men. According to Gus tave Bord in his " Capture of the Bastille," the inso lence of the agitators knew no bounds. During the week which preceded the fall of the old fortress, de Launay was accosted in the street by several well- dressed individuals, who said: "Are you aware, sir, that the people may attack the Bastille? " " Well! " said the Governor, looking at them straight in the face, " the case is serious." " What will you decide upon doing? " " I shall decide, gentlemen, upon per forming my duty, and not betraying the confidence of the King." On the 7th July, the garrison of the Bastille was still further reinforced by Lieutenant Louis de la Flue and thirty men; and the Lieutenant has left us an ac count of the insignificant preparations which were made in order to place that important strategical position in a proper state of defence: " During the first days that I was quartered in the fort, the Governor showed me the place, and pointed out the weak parts, and where he expected to be at tacked. He showed me also the precautions he had adopted, which consisted in stopping up some loop holes and windows, where he thought some of the garrison might be killed, and in opening others which 273 The Bastille he deemed necessary for defensive purposes. He had strengthened the garden wall with a bastion, and had caused several cartloads of paving-stones to be taken to the tops of the towers, and pincers to be made for pulling down the chimney-pots, in order to hurl the debris on the heads of the besiegers! " He often complained of the weakness of his gar rison, and of the impossibility of defending the place in the event of being attacked. He allowed me to give him my opinion with regard to all these precau tions. I explained to him, and to M. du Puget, that their fears were unfounded, that the place was strong enough in itself, and that the garrison was sufficiently numerous, provided every one did his duty, to hold the place until it was relieved. " On the evening of the 12th July we learned in the Bastille that preparations were being made to attack the powder magazine of the Arsenal, and my detachment was employed all night in transporting this powder to the Bastille. The same night the Governor gave orders for the garrison to withdraw into the castle, as he did not wish to defend the out works. To divert him from this project I repre sented to M. de Launay that there were no provisions in the place, for my detachment had bread for only two days and meat for only one. The pensioners had no kind of provisions. M. de Launay ordered in two sacks of meal. In the way of ammunition there were about 3,000 cartridges and a few hundred fire-balls. " During the 13th, seeing from the top of the towers of the Bastille the different fires which were 274 Means of Defence blazing away in the city, we feared a conflagration in the vicinity of the fortress, which would be dangerous in consequence of the powder which had been placed in the courtyard of the Puits, and was not well covered over." The powder was removed to a cell or a cellar, which Lieutenant de la Flue pointed out to M. de Lau nay as a fitting place. The Governor little dreamed that, a few hours later, he would rush to this magazine with the intention of blowing up friends and enemies alike. The Governor, when he knew that the Bastille was going to be attacked, was filled with misgivings, in spite of all that Lieutenant de la Flue could say to reas sure him. He had been ordered by Bezenval and ad vised by Flesselles to stand firm; the former had evacu ated Paris and the latter had seen the rioters plunder the Hotel des Invalides. The unfortunate Governor, dressed in his gray frock-coat, without a hat, wearing his Cross of St. Louis, and armed simply with a gold- headed sword-stick, strode up and down the large courtyard, receiving from time to time news that the storm was approaching. He had very little confi dence in the height and strength of the walls, in the breadth and depth of the ditch, in his garrison, which was composed some say of 82, others of 114 pension ers and 30 Swiss. There were fifteen guns in the towers, eleven of which were mounted on marine carriages, were used for salutes, and could be fired only up in the air. The four other guns were in the courtyard. In addition to this there were twelve ram- 275 The Bastille part muskets, known as " the playthings of Marshal Saxe," only one of which was capable of being fired. Then, as we have seen, the place was not provisioned as in the days when Sir John Falstaff was Governor. What poor de Launay most dreaded was not the mob, but the French Guard, which had fraternised with the patriots. To continue the narrative of Lieutenant de la Flue : " During the morning we were told that the citizens in the vicinity of the Bastille were alarmed to see the guns pointed against the city, and that we ought to have known that a citizen guard had been charged to maintain tranquillity, which guard could not perform its duty with confidence as long as the guns of the Bastille threatened it. The Governor ordered the guns to be withdrawn, and the embrasures to be blocked up with timber. Towards noon came a de tachment of armed citizens, who asked to speak with the Governor. He received some of them; but I do not know what passed at this conference. Half-an- hour afterwards M. de Launay entered the Bastille with a man who I was told had been several times there, and had permission to see the prisoners. Hav ing joined them, I learned that this citizen demanded, in the name of the Hotel de Ville, that the guns should be removed from the towers; that in the event of the Bastille being attacked, no resistance should be offered, because we ought not to make war against the nation; that it would be useless to shed the blood of citizens, and that, after having slaughtered a num ber of people, we should be obliged to yield. He 276 No Surrender once more asked the Governor to allow the citizen guard to enter, in order to defend the place conjointly with the garrison. The Governor replied that he could not surrender the Bastille to any one; that he would answer for it with his head, and that he would defend himself as long as he could; that to tranquillise the citizens he had withdrawn his guns, and that on his word of honour he would insult no one as long as they did not attempt to seize the place by attacking the drawbridges and the gates. He took this gentle man to the top of the towers to show him the guns and their position, and to explain his intentions. On descending, the Governor told us that he thought he had settled matters, and that no attack would be made ; however, the deputy did not leave well satisfied. I afterwards learned that his name was M. de Corny." According to Droz, the Committee of the Hotel de Ville sent a deputation to M. de Launay, begging him to withdraw his guns, the sight of which irritated citizens, and to assure him that if he committed no act of hostility, the Bastille would not be attacked. No wonder that M. de Launay considered matters to wear a more cheery aspect. Unfortunately the streets were so crowded that the deputation was a long time before it could get back to the Hotel de Ville. On its way it was dispersed, and some of its members were arrested for awhile on the suspicion of being traitors. This delay was fatal. It must have been three o'clock when M. de Corny reported that the Governor had withdrawn his guns, 277 The Bastille and promised not to fire on the people unless at tacked. The Committee decided that this reply should be at once communicated to the people. Already several of them were standing on the steps of the Hotel de Ville, and going to read out the proclama tion, and the trumpet was about to be sounded, when the discharge of a cannon was heard in the direction of the Bastille. A shout of treason at once rent the air. The rumour immediately circulated that the in surgents had approached the Bastille, demanding arms and ammunition, that the drawbridge had been lowered, and that, when a certain number of citizens had entered the outer works, it had been pulled up and the citizens massacred. Lieutenant de la Flue gives the following descrip tion of what took place: "About three o'clock a band of armed citizens, with some of the French Guard, came to attack the Bastille on the side of the Arsenal. They entered the first courtyard without any diffi culty, as the gate was guarded by only one pensioner, who, in accordance with the instructions of the Governor, was not armed. They then cut the chains by which the drawbridge was suspended, an operation easily accomplished, as the Governor had given orders that the besiegers should not be fired upon until they had been summoned to retire, which could not be done owing to the distance. However, the besiegers fired the first upon the men in the towers. They next cut. their way with hatchets through the gate leading into the Governor's courtyard, and they were preparing to serve another door, leading into the 278 The Attack body of the place, in the same way when he asked them what they wanted. They shouted out: ' Lower the drawbridges.' He replied that this could not be done, and that if they did not retire they would be charged. They redoubled their cries of ' Down with the bridges ! ' upon which thirty pensioners who were posted on each side of the door were ordered to fire. The besiegers, on their side, fired at the loopholes and at the Governor and the thirty men on the battlements. " The mob returned to the charge a second time, and were once more driven back. With my detach ment of ten pensioners, I was posted in the courtyard of the .Bastille, in front of the gate. I had behind me three guns which were to be worked by twelve sol diers in the event of the gate being broken in. To ren der the task which the besiegers wished to execute more difficult, I had two holes driven through the drawbridge, which was raised, in which it was my inten tion to place two of these guns. . . ." It was the noise of this combat which reached the Hotel de Ville, and cut short the reading of the procla mation. The active measures adopted by de Launay had cleared the outer works, and the insurgents rushed off to the Place de Greve crying out treason. So great was their irritation that they spoke of nothing less than setting fire to the Hotel de Ville, and cutting the throats of the Committee, which had protested against the Bastille being taken by force. The Committee were desirous of avoiding the horrors of a civil war. The first assault on the Bastille proper had failed, 279 The Bastille and no success had attended the efforts of the deputies sent by the Hotel de Ville. The fire kept up by the besiegers had disabled only one of the garrison. Matters, however, were about to assume a different aspect. Three hundred men of the French Guard, headed by Elie, an ex-officer of the Queen's Regiment, appeared before the place, accompanied by an equal number of citizens and workmen, commanded by Hulin, and followed by guns which had been taken from the Invalides in the morning. This force arrived at the Bastille at 3 p.m., and had no difficulty in enter ing the outer buildings, where they found some pen sioners who laid down their arms and joined the insurgents. A violent but not very effective fire was now opened upon the place; and some of the shots were so wildly fired that they missed the Bastille, and plunged into the Faubourg St. Antoine, causing it to be said that de Launay was battering down the capital. It is true that the gallant besiegers were sheltered behind a wall, over which they had to fire without see ing their mark. The artillery, too, was none of the best, and consisted partly of guns which had been pre sented to the French King by His Majesty of Siam; one of these burst, and killed a number of the besiegers. To return to Lieutenant de la Flue. He says: " The besiegers brought up a cartload of lighted straw, with which they set fire to the Governor's house, and they then placed it at the entrance of the bridge, which prevented us from seeing them. They had also three guns and a mortar, which they had found in the gardens of the arsenal, from whence they fired several 280 The Siege times without doing any damage. The place replied with a few rounds. The insurgents, perceiving that their guns were of no use, returned to their first plan of breaking in the gates. For this purpose they dragged their guns into the courtyard of the Governor's house, placed them at the end of the bridge, and pointed them at the gate. M. de Launay, seeing these preparations from the top of the towers, without consulting his staff or his garrison, ordered the drum to beat for firing to cease. The mob approached, and the Governor asked to capitulate. The besiegers would not hear of a capitulation, and cried: ' Lower the drawbridges.' " During this time I had withdrawn my men from in front of the gate, so as not to leave them exposed to the fire of the enemy, with which we were threatened. I then went in search of the Governor, to know what his intentions were. I found him in the council hall, engaged in writing a note, in which he informed the besiegers that he had 20,000 lb. of gunpowder in the place, and that, if they refused to accept his terms, he would blow the fortress up, together with the garrison and the whole neighbour hood. He handed me this document, and ordered me to have it delivered. I permitted myself at this moment to represent that there was no necessity for adopting so extreme a measure. I remarked that no damage had been done to the fort or to the garrison, that the gates had not been injured, and that we had still means for defending ourselves, as only one pen sioner had been killed, and two or three wounded. He 281 The Bastille did not appear to appreciate my reasons; it was necessary to obey. I passed the note through one of the holes which I had made in the drawbridge. An officer who wore the uniform of the Queen's Infantry (Elie) took the note; but it had no effect. The besiegers cried: ' Down with the drawbridges! No capitulation! ' " Lieutenant de la Flue says that the Bastille replied to the fire of the besiegers with several rounds. Several other accounts, however, maintain that only one gun was discharged by the garrison, and this under the following circumstances. The mob seized upon a pretty girl. " It is the daughter of de Launay," they cried; "let him surrender if he does not wish to see her perish in the flames." And these savages lighted a mattress on which she was lying in a faint. The father of Mdlle. de Monsigny, for such was the name of the young girl, saw what was taking place, and was about to spring from the top of the tower, when he was killed.* The garrison, rendered indignant by this scene, fired the only gun which was discharged during the day, killing several of the besiegers. Such is the version found in several accounts of the 14th July. A great deal of difference also exists with regard to other points, owing, no doubt, to the confusion which reigned at the moment. In more than one account we find that it was the gar rison which determined to capitulate in spite of the * Mdlle. de Monsigny was eventually rescued by the citizen Aubin Bonnemere, at the risk of his own life. For this courageous act he afterwards received a civic crown, a sword, and a pension. 282 Taking the Proposition of the Besieged Bastille Lieutenant de la Flue Governor; others agree with Lieutenant de la Flue, and represent de Launay as completely bewildered. To go back once more to the Lieutenant, we find him thus describing the closing scene of this great national drama in these terms: " I returned to the Governor and reported the state of affairs, and I then at once rejoined my men, whom I had drawn up to the left of the gate. I waited the moment when the Governor would execute his threat. I was very much surprised a moment afterwards to see four pensioners approach the gates and lower the drawbridge. The mob rushed in at once. We were disarmed, and each of us was placed under a guard. The apartments were entered; everything was sacked; the arms were seized, and the various papers and archives were thrown out of the windows. The soldiers who had not got their knap sacks on lost everything. This was the case with me. We were subjected to the most brutal treatment. Our lives were threatened in every possible manner. At last, the fury of the besiegers appeared to calm down, and I was taken with the men who remained with me in the melee, to the Hotel de Ville." While Lieutenant de la Flue was stoically waiting at the gate, with his men properly drawn up, expecting to be blown to atoms, it appears that the Governor, driven to despair, did attempt to hoist himself and others with his own magazine. He was hindered, however, from carrying out his terrible design by a sub-officer called Bequard and a man called Ferrand, who prevented de Launay by force from applying the torch which was to send friends and foes and the 283 The Bastille whole quarter of St. Antoine high in air. What hap pened to the Lieutenant, when being dragged to the Hotel de Ville, and afterwards, is thus narrated: " Along the road, the streets and houses and even the roofs were crowded with people who insulted and cursed me. I was continually struck with swords, bayonets, and pistols. I did not know how I should perish, but I was certain that my last hour had arrived. Those who had no arms flung stones at me, and the women gnashed their teeth and shook their fists at me. Two of my soldiers were assassinated "close behind me, and I am convinced that I should never have reached the Hotel de Ville but for two persons who escorted me and who begged the people to respect the prisoners. When I was within a hun dred yards of the Hotel de Ville, there was a general cry that I should be hung. A head, fixed on the end of a pike, was presented to me to look at, and I was told it was that of M. de Launay. While crossing the Place de Greve I was taken to see M. de Losme, the Major of the Bastille, who was lying on the ground bathed in blood. Further on I heard that M. de Miray, of the staff, had been killed. Opposite to me the people were engaged in hanging an officer and two pensioners to a lamp-post. " It was with this look-out that I entered the Hotel de Ville. I was presented to a committee which was sitting there. I was accused of being one of the defenders of the Bastille and of having caused blood to flow. I justified myself as well as I could, saying that I had to obey orders. Not seeing any other 284 The Bastille Sacked means of escaping execution, with the remainder of my men, I declared that I wished to serve the city and the nation. I do not know if they were tired of slaying, or if my reasons convinced them, but they were applauded, and there was a general cry raised of 'Bravo! bravo, gallant Swiss!' In an instant wine was brought, and I had to drink to the city and the nation. I was next taken to the Palais Royal, where we were led round the garden and shown to the people, who did not seem to be quite appeased. However, a fortunate chance gained us the affection of the mob. At this moment a prisoner, who had been released from the Bastille, was being carried along; we were mistaken for delivered prisoners and treated with compassion. There were people even who fancied that they saw the marks of fetters on our hands. In fact, the mistake was so complete that, after having made us go upstairs to a room, an orator went to the window, exhibited us to the assembled multitude, and declared, in a speech, that we had been released from the Bastille, where we had been confined by our superior officers for refusing to fire on the people; that we were citizens who deserved their esteem, and whom he recommended to their kindness. Immediately the hat (or rather a basket) was sent round for us, and in a very short time ten crowns were collected. This paid for the supper which had been brought in the interval. We were then good friends with every one." After more hairbreadth escapes our Lieutenant was able to rejoin his regiment at Pontoise. 285 The Bastille It is beyond doubt that the Bastille capitulated in due form, and that either Elie or Hulin accepted the terms of the Governor " on the faith of an officer " that the garrison should be allowed to leave the place unmolested. We also find that as soon as the French Guard and the mob penetrated into the place they were joyfully received by the garrison, and that several pensioners applauded the popular triumph. The rabble, however, which had held aloof in the hour of danger, rushed into the Bastille when the gates were opened, indulging in something more than the pillage described by Lieutenant de la Flue. The Moniteur, Reolle in his " Memoirs," and the "Bastille Unveiled," depict the disorder which reigned when an infuriated mob broke into the place; the confusion was general; the insurgents who were in the courtyards fired upon those in the apartments and on the battlements, and several were killed. " One of my friends," says Char pentier, " whom I held in my arms, by way of express ing my joy, received a bullet in the mouth and fell dead at my feet. The Swiss, who alone defended the place, escaped, thanks to their linen coats, which made it supposed that they were prisoners; but the officers and pensioners, who had refused to fire on the people and who had applauded their victory, were torn to pieces by hordes of assassins. It was in vain that Elie, Hulin, Tournay, Bonnemere, and the French Guard made a rampart of their bodies and endeavoured to save the victims." De Launay, trusting to his capitulation, delivered himself up. When aware of the violent death which 286 Summary Executions awaited him he endeavoured to kill himself with his sword-cane, but the grenadier Arme prevented this self-immolation. A darker fate was reserved for the feeble old man, who was hurried along in the direc tion of. the Hotel de Ville by a sanguinary mob, intoxicated with the fumes of blood and of powder. The wine-seller, Cholat, seized upon him, but for a moment he was rescued by Hulin, who gave him his hat. The mob, however, soon seized its prey again, and down he went never to rise again; his purse, which was filled with gold, was taken from his pocket, and in another moment his head was fixed on the top of a pike amid the enthusiastic plaudits of a delirious crowd. According to Charles d'Hericault, de Launay defended his fortress like a philosopher, and died like a hero. He is said to have fallen at last with courage, and to have expired fighting like a lion. The Abbe le Fevre, whom we have seen presiding over the gunpowder barrels in the Hotel de Ville, said to Dussault: "I saw de Launay fall without being able to help him; he defended himself like a lion, and if ten men had behaved in the same way in the Bastille it would never have been taken." In his " Work of Seven Days," Dussault gives us a graphic description of the scenes which he witnessed." He says : " The conquerors of the Bastille who were bringing us the Governor, could not protect him from the fearful fate which awaited him. His evil destiny prevented him from reaching the Hotel de Ville, near which he was massacred. We afterwards heard of the 287 The Bastille death of M. de Losme, who was regretted by all good men. He was the Major of the place. He was killed on the Place de Greve, opposite the Arcade of St. Jean. The Marquis de Pelleport, whom he had con soled during his five years of captivity, in a spirit of gratitude threw himself into his arms and wished to rescue him. ' Young man,' said the Major, ' you will lose your own life, without saving mine.' He took no heed of this, and performed prodigies of force and courage, fighting for his benefactor, until, exhausted from fatigue and loss of blood, he was, in his turn, aided by those whom his example had electrified. " We next learned the death of M. de Miray, aide- major, and that of M. Pierson, captain of the company of pensioners. Several other persons shared their fate. I will speak afterwards of the unfortunate Bequard and his devotion. " As for the City Provost, Flesselles, it is certain that he was killed with a pistol bullet fired by some unknown hand. ... I knew de Launay; I had defended M. de Flesselles in the Permanent Commit tee. When the rumour of all these violent deaths reached our ears I staggered, my eyes grew dim, and in an instant I was covered over with livid patches. . . . Before leaving the Hotel de Ville I was struck with the amazing activity displayed by our colleague, M.de Lapoise. Although this good and brave patriot did all in his power to save the prisoners brought before us, two gunners were torn away and imme diately hung to a lamp-post opposite the Hotel de Ville. This is what was afterwards called 'La Lan- 288 The Conquerors terne,' where hired assassins committed atrocities worthy of cannibals." Lieutenant de Persan was one of the victims not named by Dussault. The fate of Bequard, the pensioner who had saved a thousand lives by placing his bayonet at the chest of M. de Launay when he was about to set fire to the magazine, was terrible indeed. His hands were first chopped off, and then he was hung across the bar of a lamp-post with one of his comrades called Asselin, the assassins amusing themselves by making one body balance the other. All that Dussault has to say of Bequard is that he was one of those men whose heart was known to Providence only, and that he was immolated by mistake as a traitor. It appears that a subscription was afterwards got up in St. Domingo for the widows of the Bastille, who, poor as they were, decided that widow Bequard should have a share. As the subscription amounted to about £200, each widow had a few mites only. After the surrender of the Bastille, Dussault tells us that: "The Marquis de la Salle, our commander, passing under the bayonets presented at his heart, went to the military office, where a portion of the conquerors were waiting for him. He embraced them, congratulated them, distributed provisionally some marks of honour, which they were more greedy of than pecuniary reward, and asked them for their names. Some of the conquerors, endowed with more physical than moral courage, still dreading the ancient despot ism, and alarmed at the consequences of their triumph, 289 The Bastille did not dare to reveal their names. Frightened at their own exploits, they were silent, and fled as if they had performed a bad action." Gustave Bord, in his " Capture of the Bastille," gives a different colour to this incident. He says: " During the whole night of the 14th July the inhabitants of Paris were plunged in the most horrible anxiety; some, the peaceful inhabitants who had remained at home with their doors barricaded, lest their houses should be plundered, and they should be massacred by the conquerors; the others, stupefied by their easy victory, or frightened by the enormity of the crimes they had committed, expected at every moment to receive the punishment they deserved. " Immediately after the fall of the Bastille, the conquerors were so little proud of their success that they refused to inscribe their names until the follow ing day, when assured of impunity. " Some of them, completely besotted with wine and the sight of blood, escorted by torch-bearers, paraded shreds of the flesh of their victims through the city, which was illuminated. Honest people, terrified, closed their doors at their approach." Bertrand de Motteville says in his " History of the Revolution," that the poltroonery of these conquerors was such that a large body of armed citizens took to flight on the approach of a cart drawn by six horses, the rumbling of whose wheels was mistaken for artillery. Among these conquerors, a few names have escaped oblivion. In addition to the military element, to Elie, to Hulin, to the French Guards, and to the sailor 290 Io Triumphe Georget, who worked one of the King of Siam's guns, there was a wretch called Maillard, who afterwards distinguished himself during the September massacres. Also prominent among the besiegers were the Abbe Fauchet, the tailor Guignon, the brewer Santerre, the clockmaker Humbert, the architect Palloy, the Mar quis de St. Huruge (lately let out of Charenton), the poet Rousset, the harlequin Bordier, the hairdresser Taffetas, and Theroigne de Mericourt (who had been for thirteen years on the town, and who was destined to become the amc pure of the Revolution). There was also the Marquis de Pelleport, who had joined the besiegers in the vain hope of saving his friend the Major de Losme. In the midst of this motley assem blage was one young hero, destined to become a general, to fall in 1795 at Altenkirchen, at the early age of twenty-seven, and to be buried at Coblenz, honoured by friend and foe alike — Marceau, whose name is still dear to France. Hulin also became a general under the Empire, a count, and a senator. He might have been seen presiding over the court-martial which condemned the unfortunate Due d'Enghien to be shot, or rather murdered, in the ditch of Vincennes, and afterwards filling the post of military commandant of Paris, in 1815. One name more, that of Fournier, the American who has left behind him so unenviable a reputation. It is only justice to say that the Marquis de la Salle, Elie, Hulin, and a few other conquerors, did all they could to save the prisoners from the popular fury, and took no part in the atrocities which ushered 291 The Bastille in the reign of liberty, and with which the fall of despotism was celebrated. Droz, referring to these acts worthy of cannibals, says: " If some scenes proved that human feeling was not entirely extinguished, others revealed to what a depth of turpitude and ferocity men can descend. The heads of de Launay, of de Flesselles, and of five other victims, had been successively carried to the Hotel de Ville. Some atrocious men conceived the idea of parading them through Paris. The march began, and 200 or 300 wretches, not all in rags, fol lowed the heads, which were borne aloft on pikes. Among these execrable trophies was the hand of Bequard. . . . Soon appeared hackney cabs filled with men and women; workmen dragging along the guns brought down from the towers of the Bastille; French Guards carried on the shoulders of the porters of the markets. . . . The horror inspired by the bleeding heads was soon dissipated. Cries of joy filled the streets, and women flung ribbons and flowers to the conquerors, and applauded them from their windows." Numerous honours awaited these heroes. They were twice presented at the bar of the National Assembly, which, " struck with a just admiration for their heroic intrepidity," as the report says, decreed that all the conquerors capable of carrying arms should be equipped at the expense of the nation; that on the barrel of each musket and the blade of each sword the national shield should be engraved, with the mention that such a one was a conqueror of the 292 Carlyle's Account Bastille. Pecuniary gratifications were also to be accorded to these illustrious heroes. In fact, the con querors were feted and idolised in a variety of ways for a day or two. During this period communications between Ver sailles and Paris had been almost entirely interrupted by order of the Government; the people of Versailles were sullen, but kept in awe by the troops, and hung anxiously about the National Assembly, where consti tution-making was in progress. Mirabeau rose in the Chamber, and demanded that all business should be suspended until the King had sent the troops away. This motion was rejected as contrary to the duties of the representatives of the nation. At this moment the Viscount de Noailles, arriving from Paris, announced the pillaging of the Invalides and the effervescence of the people round the Bastille; he had already seen blood flow. The Assembly was very painfully im pressed, and sent a deputation of fifty members to the King; two envoys from the Committee of the Hotel de Ville also presented themselves, and the King was once more implored to send away the troops. He returned an evasive answer. A deputy, Baron de Wimpfen, now appeared and announced the fall of the Bastille. He had run considerable danger, he said; had been arrested and taken to the Hotel de Ville; he had seen a headless trunk, and had been told it was that of de Launay. This news was concealed from the King. Carlyle in his " History of the French Revolution " has given a graphic and characteristic account of the 293 The Bastille incidents of the siege and the sanguinary tumult which followed it, adding, by way of epilogue:' "O evening sun of July, how, at this hour, thy beams fall slant upon reapers amid peaceful, woody fields; on old women spinning in cottages; on ships far out on the silent main; on balls at the Orangerie of Versailles, where high-rouged dames of the Palace are even now dancing with double-jacketed Hussar officers, and also on this roaring Hell-porch of a Hotel de Ville! Babel Tower with the confusion of tongues. . . . One forest of distracted steel bristles, endless, in front of an Electoral Committee, points itself in horrid radii against this or the other accused breast. It was the Titans warring with Olympus, and they scarcely cred iting it have conquered: prodigy of prodigies; delirious — as it could not but be. Denunciation, vengeance; blaze of triumph on a dark ground of terror; all out ward, all inward things fallen into one general wreck of madness! " It is a contested point how many patriotic souls were sent to Orcus on this memorable 14th July. The official report would have us believe that the casualties were as follow: Killed on the spot 83 Died of wounds 15 Wounded 60 Maimed 13 Conquerors unscathed 654 Total 825 There is something suspicious in the fact of the number of killed exceeding the number of wounded. 294 Seven Prisoners This never happens except when the wounded are massacred, which could certainly not have been the case on this occasion. Both in " The Revolution of Paris " and in the " History of the Revolution," by two friends of liberty, the number of the slain is set down at forty, a very possible figure, seeing the small amount of resistance offered by the place, which was ill-armed, ill-garrisoned, and commanded by a Gov ernor who completely lost his head. Among the killed and wounded were the men put hors de combat by the bursting of one of the guns, those who were accidentally shot by their comrades during the siege, those who were crushed when the drawbridge fell, a man who was killed by tumbling into the ditch, and the patriots who were shot down in the courtyard by their over-excited comrades after the capture of the place. The conquerors, therefore, purchased their glory, their civic crowns, their arms, uniforms, emblems, and pecuniary gratifications cheaply enough. In reality the terrific fire of which one reads, and which decimated the ranks of the patriots, existed only in the revolu tionary imagination; there was no forlorn hope, no imminent deadly breach, but a kind of sham siege, which lasted for five hours, during which time a com pact crowd remained exposed to the fire of the place, with the result in killed and wounded as shown above. The siege of '89 had nothing more glorious about it than the sieges in the days of the Fronde. As M. Leon de Poncins says: "An ill-defended fortress throwing open its gates to the rabble; scoundrels 295 The Bastille taking advantage of a capitulation to massacre unarmed men; there was nothing more." The immediate result of the capture of the Bastille was the release of seven prisoners; the only victims of tyranny discovered in this formidable stronghold, whose demolition was to be hailed by the entire civilised globe as the forerunner of liberty. As for the famous oubliettes, which inspired so much horror, Charpentier, the author of " The Bastille Unveiled," acknowledges that " neither at the taking, nor the examination, nor the demolition of the Bastille," was there any trace found of them. Dussault is very eloquent over these oubliettes, skeletons, etc., but then Dussault mistook an old printing-press for some un known instrument of torture. Dussault, in his narrative of what happened on the 15th July, after contesting that the cruelties exercised on the 14th had not sullied the Revolution, though they brought out livid blotches all over his body, gives us a curious description of the account to which the Parisians turned their first moments of liberty. The fiery youths of the Palais Royal pro scribed ministers and all persons in office, and wished to hang their busts in chains. It was reported that " plaintive voices and hollow groans had been heard in the neighbourhood of the Bastille, and secret cells and mines were spoken of." Two " determined men " were sent to make excavations, but they found nothing. We then find Dussault thus continuing his diary: "Great news! We hear that the King, of his 296 A Revolution own accord, went to the National Assembly to an nounce that he has sent away his troops, and that this august Assembly, in a burst of patriotism, is about to send us a hundred deputies." They were received with transports of joy, and " twenty orators, whom the fall of the Bastille had produced, raised their eloquent voices to celebrate that event. The Archbishop of Paris, seized with a like enthusiasm, rose and proposed a Te Deum, which, after the sitting, was sung at Notre Dame, where so many other fetes, not less touching, were soon to be witnessed. " Immediately after this fine motion for a Te Deum, a crown of laurel was placed on the head of the Archbishop, who placed it on that of M. Bailly, who offered it to virtue's self, that is to say to M. de la Rochefoucauld. . . . " On the way from the Hotel de Ville to Notre Dame, one observed the Abbe le Fevre, who issued from his powder magazine as black as Vulcan from his furnace, giving his arm in military fashion (!) to our chief pontiff." At this juncture, Lafayette, by general acclamation, was given the chief command of the National Guard, and with similar vivats, Bailly was appointed to succeed the unfortunate de Flesselles, not as Provost of the Merchants, but as Mayor of Paris. The great est enthusiasm reigned. It was not until the 15th that Louis XVI. was informed by his intimate friend the Due de Liancourt of what had happened in Paris. " Why, it is a revolt! " cried the King. " No, sire, not a revolt; but a revolu- 297 The Bastille tion," replied the Duke. In a few words the situation was explained to the King, who, alarmed at the idea of seeing the country plunged into a civil war, after a short consultation with his two brothers (who after wards reigned as Louis XVIII. and Charles X.), determined to go to the Assembly. The King made his appearance and was greeted with the cry of Vive le Roi! which was almost unanimous. He addressed the House standing up and uncovered; he said he had come to consult them on State affairs; that he felt deeply the terrible scenes which had disgraced the capi tal; he assured them that they had never been in any personal danger, and concluded by saying that he had given orders for the troops to withdraw from Paris and Versailles; he authorised them and even invited them to make known these orders in the capital. The dis course of the King was warmly applauded, and the Deputies in a body escorted His Majesty back to the Palace to the music of the Swiss band, which struck up " Where can one be better than in the bosom of one's family? " There was now a Te Deum sung at Versailles, in honour of peace, and the glad tidings were despatched to Paris by mounted couriers. One of the first acts of the Hotel de Ville, after the capture of the Bastille, was to send the guns that were in the Place Vendome and the Palais Royal to the heights of Montmartre, " where they would com mand and defend the entrance into Paris." An order to this effect was signed by the Marquis de la Salle. It was feared for the moment that the King would 298 Soufes march upon the capital and endeavour to revenge the insult offered to his authority. It was on the 15th that the Committee of the Hotel de Ville assumed the title of the Permanent Committee. No one gave a more touching and eloquent account of the step thus taken by Louis XVI. than Bertrand Barrere, that " Jacobin carrion," gibbeted by Macaulay and placed on a pinnacle of infamy. Well might Weber, in his " Memoirs," concerning Marie Antoin ette, exclaim: "Who could have thought that the same man who in 1789 drew a picture, as true as it was animated, of the love of the French for their sovereigns and the goodness of those sovereigns, should four years later have shown himself the most bloodthirsty of their enemies? " " When justice and probity are on the throne," wrote Bertrand Barrere, " all the virtues reign with them." We may add here that on this 15th July, the President of the National Assembly announced the death of M. le Blanc, Deputy for Besangon, whose end, he said, had been hastened by joy on learning that the King had been undeceived. We only won der that this announcement was not followed by a Nunc Dimittis. According to M. Paul Lacroix, when the Permanent Committee ordered the evacuation of the Bastille — which was with difficulty executed — the provisional command of the fortress was given to one Soules, who had under his orders a small detachment of inhabitants of the quarter. He adds, in his " Paris a Travers les 299 The Bastille Ages," that " During the night of the 16th July a patrol, commanded by a young lawyer, who was des tined to become one of the chiefs of the Revolution, and who was none other than the terrible Danton, presented himself at the Bastille and entered it in spite of the orders of the sentries. There Danton had the audacity to arrest Soules, and to take him to the bureau of the district, accusing him of being an agent of the Court. Soules narrowly escaped being mas sacred on his way to the Hotel de Ville. It is probable that the revolutionary conspirators had formed a plot for seizing on the Bastille, which might easily have been placed in a state of defence, for Lafayette having confided this post to one patrol, another patrol belong ing to a different district, commanded by an actor of the Theatre Franqais, renewed the abortive attempt of Danton, forced his way into the fortress, and could not be expelled until the next day." The Bastille was therefore taken and retaken after the celebrated 14th July. On hearing of the fall of the Bastille, and the events of Paris, the Due de la Rochefoucauld, "virtue's self," is said to have exclaimed: " It is difficult for true liberty to enter through such a gate." The attack on the Bastille, in fact, was the triumph of violence over moderation, and the maxims of the Palais Royal over those of the Hotel de Ville. As Droz remarks: "A new and terrible power had sprung up in the streets of Paris, already stained with the blood of assassina tion." The birth of true liberty under such circum stances was hardly likely. 300 The King in Paris As the King had humbled himself so far as to go to the States-General, he humbled himself once more by going to Paris, which had just captured his royal castle, slaughtered its defenders, and was about to demolish it. The Court endeavoured to turn Louis XVI. from his purpose; Marie Antoinette was in mortal fear lest her husband should be assassinated or detained as a prisoner by the insurgents. After hear ing mass and receiving the sacrament His Majesty, however, accompanied by the Marshal de Beauveau, the Due de Villeroi, the Due de Villequier, the Comte d'Estaing, and an escort of Versailles militia, set out for his good city of Paris. The announcement of the King's visit filled the Permanent Committee of the Hotel de Ville with apprehension. Dussault says: "We passed the night deliberating upon forty thousand weight of gun powder collected in the magazine of the Hotel de Ville, situated under the grand salon. Never was deliberation more important ; it was a question, not of our common safety, but of the preservation of a head as dear as it was sacred." Abbe le Fevre, " whom nothing astonished, and nothing embarrassed," undertook to remove the powder. Dussault then gives a description of the King arriving at the Hotel de Ville, the road to which was lined by 300,000 armed citizens! The windows and the house-tops were crowded, and there were shouts of " Vive la Nation! " when His Majesty was coming, and shouts of " Vive le Roil " when he was returning to Versailles. The citizens appear to have 301 The Bastille formed a motley array, and to have been armed with gun, sword, pike, hatchet, and scythe, while the revolted Gardes Francaises dragged along the guns which had been captured at the Bastille. Dussault's diary contains a trait or two worth remarking. Speaking of the King, he says: "This good Prince regarded us with a paternal eye, and was greatly pleased with one of our brave grenadiers, M. de Tresfontaines. His Majesty was much struck with the horse he was riding, and asked him where he got it? ' Out of your stables, Sire, and I shall be careful to take it back.' ' Keep it,' said the King, ' I make you a present of it.' " Dussault then assures us that, when Louis XVI. saw on his passage pikes, pitchforks, and the shreds of the flag of the Bastille, " Far from his serenity being disturbed, there spread over his august features a civic expression, absolutely foreign to most of our monarchs. His candour, his self-possession, sure signs of his up rightness, guaranteed the liberty which we had just conquered." " On alighting from his carriage and entering the Hotel de Ville," continues this member of the Per manent Committee, " His Majesty received with much feeling the national cockade; he was proclaimed the legitimate monarch and the regenerator of French liberty. He abandoned himself to every one, and people kissed his hands and even his footmarks. He was obliged to show himself to the people, who hailed him with transports of love and gratitude." M. de Corny proposed that a public statue should 302 The Freemasons be erected in honour of the restorer of French liberty and public prosperity and the father of the French people, and the erection of a statue on the site of the Bastille was unanimously voted. After what had just taken place in Paris, this enthusiasm for the King appears to be an anomaly; but it must be borne in mind, however, that a great distinction was drawn between the King and the Court. While it was admitted that Louis XVI. was a mild and well-intentioned monarch, the Queen, the other members of the Royal family, and the Ministers who had replaced such men as Necker, Turgot, and Males herbes, were literally hated. The apparent calmness and indifference of Louis XVI. on the 17th July, which excited the admiration of Dussault, is fully corroborated by other witnesses. For example, when His Majesty reached the Hotel de Ville he was received by a number of Freemasons, " who," says Droz, " paid him the strange honour of crossing their swords over his head, so that he walked under a vault of steel. Louis XVI. paid little atten tion to this ceremony, although the Masonic usages were utterly unknown to him." At the Hotel de Ville there were speeches made by Lally Tolendal, and Bailly, who spoke in the most flattering terms of their prisoner. There was so evi dent a desire on the part of all present to hear the King speak, that Bailly whispered a few words to him to this effect: " But so great was the natural timidity of Louis XVI. and the emotion of the moment that he could articulate merely the following words: ' You 303 The Bastille can always count upon my love.' ' The disappoint ment was general, and Louis lost a fine opportunity of recovering his authority. He might at least have spoken, as he had spoken the day before at Versailles; but he was weary, hungry, bored, and he wished him self home again. On leaving the Hotel de Ville the King was greeted with the wildest enthusiasm, and even kissed by a woman of the markets. While driving along the banks of the Seine a number of working men stopped his carriage, and, pouring out wine, made the coach man and the footmen drink with them to the health of the King. This incident appears to have elicited the smiles of His Majesty. The soldiers who kept the line had their arms reversed in sign of peace. This we may take as the Parisian account of this memorable day. Weber, in his " Memoirs," * has much to say on his side about the 17th July. Thus: " I did not leave the Castle of Versailles during the five stormy days which had just passed. I held myself ready to go wherever I might be useful. I witnessed the profound grief which reigned at Versailles, where the French monarch, that King whose name could not be pro nounced without conjuring up ideas of his love for the people, was seen setting out almost unattended to brave the armed populace of a capital in delirium, and to sanction the rebellion. I joined the little cortege which accompanied the King to Paris. On arriving at the barrier of the Conference, His Majesty was * Vol. ii., p. 130. 304 Weber obliged to dismiss his little body-guard and to march surrounded by those same rebel soldiers who a few days before had been his Gardes Francaises, and pre ceded by the guns which had been taken from the Invalides and the Bastille. These trophies of the insurrection were even turned against the carriage of the King and appeared to threaten him. " I saw once more the Mayor of Paris, M. Bailly, who, bewildered by his new dignity, foolishly per mitted himself to remind the King that he was conquered and placed at the discretion of the people. ' Sire,' said he, ' formerly Henri IV. conquered his people; to-day the people have reconquered their King.'" Weber afterwards says that: "The electoral body of Paris, which sent a numerous deputation to receive His Majesty, had the insolence to propose to the in habitants of Versailles, who had followed the King and who looked upon him as their property, to give them eight citizens of Paris as hostages for the sacred person of the monarch; as if the King belonged only to the town of Versailles, and as if eight unknown citizens could represent the chief magistrate of the nation." The Queen's faithful retainer followed Louis XVI. to the Hotel de Ville, and says: " I saw the King ascend the steps, which were still stained with the blood of the unfortunate de Launay." He heard the speeches, which were couched in respectful terms and represented the monarch as deceived by perverse men. "The King," he adds, 305 The Bastille " stunned by the noise which reigned within and with out the Hotel de Ville, fatigued, overwhelmed with heat, several times endeavoured to speak to the people; but each time the emotion he experienced prevented him from uttering a single word. M. Bailly gave him a tricoloured cockade, which he put in his hat. . . ." In the celebrated iron chest discovered in the Tuileries when the Palace was sacked by the sovereign people, was found a diary entirely in the handwriting of Louis XVI. — a diary commenced on the ist Janu ary, 1766, and continued until the 31st July, 1792, or ten days before the fall of the monarchy. As a speci men of this journal we give some of the entries made in July, 1789: " ist. — Nothing. Deputation of States- General. " 2nd. — Rode to hunt the stag at Port Royal. Took one. " 3rd. — Nothing. " 4th — Hunted deer at Butart. Took one and killed 21 head of game. "'5th. — Vespers and salut. " 6th.— Nothing. "7th.— Hunted the stag at Port Royal. Took two. " 8th.— Nothing. " 9th. — Nothing. Deputation of States-General. " ioth. — Nothing. Reply to deputation. " nth. — Nothing. Departure of M. Necker. " 1 2th. — Vespers and salut. Departure of MM. Montmorency, St. Priest, and La Luzerne. " 13th.— Nothing. 306 The Iron Chest " 14th. — Nothing. (Louis XVI. was not informed of the capture of the Bastille until the next day.) " 15th. — Sitting in the Salle des Etats, and return on foot. " 1 6th. — Nothing. " 17th. — Voyage to Paris and the Hotel de Ville. " 18th.— Nothing." And so on, the monthly entries terminating thus: " 29th. — Nothing. Return of M. Necker. " 30th. — Nothing. " 31st. — Nothing. The rain prevented me from going out." How little would one imagine on reading this record of events by the King, that such great things had been done during this month of July, and that poor Louis had virtually seen his sceptre pass away from him. His heart was with his hounds and his deer; he was essentially a roi-faineant. 307 CHAPTER X. ACCOUNTS GIVEN BY THE "GENTLEMAN'S MAGA ZINE "—THE " ANNUAL REGISTER "— BOUCHERON — ATTACK, DEFENCE, ETC. — A CONSTITUENT — GUYOT DE FLEVILLE — DENOT — BLUTEL — CHA TEAUBRIAND— MARMONTEL— ABBE RUDEMARRE —DR. RIGBY— DENIS PASQUIER— DUKE OF DOR SET—THE COUNT DE MERCY ARGENTEAU We here append some more accounts of these stirring events, beginning with those given by the Gentleman's Magazine and the Annual Register for 1789. It will be seen that these publications, as well as the de spatches of our Ambassador, the Duke of Dorset, and of the Austrian Ambassador, the Count de Mercy Argenteau, encouraged the idea of the treachery of poor de Launay; that what passed on the 14th July was imperfectly known to most people, and unfaith fully reported by persons who took common rumour and interested falsehood for plain truth; that acts of barbarity, which should have been utterly condemned, were not only excused but glorified, and that the amount of heroism exhibited was exceedingly limited, and in no way deserving of the enthusiasm it elicited. Further, that the persons who wrecked the Bastille did not all pull in the same direction, that is to say, were not all animated by the same sentiments. 308 " The Gentleman's Magazine" The Gentleman's Magazine for 1789 — June to December — contains what is called an " Accurate Statement of the late Revolution in France." In this " accurate statement " we find it said that " On the other side of the town the Bastille was summoned by 10,000 or 12,000 citizens, headed by the grenadiers of the French Guard, and, on the Governor's holding out a white flag and opening one of the gates, a body of young citizens with some soldiers incautiously entered. The Governor instantly drew up the draw bridge, and his troops fired through loopholes and killed or wounded the whole party. About thirty were killed. Four times he attempted the same stratagem, but not with the same success; and at last the fortress was regularly attacked and cannonaded for three hours, and the ditches filled with straw, etc. A breach was effected, and first mounted by a French grenadier; the Governor, the Marquis de Laune (sic), the Prince de Montbory (!), the Fort Major, etc., were made prisoners, and all the poor unhappy State prison ers, many of whom had languished for years in this execrable abode, released, among which number were Lord Mazarine (sic), an Irish nobleman, who had been confined for debt near thirty years." We are then told how de Laune and the Fort Major were tried, shot, and then beheaded, and how 300 men were killed and wounded in the attack, besides those who perished by the artifice of the Governor. The Annual Register, generally very impartial in its appreciation of foreign affairs, gives a more accurate 3°9 The Bastille account of what passed. It begins by remarking that "The difficulty of discovering the truth in such extraordinary cases, where every man's testimony on either side is liable to be warped by his prejudices and passions, was never more clearly shown than upon this occasion. The general report was that de Launay held out deceitful hopes of compliance; that a number of Parisians came to the gates to demand arms and ammunition; that they were received within an outer court, then treacherously fired upon and a cruel slaughter made. It is not easy to reconcile the parts of this story, nor to give an air of probability to the whole. It is, notwithstanding, asserted and believed by the bulk of the Parisians, with the same firmness as if it were an article of religious faith, and was pub lished as a fact through every part of Europe. But on the other hand, the inconsistency and improbability of the story have not only been shown, but the fact denied by positive evidence. It seems very probable that the story might have been invented at the time to increase the animosity of the crowds who were pressing from all quarters upon the Bastille, and who could have no opportunity, either then or after, of ascertaining its truth or falsehood. . . . " However that was, the enthusiasm and fury of the people were so great that to the astonishment of military men (who did not yet know the weakness of its garrison) the Bastille, the citadel of Paris, with its seemingly impassable ditches and its inaccessible towers and ramparts, covered with a powerful artillery, was, after an attack of two hours, carried by storm. 310 The Annual Register De Launay was immediately dragged to the Place de Greve and miserably murdered. . . . " On this day it was that the savage custom of insulting and mutilating the remains of the dead and of exhibiting their heads to public view upon pikes, which had so long been the opprobrium of the Gov ernments and people in Constantinople, Fez, and Morocco, was first introduced into the polished city of Paris. . . . Under the double intoxication of joy and revenge, some humane persons, after two hours had elapsed, reminded the populace that the prisoners in the Bastille ought to be delivered; their cells were accordingly broken open, and they were led in triumph round the gardens of the Palais Royal. But how great was the surprise, if not disappointment, when it was found that these dreary dungeons contained only seven prisoners; that of these the greater number were confined on the charge of forgery; and that either two or three, who had remained there since the reign of Louis XV., were the only objects of compassion among them. For these unhappy persons having lost the use of their reason before the commencement of the present reign, or before there was leisure to inquire into the state of the prisons, had since been detained because the officers did not know in what manner otherwise to dispose of them. A stronger proof of which need not be given than that the Municipality of Paris found it necessary a few days after to send them to the public mad-house at Charenton. " It should not be forgotten that the present sovereign, through his natural clemency and humanity, 3" The Bastille and in conformity with the moderate system of gov ernment which he intended to pursue, had early cleared the State prisons of most of their wretched inhabitants, none being retained but those who had been guilty of notorious crimes against society, or concerned in dangerous offences against the State. It is also worthy of observation, that with all the odium and detestation under which the Queen and the Comte d'Artois laboured, and with all the libels which were hourly written and spoken against them, not a single victim to their resentment or justice was found in all the prisons of the kingdom." And in 1790 the Annual Register, after referring to the " absurd falsehoods and ridiculous tales fabricated for the rabble of Paris," goes on to say: " Of this class is particularly to be considered the injurious and cruel falsehood that the unfortunate and murdered de Launay had treacherously enticed a number of Pari sians into one of the courts of the Bastille, where he had them massacred in cold blood. This horrible and wicked invention produced (as we have formerly shown) its odious purposes at the time, in the first instance by exciting the animosity of the populace, and spurring them on to that pitch of outrage and cruelty which was intended; and in the second by hold ing out some palliation for the inhuman murder of the Governor, and representing it to the world as an act of just retribution for his treachery. . . ." We shall now give the " Narrative of what passed under my eyes on the 14th July," by Boucheron, 312 Boucheron 7 Story which is considered veracious, and contains some matter of interest. He was not only an eye-witness, but a member of the Committee of the Hotel de Ville. He wrote: " Towards noon some persons came to the Committee to declare that great apprehension was felt owing to the direction in which the guns of the Bastille were pointed. Other persons said that the place was going to be besieged. M. Thuriot de la Roziere observed that this siege would expose the lives of a great many citizens. He proposed that a deputa tion should be sent to M. de Launay asking him to change the direction of his guns, and to surrender. This advice was favourably received. Charged with this mission he set out for the Bastille with two fusi liers. After having fulfilled it he was escorted back, an axe over his head, to the District where he reported what he had seen, heard, and said. He asked permis sion to lay the truth before the Hotel de Ville; he was accompanied by several fusiliers and by myself; he was unable to obtain admission to the Committee. After having waited awhile, M. de Corny and another member passing through the hall where we were, he related what had happened. He descended with them, in order to announce the result of his mission to the people, when a cannon was heard, and they saw a man arrive, his shirt covered with blood, and holding in his hands a very small brass cannon. It was neces sary to go upstairs again. The Permanent Commit tee then charged M. de Corny to go to the Bastille, with seven or eight persons, as a ' Parliamentary Deputation.' I proposed to accompany it, and my 313 The Bastille offer was accepted. MM. de la Fleury, de Milly, Poupart de Beaubourg, in green uniform, decorated with the Order of St. Philip, the Comte de Piquod Sainte Honorine, captain of infantry, Signe, architect, joined us. We required a flag and a drum. M. Joannon offered to carry the flag, and we procured a drum from the Gardes Francaises. We started from the Hotel de Ville; I marched in front. ... On arriving, I told the Swiss to close the gate. We entered the Cour de l'Orme, which is commanded by the Bastille. The Procurator of the King ordered a roll of the drum and the flag to be displayed. This was done. I presented myself, accompanied by the Comte de Piquod Sainte Honorine, the standard- bearer, and the drummer, to enter. We found a number of private individuals, armed with muskets, hatchets, and sticks, in the little courtyard of the Bastille. I announced that the City had sent a Parliamentary Deputation. I begged them to sus pend fighting. They listened to me. We passed over the grand drawbridge, which we found lowered. I reached the foot of the citadel in front of the second drawbridge, which was raised. I took off my hat, and shouted as loud as I could that the City had sent a deputation; that they must cease firing, and lay down their arms. An individual in a coloured coat, surrounded by several pensioners, all hat in hand, replied to me, from the top of the towers, that he would consent to receive a deputation, but that the people must retire. We went into the second courtyard, called I'Avancee. We begged the persons 3H M . de Milly who were there in great numbers to withdraw, an nouncing that upon that condition a deputation would be received. Our prayers had an influence on some persons, but others continued to fire. We left the Bastille with them. At the foot of the drawbridge we found M. de Milly, with a white pocket-handkerchief on a stick, making signals for firing to cease. I went to report matters to the Procurator of the King, who, with several members of the Deputation, was endeav ouring to persuade the people to remain quiet. We advanced once more to the foot of the citadel, and, hat in hand, begged them to suspend fire. We renewed our supplication to the besiegers. Several replied that they would not; that they would not allow us to enter alone; that they were sure we should be massacred. We persevered, but at the very moment we thought — after signals of peace had been made — that things were calming down, a volley was fired from the towers which knocked over several persons; firing was kept up with vigour, and we were dispersed." This is how Boucheron relates the great treason of de Launay. He says nothing about the drawbridge having been pulled up. The wholesale massacre dwindles down to a few citizens " knocked over " because they would keep up a fire on the garrison when negotiations were going on. The " Attack, Defence, and Capitulation of the Bastille " is also worth perusing. The author, whose name is not known, relates that " On the 13th July, 1789, the Marquis de Launay, at 2 a.m., caused 315 The Bastille the company of sub-officers and thirty-two men of the Swiss regiment of Salmis-Samade to stand to arms. The gates were closed. The garrison remained in the interior, and sentries were posted at all the points where the Governor thought necessary. Twelve men were ordered to ascend the towers to observe what was passing outside. Two pensioners, without arms, were placed at the gates leading to the Arsenal and to the Rue St. Antoine. These men were arrested and taken to the Hotel de Ville; after running great danger they were released and returned to the Bastille. The re mainder of the day passed off quietly,' but about mid night several shots were fired at the sentries. The Governor ascended the towers, where he remained for half-an-hour, when, everything being quiet, he retired. " At 10 a.m. on the 14th three individuals, accom panied by a large mob, came to the grating, and said that they wished to speak to the Governor. The Mar quis de Launay came out with his staff and ordered the little drawbridge to be let down. Seeing, however, the crowd by which the deputies were followed, he said that he could allow only three persons to enter, and he gave six sub-officers as hostages, who remained with the people until the three deputies left the Bastille. The deputies remained about half-an-hour, and just before they left M. de la Roziere, escorted by all kinds of persons, presented himself, and told the Governor that he came on behalf of the nation and the country to declare that the guns in the towers of the Bastille caused great alarm in Paris, and he begged him to have them removed. 316 M. de la Roziere " The Marquis de Launay said that the guns had been there from time immemorial; that he could not remove them without an order from the King; that having been informed of the apprehension they caused, as he could not dismount them he had caused them to be withdrawn from the embrasures. M. de la Roziere asked permission to enter and see for himself. M. de Launay immediately granted his request. After visit ing the towers, he declared in presence of the garrison that he was quite satisfied. He returned to the Gov ernor's house. " The people outside, not seeing him reappear, began to be impatient, and began to cry out for their deputy. M. de la Roziere put his head out of the window and said: 'A little patience, my lads, I will be with you in a moment.' This calmed the people. He then left, assuring the Governor that the people had no intention of attacking the Bastille. But half- an-hour afterwards what was the surprise of the Governor and his staff to see an armed mob arrive shouting, ' We must have the Bastille.' The sub- officers on the towers replied politely, begging the people to retire, and informing them of the danger they ran; in spite of these representations they per sisted. Two of them got upon a wall, from thence on to the roof of the guard-room, and then on to the drawbridge. One of them, Tournay, an ex-soldier of the Dauphin Regiment, tried to break the chains with a hatchet, and not being able to accomplish this he managed to slide down them and get into the guard room, where he thought he would find the keys. As 3J7 The Bastille the keys were in the castle he broke the locks and bolts, and let down the two advanced drawbridges. This obliged the troops to tell them firmly that, unless they withdrew, they would open fire; but the people, delighted with the success of their first enterprise, and thinking that the second would also succeed, rushed forward in a crowd to the second bridge, and fired on the sub-officers who were in the towers. This obliged the troops to reply, in order to prevent the second bridge from being lowered. The musketry discharge put the people to flight in great disorder. They got under shelter, and kept up a continual fire on the garrison." This is evidently the incident reproached to the- Governor as a piece of treachery, and upon which was founded an excuse for his massacre. This story, like Boucheron's, differs slightly from the popular version of poor de Launay allowing the people to enter, then drawing up the bridge and indulging in indiscrimi nate slaughter. But it has always been the custom for the French, especially of the Parisians, to cry treason on meeting with a repulse. To continue with the narrative before us: " Between 3 and 4 p.m. the sound of drums and the most terrible shouts were heard; then a flag was seen, escorted by an immense crowd of armed citizens. " After some ineffectual attempts to negotiate, the mob once more attacked the second bridge, in spite of the cries of the troops, who called upon them not to advance any further or else they would be fired upon. Seeing that they would listen to nothing, and that 3i8 The Attack they were preparing to break down the second bridge, the Governor ordered his men to open fire. Several persons were killed and the rest fled; and, as in the first case, kept up a fire on the sub-officers in the towers from under shelter, pillaging the quarters. " At 4.30 p.m. the people brought forward three carts laden with straw, which served to set fire to the guard-house, the Governor's house, kitchens, etc. It was at this moment that a small gun loaded with grape, called the Little Swede, was fired; this was the only cannon shot fired during the combat, which lasted for five hours." The narrator then criticises the people, from a military point of view, for having burned down the out-buildings, and shows how inadequate were the means of defence possessed by the Bastille — a scanty garrison, a powerless artillery, no ammunition or provisions, adding that men, forty-eight hours with out rations, have no stomach for the fight. He next relates how M. de Launay wished to blow up the place, and was prevented from carrying out his design by the sub-officers Ferrand and Becquard, that the garrison called upon him to surrender, and that having no white flag he borrowed a pocket-handker chief from a sub-officer, which was displayed for a long time to no purpose. At last, however, the besiegers, finding that the Bastille remained silent, advanced, firing and crying: " Let down the bridge." The narrator continues: " M. Louis Desflue, an officer of the Salmis-Samade Regiment, who had remained in the inner courtyard 319 The Bastille with his thirty-two men, spoke to the people through a loophole in the drawbridge, and said they would will ingly surrender if a promise were given that the gar rison should be neither massacred nor ill-treated. The people replied that every one must be killed. This officer at once wrote a capitulation, in which he said that if their terms were refused the Bastille would be blown up; the garrison preferring this to being butchered by the people. After this capitulation had been received and read by the besiegers they began to shout : ' Let down the drawbridge, and no evil shall befall you ! ' " It was upon this promise that the Governor gave the keys of the little drawbridge, which he had in his pocket, to Corporal Gaillard, who opened the gate and let down the bridge. " It is certain that if the garrison had been aware of the fate in store for them they would not have surrendered. The gate was no sooner opened than the mob rushed in and fell upon the sub-officers, who had laid down their arms, with bayonet, sword, and stick. These gallant soldiers were despoiled and mutilated without being able to defend themselves. The mob acted with the greatest cruelty." The narrator then mentions how the Swiss were mistaken for prisoners, and thus escaped being mas sacred; how doors, windows, and furniture were smashed; and how the besiegers in the courtyard fired on their friends inside the building, thinking that they formed part of the garrison. Then follows a graphic description of how the prisoners were ill— 320 The Swiss treated on their way to the Hotel de Ville, the by standers continually shouting, " Hang them! " " Burn them!" On reaching the Hotel de Ville, thanks to the intercession of some men of the French Guard, their lives were spared. The mob passed from one extreme to the other. The prisoners, after having been beaten almost to death, and having witnessed the death of some of their comrades, were offered refresh ments; " but the tragic scenes through which they had passed had deprived them of all wish to eat or to drink. Beds would have been more welcome than refreshments. . . . " It is easy to see that the Bastille was not taken by storm. Ask the man who falsely dares to glory in this, who boasts of being a phoenix, where the breach was made by which he entered." We now give an extract from the CORRESPONDENCE OF A CONSTITUENT WITH THE MARQUISE DE CREQUY. ". . . About 1 1 a.m. the rumour was spread that fighting was going on in the Faubourg St. Antoine, for you have no idea of the horrors and stories that are imagined and placarded in order to embitter and corrupt the people. The mob rushed there and deliberated on first taking the Bastille; not so much to remain master of the place, but to seize on the arms and ammunition, so that they might be useless to the King's troops. The cure of St. Paul was charged to propose a capitulation to M. de Launay,. 321 The Bastille who accepted it after a good deal of wrangling. Trusting his word, several grenadiers of the French Guard and 300 citizens entered the place, when suddenly he caused the drawbridge to be pulled up. He was reproached for this, and said it was fair in war. He treated it as a stratagem. A grenadier told him that as he would not consent to the capitulation, he must allow them to retire; that they would besiege him, and that the stronger would lay down the law. At a signal which he made with his hand the garrison fired, and killed over 150 men. The firing and the cries of these unfortunate fellows filled their comrades outside with rage. The grenadiers ascended the roofs of the neighbouring houses, and fired on the gunners; the people jumped into the ditches, to undermine the foundations. A quantity of damp straw was set on fire, to prevent the garrison from seeing what was going on. A large cannon was brought up, with the aid of which the chains of the drawbridge were broken and a breach made in the gate, through which two grenadiers, quickly followed by a number of citizens, passed. They made a slaughter of the garrison. M. de Launay surrendered, and ran to hide himself. One of the grenadiers found him in a chimney. He was seized, together with M. de Losme-Salbray, and the rest of the garrison. Two of the Swiss were at once hung, for having assassinated citizens. M. de Launay was massacred on the Place de Greve, also M. de Losme-Salbray, and the persons with them. Their heads were cut off and paraded through the streets on pikes. From a window I saw two heads 322 Guyot de Fleville's Account placed on a table. A number of roughs had put their glasses between them, poured out their beer, mocked the heads, drank to their healths, turned them over and over, as if they were manipulating fruit. I was petrified with horror. The joy was extreme. . . ." The first part of this letter was founded on popular rumour. What the Constituent saw with his own eyes has a greater value. We now turn to the " Memoirs " left by one of the pensioners named Guyot de Fleville, memoirs which contain several matters of interest. After describing the arrival and reception of the deputations and the efforts made by the besiegers, he says: "All this would have been insufficient to bring about the capitulation of the Bastille if the garrison had been ordered to defend itself, and if there had been ammu nition and rations, and if the guns had been mounted on movable instead of on fixed carriages. The gar rison was very small, 114 men in all, who for forty-eight hours had been without rations, and who fought with regret. . . . About 5 p.m. M. de Launay, seeing that he could not hold out for want of provi sions, determined to blow up the powder-magazine, in which there was 250 barrels of gunpowder. . . . The Governor not having been able to carry out his intention, asked the officers and sub-officers what should be done, saying it would be better to blow themselves up than to expose themselves, by surren dering the fortress, to be massacred by the people, from whose fury they would be unable to escape. 323 The Bastille His opinion was, that they should re-ascend the towers and go on fighting. The garrison replied that it was impossible to go on fighting, as the guns in the towers were unserviceable, and as they themselves had neither ammunition nor rations. They preferred handing themselves over to the fury of the people to causing the death of a large number of citizens. They said that it would be better to hoist the white flag, and to ask to capitulate. "'The Governor replied that he had no flag, but that he would display a white handkerchief, which was exhibited on the towers by Rouffe and Roulard, sub-officers, to the sound of the drum. However, the people continued to fire without paying any attention to the flag or the drum. " A quarter of an hour afterwards the people, seeing that the Bastille did not return their fire, advanced, still discharging their muskets, and crying: ' Lower the drawbridge ! ' " M. de Flue, who was in the inner court with thirty men, told them, through a hole in the drawbridge, that they were willing to surrender on a promise being given that they would not be ill-treated or massacred. The people cried that the garrison must all be massacred. " This officer at once wrote a capitulation, in which it was said that if the demand he had made were not acceded, the garrison would prefer blowing up the place to being massacred. "After having read this capitulation, they cried: ' Lower the bridge, and nothing will happen to you.' 324 Guyot de Fleville's Account " It was upon this promise that the Governor gave the keys to a corporal called Gaillard and to Perrot, a sub-officer, who opened the gate and let down the drawbridge. " It is certain that if the garrison had been aware of what was in store for them they would not have opened the door before having received the acceptation of the said capitulation in writing, and signed by the City, with hostages for security. " The bridge was no sooner lowered than this un bridled populace rushed in and fell upon the sub- officers, who had laid down their arms, attacking them with bayonet, sword, and stick. These gallant fellows were mutilated with their own arms, without being able to defend themselves. The people behaved with the greatest cruelty possible towards the Governor, the staff, etc. Such was their frenzy against the garrison that they thought the thirty-two Swiss, who were in smock-frocks, were prisoners, nor did they find out their mistake until they had glutted their rage on the old soldiers. It is well to observe that the thirty-two Swiss did not ascend the towers, but remained in the courtyard with three small guns, with which they kept up a constant fire. . . . The besiegers pillaged everything, and broke the windows. Some of them in the courtyard kept up a fire, thinking that the cham bers were still occupied by the garrison. It is, there fore, not astonishing that after the capitulation of the Bastille people should have been killed, for they slew each other. " Those who had the good fortune to escape the 325 The Bastille popular fury were collared and taken away to various parts of the city, being ill-treated along the road; the mob disputed with each other for prisoners through avidity, wishing to show them to the people, and to have the pleasure of seeing them hung. " Eighteen were taken to the Hotel de Ville, and on the road they experienced new tortures; they heard people shouting on all sides: 'Hang them! Break them on the wheel ! Burn them,' and in general, blows followed shouts. It would be easy to prove that most of the soldiers, when they reached the Hotel de Ville, had their bodies bruised and as black as their hats." Guyot de Fleville then relates that they would have been all hung to the nearest lamp-post but for the Gardes Francaises, who interfered in their favour; and upon this the inconstant crowd set up a cry of " Pardon for the prisoners ! " In the end these unfort unate fellows were taken by the Gardes Franchises to their quarters. It is something to find that the sol diers of the French army, although they had mutinied, were not assassins. The above narrative so greatly resembles that of the anonymous one called the " Attack and Defence," etc., that both accounts may be suspected of having been written by the same hand. We now come to — " The story of Francois Felix Denot, cook, born in Paris, living in the Rue St. Denis, according to evidence given at the Chatelet, and reported in the Gazette Nationale of the 19th and 20th January, 1790." 326 Conducting DeLaunay, Commandant of the Bastille, to Hotel de Ville Francois Felix Denot Rabaut St. Etienne, formerly a Protestant pastor, who played a considerable part at the beginning of the Revolution among the Moderates, and who was finally executed as a Girondin in 1793, paid a warm tribute of praise to those citizens " whose names are immortalised in the fasti of the nation under the general denomination of the conquerors of the Bastille." Recounting that episode, he says: " Launay (not de Launay), prisoner, was taken to' the Hotel de Ville through crowds of people transported with rage, his captors displaying as much courage in defending him as they had shown when they seized his towers; but after an hour's march Launay was massacred at the foot of the staircase of the Hotel de Ville at the moment he was about to be saved." Denot was one of the magnanimous heroes whose praises are sung by Rabaut St. Etienne — or Rabaut, as he was then called, Saints being out of fashion. Now this is what happened six months after the fall of the Bastille. On the 12th of January, 1790, a man was arrested in the vicinity of the Chatelet for having used indiscreet language, and was taken before Police-Commissioner Grandin. He expressed the greatest surprise at having been arrested, and de clared: " I am a very good citizen; it was I who cut off the heads of Foulon and of de Launay, and who afterwards tore out their hearts and entrails." Then, drawing a knife from his pocket, he displayed the weapon he had employed. On the remark being made that the knife was a very small one, he said he had 327 The Bastille been butcher and cook, and knew all about amputating. He was sent to trial, and, questioned with regard to the days of July, this is what he said: " On the 12th, seeing the busts of Necker and the Duke of Orleans carried through the streets, he sallied out to enjoy the sight. Having heard that the dragoons were killing the people on the Place Louis XV., he went there to try and help them; he saw the Prince de Lambesc enter the Tuileries, cut down, and ill-treat citizens; then, hearing on all sides discharges of musketry, he was seized with fear and threw himself flat on his stomach among the stones; he picked up the helmet of a dragoon and made off when the danger was over. Denot then joined the people in search of arms, and placed himself at the head of a band engaged in pro tecting several wine-shops. On the morning of the 14th he went to the Invalides in quest of arms, and then contributed to the capture of the Bastille. In the midst of the tumult he learned that the Marquis de Launay had been seized, and was being taken to the Hotel de Ville; he caught him up at the Arcade of St. Jean, and from that moment never left the unfortunate Governor. When they arrived at the barrier in front of the Hotel de Ville, the populace shouted, ' Hang him! hang him!' and M. de Launay, who until then had kept his eyes closed so as not to see the hideous mob which was dragging him along, looked up to Heaven and said, ' Kill me ! I prefer death to insults which I have not deserved.' At this moment M. de Launay was set upon with bayonet, musket, and pike, and the assassins, seeing Denot with his helmet on, 328 Francois Felix Denot cried, ' Come, dragoon, cut his head off.' Denot set to work first with a sabre, and then with his knife. When M. de Launay's head was severed from its body it was placed on a pike and carried through Paris till nightfall. Denot was then joined by another con queror, who had the head of de Flesselles, and the pair marched through the Palais Royal together. The next day they carried the two heads to the Morgue. " On the 22nd July, Denot was on the Place de Greve, in front of the Hotel de Ville, when Berthier, the Intendant of Paris, was assassinated. He heard Berthier implore his assassins to take him to prison and try him before condemning him; he strongly protested his innocence. Berthier was killed by a soldier, who turned to Denot, still wearing his helmet, and said, ' Dragoon, justice is done; take the heart.' Denot took the heart of Berthier, which, like that of de Launay, had been torn out, carried it up the stairs of the Hotel de Ville, and presented it to Lafayette, who turned away shuddering, but did not have the scoundrels arrested." We pass over the sickening details and acts of cannibalism which followed. At the commencement of October, Denot took part in the massacre of the Body Guard at Versailles; but he appears to have done nothing to distinguish himself on that occasion beyond taking a shoe belonging to one of the murdered soldiers as a " monument." Denot, having recited his " high deeds," was liberated by the Court of the Chatelet; he himself, con vinced that he deserved well of the country, wrote to 329 The Bastille several deputies of the National Assembly demanding a medal for having rid society of a monster — the poor, venerable de Launay! No wonder that these sights which Dussault witnessed should have brought out livid patches over his body. Blutel, a police-agent, has left behind some notes which were probably addressed to M. Thiroux de Crosne, the Lieutenant-General of the force in which he served. The Chief of the Police appears in 1789 to have had only 42 clerks in his office; 48 inspectors, one for each ward in Paris; a force consisting of in horse and 76 infantry, and the celebrated guet, or watch, 71 strong. In addition to this there were 60 observers, or detectives, and to this latter body Blutel belonged. He was in the Palais Royal on the 8th July, when Camille Desmoulins plucked a leaf from one of the chestnut trees and stuck it in his cap as a badge, and the Republican standard would have been green, like that of the Prophet, had Blutel not remarked that this emblem of hope was the colour of the Comte d'Artois (afterwards Charles X.). Blutel then saw a man called Zezzi, accused of being a mouchard, treated in the most inhuman manner; his clothes were torn to rags, and, blinded with blood, he was thrown into the basin of a fountain, and pelted with stones.* In those days physical deformity was suffi- * On the 26th February, 1871, just before the breaking out of the Communistic insurrection, a very similar scene was enacted in Paris. There was a grand demonstration of National Guards, roughs, etc., on the Place de la Bastille, during which a mouchard was detected taking notes. He was seized by the mob and terribly 330 Blutel cient to arouse suspicion. Blutel says : " Some citi zens who, owing to a malformation, were wrongly supposed to have moral defectuosities, were suddenly taken for spies, and narrowly escaped paying with life the error of nature." In the evening Blutel went to the Theatre Franqais, where he heard the Athatie of Racine performed, and took note of the interruptions. When Joad, the high-priest, pro nounced the following words : Bientot ils vous diront que les plus saintes lois, Maitresses du vil peuple, obeissent aux rois . . . there were cries of, "The people is august! The people is sovereign ! " At the passage: Qu'un roi n'a d' autre frein que sa volonte meme, Qu'il doit immoler tout a sa grandeur supreme ! . . . the audience shouted, " The people will know how to defend itself." ill-treated. In vain he demanded permission to blow his own brains out and thus put an end to his sufferings. Some chasseurs who had got hold of the unfortunate wretch, stood up on a bench with their victim and made known his request, which was rejected. There was a general cry of " Drown him." He was consequently lashed to a plank, thrown into the canal, and pelted with stones as he floated down into the Seine. Once or twice he neared the bank, but was pushed off again with sticks, and, finally, he was swept under a kind of weir and disappeared. It is terrible to think that this inhuman scene should have been enacted in the presence of 20,000 spectators. The next day some Conservative papers contained cutting remarks on the conduct of " the most civilised nation in the world," and there was an end of the matter. 331 The Bastille And Qu'aux larmes, au travail le peuple est condamne, Et d'un sceptre de fer veut etre gouverne . . . was hailed with, •' The people will break its fetters. We shall demolish the Bastille." Blutel, in those days, ' saw many strange sights; fearful scenes, as he says; nor could he understand " the mistake of those who, in supporting the rights of the people, insult and brave the soldiers." He perceived the little Abbe Maury, who so narrowly escaped being strung up to a lamp-post, chatting with ladies in the Palais Royal, bowing low and saying: " I am taking the air in our garden of olives." There were alarming rumours on the 12th July that the Queen and the Comte d'Artois had persuaded the King to resort to force, and that the troops had been ordered to advance. The portrait of Necker was in great demand, and the people insisted on having back " their darling minister." His bust, and that of the Due d'Orleans, were carried through the streets veiled in black crape by an enthusiastic crowd. Everything went well until the crowd reached the Place, when it was suddenly charged by the regiment Royal Alle- mand. No one was wounded, but there were citizens who received contusions, and the bust of the Con troller-General fell to the ground and lost nose and chin. Speaking of the Gardes Francaises, who played so prominent a part in the drama of the 14th, Detective Blutel says: "That regiment was never 332 Kavanagh's Performances very faithful; it is too fond of galanteries and the wine-shop." Continuing his notes, the "observer" relates that : " On the morning of the 1 3th I witnessed a pleasant sight. A stout man called Kavanagh (we presume of Irish origin), one of the most ardent political champions of the Barnabite district, arrived at the Palais Royal about 10 a.m., and said, ' We must send several citizens, accustomed to speak, to the Hotel de Ville to claim our rights. I will be one of those citizens, and will not allow myself to be corrupted by the gold of tyrants.' Kavanagh went with five other persons of his stamp, to the Hotel de Ville, but came back without having obtained anything ; but they ransacked the Tuileries, where they found twenty-five muskets and a chest full of silver. Elated by this success he placed himself at the head of a band of youths and repaired to the Pont Royal, to demand that a boat-load of corn should be handed over to him. The boat was found, but the corn had been landed. Those who accompanied him grew angry. I followed Kavanagh again on the 14th July. ... At the head of his band he appeared at the Hotel de Ville, and penetrated into the presence of M. de Flesselles, asking him in an arrogant tone to sign an order to allow five carts to be brought to the Hotel de Ville. ' Who are you, my friend? ' asked Flesselles. ' I am a citizen and a patriot, and I speak in the name of the nation! ' was the reply." M. de Flesselles, who was already almost in the hands of the rioters, did not dare to refuse. He signed the order, with which Kavanagh rushed off, 333 The Bastille claiming the assistance of the Gardes Francaises. A few soldiers were placed at his disposal. He quite lost his head, and considered himself called upon to save the country. The carts, of which he had taken possession, contained arms sent from Metz and in tended for the troops at Vincennes. He heard that the Hussars were going to recapture the ammunition waggons, and, stopping some carts laden with timber, he formed a barricade. He afterwards procured a cab and gave two men a crown to get into it and shout — "To the Bastille! to the Bastille!" The Hussars (adds Blutel) had not moved; but this did not pre vent the report circulating that they were massacring the people in the Faubourg St. Antoine. Still yelling, "To the Bastille! Let us take the Bastille, sirs!" Kavanagh and his crew marched to the Hotel de Ville, where the people were informed of the cruelties per petrated by the Hussars. The mob was already speak ing of going to the Invalides to procure arms. Kavanagh approved, and shouted, " Let us march!" But after going a little way, this hero, who probably anticipated warm work, slackened his pace and finally went home. Shortly afterwards M. de Flesselles was assassinated in front of the Hotel de Ville, where the Abbe Lefevre d'Ormesson was to be seen distributing powder to the people. The citizens first served tried their pieces by discharging them over the barrels from which the powder was being distributed, and a Royalist writer has asked where Providence was, as no explosion took place. Blutel saw the garrison of the Bastille mas- 334 Blutel sacred, and Major de Losme (the father of the pris oners) strung up to a lamp-post. Continuing his " Notes " he wrote: " I do not know whether I should believe my eyes, and yet I certainly saw four of the Swiss soldiers taken by the people into a wine-shop in the Rue St. Antoine. They had had a narrow escape. An instant before, having succeeded in making my way through the crowd, I had seen them at the foot of a lamp-post; but being pushed back and jostled, I was unable to discover how this sudden turn in their favour took place. When I managed to get to the door of the wine-shop the poor Swiss soldiers, more dead than alive, were drinking and chinking glasses with some armed men and two women with dishevelled locks, who were pouring out wine. The soldiers were told to shout ' Vive la Nation! ' and they did not require to be asked a second time." Blutel then heard a great shouting, and this was a crowd which was coming down the street carrying the prisoners who had been delivered from the Bastille in triumph. In one street Blutel says that he met eighty of these delivered prisoners, probably Swiss soldiers in smock-frocks. Every one seemed in good humour as the " observer " left the Place de Greve, and the people, speaking of the fall of the Bastille, said: "The King will no longer let out furnished apartments." Blutel's ' ' Notes " stop short on the evening of the 14th. The police having been disorganised he was thrown out of work, and retired to his native town of Arras. There, Joseph Lebon being proconsul, one 335 The Bastille Coquet was handed over to the Revolutionary Tri bunal in September, 1793. He was accused of having in his youth broken the windows of the Mayor. He perished in company of three fellow citizens, and his papers revealed the fact that one of these three was Blutel. Chateaubriand, who arrived in Paris after the sack of Reveillon's house, the opening of the States-Gen eral, etc., has left on record the following description of the capture of the Bastille : "The 14th July, taking of the Bastille. I was present at this assault on a few pensioners and a timid Governor; if they had kept the gates closed the people would never have entered the fortress. I saw two or three cannon shots fired, not by the pensioners but by the Gardes Franchises, who had already ascended the towers. De Launay, after being torn from his hiding-place and subjected to a thousand insults, was smitten down on the steps of the Hotel de Ville; Flesselles had his head shattered with a pistol bullet ; this is a sight which the heartless scamps considered so splendid. In the midst of these murders the people indulged in orgies, as during the troubles in Rome under Otho and Vitellius; they paraded through the streets the intoxicated ' vanquishers of the Bastille,' declared conquerors in the wine-shop; pros titutes and sans-culottes commenced to reign and formed their escort. The bystanders took off their hats with that respect inspired by fear in presence of these heroes, some of whom died of fatigue in the 336 Chateaubriand midst of their triumph. The keys of the Bastille were multiplied, and were sent to all the pompous simple tons in the four quarters of the globe. . . . The experts hastened to make the autopsy of the Bastille. Temporary cafes were established under tents, and the people thronged thither as to the fair at St. Cloud or Longchamps. Numbers of carriages defiled before or pulled up at the foot of the towers, from whence the stones were being thrown down amid clouds of dust. Ladies elegantly dressed and men of fashion mingled with the half-naked workmen, to the applause of the crowd. At this rendezvous the most famous orators, the best-known authors, the most celebrated painters, the actors and actresses most renowned, the ballet girls most in vogue, the most illustrious foreigners, the lords of the Court, and the ambassadors of Europe, met. Old France came there to expire, and new France to be born." A short time afterwards Chateaubriand was look ing out of the window with his sisters when he perceived a band of ragamuffins carrying the heads of Berthier and of Foulon on pikes. " These heads," he said, " and others which I soon afterwards met, changed my political opinions. I conceived a horror of these cannibals and their banquets, and the idea of leaving France for some distant country took posses sion of my mind." Chateaubriand carried out his idea, and went to the United States, where, however, he remained only two years. He mentions it as his opinion that the people thought, when they captured the Bastille, that they 337 The Bastille were destroying the military yoke, and yet, " fifty-two years afterwards, fifteen Bastilles were raised to oppress that liberty in whose name the old Bastille had been demolished." We have seen how the poor philosopher Marmontel was thrown into the Bastille on the charge of having written a work in reality penned by quite another person. This quondam prisoner, referring to the capt ure of his place of detention, says in his " Memoirs " that the chiefs of the Revolution had long decided on the capture of the Bastille, and that even peaceful and enlightened citizens desired its fall through hatred of despotism. His own opinion was that there is no tyranny more cruel than that exercised by an unre strained mob; that the Bastille should not have been destroyed, but that its keys should have been placed in the sanctuary of the law. He declares that the mob, instead of basely assassinating de Launay, should have thanked him for his forbearance; that he wished to intimidate but not to slaughter the people; that no amount of calumny can excuse his murder; that not a single gun was discharged from the towers, and that if the three pieces loaded with grape and trained on the drawbridge had been fired they would have played frightful havoc. He tells us that the Court thought the Bastille was impregnable, that its stock of provi sions consisted of two sacks of meal and a little rice. He also observes that the capture of the Bastille intoxi cated the people beyond measure, and that they got out of hand. 338 Marmontel " This," he says, " is what I learned from the mouth of a man who was carried in triumph and proclaimed a hero, for having led the assault." This man was Elie, and this is what he told Marmontel : "The Bastille was not taken by force; it sur rendered without being attacked. It surrendered on my parole, given on the honour of a French officer in the name of the people, that no one should suffer." And this is how the great treason of de Launay is described : " The forecourts of the Bastille had been aban doned. A few determined men having dared to break the chains of the drawbridge which protected the first, the people entered in a crowd. There, deaf to the voices of the soldiers, who refrained from firing on them, and who called upon them to retire, they wished to push up to the walls of the castle. It was then that fire was opened upon them. They were put to flight, and got under shelter. One dead man and a few wounded spread terror as far as the Hotel de Ville, from whence deputations were sent in the name of the people to demand the cessation of carnage. Two arrived; one coming by way of the Arsenal, the other by the Faubourg St. Antoine. ' Advance,' cried the pensioners from the top of the towers; 'we will not fire. Advance with your flags. The Governor is going to descend. The drawbridge will be let down to admit you, and we will give you hostages.' Already the white flag was hoisted on the towers, and the sol- 339 The Bastille diers reversed their arms in sign of peace; but neither deputation dared to advance as far as the last fore court. However, the mob continued to press forward, firing from all sides. The besieged therefore consid ered that the deputations were sham, and constituted a ruse, and, after having in vain shouted to the people not to advance, they found themselves obliged to fire . in their turn." Then comes an account of the capitulation, which de Launay at first insisted should be ratified by the Hotel de Ville. " The pensioners, however, shouted, ' La Bastille se rend ! ' Consequently the drawbridge was lowered, and Elie entered with his comrades, all gallant fellows, and determined to keep their word. On seeing him the Governor came forward, embraced him, and presented him with his sword and the keys of the Bastille. ' I refused his sword,' said Elie, ' but accepted the keys.' Elie's comrades received the Staff and officers with great cordiality, swearing to protect them. But they swore in vain. As soon as the great drawbridge was lowered the people rushed into the courtyard, and, full of fury, seized upon the Invalides. Those of the Swiss who were dressed in smock-frocks escaped by mingling with the crowd; the others were arrested. Elie, and the honest fellows who entered with him, used every effort to tear from the people the victims they had delivered into their hands, but in their ferocity the captors obstinately clung to their prey. Several soldiers, who had received promise of life, were massacred, and others were dragged into Paris like slaves. Twenty-two were taken to the Place de la 340 De Broglie Greve, and, after enduring the most inhuman humilia tions and bad treatment, had the grief of seeing two of their comrades hung. On reaching the Hotel de Ville they were accused of having fired on their fellow citi zens, and were told that they deserved hanging. Fortunately the Gardes Francaises demanded their pardon, which was granted. But the people showed no pity towards the officers. De Launay was torn from the arms of those who wished to save him, and had his head cut off under the walls of the Hotel de Ville. In the midst of his assassins he defended his life with the courage of despair, but he succumbed to numbers. Delorme Salbrai, his major, was assas sinated in the same way. The Aide-Major, Mirai, had already been slaughtered near the Bastille. Pernon, an old lieutenant of Invalides, was struck down at the gate of St. Paul. Another lieutenant, Caron, was covered with wounds. The head of the Marquis de Launay was promenaded through Paris by the same populace which he would have shot down had he not had pity on them. " Such were the exploits of those who have since been called the heroes and the conquerors of the Bas tille. . . . The defence of the Bastille was an object of great importance for public tranquillity, but it had been neglected. Neither Broglie, Minister and General, nor the King's Council, nor the party of the nobles, no one had taken care to see if the garrison was strong enough, and could be depended upon, if there were provisions, and if the commandant was a man of sufficient courage and firmness." 34i The Bastille Marmontel adds that " de Launay might have terrified Paris with his artillery, but he no doubt remembered that he served a good-hearted King; and the people were also aware of this. Directly the Bastille was attacked all Paris rushed there. Men, women, and children were mingled together under the ramparts bristling with guns. What reassured them? The King allows his people to be threatened, but the King will not allow his people to be massacred. What a baneful lesson given to Kings by this example! " Marmontel then observes that the Parisians, in giving themselves over to immoderate transports of joy on the destruction of the Bastille, were blind to their own interests; that they evinced as much delight as if they had witnessed the breaking of the iron cages employed by Louis XL; but that history will record this testimony to the memory of Louis XVI., that none of the prisoners found in the Bastille were thrown into prison during his reign — an assertion true as regards Tavernier, de Solages, and de Whyte, but not the forgers. We now come to the Abbe Rudemarre's account. The Abbe, whose name was pretty well known under the Empire, and who, like the Abbes Fauchet, Le Fevre, and other clerical gentlemen, dabbled in the Revolution at its commencement, left behind him an interesting journal, in which the scenes of 1789 are vividly described. On the evening of the 12th July, says the Abbe, the tocsin sounded through the whole of Paris, and " during the night men of terrible aspect. 342 Abbe Rudemarre armed with sticks, swords, reaping-hooks, knife-blades fixed on poles, pitchforks, spits, and with pistols and guns that had been stolen from the armourers' shops, swarmed through the streets of the capital, spreading abroad terror. I passed the night at my sister's house in mortal fear." On the 13th the Abbe and nine lay men of his parish went in deputation to the Hotel de Ville to demand the formation of a citizen guard, as a protection against " this horde of spectres more hide ous and more abominable the one than the other." The Abbe repaired to the Hotel de Ville in his soutane, and thought at each moment that he was about to be torn in pieces, so unpopular had the clergy become. However, amid the howling of satyrs and the whist ling of bullets he reached his destination in safety, and was carried upstairs in triumph ! This, he tells us, is what he saw: " Imagine to yourself an immense room decorated with large pictures, and furnished with benches form ing an amphitheatre, and in this room a horde of half- naked savages, drunk with wine and fury, flourishing pikes and muskets with unsteady hand, roaring like wild beasts, foaming with rage, and searching for victims in an indiscriminate manner without knowing what they were about, venting their stupid fury on inanimate objects, as if practising for the murders they were going to commit on the following days." The gown which the Abbe wore drew forth " the most fearful blasphemies and horrible imprecations," and after a further description of these scenes of tumult and of his return home " surrounded by his 343 The Bastille co-deputies," the Abbe calmly adds : " In the after noon I confessed a good number of persons. " The next day, the 14th July, the Bastille was taken. " On the 15th I went there to satisfy my curiosity, and took possession, in one of the apartments, of an engraving representing Jacques Pernetti. Then I joined the demolishers for two or three minutes, when a scamp thus addressed me: ' My knight, you cannot say that it is for ourselves that we are working; it is for you. We don't taste of the Bastille; they cram us into Bicetre.* Is there no means of drinking a glass to your health?' " After this remarkable apostrophe, which showed that the people were aware of what they were about, and the true character of the building they were razing to the ground, the Abbe continues: " I gave him twelve sous, and then sketched the plan of the Bastille, with its cells, etc. " The following day the various districts wished to besiege one of the magazines of the arsenal. Ours seized upon 2 guns, 1,500 round shot, bombs, bullet- moulds, musket balls, pickaxes, and my chapel was the depot of all this plunder. I was appointed store keeper, and then member of the committee." The Abbe seems to have remained in Paris until the beginning of 1791, when he slipped quietly away, and was no more heard of until the Empire. Let us now turn from the Abbe to Dr. Rigby, who was in Paris when the great event took place. * Prison for the poor. 344 Dr. Rigby In the Rigby papers published by Lady Eastlake, to which we have already referred, we find the following : " A Canadian-Frenchman, whom we found in the crowd, was the first who intimated to us that it had been resolved to attack the Bastille. We smiled at the gentleman, and suggested the improbability of undisciplined citizens taking a citadel which had held out against the most experienced troops in Europe (in the time of Henri IV.), little thinking it would be in the hands of the people before night. From the com mencement of the struggle on Sunday evening there had been firing in all quarters of the city and an incessant ringing of bells, and the consequence was that the additional noise produced by the attack on the Bastille was little distinguished. . . ." When Dr. Rigby learned what was going on, he started off in the direction of the Bastille; but " on inquiring of some soldiers, as well as of the surround ing people, we found that the Bastille had been attacked, and that they were going to assist the brave citizens. . . . We soon perceived an immense crowd proceeding towards the Palais Royal, with accla mations of an extraordinary kind, but which sufficiently indicated a joyful event, and as it approached we saw a flag (what flag?), some large keys, and a paper elevated on a pole above the crowd, on which was inscribed, ' La Bastille est prise et les portes sont ouvertes.' " Next follows a description of the frantic joy created by this news, the " shouts and shrieks, leaping and embracing, laughter and tears, etc.," and 345 The Bastille " We were recognised as Englishmen, we were em braced as freemen, ' for Frenchmen are now free as well as yourselves, they said; henceforward no longer enemies, we are brothers, and war shall never more divide us.' We caught the general enthusiasm; we joined in the joyful shouts of liberty; we shook hands most cordially with freed Frenchmen. But soon the scene changed, and the faces of the people expressed amazement and alarm. A crowd came along, and as we pressed forward we suddenly partook of the gen eral sensation, for we then, and not till then, perceived two bloody heads raised on pikes. . . ." These were the heads of the Marquis de Launay and Major de Losmes. After remarking that it was a horrid and a chilling sight, the enthusiastic Briton, shocked and disgusted, returned to his hotel, where he passed the night in the utmost apprehension and alarm. It was only with considerable difficulty that Dr. Rigby and his party were able to leave Paris. The doctor relates how, " The populace in the streets, who before had been perfectly quiet, and even the ladies (sic) at the windows, who as we passed along had waved kind adieux, now began to insult us, the one with coarse language, the other with reproaches. . . ." Dr. Rigby afterwards informs us that he was fort unate enough to obtain an accurate account of the capture of the Bastille, which accurate account (page 85) is one tissue of misrepresentations, to the great glorification of the mob, which our author no doubt obtained from some not over scrupulous patriot. 346 Denis Pasquier M. Favre, who was the last secretary of Denis Pasquier, relates the following anecdote of the future Chancellor of France: " On the 14th of July he was present at the taking of the Bastille, conquest so easy and so little serious, that in the neighbourhood of the place he met a number of persons of the best society, who had come there as if to a theatre. In order not to miss any of the incidents of the first act of the great revolutionary drama he took up his posi tion behind the barrier which separated the garden of Beaumarchais from the Boulevard, and what is curious enough he there found himself alongside of Mdlle. Contat, the celebrated actress of the Theatre Frangais, whom he afterwards escorted in a carriage as far as the Palais Royal." We are assured that this chance meeting led to a tender intimacy which the Chancellor never forgot. One day M. Cousin, having ventured to declare in his presence that the talent of Rachel was superior to that of Contat, drew down on himself a very sharp reply. "Ah!" added Cousin, "we must not rekindle the flame which smoulders; that might lead to swords being crossed. Can you imagine me, Cousin, at seventy years of age, fighting a duel with a Chancellor of eighty-four for the bright eyes of a lady whom he met while the Bastille was being taken? " Denis Etienne Pasquier, who died at the ripe old age of ninety-five, under the Second Empire, was only twenty-two years old when, in company with Mdlle. Contat, he witnessed the fall of the Bastille. He him self suffered only a few months' imprisonment during that sanguinary epoch, but his father was guillotined 347 The Bastille in 1794. Mdlle. Contat made her debut- in 1776. In 1806 she wished to retire from the stage, but Napoleon decided that " as Mdlle. Contat is still fit for service she must continue to play." DESPATCHES OF THE DUKE OF DORSET AND THE COUNT DE MERCY-ARGENTEAU. Among the accounts we must not omit those of our Ambassador, the Duke of Dorset, nor that of the Austrian Ambassador, the Count de Mercy-Argenteau. It is true that neither of these diplomatists was pres ent during the siege, and that they had to depend for information upon the rumour of the city. The Duke, after saying that the mob did no material mischief, admits the burning of the city gates, the sacking of a convent, the taking of the Invalides; that all the shops were closed, and that quiet people were afraid to venture into the street. As to poor de Launay, His Grace places two massacres to his credit. But we must let the despatch speak for itself, not wondering that a good deal of indignation should have been felt in England until the real truth concerning the capture of the Bastille became known. The Duke's despatch ran thus: " Paris, 16th July, 1789. " My Lord, " I wrote to your Grace by a messenger extra ordinary, to inform you of the removal of M. Necker from His Majesty's Councils. I have now to lay 348 Duke of Dorset's Despatch before your Grace an account of the general revolt, with the extraordinary circumstances attending it, that has been the immediate consequence of that step. On Sunday evening, a slight skirmish happened in the Place de Louis XV., in which two Dragoons were killed, and two wounded of the Due de Choiseul's regi ment ; after which all the troops left the capital, and the populace remained unmolested masters of everything. Much to their credit, however, uncontrolled as they were, no material mischief was done, their whole atten tion being confined to the burning some of the barriers. Very early on Monday morning the Convent of St. Lazare was forced, in which, besides a considerable quantity of corn, were found arms and ammunition, supposed to have been conveyed thither as a place of security, at different periods, from the Arsenal; and now a general consternation was seen throughout the town. All shops were shut, all public and private works at a stand, and scarcely a person to be seen in the streets, excepting the armed bourgeoisie, a tempo rary police for the protection of private property, to replace the established one, which no longer had any influence. In the morning of Tuesday, the Hospital of Invalides was summoned to surrender, and was taken possession of after a very slight resistance. All the cannon, small arms, and ammunition were imme diately seized upon, and every one who chose to arm himself was supplied with what was necessary. Two of my servants, whom I had sent out on messages, and directed for private reasons to put off their liveries, were compelled to go to the Hospital, where they 349 The Bastille received two very good muskets, which they brought away with them. The cannon was disposed of in different parts of the town. In the evening a large detachment, with two pieces of cannon, went to the Bastille to demand the ammunition that was there, the Gardes Bourgeoises not being then sufficiently pro vided; a flag of truce was sent on before, and was answered from within. Notwithstanding which the Governor (the Marquis de Launay), contrary to all precedent, fired upon the people and killed several. This proceeding so enraged the populace that they rushed to the very gates with a determination to force their way through if possible. Upon this, the Gov ernor agreed to let in a certain number of them on con dition that they should not commit any violence. These terms being acceded to, a detachment of about forty in number advanced, and were admitted; but the drawbridge was immediately drawn up again, and the whole party instantly massacred. This breach of honour, aggravated by so glaring an act of inhu manity, excited a spirit of revenge and tumult such as might naturally be expected. The two pieces of cannon were immediately placed against the gate, and very soon made a breach, which, with the disaffection that as is supposed prevailed within, produced a sudden surrender of that fortress. M. de Launay, the principal gunner, the jailer, and two old Invalides, who had been noticed as being more active than the rest, were seized and carried to the Hotel de Ville, where, after a very summary trial before the tribunal there, the inferior objects were put to death, and M. de 35o Duke of Dorset "/ Despatch Launay had also his head cut off at the Place de Greve, but with circumstances of barbarity too shocking to relate. Besides the above-mentioned, the Prevot des Marchands, M. de Flesselles, who the day before was unanimously called to preside at the Assembly at the Hotel de Ville for forming regulations relative to the tranquillity of Paris, and the means of furnishing the town with provisions, was, upon a suspicion that was raised against him, seized in his own house, when a letter (said to be from the Baron de Breteuil) was found upon him, in which he was desired to amuse the citizens as well as he could for the reasons he knew. This was sufficient to draw upon him the fury of the people. He was immediately shot with a pistol, and his head was cut off, which, with M. de Launay's and the jailer's hand, placed upon pikes, was exhibited at the Palais Royal, and afterwards in several neigh bouring streets. In the course of the evening the whole of the Gardes Francaises joined the Bourgeoises with all their cannon, arms, and ammunition. The regiments that were encamped in the Champ de Mars, by an order from Government, left the ground at two o'clock yesterday morning and fell back to Sevres, leaving all their camp equipage behind them. The magazines of powder and corn at the Ecole Militaire were immediately taken possession of, and a Garde Bourgeoise appointed to protect them. Nothing could exceed the regularity and good order with which all this extraordinary business has been conducted; of this I have myself been a witness upon several occa sions during the last three days as I have passed 35i The Bastille through the streets, nor had I at any moment reason to be alarmed for my personal safety. Since Tuesday morning the police has been most strictly observed; the principal inhabitants of every parish were sum moned to meet at their respective churches in order that each parish should undertake to furnish a guard for its own protection. No one, however, has been allowed to go out of Paris, and all those who have come in, especially on the Versailles side, have been strictly searched, and any letters found upon them have been taken to the Hotel de Ville to be examined. M. de Crosne, Lieutenant-General de Police, owing to a dis covery that was made by this means, has found it necessary to secrete himself, as has also the Baron d'Ogny, Maitre des Postes, on a similar account. M. de Crosne's house has already been forcibly entered, and all the books and papers relative to the police destroyed. " Nothing material happened in the course of yes terday (Wednesday) morning, but about three o'clock in the afternoon a deputation arrived from Versailles at the Palais Royal to announce that the King had been present at the States-General, where he made the speech which I have the honour to send your Grace enclosed, and which was communicated to the Hotel de Ville. The deputation returned the same evening to Versailles. The coolness with which this news was received seems to have thrown everybody again into the utmost consternation, and, to judge by circum stances, the diffidence of the people is greater than ever, for all the barriers are doubly guarded. The general 352 Duke of Dorset's Despatch wish now is that the King would come to Paris, and it was hoped yesterday that His Majesty would be in duced to show himself here on this day, but it is said that he is prevented coming by indisposition. It is thought difficult to foresee what measures the people will have recourse to; the general idea, however, is that an armed body of citizens, to the number of at least 50,000, will go to Versailles and forcibly bring their Sovereign to the capital. The disposition of the people at this moment is so unfavourable to the Court that I should not be surprised if the States-General, by appearing to give too much credit to the King's pro fessions, should lose the consideration in which they have hitherto been held by the nation. " The regularity and determined conduct of the populace upon the present occasion exceeds all belief, and the execration of the nobility is universal among the lower order of people. I cannot avoid to mention a few circumstances which have happened within the last three days. The Prince de Lambesc, who com mands the regiment of Royal Allemand, very impru dently exposed himself on Sunday last in the gardens of the Tuileries, when, his person being well known, the people soon collected round him, and if he had not immediately taken to flight there is little doubt that he would have been destroyed. "The Due de Chatelet also had a narrow escape; having occasion to go to his house in Paris, he dis guised himself sufficiently, as he thought, not to be known, and was crossing the river in a boat with other passengers, one of whom discovered him, and he would 353 The Bastille have been thrown overboard had not two French Guards who were in the boat taken compassion upon him and luckily had influence enough with the other passengers to prevail upon them to spare his life and suffer him, when they landed, to depart. " Upon searching the Bastille not more than four or five prisoners were found, of whom none had been there any length of time, except an Englishman, who calls himself Major White, and who had been con fined in a dungeon upwards of thirty years. He was questioned by some English gentleman who happened to be near while he was being conducted away, but the unhappy man seemed to have nearly lost the use of his intellects and could express himself but very ill. His beard was at least a yard long. What is very extraordinary, he did not know that the Bastille was the place of his confinement, but thought he had been shut up at St. Lazare. Nor did he appear to be sensi ble of his good fortune in being released; he expressed, however, a strong desire to be taken to a lawyer. Another event worthy of notice is the escape of the Earl of Massarene after a confinement of nearly eighteen years. His lordship, with twenty-four others in the Hotel de la Force, forced their way out of prison last Monday without the loss of a single life in the attempt. His lordship came directly to my hotel with six or seven of his companions, the rest having gone their different ways. I, however, prevailed upon Lord Massarene and the others to go to the Temple, which is a privileged place, and where he may there fore be able to treat with his creditors to some advan- 354 States- General Duke of Dorset's Despatch tage. His lordship told me it was his design to go thither, but that he thought it right to pay me the first visit. " An officer of the French Guards is now under trial for his life at the Hotel de Ville upon an accu sation of being concerned in an attempt the day before yesterday to destroy three whole companies of that regiment in their barracks by poisoning their victuals. It is said that the cook who was employed made the discovery. Everybody, since Monday, has appeared with a cockade in his hat; at first, green ribbons were worn, but that being the colour of the Comte d'Artois' livery, red and white, in honour of the Due d'Orleans, have been substituted. " Thus, my lord, the greatest Revolution that we know anything of has been effected with comparatively few lives lost. From this moment we may consider France as a free country, the King a very limited monarch, and the nobility as reduced to a level with the rest of the nation. " I send your Grace a list of the changes that have been made in the Ministry as far as I know them, for the communication between the Capital and Versailles having been stopped for the last two days, I cannot be certain that others may not have taken place. Your Grace receives also herewith the proceedings in the Assembly of the States-General up to Tuesday. " So long as people are prevented going out of this city I shall be deprived of the opportunities, of which I should otherwise avail myself, to give your Grace information of events as they occur so early as I wish 355 The Bastille to do. The Marquis de la Fayette is named Com mander-in-Chief of the Milice Bourgeoise, and M. Bailly, late President of the States-General, is ap pointed Prevot des Marchands. These nominations are made by the people. " The Royal treasury is in the hands of the bour geoisie, and is untouched. The Caisse d'Escompte is also under the same protection, and payments are made there as usual. " I have been obliged to apply to the parish officers of the district in which I live for their influence with the Hotel de Ville to obtain permission for my mes senger to depart, which has been promised in the handsomest manner possible. At least 200 workmen are employed in pulling down the Bastille, but, as it is a construction of uncommon strength, it will require some time to erase it entirely. " I am, with great truth and respect, " My Lord, " Your Grace's most obedient humble servant, " Dorset. " P.S. — 11 o'clock p.m. — Landzau, the messenger, is just returned from the post-house, where, though he showed an order for horses given him at the Hotel de Ville, the Gardes Bourgeoisies pretended that they had received a counter-order, and that they could not permit him on any account to depart. He, however, takes this with the hope of getting out on foot, and, when clear of the town, of procuring a horse to proceed. D." " To His Grace the Duke of Leeds, etc., etc." 356 Duke of Dorset We think that the British Ambassador might have taken more interest in the unfortunate Major White, and also have done more than he did for Lord Massa rene. We see by the Chronique de Paris of the 24th August, that His Grace left the French capital shortly afterwards. The journal in question said: " Some persons have blamed the hurried departure of the Duke of Dorset for London, and have treated it as an act of pusillanimity; but sensible people as a rule have approved his conduct. The Duke of Dorset was well aware that in spite of the frank and loyal letter which he wrote to the National Assembly, his intentions were still suspected. The violent crisis which reigned in the capital made it a duty for him to adopt this wise and prudent step. The well-known character of this Ambassador can leave no doubt as to his conduct." The fact is that the Duke was recalled in conse quence of a letter which he wrote to the Comte d'Artois, which was found on one of his liveried servants. He was succeeded by Lord Gower, who remained in Paris until the King was committed to the Temple. England was then represented for a short time by Mr. Lindsay, charge d'affaires, and after that by Colonel Munro, who remained at his post, acting as a sort of spy, until January, 1793.* The Austrian Ambassador also sent a long despatch * " Despatches of Earl Gower," by Oscar Browning, Cam bridge University Press, 1885. This volume also contains de spatches from Mr. Lindsay and Colonel Munro, a diary of the second Viscount Palmerston (father of the Premier), etc. 357 The Bastille to the Prince de Kaunitz, relating the events of the day. But the Count de Mercy-Argenteau wrote only from hearsay, for before the attack on the Bastille, he had thought it prudent to leave Paris and to retire to a villa six miles from Versailles. He informed his Court that, " On the 14th, the troops of the city attacked the Bastille with cannon and took the place by storm, after a resistance of three hours. The head of de Launay, and that of the Major of the place, were cut off for killing a portion of the besiegers by treason. . . ." It is true that Count de Mercy-Argenteau, as the friend and adviser of the "Austrian woman," was in very bad odour with the rabble, and Marie Antoinette herself seems to have advised him to keep out of the way, the Republicans being no respecters of persons, even of ambassadors. 358 CHAPTER XI. VARIOUS OPINIONS :— TAINE — LANFREY — MARAT- PAUL LACROIX— RABAUD ST. ETIENNE— BURKE— FOX — MACAULAY — SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH — CROKER— GOUVERNEUR MORRIS To understand the curious condition of France at the close of the eighteenth century one cannot do better than to turn to the pages which Taine has de voted to the period that immediately preceded the fall of the Bastille and the breaking out of the Revolution. In " Les Origines de la France Contemporaine," in chapter vi., entitled " La Propagation de la Doctrine," he says that the aristocracy was imbued with humani tarian and radical principles, that the courtiers were hostile to the Court, and that privileged persons under mined privileges. M. de Vaublanc heard a priest and a Colonel of Hussars talking political economy in a diligence; equality commenced to reign among all classes; literary titles took the precedence of titles of nobility; the courtiers, those slaves of fashion, sought the society of Marmontel, of d'Alembert, and Raynal. " It was impossible," said an enthusiastic young noble, " to visit Larochefoucauld, to meet the friends of Turgot, to breakfast with the Abbe Raynal, to be admitted into the society of the family of M. de Males- 359 The Bastille herbes, and lastly to approach the most amiable of Queens and the most virtuous of Kings without be lieving that we were entering into an age of gold. . . . Far from foreseeing the misfortunes, the excesses, the crimes, the overturning of thrones and principles, we saw in the future all the welfare which the reign of reason could ensure to humanity. . . . Never was reveil more terrible preceded by a sleep more calm or by dreams more seductive. " Never," adds Taine, " was the aristocracy so worthy of power as at the moment it was about to lose it." And after quoting numerous instances of the enlightened and liberal conduct of nobility and clergy, he says: " The nobility of Rheims demanded that the King should be implored to order the demolition of the Bastille." Referring then to some of the first victims of the sovereign people, he writes: "The Archbishop of Paris, who was destined to be pelted with stones, gave 100,000 crowns to improve the Hotel Dieu (a hospital). The Intendant, Berthier, who was afterwards massacred, surveyed the Isle de France in order to equalise the poll tax, which permitted him to reduce it a quarter. The financier Beaujon built a hospital (which still stands in the Faubourg St. Hon- ore). Necker refused his salary, and advanced 2,000,- 000 francs to the treasury. . . . M. de Barral, Bishop of Castres, ordered all his cures to preach in favour of and to propagate the cultivation of potatoes.* * The Comte de Parmentier had the honour of introducing potatoes into France— no easy matter. A field was planted near Versailles over which gendarmes watched during the day. At 360 Taine The Marquis de Guerchy got on a heap of hay with Arthur Young to learn how to make a rick." The King, as our author says, restored their civil rights to Protestants; he abolished the preparatory question; he suppressed forced labour; he established the free circulation of grain; he instituted provincial assemblies; he re-established the navy; he helped the Americans; he freed his own serfs; he diminished the expenses of his household; he employed Malesherbes, Turgot, and Necker; he loosened the reins of the press; he listened to the voice of public opinion. " No Government ever showed itself more indulgent. On the 14th July there were only seven prisoners in the Bastille. No prince was more humane, more charita ble, or took more interest in the poor." In another chapter devoted to " the people," Taine protests against all the slanders invented at this period in order to discredit the Court. No story was too absurd for belief. The credulity of the people was something marvellous. In Auvergne the peasants who burned down the castles showed great repugnance to treat such good lords so badly; but they declared that they were acting on the imperative orders of the King! We have already mentioned in our remarks on the Pacte de famine how the Parisians were convinced that they were being starved to death by the orders of the Court, and that sacks of flour had been thrown into the Seine to accomplish this nefarious design. night, when they were withdrawn, the people pillaged the potatoes, which soon became popular. Never was the truth of the old adage concerning stolen fruit more forcibly illustrated. 361 The Bastille Evidently Taine considers the capture of the Bastille a brutum fulmen, and all the violence and bloodshed of the Revolution as quite unnecessary. One thing is certain. It was an anomaly to demolish the Bastille, to leave the monarchy standing, and to call Louis XVI., without whose signature no one could be committed to the Bastille, the Restorer of Liberty. What does Lanfrey say? In his " Histoire de Napoleon Ier.," referring to the imperial decrees touch ing individual liberty, he thus expresses himself with regard to the ruler who had formerly celebrated with such enthusiasm the fall of the Bastille.* He says: " These questions were solved by Napoleon, who arbi trarily organised State prisons and a censorship. The only thing which astonishes us in all this is, that it was deemed necessary to take so much superfluous trouble. Everything authorised by the new decrees had long been practised without the slightest remonstrance. Napoleon had long been in the habit of arresting, imprisoning, and exiling whomsoever he liked; of suppressing writings, banishing writers, interdicting journals, and shutting up printing houses, without rendering an account of his actions to any one. . . . It is easy to imagine how obscure individuals who had no other defence than their legal rights were dealt with by a man who kept the Pope under lock and key. . . . In 1809 Napoleon directed his Council of State to prepare a bill for the re-establishment of State * In Egypt and elsewhere. 362 Lanfrey prisons. The draft was presented to him. It was preceded by no preamble. It represented facts with terrible conciseness; it was despotism sans phrases. The Emperor himself recoiled before the impression which such a document was calculated to produce. In presence of his Council he allowed a mot truly sublime to escape him. ' I must have,' he said, ' two pages of " considerations " containing Liberal ideas.' . . . Oh, how well the Emperor knew our unfortunate nation, ever the dupe of words, and ready to accept any charlatanism! What dithyrambics and impreca tions had re-echoed through the world on the subject of the Bastille! How much blood had been shed to destroy it ! What enthusiasm for the conquerors ! It was no longer the inoffensive Bastille of Louis XVI. which was to be re-established to-day, but eight Bas tilles distributed through the country at the discretion of an irascible and inexorable power; but they were raised in the name of Liberal ideas, and every one bowed the head. No protests were heard ; not a mur mur was audible. The man who had been carried in triumph the day after the taking of the Bastille, was he not to-day the Senator Comte Hulin? What more could be asked for? Was this not the sole object of the French Revolution? " And what was France given to understand? " That State prisons were necessary for confining persons who in the ordinary course of justice would be condemned to death. They were also intended for persons whose guilt was certain although it could not be proved; also for agents of the Government who could neither be 363 The Bastille released nor brought to trial without compromising the safety of the State. Once a year a list of the State prisoners was to be laid before the Emperor. This decree was announced as a concession made to the people." Was not this re-establishing the Bastille in its worst features? Marat, at times, told his fellow-citizens home truths couched in very plain language, condemning their frivolity and their fury, which blazed up fiercely, and then, having no fixed plan, suddenly abated. His opin ion on the taking of the Bastille was thus expressed in L'Ami du Peuple: " The philosopher finds matter for curious reflections in the ardour with which a num ber of wretched working-men exposed their lives in order to destroy a monument of tyranny which was used only for the punishment of their oppressors." In another number he says that when the Bastille, ill- defended, fell in spite of the efforts of a handful of soldiers . . . the Parisians were attracted there through curiosity. " It is written in the book of life," added he, " that the Parisians are everlasting badauds. Nothing equals their foolish presumption, if it be not their stupid credulity, against which even evidence has often struggled in vain. . . ." * Marat had deeply studied criminal law in England and elsewhere, and some of his reforms in that matter were even introduced into Austria. It is true that a contemporary of Marat has left * L'Ami du Peuple, No. 530. 364 Paul Lacroix the following sketch of that remarkable Dog-leech, as Carlyle has dubbed him: " I have remarked that he was daring, but that he was not brave; he had neither the courage of a spa- dassin nor that of a philosopher. Although he chal lenged Dr. Charles one day ; although he threatened to blow out his brains in the Convention, with a pistol which was not loaded; although he was always speak ing of blood and defying every one, his fanfaronnades never imposed upon me. I knew him too intimately; he was violent but not courageous. Under the des potism he was frightened of the Bastilles, and he was still afraid of the prisons under the reign of liberty. In 1782 I announced my work on the criminal laws; Marat asked me to insert a report which he had addressed to the Society of Berne. I asked him if he wished his name to appear. ' No,' he replied, ' the Bastille is there, and I have no wish to visit it. . . .' When the Bastille was overthrown Marat ceased to fear, and left his den; he even pretended that he had played a part in that glorious event." This is what Paul Lacroix, better known as the " Bibliophile Jacob," says in his " Paris a travers les Ages:" " The immediate result of the taking of the Bastille was the murder of Provost Flesselles, the nomination of Bailly as Mayor of Paris, and the creation of the National Guard under the command of the Marquis de Lafayette. But the people were masters of the fortress they had conquered, and did not seem disposed 365 The Bastille to relinquish their prey. People of all descriptions swarmed like rats into the Bastille, which they filled from top to bottom. Some threw the guns from the battlements into the ditch; others, with pickaxes and hammers, laboured to demolish the towers; these smashed the furniture, tore and dispersed all the books, registers, and papers; those pillaged and carried off anything they fancied; some sought for prisoners to deliver, and were astonished to find the prisons empty. . . . The capture of the Bastille had no other im portance in itself than the triumph of the mob over the royal authority; it was nevertheless considered as a prodigious feat of arms, as a manifest satisfaction given to the public conscience, as the inauguration of a new era. It was, in fact, the signal for a revolution, which commenced with violence, treason, and assas sination." Rabaud St. Etienne, already mentioned, and of whom we shall have occasion to speak anon, wrote in his " Revolution Francaise: " " This singular victory astonished the Court, saved the Assembly, and the King, obliged to capitulate, an nounced that orders had been given for the troops to withdraw from the neighbourhood of Paris. The gen eral intoxication revealed to Louis XVI. the true feeling of the nation, which wished to maintain both the throne and liberty. The capture of the Bastille must have proved to the King that the people acted upon enlightened principles, and were not blinded by passion; for hardly were they masters of the citadel 366 Rabaud St. Etienne when they destroyed it. Its preservation would have been a menace to the royal authority; in pulling it down they sacrificed an odious monument of tyr anny." Poor Rabaud St. Etienne! what a jumble of ideas! When Louis was placed on his trial, our Protestant minister spoke to this effect: " I am tired of my por tion of despotism. I am weary of the tyranny I exercise, and long for the moment when you will create. . . . The people of London, who had been so eager for the death of their King, were the first to curse his judges and to prostrate themselves before his successor. They flocked to witness their punishment. People of Paris, Parliament of France, do you hear me? " Let us turn for a moment to English opinion. Mr. Green remarks, in his " History of the English People," that " A rising ( !) in Paris destroyed the Bastille, and the capture of this fortress was taken for the sign of a new era of constitutional freedom for France and for Europe. Everywhere men thrilled with a strange joy at the tidings of its fall. ' How much is this the great est event that ever happened in the world,' cried Fox, with a burst of enthusiasm; ' and how much the best! ' And again: "The fall of the Bastille, which kindled enthusiasm in Fox, filled Burke with distrust — 'Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice,' he wrote, 'neither is safe. . . .' 'The French,' he cried in January — while Pitt was foretelling a glorious future for the new constitution — 367 The Bastille ' have shown themselves the ablest architects of ruin who have hitherto existed in the world. . . In fact, Burke held opinions similar to those expressed by Larochefoucauld — virtue's self. Macaulay, in his essay on the " History of the Revolution " (the English Revolution), by Sir James Mackintosh, defends the memory of the author from the charge of having, from interested motives, aban doned the doctrines of his " Vindiciee Gallicas." " We have no doubt," writes Macaulay, " that in the ten or twelve years which followed the appearance of that work the opinions of Sir James Mackintosh underwent some change. But did this change pass on him alone? Was it not common? Was it not almost universal? Was there one honest friend of liberty in England or in America whose ardour had not been damped, whose faith in the high destinies of mankind had not been shaken? Was there one observer to whom the French Revolution, or revolutions in general, appeared in exactly the same light on the day when the Bastille fell and on the day when the Girondists were dragged to the scaffold; the day when the Directory shipped off their principal opponents for Guiana; or the day when the legislative body was driven from its hall at the point of the bayonet? We do not speak of light- minded and enthusiastic people, of wits like Sheridan, or of poets like Alfieri, but of the most virtuous prac tical statesmen, and of the deepest, the calmest, the most impartial political speculators of that time. What was the language and conduct of Lord Spencer, 368 Mr. Croker of Lord Fitzwilliam, of Mr. Grattan? What is the tone of M. Dumont's ' Memoirs,' written just at the close of the eighteenth century? . ." We shall have something to say presently of Alfieri. As for Sir James Mackintosh he was indignant with Burke, and expressed his indignation in his " Vindicise Gallicse," because Burke, in a speech on the Army Esti mates in February, 1790, took scant notice of the capture of the Bastille, " which he designated as the King's castle at Paris, whose Governor was murdered, with impunity.* Such was the ignominious language in which he spoke of the summary justice executed on the titled ruffian who was its Governor." No wonder that the opinions of Sir James Mackin tosh should have undergone a change, and that he should have eventually censured the doctrines of which he had formerly approved, or at least their application. And this is what Mr. Croker said in his essay on the French Revolution, entitled " The Guillotine: " " The whole French Revolution, from the taking of *At the commencement of the Revolution Henri IV. was exceedingly popular with the mob, who even forced people to doff their hats as they passed by his statue on the Pont Neuf. When the tombs of the kings were desecrated at St. Denis, and their ashes scattered to the four winds, the remains of the first of the Bourbon line were respected. Now Burke in his estimate of the character of Henry of Navarre, whom he greatly admired, says: " He knew how to make his virtues respected by the ungrateful, he has merited the praises of those whom, if they had lived in his time, he would have shut up in the Bastille, and brought to punishment along with the regicides whom he hanged after he had famished Paris into a surrender." 369 The Bastille the Bastille to the overthrow of the Empire, was, in fact, one long Reign of Terror. The summary ven geance of the lanterne in the early years, the system- atised murders of the guillotine under the Convention, the arbitrary exile to pestilential climates under the Directory, and the tortures of the dungeon and the military executions under Bonaparte, all tended in their way to the creation and the maintenance of that great imposture, of which all the motives and pretences were the falsest and most delusive that ever audacity forged, credulity believed, or cowardice obeyed." We will now take a few leaves from the diary and letters of Gouverneur Morris, sent by the United States on a mission to the French Government. He had no sooner arrived in Paris than he wrote in his diary: " Lafayette is full of politics; he appears to be too Republican for the genius of his country." During an experience of several years Gouverneur Morris found no reason to alter this opinion, that the French were not prepared for the revolution into which they plunged. When Lafayette showed him the draft of the cele brated Declaration of Rights which he proposed to the National Assembly, he writes : " I gave him my opinions and suggested several amendments, tend ing to soften the high-coloured expressions of free dom. It is not by sounding words that revolutions are produced." 37o Gouverneur Morris TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL.* " Paris, 25th February, 1789. " A republican, and just as it were emerged from that assembly, which has formed one of the most republican of all republican Constitutions, I preach incessantly respect for the Prince, attention to the rights of the nobility, and moderation, not only in the object but in the pursuit of it. All this, you will say, is none of my business; but I consider France as the natural ally of my country, and of course, that we are interested in her prosperity; besides, to say the truth, I love France, and, as I believe the King to be an honest and good man, I sincerely wish him well, and the more so as I am persuaded that he earnestly desires the felicity of his people. Gouverneur Morris." TO GEORGE WASHINGTON. " Paris, March 3rd, 1789. " Our friend, the Marquis de Lafayette, is now in Auvergne, attending his election. This country pre sents an astonishing spectacle to one who has collected his ideas from books and information half-a-dozen years old. Everything is a I' Anglais (sic), and a desire to imitate the English prevails alike in the cut of a coat and the form of a Constitution." f * American Charge d' Affaires at Madrid. t Count Miot de Melito says in his "Memoirs" (chapter i.), that the disaffection in the French army arose from the attempt to introduce Prussian drill and Prussian discipline which had 371 The Bastille TO DOCTOR JOHN JONES. " Paris, 18th April, 1789. " At present we are in a fine situation, for what the bucks or bloods would term a frolic or high fun. The Ministers have disgusted this city by the manner of convoking them to elect their representatives for the States-General, and at the same time bread is getting dearer, so that when the people assemble on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday next, what with hunger and discontent, the least spark would set everything in a flame. The State physicians have, by way of antidote, brought between fifteen and twenty thousand regular troops within and around the city, so that at any rate the bons bourgeois may not have all the fun to them selves. This measure will rather tend to produce than to prevent riot, for some of the young nobility have brought themselves to an active faith in the natural equality of mankind, and spurn at everything which looks like restraint. There are some anecdotes of this sort, the most whimsical and ridiculous imagi nable. . . ,* " Gouverneur Morris." triumphed in the Seven Years' War. He adds that some English officers who crossed the Channel to attend the autumn manoeuvres were the object of public admiration and affection. " Behold," they said, " free men. Behold the models which we should follow, and not the machine soldiers of a despot king." * These nobles included the Marquis de Lafayette and Ro- chambeau, the Comte de Noailles and the Comte Charles de Lameth, who commanded a regiment of cuirassiers, the Marquis de Grouchy, of Waterloo fame, de Custine and de Biron, who were both guillotined. 372 French Depravity TO GEORGE WASHINGTON. " Paris, 29th April, 1789. " I say that we have an interest in the liberty of France. The leaders here are our friends. Many of them have imbibed their principles in America, and all have been fired by our example. . . . " The materials for a revolution in this country are very indifferent. Everybody agrees that there is an utter prostration of morals; but this general position can never convey to an American mind the degree of depravity. ... It is, however, from such crumb ling matter that the great edifice of freedom is to be erected here. Perhaps, like the stratum of rock which is spread under the whole surface of their country, it may harden when exposed to the air; but it seems to me quite as likely that it will fall and crush the builders. " I own to you that I am not without such appre hensions, for there is one fatal principle which pervades all ranks. It is a perfect indifference to the violation of engagements. . . . The great mass of the people have no religion but their priests, no law but their superiors, no morals but their interest. These are the creatures who, led by drunken curates, are now on the high road a la liberte, and the first use of it they make is to form insurrections everywhere for the want of bread. . . ." The above letter contains a remarkable prophecy with regard to the fate of the " builders," and a correct 373 The Bastille view of the general state of affairs. The constant vio lation of engagements engendered suspicion — " That constant companion of vice and weakness which has loosened every bond of social union," wrote Gouver neur Morris to Jefferson. "June 23rd, 1789. — At dinner I sit next M. de Lafayette, who tells me that I injure the cause, for that my sentiments are continually quoted against the good party. I seize this opportunity to tell him that I am opposed to the democracy from regard to liberty. That I see they are going headlong to destruction, and would fain stop them if I could. That their views respecting this nation are totally inconsistent with the materials of which it is composed, and that the worst thing which could happen would be to grant their wishes. He tells me that he is sensible that his party are mad, and tells them so, but is not the less deter mined to die with them. I tell him that it would be quite as well to bring them to their senses and to live with them. . . ." In the end Lafayette neither died nor lived with, but ran away from them. TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL. " Paris, ioth July, 1789. "... I have steadily combated the violence and excess of those persons who, either inspired by an enthusiastic love of freedom or prompted by sinister designs, are disposed to drive everything to extremity. Our American example has done them good; but like 374 Capture of the Bastille all novelties, liberty runs away with their discretion, if they have any. They want an American Constitution, with a President instead of a King, without reflecting that they have not American citizens to support that Constitution. . . ." Gouverneur Morris then refers in his diary to the capture of the Bastille, which he considered a won derful and a beneficial performance, until he witnessed the results. We shall allow him to tell us, in his own language, what some of those results were, and how he appreciated them. His observations, brimful of sound common-sense and quite disinterested, deserve our at tention. We may add that Gouverneur Morris ten dered his advice not only to Lafayette, but to the King and to the Queen, doing what he could to save them from the consequences of their errors. " 14th July. — While sitting here a person comes and announces the taking of the Bastille, the Governor of which is beheaded, and also the Prevot des Marchands. They are carrying the heads in triumph through the city. The taking of this citadel is among the most extraordinary things that I have met with. . . . Yesterday it was the fashion at Versailles not to believe that there were any disturbances in Paris. I presume that this day's transactions will induce a conviction that all is not perfectly quiet." Referring to the King's visit to Paris, Gouverneur Morris writes: ". . . Dress immediately and go out. Get a 375 The Bastille window in the Rue St. Honore, through which the procession is to pass. In squeezing through the crowd my pocket is picked of a handkerchief which I value far beyond what the thief will get for it; and I would willingly pay him for his dexterity could I retrieve it. . . ." Gouverneur Morris says nothing about the appear ance of the King upon this occasion, merely remarking that the procession was magnificent in every respect. " 19th July. — The painter shows us a piece he is now about for the King, taken from the^Eneid — Venus restraining the arm which is raised in the Temple of the Vestals to shed the blood of Helen. I tell him that he had better paint the storming of the Bastille. It will be a more fashionable picture, and that one trait will admit of a fine effect. It is one of the Gardes Francaises, who, having got hold of the gate, and unable to bring it down, cries to his comrades of the populace to pull him by his legs; and this man has the force and courage to hold while a dozen of them pull him like a rope and bring down the gate; so that he actually sustains the rack. To represent him drawn out of joint, with his head turned round encouraging them to draw still harder, must, I think, have a fine effect. The Bishop of Autun (Talleyrand) agrees with me entirely. I recommend a subscription to collect the various papers found in the Bastille, and then to employ an able hand to write the annals of that dia bolical castle from the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV. to the present time. Something of this sort will, I believe, be done. 376 Foulon " 22nd July.— After dinner walk a little under the Arcade of the Palais Royal, waiting for my carriage. In this period the head and body of M. de Foulon are introduced in triumph. The head on a pike, the body dragged naked on the earth. Afterwards this horrible exhibition is carried through the different streets. His crime is to have accepted a place in the Ministry.* This mutilated form of an old man of seventy-five is shown to his son-in-law, Berthier, the Intendant of Paris; and afterwards he also is put to death and cut to pieces, the populace carrying about the mangled fragments with a savage joy. Gracious God, what a people ! " Gouverneur Morris is already disenchanted with his Republicans. Concerning the march of the women to Versailles we find Gouverneur Morris writing: " 5th Oct. — Lafayette has marched by compulsion, guarded by his own troops, who suspect and threaten him. Dreadful situation! Obliged to do what he abhors, or suffer an ignominious death, with the cer tainty that the sacrifice of his life will not prevent the mischief. "A gentleman tells me an anecdote which shows how well this nation is adapted to the enjoyment of free dom. He walked near a knot of people collected together where an orator was haranguing. The sub stance of his oration was: ' Messieurs, nous manquons * Was he not also accused of recommending the starving popu lation to eat grass ? 377 The Bastille du pain, et voici la raison. II n'y a que trois jours que le Roi a eu ce veto suspensif, et deja les aristocrats ont achete des suspensions, et envoye les grains hors du Royaume.' * To this sensible and profound discours his audience gave a hearty consent. ' Ma foi, il a raison. Ce n'est que ca.' Oh rare! These are the modern Athenians! Alone learned, alone wise, alone polite, and the rest of mankind barbarians ! " 6th Oct. — Paris is all in a tumult. Two heads of the Gardes du Corps are brought to town. The Royal Family are to come this afternoon. Capellis gives us a recital of what has passed; many circumstances of insult to the royal personages. The Queen obliged to fly from her bed in her undress, with her stockings in her hand, to the King's chamber for protection, being pursued by the Poissardes.j- . . . The Queen, in retiring to her chamber, told her attendants that as * The veto suspensif was the last shred of power which the Constitution of 1791 left in the hands of the King; it enabled him to suspend the decrees of the Assembly for three years. Of course this power was a mere shadow, conferred as it was by the stronger on the weaker. t " Yesterday," says Lord Gower, in a despatch of the ist April, 1791, " I had a singular proof of the degree of license which the inhabitants of this country at present enjoy. Having gone after dinner to make a visit to M. de Montmorin (Foreign Min ister), I was surprised at my entrance into the drawing-room to see it uncommonly full of company ; and my surprise was con siderably increased when I perceived that the female part of it consisted of those ladies who in this town go under the denomina tion of dames de la halle or poissardes. They were at the moment of taking leave of the Minister with the most cordial embraces, having already performed that ceremony to most of the corps diplomatique who had the misfortune of dining there, and of the newly-appointed Foreign Ministers. . . ." 378 Plight of Royalty the King was determined to go to Paris, she must accompany him; but she should never leave it. Poor lady! This is a sad presage of what is too likely. "nth Oct. — . . . Told Lafayette that he must have coadjutors in whom he can confide. That as to the objections he has made on the score of morals in some, he must consider that men do not go into an Administration as the direct road to Heaven." TO GEORGE WASHINGTON. " Paris, 24th January, 1790. ". . . The National Assembly is busily engaged in pillaging the present occupant of his authority; how much they will leave him will depend upon the chapter of accidents. I believe it will be very little; but little or much, the perspective of such a King and such an Assembly brings to my mind a saying which Shakes peare has put into the mouth of an old soldier, on hearing that Lepidus, one of the famous Triumvirate, was dead: ' So the poor third is up. World, thou hast but a pair of chops, and throw between them all the food thou may'st, they needs must grind each other.' " * And so they did grind each other. Saturn devoured his children. *Eros. ... So the poor third is up, till death enlarge his confine. Enobarbus. Then, world, thou hast a pair of chaps, no more ; And throw between them all the food thou hast, They'll grind the one the other. Antony and Cleopatra, Act III., sc. v. 379 The Bastille And Gouverneur Morris added: " If the reigning Prince were not the small-beer character that he is, there can be little doubt that, watching events and making a tolerable use of them, he would regain his authority; but what will you have from a creature who, situated as he is, eats, and drinks, and sleeps well, and is as merry a grig as lives? The idea that they will give him some money, which he can economise, and that he will have no trouble in governing, contents him entirely.* Poor man! he little thinks how unstable his situation is. . . . There is no possibility of serving him, because at the slightest show of opposition he gives up everything and every person." TO RUFUS KING. " Paris, 23rd October, 1792. " The King took refuge with the Assembly, and is now a prisoner of State with his family. " But now the ideas of revolt, which had been fos tered for his overthrow, are grown very troublesome to those who have possessed themselves of the author ity. It is not possible to say, either to the people or to the sea, So far shalt thou go and no farther; and we shall have, I think, some sharp struggles, which will make many men repent of what they have done, when they find, with Macbeth, that they have but taught * According to the Constitution of 1791 Louis XVI. was to have a Civil List of no less than 30,000,000 francs, or £1,200,000, an enormous sum for those times. 380 The Feast of Reason bloody instructions, which return to plague the inventor." * TO THOMAS JEFFERSON. " Sainport, November 16th, 1793. " I must, by the way, say one word as to the over throw of the Catholic religion. It is now expiring under the wounds of the true French weapon, ridicule. The people who five years ago fell down in the dirt as the consecrated matter passed by, now dance the carmagnole in holy vestments, and perform ether mum meries, which it might seem profane to mention. The late Feast of Reason is a very striking feature in the countenance of the Revolution. You know the opera girl Saunier, who is, though very beautiful, next door to an idiot. It is said, also, that she is anything except what the French call sage. It is she who lately asked the painter David to invent for her some dress which should be more indecent than nakedness; and the painter, it seems, had genius enough to comply with her wish. . . . This actress was pitched upon to represent Reason in a kind of opera performed at Notre Dame. In the course of it she stood in the place ci-devant most holy, and was there adored on bended knees by the President of the Convention, and other principal characters. . . ." f * Macbeth That we but teach Bloody instructions, which being taught, return To plague the inventor. , Macbeth, Act I., sc. vn. t Lamartine, in his " Histoire des Girondins," says of the Feast : " The inauguration of this worship took place at the Convention 381 The Bastille In spite of ridicule, philosophers, Feast of Reason, altars to Marat, etc., etc., Napoleon Bonaparte had little difficulty in re-establishing the Catholic religion in 1800. TO EDMUND RANDOLPH, SECRETARY OF STATE. " Sainport, near Paris, April 15th, 1794. " Danton always believed and, what is worse, as to himself at least, always maintained that a popular system of government for this country was absurd; that the people were too ignorant, too inconstant, and too corrupt to support a legal administration; that, habituated to obey, they required a master; and that even had they been educated in the principles of free- on the 9th November. Chaumette, accompanied by the members of the Commune, and escorted by a large mob, entered the Cham ber to the sound of music and the singing of patriotic hymns. He led one of the handsomest courtesans of Paris by the hand, the idol being half-covered with a long blue veil. A band of prosti tutes, her companions, followed, escorted by seditious citizens. This ignoble crowd entered the assembly confusedly, and occupied the benches of the Deputies. Lequinio presided. " Chaumette, advancing towards him, raised the veil which covered the courtesan, and exclaimed : ' Mortals, recognise no other divinity than Reason, of which I present you the loveliest and purest impersonification.' " After the adoration came sing ing and dancing, in which several honourable members joined. Shortly afterwards the Feast of Reason was inaugurated at Notre Dame, when " the Divinity of the People " was played by Mdlle. Maillard, a lovely and talented actress who had formerly been a favourite of the Queen. " No profanation was wanting " to render this orgy disgraceful. No wonder Gouverneur Morris saw these things with disgust. 382 The Feast of Reason dom, and joined to the energy of sentiment the force of habit, yet, like ancient Rome, they had reached the period in which Cato was a madman and Cassar a necessary evil. His conduct was in perfect unison with those principles when he acted; but he was too volup tuous for his ambition, too indolent to acquire supreme power. . . . Some one observed the other day in conversation that all the men of the ioth August (when the Tuileries were stormed) have passed away already, and those also of the 2nd September (the massacre in the prisons). It is certain that the 10th August is to be attributed chiefly to Westermann, one of those lately guillotined, and that Danton was among the prime movers of the scenes of September. The reason for that massacre will perhaps be found in the old adage, ' Dead men tell no tales.' Oliver Cromwell understood well the value of mob sentiment when he replied to his chaplain, vain of the applauding crowd which thronged round his master's coach: ' There would be as many, and as glad, to attend me to the gallows.' " And this sentiment may have suggested to Sir Walter Scott the words he put in the mouth of King James on entering Edinburgh: " Ah, Lennox, who would care to rule This changeful crowd, this common fool? For like acclaim would Douglas greet If he could hurl me from my seat." Gouverneur Morris was obliged to leave France at last, and when he had got well away he wrote: 383 The Bastille TO GEORGE WASHINGTON. " Hamburg, December 30, 1794. " You will see from what is publicly known respect ing those who administered French despotism, how painful it must have been to represent our virtuous Republic to such persons. I had stayed, at some risk, after the 10th August, because I thought that the in terests of America required it, and I did not ask my recall at a subsequent period, because it would not have been honourable to abandon a post which, if no longer unsafe, was at least unpleasant. ... I saw misery and affliction every day and all around me, without power to mitigate or means to alleviate; and I felt myself degraded by the communication I was forced into with the worst of mankind, in order to obtain re dress for injuries sustained by my fellow countrymen. . . . The French are wearied and exhausted by the war. They detest and despise their present rulers, and as far as I have been able to judge, they ardently desire the restoration of their Prince. You will ask me why they do not restore him. It is because they dare not act, nor even speak, so that they do not know each other's opinions; but everything which has happened leaves them to look back with regret to their ancient situation. In judging the French we must not recur to the feelings of America during the last war. We were in the actual enjoyment of freedom, and fought, not to obtain but to secure its blessings. . . . But in France they have been lured by one idle hope after another, until they are plunged in the depth of misery 384 Morris Justified and servitude; servitude so much the more degrad ing as they cannot but despise their masters. I have long, you know, predicted a single despotism, and you have seen how near they have been to that catas trophe. Chance, or rather the want of mettle in the usurper, has alone saved them to the present moment ; but I am still convinced that they must end their voyage in that port. . . ." And Gouverneur Morris again prophesied cor rectly. 385 CHAPTER XII. WHAT BECAME OF SOME OF THE HEROES OF THIS DRAMA: LOUIS XVI.— CAMILLE DESMOULINS— BAILLY— BRISSOT — ABBE FAUCHET — LINGUET— LAROCHEFOUCAULD — LAFAYETTE — PETHION— SANTERRE — MIRABEAU — THEROIGNE DE MERI- COURT— PALLOY— LATUDE — MARCEAU— HULIN— MARAT — RABAUD ST. ETIENNE — THE ARCH BISHOP OF PARIS— THURIOT DE LA ROSIERE— DUSSAULT — MALESHERBES — MANUEL — CARRA —DANTON— DE RENNEVILLE— ABBE MORELLET— PHILIPPE EGALITE It may be asked what became of the persons who played a part in this great national drama? The King, declared to be the restorer of French liberty, and whose statue was to have stood on the site of the Bastille, was guillotined. A similar fate overtook Camille Des moulins,* who had excited the people against the * On his way to the scaffold Camille Desmoulins never ceased imploring the pity of the people, who scoffed at and reviled him. " Generous people ! unfortunate people ! " he shouted, " you are deceived ; your best friends are being sacrificed ! Look at me — save me ! I am Camille Desmoulins ! It was I who called you to arms on the 14th July ! It was I who gave you the national cockade ! " His ravings and his supplications were all in vain. 386 The Taking of the Bastille Mirabeau and Others stronghold of tyranny in the Palais Royal; Bailly, the Mayor of Paris, who had suggested that the device, " Ici Ton danse," should be inscribed over the ruins of the old prison; Brissot, to whom the keys were taken; the Abbe Fauchet, who repented when too late of the error of his ways; * Manuel, who joined the storming party, and of whom we shall speak anon; Linguet, whose woes, both real and imaginary, did so much to bring down the walls of the Bastille. Larochefoucauld, " Virtue's self," had his brains dashed out with a pav ing-stone at Girsors. Lafayette had to fly from France, and remained for some time a prisoner at Olmutz. Maillard vanished from the scene, and what became of him none can tell. Pethion, who succeeded Bailly as Mayor of Paris, when endeavouring to reach the frontier was devoured by wolves, together with his colleague, Buzot. Santerre, " the sonorous brewer of the Faubourg St. Antoine," who formed one of the storming party, after a brief career of bluster and violence, subsided into obscurity. Mirabeau, who went to visit the stronghold of tyranny after its capture, escaped mob law during life, but his remains were torn * Lamartine thus describes the Abbe on his trial : " The Abbe Fauchet came immediately after Valaze. He was in his fiftieth year ; but the beauty of his features, his lofty stature, and the freshness of his complexion, made him appear much younger. His dress, from its colour and make, befitted his sacred profession; and his hair was so cut as to show the tonsure of the Christian priest, so long covered by the red cap of the revolu tionist. His features expressed the feelings of his mind — enthu siasm. The Revolutionary tribunal was to Fauchet a sanctuary to which he came to confess his faults and expiate them by the sacrifice of his blood." 387 The Bastille from the Pantheon, and replaced by those of Marat.* Theroigne de Mericourt, " the Amazon of Liberty," who took part in the siege, and who afterwards de manded that the Convention should be built on the site of the Bastille, had her reward; she was fustigated in the gardens of the Tuileries, was driven mad through shame and anger, and died in the lunatic asylum of Bicetre. Palloy, the demolisher, we know died poor. Latude, whose long incarceration and wonderful escapes wove a legend round his name, was allowed to spend the last days of his life in comparative poverty and neglect. Marceau rose to be a general, and died a soldier's death, admired by friend and foe.f Hulin also became a gen eral, a count, and a senator, and one of the most pliant instruments of Napoleon. He sat in judgment upon the Due d'Enghien; and we find him acting as Com- * The ceremony was made as impressive as possible. The ushers of the Convention made their appearance at the entrance of the Pantheon, and there read aloud the decree which expelled the remains of Gabriel Honore Riquetti Mirabeau from the said temple. The ashes of the author of " Les Lettres de Cachet et les Prisons d'Etat " were conveyed to Clamart and consigned to earth among the bones of common criminals, nor is the exact spot where they were laid known to mortals. Alas, poor Yorick ! t Honour to Marceau ! o'er whose early tomb Tears, big tears, gush'd from the rough soldier's lid, Lamenting and yet envying such a doom, Falling for France, whose rights he battled to resume. Brief, brave and glorious was his young career — His mourners were two hosts, his friends and foes: And fitly may the stranger lingering here Pray for his gallant spirit's bright repose, For he was Freedom's champion Childe Harold. 388 Thuriot de la Rosier e mandant of Paris when the Allies took the French capital in 1814, and escorting the Empress Marie Louise to Compiegne. He was allowed to die in peace under the second Restoration. Marat, who boasted that he shared in the glories of the 14th of July, fell a victim to the avenging blade of " the Angel of Assassination." Rabaud St. Etienne, too, our Protestant pastor, who was so loud in his praises of the heroes of the Bastille, was rewarded by being sent to the guillotine. As for Antoine Elenor Le Clerc de Juigne, who celebrated the Te Deum at Notre Dame — a most pious and charitable prelate, who gave more than half his goods to the poor — he saved his life by flight, afterwards returning to his native land, a wiser man, to die in peace under the restored monarchy. Thuriot de la Rosiere, who was one of the delegates of the Hotel de Ville, and whom we have seen playing a prominent part in the proceedings which immediately preceded the attack on the Bastille, was afterwards im plicated in nearly all the most violent measures of the Revolution. We find his name mixed up with the terrible September massacre and with the death of the King. He was President of the Committee of Public Safety when Robespierre was denounced as a modere, and on the 9th Thermidor he was in the chair when " the sea-green incorruptible " was attacked in the Convention, and refused to allow him to defend him self. For this and his conduct on the 14th July, Michelet called Thuriot a " terrible bulldog, who killed the Bastille and killed Robespierre." We afterwards 389 The Bastille find this violent enemy of despotism, who was a lawyer by profession, seconding Napoleon Bonaparte, and sitting among the unjust judges who tried and con demned Moreau, Pichegru, and Georges Cadoudal. In 1805 he was rewarded with the Legion of Honour, and it was not until 1816 that he was overtaken by some slight retribution and banished the kingdom. He seems to have ended his career at Liege in 1829. Dussault, unlike Thuriot, behaved with modera tion throughout the Revolution, and narrowly escaped being sent to the scaffold. His biographer says: " It is a remarkable fact that when the Committee of Public Safety wished to send Dussault to execution, it was Marat who obtained his pardon by declaring that he was in his dotage and incapable of doing any harm." Dussault was allowed to die in peace. Saved from a violent death by Marat, he breathed his last in 1799, after a long and painful illness. And what of Malesherbes, who threw open the prison-doors to all the victims of despotism, and of whose visit to the Bastille we have spoken? Lamar tine, in his " History of the Girondins," after describing the fate of Condorcet, says: " Another philosopher, M. de Malesherbes, expe rienced the same misfortune, but more glory. He sealed his life by his death. His long and modest career of virtue was crowned by a condemnation. After the act of supreme fidelity which he had accom plished in defending Louis XVI. before the Conven tion, M. de Malesherbes had retired to the country, where he lived like a patriarch in the midst of his 390 Malesherbes children and his grandchildren. He was arrested together with M. de Rosambeau, his son-in-law, his two grand-daughters and their husbands. One of these was M. de Chateaubriand, the elder brother of him who was destined to render additional lustre to his name. They were all thrown into prison. M. de Malesherbes had learned how to die in the Temple. He died without indignation towards his assassins. . . . The prisoners in the Conciergerie demand ed his blessing. He gave it to them smiling. ' Above all,' he said, ' do not pity me. I was formerly disgraced for desiring to advance the Revolution by popular measures of reform. I am about to die for having remained faithful to the memory of my King. I die in peace with the past and the future.' His whole family followed him in a few days to the scaffold." Thus died Malesherbes, who, as Lamartine says, " had twice been Minister of Louis XVI., and had been repaid with ingratitude and exile, not by the King, but by the clergy, the aristocracy, and the Court ; " that is to say by those classes against which the Revo lution was aimed. Lamartine adds that " Malesherbes was a Liberal and a philosopher, who in an age of arbitrary power wished to apply the rules of reason and justice; a disciple of Jean Jacques Rousseau, and a friend of Turgot, who had rendered himself popular with the philosophers by favouring the introduction of the Encyclopedia; a man who, in a time of legal dark ness and censure, had boldly exposed abuses and declared himself the apostle of light, who was a 391 The Bastille Republican at heart with the manners and feelings of the monarchy, who was a living example of that con tradiction which exists in men born as it were on the threshold of a revolution, whose ideas belong to one age and whose habits belong to another." Such was the man done to death, together with his family, by the fiends of the Revolution— a man concerning whom Mirabeau, when he was dying, exclaimed: "Ah! if I had brought to affairs the virtue of Malesherbes, what destinies I might have reserved for my country." The career of Louis Pierre Manuel was full of strange vicissitudes. As soon as he left school he entered into the Brotherhood of the Christian Doc trine, and became tutor in the family of a rich banker. We then find him eking out his existence as a pamph leteer, and, as we have seen, committed to the Bastille for a lampoon, " the sole merit of which," as his bio grapher says, " was its scandal." On the breaking out of the Revolution he embraced its principles, was appointed Administrator of Police, and shortly after wards Procurator of the Commune. He was mixed up in all the violent acts of the Revolution, such as the storming of the Tuileries on the ioth August and the massacres of September. On the other hand he saved the lives of Madame de Tourzel, the governess of the royal children, of Madame de Stael and some of her friends, of Beaumarchais, and the Abbe Sicard; evil tongues say for a handsome pecuniary considera tion. Manuel had therefore the honour of rescuing from almost certain death the authoress of " Corinne " 392 Manuel and the author of " The Marriage of Figaro." After demanding that Louis XVI. should be confined in the Temple, declaring the monarchy abolished, and pro posing that the castle of Versailles should be sold, Manuel suddenly became moderate — a moderation said to have been due to frequent interviews with Louis XVI. in his prison. However this may be, he opposed the trial of the King by the Convention, on the ground that it was not a tribunal. He soon became so un popular that he considered it prudent to retire to his native village, but he was pursued there by the sleuth- hounds of the Terror, and was tried and executed in November, 1793. We may add that it was thanks to Manuel that the celebrated letters from " Mirabeau to Sophie," and which he found in the Bastille, were published, much to the annoyance of Mirabeau's family, who prosecuted Manuel and had the volume seized. When Charpentier was writing his work, " La Bas tille Devoilee," he paid Manuel a visit, and obtained from him the following statement, which shows that this Jacobin had no mean idea of himself: " I was one of the victims of despotism because I wished to become one of the apostles of liberty too soon. The police did me great harm; I revenge myself by doing the police all the good I can. " Would that I had time to search through my papers to find what I did and what I thought when in prison. At least you would make yourself acquainted with my proud and independent mind, and I should have a claim on your esteem and envy. 393 The Bastille " I am going to quote a boutade from memory; it is a parody of the Imprecation de Camille (written in the Bastille) : La Bastille, ou la nuit sert des tyrans heureux! La Bastille, ou la haine est le plaisir des dieux ! La Bastille, ou la force enchaine le genie ! La Bastille, ou Ton meurt sans sortir de la vie ! (1786.) " What is astonishing is that the day we planted on the cannons (sic) the standard of the Revolution, breaking in the door of my room, I found in the back of the arm-chair in which I had passed three months, these verses which I had hidden there when a prisoner. " Manuel, Administrator of Police." The lines written by Manuel form a strange contrast with the following which appeared in the Anti-Jacobin, showing what sort of justice succeeded that of the monarchy : Such is the liberal Justice which presides In these our days, and modern patriots guides; Justice whose blood-stain'd book one sole decree, One statute fills — " The people must be free." Free by what means ? By folly, madness, guilt, By boundless rapines ; blood in oceans spilt ; By confiscation, in whose sweeping toils The poor man's pittance with the rich man's spoils, Mix'd in one common mass are swept away, To glut the short-lived tyrant of the day — By laws, religion, morals all o'erthrown. We shall merely add that when Manuel's sentence was made known his fellow-prisoners in the Concier- 394 Jean Louis Carra gerie applauded the verdict, for they considered that he had been instrumental in bringing about the Sep tember massacres. They pointed out to him the pillars which were still stained with the blood of his victims. Nor must we forget the fate of Jean Louis Carra in this brief enumeration of persons who, after having helped to sow the storm, reaped the whirlwind. Accused in early life of theft, Carra fled into Ger many, where he wandered about for a long time. We next find him acting as secretary to the Hospodar of Moldavia, who, for following his advice, was strangled by order of the Sublime Porte. After this catastrophe Carra returned to France, and acted for a time as secretary to the Cardinal de Rohan, and then as librarian to the King, but was soon dismissed for bad conduct. He next became a demagogue and a jour nalist, and at the same time wrote a number of polit ical, historical, and scientific works. Among his other literary labours he translated a history of Ancient Greece from the English of Gillias, and published his historical and authentic memoirs of the Bastille in London, a work which we have more than once quoted. He afterwards joined the moderate party in the Convention, as the friend and ally of Brisson, and became suspect for bringing forward in the Jacobin Club the strange proposal that the Duke of York should be called to the throne of France. He is also supposed to have been concerned in the offer of the said throne made to the Duke of Brunswick. He con- 395 The Bastille cerns us more, however, as being the author of a work on the Bastille, in the preface of which he says: " They have fallen, those walls, raised by vengeance and tyranny ! They have disappeared, those threaten ing towers which contained the victims of monarchical pride and the fearful secrets of despotism. The impure blood of a few traitors immolated on their ruins cannot appease the manes of the unfortunate wretches who have groaned or died in that horrid Tartarus. It is for history to avenge the laws of violated justice and insulted humanity." Yet Carra's denunciation of the Bastille and tyranny did not save him from the Repub lican blade. He perished on the scaffold with Brissot and the other Girondins. Lamartine has given the following sketch of him when placed on his trial: " His vulgar physiognomy, the stoop of his shoulders, his large head and disordered attire, recalled Marat, and contrasted with the stature and beauty of Duchatel, next whom he sat. Learned, without any stable ideas, fanatical, declamatory, and impetuous alike in attack and defence, he had sided with the Gironde to resist the excesses of the people. . . ." Danton, too, who took possession of the Bastille after the 14th July, and who became, according to Lamar tine, the Colossus of the Revolution, died on the scaffold in company with Camille Desmoulins, Wester- mann, and other victims of Robespierre. In the Almanack des Prisons we find this anecdote of Danton and Tom Paine, who was his fellow captive in the Luxembourg. After his trial Danton, meeting Paine, 396 Philippe Egalite said " Good morning " to him in English. He added: " What you did for the liberty and happiness of your country I, in vain, endeavoured to do for mine. I have been less fortunate, but not more guilty than you. They send me to the scaffold. Well, my friends, I shall go there merrily." Such was the mca maxima cidpa of the Colossus. We had almost forgotten the Duke of Orleans, better known as Philippe Egalite, whose bust, in company of that of Necker, had been borne through the streets of Paris and used to excite the mob on the day preceding the fall of the Bastille. He, too, ex perienced the ingratitude of the people, losing both life and honour in their cause. He quitted life with courage, calling for oysters before he set out for the scaffold. However, as Juvenal says in his eighth satire: Dignus morte perit, ccenet licet ostrea centum Gaurana .... In looking at the fate of these misguided men, who encouraged revolt and then became the victims of the mob, may not we exclaim with Shakespeare: The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices Make instruments to scourge us.* Victor Cousin says, in his " History of Philosophy," that Voltaire was the real king of the eighteenth cen tury, and that Voltaire was the scholar of England. * King Lear, Act V., scene iii. 397 The Bastille Several of the persons mentioned in this chapter ac quired a taste for liberty in England or in America, or from the study of English authors — Lafayette in America, Brissot in America and in England. Not only did Marat remain for a long time in our country, but he wrote a work called the " Chains of Slavery " in our language. Buckle, in the long list he gives of Frenchmen who were acquainted with the English language,* mentions the names of Voltaire, Brissot, Lafayette, Morellet, Marmontel, Linguet, Marat, Carra, Camille Desmoulins, and the Duke of Orleans. Lamartine tells us that, on the night preceding his execution, Camille Desmoulins took up those two " poets of agony," Young and Hervey, and that West- ermann bantered him for wishing to die twice. Linguet paid two visits to England, one visit before and one after his incarceration in the Bastille. It was during his second visit that he wrote his " Memoires sur la Bastille." Three of the most stinging works against the Bastille were, therefore, published in Eng land — those of Linguet, Carra, and de Renneville. The two first authors, as we know, were guillotined; but no one is aware what became of de Renneville, who is supposed to have been assassinated in London. In Mr. Buckle's list we find our old friend the Abbe Morellet — the Mors-les of Voltaire. He managed to get through the Revolution unscathed; he was taken up for lack of civism, but when his judge learned that he had been a prisoner in the Bastille, his whole manner * " History of Civilisation," t. ii., p. 114, etc. 398 Duke of Orleans changed, and the Abbe, more fortunate than Linguet, Manuel, and Brissot, whose captivity was taken into no account, was restored to liberty. Lamartine describes Brissot, who on his trial imi tated Franklin, as " a man of middle age, of small stature, and wan features lighted up by intelligence and ennobled by an intrepid determination. Clad with the affected simplicity of the philosopher or man of nature, his threadbare black coat was but a piece of cloth cut mathematically to cover the limbs of a man. His hair, worn short in front and falling down on his neck behind, made him resemble the American Quaker, his model. Brissot held in his hand a pencil and paper, on which at every moment he made some notes." The Duke of Orleans was in England when the Revolution broke out; and when he made up his mind to return to France Admiral Payne rowed him to his yacht, which was lying off Brighton. On taking leave of the Admiral he grasped his hand with much emo tion, and said, with tears in his eyes: " If I consulted my inclination, or my safety, I should stay in your happy country; but I am told that I am bound in honour to return ; for that reason, and that reason only, I go. You, my dear Payne, will recollect that I am not blind to my situation, nor to the scenes I am going to encounter. I shall do no good to any one; I shall lead a dreadful life; and I shall probably perish among the first, or at least very soon." 399 The Bastille In the part they played, these men were guilty of wishing to pour new wine into old bottles, and of trying to introduce English institutions into a country quite unprepared for them. De Tocqueville has re marked that " the contrast between the benignity of its doctrines and the violence of its acts which formed one of the strangest parts of the French Revolution, will surprise no one who bears in mind that it was prepared by the most intellectual and carried out by the most uneducated class in the nation." The result may have been natural enough, but that hardly re moves the responsibility from the shoulders of those who, without due reflection, swept away the existing order of things with too much precipitation. What a correct view of the situation was taken by Gouverneur Morris! Some of the DU Minores appear to have been rather scurvily treated after the first excitement had abated. We have seen how poor Bequart was tortured. Ferrand, who aided him in preventing de Launay from blowing up the Bastille, suffered no bodily harm, but was robbed of all his goods. We find him appealing to the Mayor of Paris for an indemnity, and sending in the following list of his losses: 10 shirts, marked J. F. 8 pair of stockings, ditto. 14 pocket handkerchiefs, ditto. 4 muslin cravats, ditto. 2 nightcaps. 5 waistcoats, one of striped silk. 400 The Conquerors I pair of breeches of Turkish satin, lined with linen. i pair of breeches in nankeen. I pair of breeches and vest uniform. I belt. I pair of silver buckles. i pair of slippers. A little sack which contained eight louis and a half in silver and a bill of 200 francs in the name of Dissez, wine-seller in the Court of the Bastille. A tolerable wardrobe for a pensioner. It is not said whether this application, backed up by half-pay Elie and other citizens of note, was favourably received. We also learn that a gallant citizen called Cretaine had much difficulty in getting his services acknowl edged, and yet he it was who first summoned de Launay to surrender; he also had the blade of his sword carried away by a bullet, captured the second in command, and was covered with the blood of his prisoner. Then there was Arne, who was the first to enter the Bastille, and to arrest the Governor; he would probably have been left unrewarded had not Camille Desmoulins taken up his case. On the 7th July, 1790, he was appointed sub-lieutenant in Vol unteers of the Bastille — a special corps not to be confounded with the Conquerors. A citizen called Fevelat wrote a long letter to Lafayette on the subject of Arne, telling the general, if he doubted his services, to consult Prudhomme's " Revolutions of Paris," and the " Revolutions of France and Brabant," by the Attorney-General of the Lantern. 401 The Bastille Camille Desmoulins, in protesting against the in gratitude of the nation towards the Conquerors, ex claimed : " Their recompense would have humiliated our enemies, it would have engendered emulation, it would have placed virtue in its proper place. Even if justice did not call for a recompense, the public interest exacted it; and if there had been no con querors of the Bastille it would have been necessary to have created them for the sake of emulation and for the fete." Prudhomme, too, wrote in No. 36 of his Revolu tions de Paris: " The citizens who took part in the capture of the Bastille are at the present moment in such distress that, after having applied to the Munici pality of Paris for employment and aid, they have been obliged to address themselves to the National Assem bly itself. Several of these gallant fellows, that is to say, several of the real conquerors, had employment and situations which they abandoned in order to take part in the Revolution.* . . . Several men of letters who were present at, or who aided in the capt ure of the Bastille, and who, because they considered it sufficient to have prepared the result, did not set forth their military services, have in vain claimed the attention of those who had recompenses in their power; they are languishing in a misery as fearful as if there was a desire to punish those citizens who dealt * Prudhomme probably referred to the case of Humbert, who was wounded during the siege ; this man was earning six francs a day at Beliard's, clock-maker to the King, but must needs leave his business and plunge into the fray. Beliard, who had an im portant order on hand at the time, refused to take him back. 402 The Conquerors a death-blow to the despotism of the Court, and saved Paris." Prudhomme terminated by declaring that, according to the rights of war, these heroes were entitled to everything found in the Bastille, to the materials of which it was built, and the ground upon which it stood. In No. 51, Prudhomme, return ing to the subject, shows us how the Conquerors never received the uniform, sword, and other honours decreed by the National Assembly. He added: " We are assured that among the real Conquerors several are in poverty. We are also assured that the widows and the wounded stand in need of aid." Not long afterwards Prudhomme accused the Con querors of being the spies, or detectives, of Lafayette. Upon this they summoned a meeting, and a few mem bers of the association were expelled. Prudhomme next proposed that a monument should be raised. To the Memory of the Citizens who died Fighting for French Liberty, At the Siege of the Bastille, The 14TH July, 1789. But this monument was never executed, and, as Georges Lecocq mournfully remarks in his " Prise de la Bastille," " The dead were not more honoured than the living, and the Conquerors of the Bastille had for principal, and nearly for sole recompense, the satis faction of duty accomplished, and of a considerable service rendered to France." In the Chronique de Paris, 24th August, 1789, directly after the announcement of the departure of 403 The Bastille the Duke of Dorset, we find advertised a " Discourse on French liberty, pronounced 5th August in the parish church of St. Jacques, during a solemnity con secrated to the memory of the citizens who fell at the capture of the Bastille, for the defence of the country; by M. l'Abbe Fauchet, one of the Permanent Commit tee, chaplain-in-ordinary to the King, Vicar-General of Bourges, etc., etc." In this " discourse " the Abbe informed his congregation, that if according to the Gospel they were bound to render to Caesar the things that were Caesar's, they were not bound to render him their liberty, which did not belong to him. He after wards went on to show that it was the aristocracy which crucified Jesus Christ, omitting all reference to the rabble and Barabbas. And on the 8th May, 1790, the same paper pub lished — " THE PETITION OF CITIZEN SOLDIERS WHO MOST CONTRIBUTED TO THE FALL OF THE BASTILLE. " Nothing in the world is more celebrated to-day than the taking of the Bastille, and no persons more ignored than those who effected the conquest. We have declared by the voice of our orator (Dussault) that the success belongs to all the citizens of the great city; but the fact is, that the real combatants were few in number. " We did not deem it necessary to ask for marks of honour when they were promised to us on all sides. It is well known that the great hall in the Hotel de Ville twenty times re-echoed the applause with which 404 The Conquerors our names were hailed, and that we appeared there to testify our gratitude. Other matters, stifling this applause, have caused us to be forgotten. While the widows and orphans of our companions in arms groan without help, shame detains us at the entrance of the Hotel de Ville, whither they have just brought the model of the fortress which we carried and whose fire we braved. The sign of our victory is received with enthusiasm, while the Conquerors are neglected." The petitioners then complained that while an annual Te Deum had been voted in memory of the capture of the Bastille, they were excluded from the ceremony; but in spite of this, if there were other Bas tilles to be stormed they would fly to their capture. The fact, perhaps, was that the public after a time conceived doubts as to the heroism of the so-called Conquerors, and attributed the fall of the Bastille to the part played by the Gardes Francaises, who were exceedingly jealous of the honours paid to the civil element. Lord Gower, writing from Paris on the 2nd July, 1790, said: "In my last despatch I informed your Grace that jealousies were excited between the ci- dcvani Gardes Francaises and the Corps des Vain- queurs de la Bastille." Which jealousies were allayed by M. Bailly, the Mayor of Paris.* * " Earl Gower' s Despatches," etc., Cambridge, 1885. 405 CHAPTER XIII. ANNIVERSARIES, SONGS, ETC. The first anniversary of the taking of the Bastille was observed with great splendour and in a way which was considered worthy of the occasion, had the weather only been propitious. When July of 1790 was at hand, it was determined to celebrate the 14th with a grand festival, to be held on the Champ de Mars. Talleyrand, Bishop of Autun, was charged to draw up a report on this national fete, and his report received the royal sanction.* In the midst of the Champ de Mars was to be raised, in the shape of a pyramid, the "Altar of the Country," and in front of this a vast amphitheatre, to which, as Carlyle says, " the Coliseum Amphitheatre was but a stroller's barn." This amphi theatre was to have thirty rows of convenient seats, trimmed with turf and covered with seasoned timber. To create this high altar and amphitheatre it was necessary to scoop up 300,000 square feet of ground, * The King was to swear to observe the Constitution imposed upon him by the National Assembly — a Constitution which de prived the monarch of all his hereditary attributes, leaving him merely the first functionary of the State, with a Civil List of £ 1,000,000. Among other great changes we may note that the law of confiscation was abolished on the principle that children should not be punished for the crimes of their fathers. Two years afterwards all the Church property and that of the nobility was confiscated. 406 Celebration on Champ de Mars of Destruction of Bastille Feast of the Federation and but a fortnight was allowed for the operation. At first, 15,000 workmen were employed; but it soon be came evident to watchful patriots that they would be unable to accomplish their task in time. The number of workmen was increased to 150,000; and finally all Paris appears to have lent a helping hand. " One- legged and one-armed men," writes one authority, "children, hairdressers without number, 'whole cor porations of tailors and shoemakers, who did not dispute for precedence on this occasion, the actors from Mdlle. Montausier's theatre and the domestics (sic) from the Italian Opera." All these, and many others, such as tonsured monks, sober nuns, and females called unfortunate, seized pick and spade, and delved, and wheeled the barrow. In his vivid description of the Feast of the Federa tion, the sprightly Camille Desmoulins, after describ ing the immense works, the workers, and their enthusiasm, says: " What shall be said of the Carthu sians, some of whom had never seen, for the last forty years, anything but the silent walls of the great sepulchre in the Rue de l'Enfer, and who, led by M. Gerle, found themselves transported into the midst of 250,000 people, and so many of Brother Philippe's geese? * * According to a poem by La Fontaine, who took his subject from an Italian author, who borrowed it from an old French writer, Frere Philippe brought up his nephew far from the busy haunts of men, and he was sixteen years of age before he caught sight of a woman. Having asked what women were, Frere Philippe explained that they were geese. His nephew found them pretty birds and wanted to have one. 407 The Bastille " Curiosity drew to this phenomenon of 1790 a multitude of women who were not all vestals, and who took a malicious pleasure in bringing honest blushes to the cheeks of the children of Bruno (no longer St. Bruno). They presented their empty wheelbarrows to them, crying, ' Fill them, fathers, fill them! ' They danced round them and constrained the good fathers to join in the round. . . ." For Camille Desmoulins this was what Juvenal would have called, " Dies memoranda, novis anna- libus." The 14th July was the day that Egypt came out of bondage; it was the passage of the Red Sea; the first day of the year of Liberty — the day upon which the most high and most puissant Lord of Abuses was precipitated from the towers of the Bastille, and in consequence of his fall had to suffer the amputation of all his members. The whole nation had gone mumming, observes Carlyle, and the pit was to be composed of 25,000,000 souls. The King paid a visit to the Champ de Mars to see how the work was getting on, and received an enthusiastic reception. A Breton Captain of Feder ates knelt at the feet of His Majesty, who kissed him — did not give him, as Camille Desmoulins remarks, an osculum breve, but a regular hearty embrace. Mayor Bailly and Generalissimo Lafayette also put in an appearance and witnessed the toiling of the busy hive. Everything was ready on the 13th for this huge theatrical performance; the actors had merely to show themselves on the stage and play their part. France, since the fall of the Bastille, the delivery of its seven 408 Feast of the Federation inmates, and the massacre of de Launay, had become a vast federation; cities, towns, and villages had frater nised, and delegates had been sent up to Paris from every part of the country. Each regiment in France sent up one officer, one non-commissioned officer, and one private. Even " Royal Allemand," who had sabred inoffensive citizens a year before, and also dele gates from the King's body-guard, appear to have been present; but these, we are told, were not well received by the spectators. As for the troops quar tered in Paris, they had become popular; the Gardes Francaises had taken their royal standards to Notre Dame and had accepted the national colours. At 5 a.m. the garrison of the capital was under arms, and before the ceremony of the day began we find that citizens gave them bread, meat, and wine, and said that " they breakfasted better than aristocrats, having no remorse." The morning of the 14th broke cold and wet, somewhat marring the spectacle so elaborately pre pared. On the 8th July the Chronique de Paris had a leading article which commenced thus: " The 14th July approaches. On that day the Eternal will fix His eyes on France. Before Him, at the same hour, 24,000,000 of free men will enjoy the blessings of liberty. Almighty God, Thou wilt recognise Thy image, Thou wilt not repent to have made man." And citizens were reminded that they had escaped from the house of bondage more rapidly than the Jews of old, and that the walls of the Bastille had fallen down like those of Jericho. Alas! when the rain 409 The Bastille began to fall the very skies were accused of aristocratic proclivities. The bad weather, however, did not prevent this open-air performance from proceeding, and of this the Moniteur of the 16th July has left us a sober descrip tion. We see that there was a special pavilion, hung with blue and golden draperies, set apart for the King; there was also a throne for His Majesty, and on the same estrade an arm-chair for the President of the National Assembly. Behind the throne was a tribune for the Queen, the Dauphin, and the Princesses of the Royal Family. There was a vast amphitheatre des tined for persons invited to the ceremony. Then there was the circus for the people, of which they took possession at daybreak, and the esplanade where were drawn up the federates representing the Army, the Navy, and the National Guard. This vast enclosure was dominated by the Altar of the Country, which stood in the middle, and which was 25 feet high. Four staircases led to the platform surrounding it, and the four corners were decorated with antique cassolettes, in which incense was burned. There were two inscriptions on the south front of the altar. One set forth — in spite of the presence of the King in his blue and gold pavilion, etc. — that all men were equal, and that virtue alone, and not birth, made the differ ence; the other that all mortals were equal before the law. It was upon this altar that the banners of the eighty-three departments and the oriflamme of the army were blessed, and that the Bishop of Autun celebrated mass. The clergy, in fact, were strongly 410 Altar of the Country represented ; one reads of 400 priests in white albs and tricoloured scarves. The federals, civil and military, says the Moniteur, mustered on the Boulevard du Temple, and from thence marched to the Champ de Mars, the public not ceasing to display their joy in spite of the torrents of rain which fell until 4 p.m. After describing the pro cession, the Moniteur adds that the federals, on reaching the Champ de Mars, took up the posts as signed to them with admirable order. After the blessing of the standards and mass, General de Lafayette ascended the altar and in the name of all the federals took the oath of the federation. He was followed by the President of the National Assembly. Then, in his turn, Louis XVI. rose and took his oath to observe the Constitution. At this moment there were, unanimous shouts of " Long live the King, the Queen, and the National Assembly." The artillery, with which the surrounding heights were crowned, thundered forth the good tidings to the rest of France. " From eminence to eminence bursts the thunder. . . . From Arras to Avignon, from Metz to Bay- onne! Over Orleans and Blois it rolls, in cannon- recitative; Puy bellows of it amid his granite moun tains; Pau, where is the shell cradle of Great Henri. At far Marseilles the ruddy evening witnesses it; over the deep blue Mediterranean waters, the Castle of If darts forth from every cannon's mouth its tongue of fire. . . ."* * Carlyle, t. ii., ch. xi. 411 The Bastille The enthusiasm was general, and the Queen took up the Dauphin in her arms and presented him to the people. The ceremony was brought to a close by the officiating priest singing a Te Deum, accompanied by the musicians near the altar, not, we suppose, by the whole musical force present, 300 drummers and 1,200 wind instruments. But for the rain which put out the cassolettes, made the banners droop, and ruined many snowy muslin dresses, the fete would have gone off well in spite of all the misgivings with which it was ushered in — rumours that the altar was to be blown up by the aris tocrats. On the 10th July the Chronique de Paris had published the following paragraph, which alarmed many timid citizens: " At the present moment there are in the build ings of the Ecole Militaire large living aristocrats, that is to say, a menagerie well supplied with lions, tigers, leopards, and monkeys of the largest size. Is not this collection of ferocious animals too near the Champ de Mars? Would it not be prudent to have it at once removed? " What if some aristocrat had released these wild beasts during the taking of the oath? However, no such calamity happened. No king of beasts appeared on the scene, no Royal Bengal tiger, destined to lose his royal title and become Tigre des Vosges when royalty was abolished. The festivities were kept up for more than a week; there was feasting in the streets and parks, jousting 412 Rejoicings on the river, and a funeral harangue on Franklin pronounced by Abbe Fauchet in the rotunda of the Corn-market. " On the site of the Bastille," says Paul Lacroix, "the dancing lasted for three days and three nights; the old prison had been razed, and the plan marked out with poplars, and over the entrance was the device contributed by Bailly — let I'on danse! " According to the Chronique de Paris of the 22nd July: " The fete was continued for three days on the site of the Bastille, where an artificial grove had been planted. There were eighty-three large trees, each bearing the name of a department and brilliantly illu minated. Close to this grove were buried the ruins of the Bastille (sic), among which were to be seen, together with handcuffs and iron gratings, the too- famous bas-relief representing two slaves chained together, which had worthily decorated the clock of that redoubtable fortress." We are also told that: " On the night of Tuesday the 20th, a large crowd of spectators was attracted to the site of the Bastille to witness a variety of interest ing scenes. There one saw a bevy of 600 young girls who, in the morning, decked out with flowers and ribbons of the national colours, had been to offer to Ste. Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, a picture representing the Confederation, and upon which was written the civic oath. A detachment of the National Guard, and several detachments of federates from the eighty-three departments, accompanied them. They 413 The Bastille were preceded by a military band discoursing rehgious music. " A spectacle of another kind then struck our eyes. The bust of the celebrated Jean Jacques Rousseau was carried in triumph by the pupils of the Academy of Painting round the ruins of this horrid place. It was covered with oak-leaves, and on the head was a civic crown. A number of citizens of all classes escorted it, and on each side were National Guards. What gave this ' pomp ' an imposing and religious character was a hymn sung with much unction to the air of ' Que tout gemisse . . que tout s'unisse' of Castor and Pollux. Here is one strophe: " Que tout s'anime Au saint nom de Rousseau : Ce nom sublime Sera toujours nouveau. Etc., etc." This bust, after having been borne several times round the Bastille, was then paraded through the city, and afterwards taken to the Hotel de Ville. It was pro posed that the statue of the author of the Contrat Social should be reared on a pedestal of stones taken from the Bastille. The fete appears to have been observed with more or less enthusiasm throughout France. In the Moni teur of the 25th July we find the following paragraph: " A letter from Pezenas says that the municipality of that place has invited all the inhabitants to realise the wish of the good King Henri by putting a fowl in 414 English Satisfaction the pot on the 14th July, and it has declared that those persons unable to afford the expense would have fowls distributed to them gratis." It was also observed, with a satisfaction almost general, that other nations, and especially England, hailed with delight the birth of freedom in France. At the sitting of the 21st July, 1790, the President of the National Assembly said that M. de la Roche foucauld had handed him a letter, written by Lord Stanhope, on behalf of 652 friends of liberty who had met to celebrate the establishment of a free Constitu tion in France. This letter excited the applause of the Chamber and the galleries, and Charles Lameth moved its publication. This was opposed by M. Foucault, who declared that England was, and always had been, a rival power who ought to be distrusted. (M. Foucault was called to order.) The letter, he complained, was addressed to M. le Due de la Roche foucauld. The printing of the letter was ordered, and the President was charged with the duty of replying to it. To return for a moment to Camille Desmoulins, he tells us how this anniversary was observed in London. There was a banquet at the tavern of the " Crown and Anchor " in the Strand, at which 652 members of the Society of the Revolution and the club of Whigs, together with many foreigners of distinction, sat down, Lord Stanhope presiding. After the health of " The majesty of the people, the nation, the law, and the King " had been drank, a servant got on the table, 415 The Bastille having on his head a fragment of the Bastille, which was in an instant covered with a swarm of national cockades, and he proclaimed, in the name of the Presi dent, " The triumph of liberty in the destruction of the Bastille, etc." Lord Stanhope drank to the extinction of all jealousy between France and Eng land, and Dr. Price to a close alliance between the two countries. Lord Gower took little notice of the Feast of the Federation beyond saying that it passed off quietly, and was followed by a week of conviviality, panem et circenses having been bestowed with a liberal hand. In addition to the solemn swearing, feasting, dancing, and jousting, the capture of the Bastille was celebrated in verse, in prose, on and off the stage, though some of the Conquerors, and those who ap plauded them and their victory, must soon have had as many doubts concerning the real value of their triumph as remained in the mind of little Peterkin with respect to Blenheim.* It is curious to remark how the same people who evinced so much joy over the fall of the King's castle of the Bastille should have been so lavish in their praises of the King, the restorer of French liberty. The sanguinary despots of " The Terror " were afterwards treated in a different fashion; * And everybody praised the Duke, Who such a fight did win. " But what good came of it at last? " Quoth little Peterkin. " Why, that I cannot tell," said he, " But 'twas a famous victory." — SoUTHEY. 416 Astley's Theatre the people, when tired of blood, did not content them selves with destroying the guillotine, they lopped off the heads of Robespierre, Saint Just, Fouquier Tin- ville, and their colleagues. In London no time was lost in celebrating the great event. In the Chronique de Paris of the 2nd September, 1789, under " English News," we find it announced that — "Astley has been giving, for some time, at the Royal Bosquet Theatre, an entertainment which has met with the greatest success. This is the bill: ' Mr. Astley will terminate his representation with a new and pompous spectacle, the subject of which is the French Revolution, from Sunday the 12th to Wednesday the 15th July inclusively. The piece is entitled Paris Risen, or the Destruction of the Bastille. This is the most extraordinary and most magnificent entertainment ever offered to the public, and it is founded on authentic facts.' " After giving a list of the tableaux, the Chronique adds: "This piece had an immense success. A young lady who saw it fainted at the sound of the chains. Lord Mazarin was there with a French lady and her son. When the firing ceased and the gate of the Bastille was thrown open the audience cried out: 'Well played, well played!' in a transport of enthusiasm." The Parisians were shortly afterwards treated to a number of similar spectacles, such as Le Chene, ou la Matinee du 14 Juillet, La Prise de la Bastille, and La Liberte Conquise aux Frangais. In this latter piece our 417 The Bastille old friend Arne, who at first refused to appear, was forced on to the stage to play the part of a Vanquisher, and no doubt found it strange that, having conquered Liberty, he should be constrained to do what he con sidered objectionable. We are assured that the scenery in La Liberte Conquise cost 15,000 livres, and that 2,000 lbs. of gunpowder were fired away every evening ! We may mention here that later on, that is to say in the year 1794, a play due to the pen of Lebrun Tossa and entitled the Folie de Georges ou L'Ouverture du Parlement d'Angleterre, was produced. Among the personages placed on the stage were the King, Queen, the Prince of Wales, Pitt, Fox, Sheridan, Burke, Grey, Chesterfield, Grenville, Stanhope, Dundas, and His Majesty's physician Willis. The King when opening Parliament goes mad, and wishes to indulge in a pugil istic encounter with Sheridan, while Burke receives a kick behind from his monarch. Lords and Commons are indiscriminately mixed up, and, thanks no doubt to Beaumarchais, every one says " God dem! " After much abominable trash a revolution breaks out, the episodes of which are thus related by Doctor Willis: " The Tower of London offered resistance, but in vain. It was there that private citizens were seen giving an example of courage and braving certain death. A multitude, without leader, arrived at the foot of that ancient fort, invested it, and summoned the governor to surrender. He replied by a discharge of musketry. Then the people became furious, and you might have seen citizens and soldiers rivalling 418 cc Folie de Georges" each other in valour under the fire from the loopholes. The besieged replied with the tumult of twenty brazen mouths. The danger increased [it was certain death before the guns opened fire]; oceans of blood were shed, the air re-echoed with the shouts of an immense crowd. . . . The Tower is shaken to its founda tion; the gate falls; the people rush in. Each one wishes to be the first to hoist the sign of victory above the fort; many succumb, but not without being avenged. I saw the governor thrown from the walls, and the crowd scrambling for shreds of his palpitating body." Willis then relates how the heads of Pitt and the Prince of Wales were carried through the streets of London, offering a terrible lesson to ambition. As to the King, he was dragged to Bedlam in a car by Burke, Grenville, Chesterfield, and Lansdowne, while Grey, Fox, and Sheridan, in red caps, and surrounded by men and women armed with pikes, danced the Carmagnole and shouted " Vive la Nation! " We have seen the reference which Macaulay made to Alfieri and other light-minded poets. It is true that Alfieri, who appears to have been an eye-witness of the capture of the Bastille, did celebrate the event in an ode of thirteen stanzas, entitled " Parigi Sbastigliato," and that at first he was an enthusiastic admirer of the French Revolution. His ode com menced thus: All' armi, all' armi, un generoso grido Fa rintronar di Senna ambe le rive : All' armi, all' armi, eccheggia Francia intera dall' uno all' altro lido. 419 The Bastille Alfieri, however, after the ioth August, 1792, disgusted with the excesses of the people, fled from Paris and settled at Florence. He had no sooner left the French capital than he was declared an emigre, his books and his furniture were seized, as well as the greater portion of his property, which he had invested in French funds. He was no more respected than other foreigners who dabbled with the Revolution — foreigners like Baron Anacharsis Clootz, Baron Trenck, Thomas Paine, Westermann, Marshal Luck- ner, Adam Lux, and others. Alfieri changed his opin ions just as Sir James Mackintosh did his. As early as the 16th September, 1789, we find in the Chronique de Paris the following Latin lines on the taking of the Bastille: Viventum tumulus, longo execrabilis aevo, Arx horrenda, ingens, fossis abscissa profundis, Fulminibus cinctum caput inter nubila jactans, Mole invicta sua, momento temporis uno Fracta ruit. Jamque hine, Regina Lutetia, cunctas Libertate praeis, prseeras quae nomine gentes. And on the 22nd February, 1790, the same journal announced that: " The University of Cambridge has proposed to the young men whom it brings up in the principles of virtue and liberty, the capture of the Bastille— ' Bastillia Expugnata ' — as the subject for one of its Latin prizes." Then, on the 7th May, it published the subjoined letter: 420 Prize Poem " The University of Cambridge has given the prize to a Latin poem entitled ' Bastillia Expugnata.' The same University having proposed the question, ' Will the French Revolution be hurtful or beneficial to England? ' the work which showed its mutual advan tages for the two rival countries gained the prize. The astute Court of Versailles will spend no more money in England, will foment no more troubles to favour the despotic views of the narrow-minded Court of St. James. A sincere and durable peace will deliver the two neighbours from the burden of their debts and their taxes. The Age of Gold will be born again in the four quarters of the globe. " Cloots du Val-de-Grace." Poor Louis bribing Pitt is something new. Two months after the letter of the Baron Anachar- sis the Chronique de Paris published the following com munication : " Du College de Bennet de Cambridge, " Le 15 Juillet, 1790.* " I am very sorry, sir and friend, that you could not arrange to come to Cambridge. You would have found a great many people here, and you would have had the pleasure of hearing Latin and Greek speeches delivered by our young men, the best being on the capture of the Bastille and in favour of Gallic liberty. I should much like to know how the day passed off * There is a Bene't or St. Benedict Church in Cambridge, and fifty years ago Corpus was usually called Bene't College, standing next the church. 421 The Bastille in Paris. Several towns in England have had re joicings on the subject of French liberty. I cannot better prove to you what partisans we are of this liberty than by telling you that several of the most distinguished members of the University of Cambridge united to dine together on that day. . . ." (14th July-) This letter, after saying that the guests presented the bell-ringers with two guineas to imitate the sound of artillery, gave a list of the toasts drunk at the dinner. The first was to the liberty of the universe, the second to the meeting on the Champ de Mars, the third to the French National Assembly, the fourth to the French Revolution, etc., the fifth, etc. The names of Bailly, Lafayette, Mirabeau, Necker, Talley rand, Rabaud de St. Etienne, Galileo, Newton, Locke, Descartes, Bacon, Milton, Montesquieu, Helvetius, Rousseau, and Voltaire were then toasted. There is no signature to this letter. As for the statement that the capture of the Bastille formed the subject of a prize poem at Cam bridge, that is not correct. The Chancellor's medal for an English poem was not founded until 181 3, and the Seatonian prize, which is much older, is always given for some sacred subject. For centuries, how ever, the practice has existed at Cambridge of the Proctors for the time being getting some youths of classical reputation, twice in the year, at Degree times — " Comitiis Prioribus " and " Comitiis Poster- ioribus," as they were called — to write copies of Latin (or occasionally Greek) verses. These " Tripos 422 Cambridge Verses verses " are printed with the lists of those men who have taken honours in the course of the year attached, and are given to all present who care to accept them. This practice, though less rigorously pursued at present, still exists. Bound up in a volume of such verses kept at the Registrary, is a Latin poem on the taking of the Bastille, written in 1790. This poem, in accordance with custom, is anonymous, but is supposed to have been written by J. Tweddell, of Trinity, who had a great reputation at the time for his classical compositions, who died young and much regretted, and was noted for his Liberal proclivities. His poem bears the following inscription: UMBROSAE PENITUS PATUERE CAVERNAE, and opens thus: Qua telluris opes plenis fert Sequana velis, Atque Parisiacas jam latior alluit arces, Hie stabat nulli, quern non labor improbus aegri Servitii, aut durae membra oppressere catenae, Prospicienda domus. Then follows a description of the sufferings and cruel punishments of the French peasantry and people, and the confinement for life of many in the Bastille. Then v. 50: Talis erat dudum, tali se moesta ferebat Gallia servitio, natorumque inscia fati; Infelix, donee subito quasi fulguris ictu Moenia procubuere solo, ingentemque dederunt Discordi motu et magno stridore ruinam. Quis Deus hanc pacem Gallis? quis ferrea rupit Ostia, etc. 423 The Bastille Next comes a description of the siege and capture of the Bastille. Then the poem winds up with thirteen verses: O Dea, quam gelido praesentem Gallus in antro Percoluit, mox fida tuo de nomine templa Instituet, memorique ciebit carmina plectro ; Non hie finis erit. And now not France only but Spain, Germany, etc., will be free. And, oh ! may Britain soon free her African slaves. In Comitiis Prioribus, February 18, 1790.* In proof of such a change as that noticed by Macaulay having come over official if not public opinion in England, we may mention the sad fate of * At this time we may note that William Pitt was Member for Cambridge. At first he had approved of the French Revo lution, but its excesses soon made him change his opinions. After wards, as Macaulay remarks in his Essay on that Minister : " By the French Press and the French tribune every crime that dis graced and every calamity that afflicted France was ascribed to the monster Pitt and his guineas. While the Jacobins were dominant it was he who corrupted the Gironde, who had raised Lyons and Bordeaux against the Convention, who had suborned Paris to assassinate Lepelletier and Cecile Regnault to assassinate Robes pierre. When the Thermidor reaction came, all the atrocities of the Reign of Terror were imputed to him. It was he who hired the murderers of September, who had dictated the pamphlets of Marat and the Carmagnoles of Barrere, who had paid Lebon to deluge Arras with blood and Carrier to choke the Loire with corpses." This quotation shows that the enthusiasm felt in Cam bridge for the Revolution was probably of very short duration, and also what mendacious absurdities were current in France — absurdities which have left behind them an indelible trace, for Pitt is still looked upon in France as a monster of iniquity. 424 Unfortunate Poets the poet James Montgomery, who was thrown into prison for " a libel on the war, by reprinting and re publishing a song originally printed and published long before the war," as a pamphlet of the epoch says. The corpus delicti appears to have been written by one Gales, in 1792, and to have been entitled " A patriotic song by a clergyman of Belfast." This effusion James Montgomery was rash enough to republish, under the title of " The Fall of the Bastille," in the Sheffield Iris in the year 1795, when, no doubt to the great astonishment of Lord Stanhope and Dr. Price, France and England had drifted into war. The stanza upon which the indictment was founded ran thus: Europe's fate on the contest's decision depends; Most important its issue will be : For should France be subdued, Europe's liberty ends : If she triumphs the world will be free. Poor James Montgomery learned to his cost that there were Bastilles in England, and that what may be patriotic one day is unpatriotic another. More than one French poet too who sang, if not the fall of the Bastille, the splendours and advantages of the Revolution, had reason to change his opinions. If Marie Joseph Chenier adhered, through good and evil report, to the fortunes of the Revolution, his brother Andre, for protesting against violence and rebellion, and especially against the release of the convicts at Toulon, was sent to the scaffold. Neither the influence of his brother nor that of his father, who 425 The Bastille belonged to the section of Brutus, could save the young poet's life. On the scaffold he tapped his fore head and said: "And yet I had something there." " He died," says Lamartine, " like Socrates, and France, like the crazed Ophelia of Shakespeare, tore from her brow the brightest ornaments of her diadem, and flung them in the blood at her feet." Rouget de l'lsle, too, the author of the Marseillaise, like Alfieri, fled from France. He had composed his song at the house of Dietrick, the Mayor of Stras bourg. A few months later Dietrick was taken to the scaffold to the sound of the Marseillaise, and Rouget de l'lsle was flying for his life. Lamartine says that " his old mother, a royalist and devout woman, alarmed at the effect of her son's composition, wrote to him, saying: 'What is this revolutionary hymn, sung by brigands who are swarming through France, with which your name is mingled? ' De l'lsle himself, proscribed and a royalist, shuddered as he heard it while effecting his escape through some wild pass in the Alps. ' What do they call that hymn? ' he inquired of his guide. ' The Marseillaise,' replied the peasant. It was thus he learned the name of his own work." The celebration of the second anniversary of the fall of the Bastille differed from that of 1790. What had become of the Federation, the altars, and the oaths? It was " effervescence effervesced," as Carlyle has it. In 1791 the celebration coincided with the translation of the ashes of Voltaire to the Pantheon. The mortal remains of the patriarch were to have been 426 Pageant of 1792 laid in their temporary resting-place on the nth July, but the flight of Louis XVI. and his family to Var- ennes necessitated a week's delay. We find in the chronicles of the day that " the relics of Voltaire did not arrive until night time at the Place de la Bastille; and that they reposed in an arbour of laurels and roses which replaced the cells in which the defender of Calas and la Barre had been several times con fined." Lord Gower, in a despatch dated the 15 th July, 1791, says that "the procession which took place in honour of Voltaire seemed more calculated to give entertainment to children than to have any good or even bad effect, excepting that it afforded an excuse for one whole day's idleness, a thing which Voltaire himself used often to lament." The second Viscount Palmerston, a portion of whose diary is published with the Gower despatches, was in Paris at this epoch. He says that the Voltaire procession was very long, a great part consisting of shabby, ill-dressed people, whose appearance was rendered worse by mud and dirt, the weather being very bad. The coffin, adds his Lordship, was placed on a triumphal car which was drawn by twelve beautiful gray horses, four abreast. The 14th July was also celebrated at Notre Dame, where a deputation of the National Assembly was received by the Bishop " with royal honours," and the Hierodrame of Desaugier, " drawn from holy writ, and the subject of which was the capture of the Bastille," was performed in their presence. 427 The Bastille We give a specimen of this work. Hierodrame. Dominus . . . rep- Le Seigneur rejette les robat consilia Principium- — conseils des Princes. Ps. xxxii. 10. Curramus Courons et detruisons et eruamus arcem invisam. cette odieuse forteresse. Deus pugnabit pro nobis. Dieu combattra pour — Isaiah li. 22. Vadamus. nous. Marchons. (Military March. The people reach the foot of the fortress; the cannon opens upon them. The charge is sounded. The firing redoubles. During the siege the people shout.) Choir. Corruat sedes servitutis. Qu'il s'ecroule, l'asyle Portae ejus corruant. — Jer. de l'esclavage. Que ses xiv. 2. portes soient brisees. (The whole orchestra striking into express the fall of the drawbridge. The people shout.) Choir. Triumphamus. Victoire ! Victoire ! (The war-trumpet is heard, also the groans of the dying and wounded.) In 1792 poor Louis XVI. was again present at the commemoration of the fall of his castle of the Bastille, and played a certain part in the pageant. The King, we see, was punctual to the moment, and was hailed 428 Pageant of iyo2 with cries of " Vive le Roi " when he made his appear ance on the balcony of the Ecole Militaire, which overlooked the Champ de Mars. We are assured, however, that the only persons who applauded His Majesty wore breeches, in fact were not sans-culottes. It was remarked upon this occasion that the National Assembly, instead of bringing up the rear as was usual on the occasion of national ceremonies, marched first. Petion was at that moment the lion of the day, and in order to spare the King the mortification of hearing him universally applauded, it was arranged that he should not pass before the Ecole Militaire until His Majesty had left for the altar of the Federation. According to the programme, the King on one side and the President of the National Assembly on the other were to have set fire to a genealogical tree bear ing the shields of all the emigres. At the last moment, however, it was determined to spare the King that bitter cup. The tree was burned before the arrival of Louis XVI. A few days afterwards there was a fraternal banquet on the Place de la Bastille, each citizen bringing his own soup. Nothing remarkable appears to have happened at the fete of 1793. Poor Louis, the Restorer of Liberty, had been guillotined, and could no longer swear to observe any Constitution. The glories of the 14th July, too, had somewhat faded in presence of the ioth August, upon which day, 1792, the sovereign people had stormed the Tuileries and driven the King from his palace. In 1793 we see that the ioth August was celebrated on the ruins of the Bastille by 429 The Bastille a Feast of Nature. In the midst of the ruins of the old prison there rose the fountain of the Regeneration, in the shape of a colossal female figure representing Nature, pressing her bosoms from which water flowed into a basin. From this basin the Commissioners of the Convention, with a cup of agate, drank regenerat ing water to the sound of salvoes of artillery. In 1794 the Mayor of Paris, no longer Petion but Lescot Fleuriot, the friend of Robespierre, with whom he was decapitated, wrote to the Sections reminding them of the glorious anniversary, the last he was destined to see. His circular commenced thus: " Hail to the 14th July (26th Messidor)! Hail to the ever memorable day when the people of Paris cemented with their blood the first stone of public liberty by throwing down the Bastille ( !) Hail to all of you who by your courage and energy helped to destroy tyranny in deadly combat. . . ." After this the fete of the 14th July may be said to have gradually sputtered out. There were too many other feasts on hand — Feast of Reason, Feast of Victory, Feast of Supreme Being, etc. However, Bonaparte turned the date to account when it suited his purpose. In 1797, when he was in command of the Army of Italy, and the Royalist factions were raising their heads and threatening the existence of the Republic, he addressed an order of the day to his troops, which opened thus: " Soldiers, to-day is the anniversary of the 14th July," and he threatened to march on Paris in order to protect the Government. Afterwards, when in Egypt, the young General, wish- 430 Feast of 14 th July ing to allay the apprehensions of the Directory, which rather doubted the sincerity of his Republicanism, had the glorious date of the 14th July celebrated with due honour, and even after the declaration of the Empire he selected the 14th July as a fitting day upon which to distribute his eagles to the army, and to institute the Legion of Honour at the Invalides. Once more the 14th July has become a great national festival. In 1880, the French army received their new Republican standards, M. Grevy being President. 431 CHAPTER XIV. THE DEMOLITION— PATRIOT PALLOY— HOTEL CAR- NAVALET It appears to be tolerably certain that if the people had not pulled down the Bastille the building would have disappeared, though we can find no reason for its removal. Louis XVI. thought so little of " his castle," that in 1784, that is to say, five years before its capture, the demolition of the grim old fortress was decided upon, and an architect, called Corbet, sent in his plans for the total transformation of the quarter. This plan exists, and may be seen at the Hotel Carna- valet. On the site where the Bastille stood, one perceives a place such as that which exists to-day, but called Place Louis XVI., and boulevards similar to those opened up sixty years later. There is also the plan of a bridge which corresponds to the Pont d'Austerlitz, constructed in honour of " the battle of the Emperors." We find, too, that the States-General, which in June, 1789, became the National Assembly, inserted in their cahier that, " The States-General shall in future as semble in Paris, in a public edifice destined for that purpose; on the frontispiece to be written, ' Palace of the States-General.' That on the site of the Bastille, destroyed and razed, be established a public place, in 432 The Demolition the centre of which shall rise a column of simple and noble architecture, with this inscription: — 'To Louis XVI., the restorer of public liberty! ' " The King and the Parliament were therefore both in favour of the destruction of the Bastille before vio lence and bloodshed were called in. In winding up his " History of the French," Sismondi says: " In the way of reforms the nobility supported the suppression of lettres de cachet, the inviolability of the secrecy of the Post Office, and there were even some voices in favour of the destruction of the Bastille; and that one can easily conceive." In fact, Sismondi, like Marat and others, looked on the Bastille as the prison of the oppressor rather than the oppressed. After the Bastille had fallen into the hands of the people, we find, as already mentioned, the Permanent Committee carrying a resolution similar to that pro posed by the States-General, and the President of the National Assembly at once informed the Chamber that the Permanent Committee had ordered the demolition of the Bastille — " that antique fortress, too long the terror of patriotism and liberty." It appears that when this resolution was voted, several deputies from Versailles were present, most of them members of the nobility — the Due de la Rochefoucauld, the Marquis de la Coste, the Counts de Clermont Tonnerre, de la Tour-Maubourg, etc. Writing upon this subject, Weber furnishes us with the following information. He says: " On the same day (16th July), the demolition of 433 The Bastille the Bastille, citadel belonging to the King, was ordered by the Committee of the Hotel de Ville. It was proposed to have this order sanctioned by the National Assembly, but this motion was laid aside. It was proudly observed that the National Assembly had no kind of authority in Paris, and could take no part in any decision with regard to the Bastille. However, the demolition of this prison was ordered in the name of the law, and M. de Lafayette was charged to see it executed." Dussault, too, tells us that the demolition of the Bastille, even to its foundations, was unanimously voted by the Committee. Four Commissioners, of whom Dussault was one, were appointed to see the work of destruction carried out. They reached the Bastille, he says, amidst the plaudits of the people acquainted with their mission, " and ten distinguished men of letters threw themselves into their arms, imploring them to introduce them into the bosom of this famous fortress, which they had long detested." Dussault alone mentions this touching incident of the ten distinguished men of letters flinging them selves into the arms of the four Commissioners. On the 15th, Paris was in a state of consternation, but on the 16th, it appears that crowds of people went to visit the fallen monarch, and as a chronicler of the period has it, " pretty women went to visit the violated stronghold of tyranny; they ascended to the top of the old towers and thence flung a stone, crying ' Lib erty!'" Mirabeau, we are told, went there with a 434 Skeletons lady wearing a thick veil. This, however, is doubtful, for Mirabeau was busy in the National Assembly at Versailles on the 16th. He certainly went there afterwards; and Prudhomme says that on being shown a skeleton he declared that Ministers should be made to eat the bones! But Mirabeau had less reason to hate the Bastille than Vincennes, where he had been confined. From the chronicles of the period we gather that the Bastille had hardly been captured and the seven prisoners released, when the report was spread that there were other victims groaning in subterranean cells who could not be reached. This rumour created the greatest excitement; but it was partially quelled by the Lassinotes, father and son, ex-turnkeys, who assured the people that no such cells existed. How ever, the Assembly took the matter up and ordered an inquiry. There was nothing much to be got out of Lassinote the elder, owing to his great age and the fact that he was paralysed; but Lassinote the younger accompanied Mirabeau and two citizen-patrols in their search for the supposed victims. Every spot where groans were said to have been heard was care fully examined; but without any result, and Mirabeau and the patrols had to be satisfied with a certificate signed by Lassinote the younger, that the cells and the groans existed merely in the imagination of over excited citizens. As for the skeletons, they were probably dug up in the garden of the Arsenal, where non-Catholic prisoners who died in the Bastille were buried. The report afterwards was that skeletons 435 The Bastille were conveyed at night to the ruins, so that their discovery might keep popular enthusiasm alive. We find the Chronique de Paris, of the 9th May, 1790, denying this rumour. The demolition of the Bastille having been de cided upon, the task was confided to a very versatile citizen of the name of Palloy, who repaired to the scene of action on the 14th August, with 500 working men. It appears that the demolishers, preceded by drums, first of all went in procession to the Palais Royal, " carrying branches and thirty-seven cannon- balls which had been found in the walls of the old fortress," or which were said to have been found there. The hat was then sent round and a fruitful collection made. Contractor Palloy and his men set to work with vigour, and by the 1st December were able to offer for sale a portion of the materials. These were put up to auction, and gave rise to a sharp competition; but it was not until the 21st May, 1791, that the demolition was completed, " so deep," we are told, " were the roots which despotism had given to this old castle." A few words concerning " Palloy, patriot," as he signed himself at this epoch, may be found interesting. Although he showed himself such an ardent patriot in 1789, he afterwards proved a traitor to the immortal principles. Palloy, having contracted to pull down the Bastille, conceived the ingenious idea of having small models of the Bastille made out of stones of the 436 Palloy prison, and one of the models was sent to each of the eighty-three departments. Palloy also made ink stands and a variety of ornaments out of the stones of the stronghold of tyranny. A pound of these stones, we are assured, cost the same price as a pound of good meat, and the Chevalier d'Eon presented Lord Stan hope with several pounds. They were set in rings, bracelets, and brooches. Madame de Genlis had one of these stones, surrounded with emerald laurels, set in a brooch, with the inscription in diamonds,* Liberte. Palloy, patriot, kept himself well before the public; he even created a corps of commercial travellers called the " Apostles of Liberty," who carried his wares into the provinces. Gustave Bord gives us a sketch of this unworthy patriot. He says that " Palloy with the chains of the Bastille struck medals, with the stones he sculpt ured small fortresses, which he distributed through France; he saluted Thermidor (when Robespierre fell); he hailed Bonaparte; he raised triumphal arches to the Empress — I am mistaken — to the Empresses; he went on his knees to the Bourbons. ... At the commencement of the Revolution Palloy had a picture engraved showing a group of citizens with Palloy at their head crowning the bust of Louis XVI., and offering him a medallion of Bailly. In the back- * Did she wear this after the execution of the Duke of Or leans; when she accepted a pension of £200 from Napoleon Bona parte; when she paid her court to the Bourbons under the Restoration ; or when kindly received at the Tuileries in the days of the Constitutional Monarchy by her old pupil, Louis Philippe, King of the French? 437 The Bastille ground stood Lafayette and some National Guards, and behind these the Bastille in the course of being demolished. The library of the Senate possesses several specimens of this medallion; on one of them the bust of Napoleon has been substituted for that of Louis XVI., a trophy of arms for Lafayette, and the Pantheon for the Bastille. We may mention here one little incident in the career of this worthy not much to his credit. Lamar tine, in describing the imprisonment of Louis XVI., says: " The King's chamber contained a bed with curtains, an arm-chair, four other chairs, a bath, and a glass over the mantelpiece. Owing to iron bars and oak planks there was little light from the window, from which nothing but the sky was to be seen. The paper on the walls was intended to mortify the royal captive, representing, as it did, the interior of a prison, with jailers, chains, fetters, and all the horrid paraphernalia of a dungeon. The brutal mind of Palloy, the archi tect, had sought, with refinement of cruelty, to add to the torture of reality that of the eye." It will be remembered with what indignation Lin guet denounced the figures in chains which supported the old clock of the Bastille, and how the humane Baron de Breteuil had them removed. Although Palloy is supposed to have made a large fortune out of the Bastille, he seems to have been reduced to want before he died. In 1815 he had a card printed, in which he set forth that " M. and Madame Palloy, formerly possessed of a good fortune, are to day deprived of all resources and obliged to work. 438 Paoli They consequently offer their services, M. Palloy to give advice on matters appertaining to his art; and Madame Palloy for the mending of linen, and for sew ing, which she does to perfection." On the back of this card were some verses, entitled, " Last strophe of the hymn of peace on the arrival of the King, 3rd May, 1815." Palloy was quite alive to the advantage of changing with the times. As he hailed the restoration of Louis XVIII. with a hymn of peace, so did he hail, in joyful numbers, the advent of Louis Philippe when Charles X. was driven from the throne. In 1832 Palloy ap peared as one of the surviving conquerors of the Bastille, to whom a royal bounty of twenty pounds a year was accorded. Palloy enjoyed this pension for three years, and then died at a very advanced age. To return to the poor Bastille for a moment, we find the Chronique de Paris of the 7th May, 1790, relating how General de Lafayette and Paoli went to visit the ruins together, and how the demolishers presented pickaxe and shovel to the two heroes. Palloy had given them tickets decorated with the national colours. " He had already, we are told, offered the first demol ished stone of this citadel of ministers (not King's castle) to M. de Lafayette, and now he offered him the last stone of the cells. The General embraced the con tractor, and appeared much touched by the gift." Paoli was at this time on his way back to Corsica, which had been declared a French department. He threw up his English pension of f 1,200, to return to 439 The Bastille his native country, after having sworn fidelity to France. Paoli, like other liberal-minded men we have mentioned, soon became disgusted with the excesses of the Revolution. After a few years he returned to London, to die and be buried in Westminster Abbey. La Revue de la Revolution gives an account of the reception of one of the stones of the Bastille at Angers by the civil and military authorities of the department, headed by a band. At a meeting held in the Town Hall the President rose and said: " You must bear in mind incessantly that ever-memorable day during which those great events which decide the destiny of nations were prepared ; in the morning were yet to be seen in that redoubtable fortress unfortunate victims whose groans still echo in the bottom of your hearts. Noon was made glorious by the conquest of that im pregnable bulwark, monument of vengeance and cruelty. In the evening Liberty made its appearance, and approached the throne, supporting it with one hand, and stretching the other over the French Empire! Let us firmly establish this liberty . . . let us remember that the slightest outrage will cause it to take flight. " To fix the attention of future ages on this happy epoch, M. de Palloy, charged to remove all trace of this ancient edifice, has taken from those gloomy ruins divers relics, upon which have been stamped the por trait of the King and the seal of the country. . . ." We may observe here that it was rather an anomaly to raze the Bastille itself to the ground, so 440 Relics that not a vestige of that abode of tyranny should remain, and at the same time to send models of the vanished fortress to all the departments of France to perpetuate its memory. The Attorney-General next spoke. He began by saying: "Therefore, this monument of the fury of despotism no longer exists; that odious cavern into which the power of the great precipitated the unfort unate victims of hatred and intrigue. The tutelary genius of France said, ' Let this terrible den of human vengeance no longer exist,' and the Bastille fell to the ground. . . . Eighty-three Bastilles recall to-day the souvenir of that which was the work of despotic ministers. . . ." And altogether there was a great oratorical display . over this interesting relic, which was no doubt soon consigned to the lumber-room and forgotten. Carlyle says, " The key of that robber den shall cross the Atlantic; shall lie on Washington's hall-table. The great clock ticks now in a private patriotic clock- maker's shop, no longer measuring hours of mere heaviness. Vanished is the Bastille — what we call vanished; the body, or sandstones of it, hanging for centuries to come, over the Seine waters as Pont Louis XVI.;* the soul of it living, perhaps still longer, in the memories of men." Carlyle does not appear to have known of Palloy. What relics now remain? A large porcelain stove in the form of the Bastille, which was presented to the * The Pont Louis XVI., now known as Pont de la Concorde, was commenced in 1787 and completed in 1790. 441 The Bastille National Assembly, still exists at Sevres. Other relics have been collected and placed in a museum which bears the name of Carnavalet (the name of a prisoner who was confined in the Bastille in the days of the Fronde). There they are open to public inspec tion. We may mention here that the Hotel Carnavalet was built in 1544 by the celebrated architect, Jean Bullant, for the President of the Parliament of Paris, Jacques de Ligneris. In 1572 it became the property of Frangoise de la Baume, widow of the Sieur de Kernevenog, commonly called, by a corruption fre quent at that epoch, Carnavalet. Madame de Sevigne, with her daughter, Madame de Grignan, resided in this hotel for twenty years, and it was there that most of her letters were written. On the death of Madame de Sevigne it was purchased by a farmer-general called Brunet de Rancy, and by some strange good fortune it escaped pillage during the revolutionary period. Of what do the relics consist? In the grand stair case are to be seen several panels : one represents the enthusiasm inspired by the new Constitution, and " the glorification of Louis XVI., father of the French and king of a free people" (1791). Another shows us " the fetes on the ruins of the Bastille " (1790). In the ante-room is a portrait of M. de Flesselles, and pictures of the inhumation of the victims of July (1830), and the victims being carried from the Morgue to the place of sepulture. In the great hall is one of the models of the Bastille, hewn out of a stone of the fort ress by the patriot Palloy. Also a small model of the 442 Relics Bastille cast in iron, " and other materials coming from the Bastille." There are also swords of honour given to the conquerors of the fortress, pikes, etc., and " pict ures of the epoch representing the capture and demo lition of the Bastille." To the left is a panel also representing the taking of the Bastille, and four water-colours representing accessory fetes to the Federation at the Hotel de Ville, the Champs Elysees, the Pont Neuf, and the Bastille. In another room, in a glass case, may be seen the decorations of one of the conquerors, and some original lettres de cachet. In the picture gallery we find " the elephant of the Bastille," by Alavoine, portraits of Marat, etc. On the mantelpiece in one of the halls stands a handsome Republican clock on the decimal system — ten hours a day, a hundred minutes to the hour, and a hundred seconds to the minute — and on each side of this clock candlesticks with medallions of Louis XVI., Bailly, and Lafayette. Close by, too, is a bust of Bailly, presented by his daughter. At the Arts et Metiers is preserved the ladder made by Latude, and by means of which he effected his escape from the Bastille; and at the Hotel Carnavalet may be seen a reduction of this monument of patience and industry, which the ex-prisoner gave to Palloy, with this inscription: " Model of the ladder by which M. de Latude escaped. It was made by himself." The model was made out of one shirt! A few years ago some workmen engaged in excavat ing a portion of the Rue de la Roquette found a leaden coffin, which they took to the police inspector of the 443 The Bastille district. On the coffin was a plate with this inscription: " Cy-gist haute et puissante dame Catherine- Charlotte Sevin de Quiney, epouse de tres haut et puissant seigneur messire Rene Joudan, chevalier, seigneur de Launay, du Mesnil, de la Bretonniere, de la Hainardie, et autres lieux, capitaine et gouverneur pour le Roy en son chateau de la Bastille." There were many propositions as to what should be done with the site of the Bastille when the ruins had been cleared away. We have already referred to some of these. We shall notice a few more, which seem almost to be milestones on the road of history. On the 1 6th July, according to the Moniteur, Lally Tolendal made a speech in the National Assembly which was greatly applauded. He was the son of the unfortunate Lally who had been so cruelly executed, a man of most liberal views, and almost as eloquent as Mirabeau. In the course of his speech he said: "The disturbances in Paris are going to cease; the Constitution will be established ; it will console us, it will console the Parisians for all their sufferings. While lamenting the death of a number of citizens, it will perhaps be difficult to resist a certain feeling of satisfaction on seeing the destruction of the Bastille, where, on the ruins of that horrible prison of des potism shall soon be erected, in accordance with the wishes of the citizens of Paris, the statue of a good King, the restorer of the liberty and the welfare of France." Lally Tolendal had some right to abuse the Bastille 444 Statues where his father had been confined in the reign of Louis XV. But why abuse the Bastille under the good King who had restored liberty to France? The statue which he and others proposed was never set up. There is no trace of Louis XVI. now in Paris, with the ex ception of the Chapelle Expiatoire, where his remains and those of Marie Antoinette temporarily reposed, and where the remains of the Swiss Guards killed on the ioth August, when the Tuileries was taken by the mob, still lie buried. Henri IV. stands on the Pont Neuf, Louis XIV. in the centre of the Place des Vic- toires, and Napoleon Bonaparte on the top of the column of Vendome. The Chronique de Paris of the 7th March, 1790, informs us that Mademoiselle Theroigne de Mericourt, having presented herself before the Assembly-General of her district, proposed a subscription for the pur pose of building a palace of the National Assembly on the site of the Bastille. " Good patriots," said this courageous citizeness, " can no longer see with equa nimity the Executive lodged in the finest palace in the world, while the Legislative power, which is the real sovereign, lives under a tent, sometimes at the Menus Plaisirs, sometimes at the Tennis Court, sometimes in the Stables, sometimes like Noah's dove, which could find no place where to repose its foot." This motion was hailed with enthusiasm ; addresses were sent to the other districts of Paris, to the eighty-three depart ments, and to all the municipalities of the empire (sic), and a subscription was opened. It was the same with the palace as with the statue. 445 The Bastille Perhaps the subscriptions did not flow in freely. Be this as it may, we find little more on the subject until the 1 6th June, 1793, when the Legislative Assembly decreed the erection of a column on the site of the Bastille — a column like that of Trajan at Rome, with France trampling under foot the abuses of the ancient regime. The Place de la Bastille was to be called the Place de la Liberte. The first stone of this column was laid in presence of Dussault, Abbe Fauchet, Talley rand, and Thuriot, who represented the Assembly, and the ceremony, etc., cost £2,000. As for the column, it shared the fate of the statue and the palace. We find, however, that at this epoch a statue was erected to Marat on the esplanade of the Invalides — a bronze statue, representing that sanguinary monster as Her cules armed with a club, slaying his political enemies in the form of serpents. There was also set up on the Place de la Revolution, formerly Place Louis XV., now Place de la Concorde, a colossal statue of Liberty. The Republican goddess was represented sitting down, a Phrygian cap on her head, holding a spear in one hand and a globe in the other; and there she remained sitting until Napoleon Bonaparte laid violent hands upon her in the year 1800. This statue had been erected on the pedestal which had formerly supported that of Louis XV., once the Well-Beloved — a pedestal which had been handsomely ornamented by Pigalle with figures representing the four virtues, concerning whom a wit wrote : O la belle statue ! O le beau piedestal ! Les vertus sont a pied, le vice est a cheval. 446 Cagliostro' s Prophecy A national triumphal column was to have replaced the statue of Liberty, but although the first stone was laid with much pomp by Lucien Bonaparte in the month of Messidor, year viii., the plan was never carried out. It was not concerning the site of the Bastille alone that indecision reigned. Cagliostro, whom we have seen in the Bastille in connection with the Necklace affair, went to England after his release, and there published a prophecy to the effect that the Bastille would fall, and that the place where it stood would be turned into a pleasure-garden. This prophecy turned out in the main to be true. The Bastille fell; trees were planted where it had reared its walls; and people had danced amid the ruins. Let us now turn to Paul Lacroix, who gives us the following information in his " Paris a travers les Ages:" " A vast place had been opened up where the Bastille formerly stood; but this place, the name of which recalled the royal castle of Charles V., long remained devoid of all architectural decoration. An Imperial decree of the 24th February, 181 1, decided that there should be constructed there a bronze fountain, whose water should flow from the trunk of a colossal elephant twenty-four metres high, comprising the tower on its back, the whole cast in bronze supplied by the guns captured at Friedland. . . . The model of the elephant was executed in plaster not far from the spot where it was to have stood in bronze. . . .. This hideous elephant had nothing remark able about it but its size; it nevertheless existed for a 447 The Bastille long time in an immense shed. . . . When the authorities had the curious idea, however, of painting it green, and revealing it to the malicious curiosity of the Parisians, its fate was soon decided." M. Paul Lacroix omits to inform us that Napoleon Bonaparte evidently at one moment conceived the idea of erecting the Arc de Triomphe on the spot once occupied by the Bastille, for we find the following letter in his correspondence: TO M. CHAMPIGNY. " St. Cloud, 9th May, 1806. " Seeing the difficulties in the way of constructing the Arc de Triomphe on the site of the Bastille, I con sent to it being erected at the Chaillot gate at l'Etoile. " Napoleon." To return to M. Paul Lacroix, he adds that — " For forty years long the Place de la Bastille re mained a sort of desert in summer and a swamp in winter. At length came another revolution, which drove the youngest brother of the unfortunate Louis XVI. from the throne, establishing the Constitutional Monarchy under the auspices of the son of Philippe Egalite. This revolution was not accomplished with out some bloodshed, and it was determined that a funeral column should be raised on the Place de la Bastille in honour of the heroes who fell during the three days of July. This column, the first stone of which was laid in 1831, was inaugurated in 1840, M. Thiers being Prime Minister." 448 Column of July The first stone of the column, we see, was laid in 1 83 1. Now in that year there were several serious ris ings in Paris, and on the 14th July the Republicans, who wished to plant a tree of liberty on the site of the Bastille, were dispersed by the military. The glorious work of '89 had still to bear fruit ; it had been succeeded by the tyranny of the Terror, of the Empire, of the Restoration, and then the mild regime of the Constitutional Monarchy; the battle must be fought over again, though there was now no Bastille to be stormed, and on the throne a King as liberal and well- intentioned as poor Louis XVI. The column was completed; on its summit was placed a gilded statue of Liberty, poised on one foot, holding a torch in one hand and a broken chain in the other. In a vault beneath repose the remains of the heroes who fell during the three days of July. Thus on the site where it was at first proposed to raise a statue to Louis XVI., the founder of French liberty, there was finally erected a column in honour of the rabble which drove his youngest brother from the throne and sent him an exile to England, setting up in his stead a citizen king, who was afterwards treated in a similar manner. In 1 87 1 an insurrection, the most formidable ever seen, took birth in the Place de la Bastille, where dur ing twenty consecutive days battalions of the National Guard marched to take the oath to the Commune. The insurrection was not quelled until oceans of blood had been shed, and nowhere had the fighting been more desperate than round the column of Liberty, 449 The Bastille which narrowly escaped coming to the ground, for the Communists intended to blow it up. And this insur rection was put down by M. Thiers when President of the Republic — M. Thiers who had inaugurated the column in 1840. 450 CHAPTER XV. PRISONS AND PUNISHMENTS SINCE THE FALL OF THE BASTILLE It may be asked what humanity gained by the de struction of the Bastille? Under the ancient regime the prisons of the Seine were thus classed: BastilleVincennes State prisons. For-1'Eveque — a gaol for debtors and for comediens refractaires ou incivils. La Conciergerie La Tournelle Le Grand, and Le Petit Chatelet Bicetre Charenton St. Lazare La Salpetriere Prisons properly so called. Half hospital, half prison, the two latter for women. The gentlemen of the Revolution soon found it necessary to make considerable additions to these, to add such buildings as the Luxembourg, the Temple, the Abbaye, the colleges of Louis-le-Grand and Plessis, 45i The Bastille convents, monasteries, etc. We shall see how prison ers were treated in them. We have observed how it was the intention of Louis XVI. to demolish the Bastille. Already in 1780 he had purchased the residence of the Due de la Force to replace the two most insalubrious prisons in Paris — those of For-1'Eveque and the Little Chatelet, which were razed. As Barthelemy Maurice, in his " History of the Prisons of the Seine," remarks: " Louis XVI., who abolished torture, turned his pious attention towards those receptacles of crime and misfortune. Out of his own pocket he made changes full of human ity at the Conciergerie. . . . Thus the first of our kings who took an interest in prisons was destined to become a prisoner, and that Conciergerie which he ren dered more healthy became for the queen his wife and for his sister the vestibule of the scaffold." We have already mentioned how poor Louis him self was lodged in the Temple in our sketch of the patriot Palloy, and Lamartine describes the un fortunate monarch sharing a morsel of bread with his faithful attendant Clery, who followed the fortunes of his fallen master, and has thus earned a place in the story. What a contrast with the dinner described by Marmontel and the good fare enjoyed by the turbulent Linguet ! It was strange that while Louis XVI. was ac claimed as the restorer of French liberty, poor de Launay and a portion of the garrison of the King's castle should have been massacred, and Baron de Bezenval, to whose " Memoirs " we have already 452 Entrance to Conciergerie Baron de Bezenval referred, should have been imprisoned for serving him. After the fall of the Bastille he went to Versailles, and there, he tells us, for three days, no one came near the King but M. de Montmorin and himself. Knowing that his life was threatened, Louis XVI. first of all ad vised him, and then ordered him to make his escape. He consequently set out for Switzerland; but was arrested on the road, confined for three months in the fortress of Brie-Comte-Robert, and then brought up to Paris, and thrown into " a horrible cell " in the Chatelet. The most absurd crimes were laid to his charge and published in the papers before his exam ination, and it was no easy task to prevent the mob from breaking into his prison and stringing him up to a lamp-post. Arrested in July, it was not until the 18th November that he was brought to trial. The Baron was accused of having been in command of the troops, etc., round Paris, and of having been aware of the evil designs of the Court. His counsel replied that the troops were necessary in order to ensure the provision ing of Paris, to protect the corn-markets and the convoys of grain on their way to the capital, which would have starved without them, and also to protect Paris from the brigands with which it was infested. The Baron was accused of having given orders to his troops contrary to public liberty. His counsel showed that the orders issued were moderate in the extreme, and that the troops were enjoined to avoid all conflict with the people unless the people fired on them, com mitted excesses, indulged in pillage, or interfered with the safety of peaceable citizens. The Baron was ac- 453 The Bastille cused of having directed the Governor of the Bastille to fire on the people if he were besieged. His counsel admitted that the Governor had received orders to defend his post. The Baron, we find, refused to believe de Launay guilty of the abominable crime im puted to him — of having enticed citizens across the drawbridge in order to massacre them. De Launay, he declared, was incapable of such a piece of treachery. On the ist March, 1790, Baron de Bezenval was acquitted, and he appears to have lost no time in regaining his native land. Had he been tried at a later date, he would in all probability have been con demned unheard. As it was, he owed his acquittal to the influence of Lafayette and Dumouriez, who, like himself, afterwards fled the country. M. Barthelemy Maurice tells us in his " Prisons de la Seine," that between the 16th June and the 26th July, the second year of liberty (!), 356 individuals con fined in the prisons of Bicetre, Luxembourg, the Car melites, and Lazare, of whom twenty-nine were women, were executed on the charge of having conspired against the representatives of the people and the mem bers of the Committee of Public Salvation, whom they wished to stab, whose hearts they wished to tear out, to fry, and to eat. Others were condemned to death for furnishing damp hay and straw for the defenders of the country not fit to eat. After quoting numerous condemnations of a similar nature, M. Barthelemy Maurice says that, " during the height of the Terror the colleges of Plessis and Louis- le-Grand (Prison de l'Egalite) were turned into ante- 454 Paris Prisons rooms to the Conciergerie, in which from 1,800 to 1,900 prisoners waited for vacancies." In the Conciergerie itself there were from 1,100 to 1,200 prisoners. There was no distinction of social position, age, or sex; men, women, and children were huddled together, as many as fifty to twenty square feet. The- pailleux, or those who could not pay for a bed, had to sleep on damp straw filled with vermin. " The rats were so numer ous that several prisoners had their breeches gnawed through in a night. They had to cover their faces with their hands in order to protect their noses and their ears." The prisoners who were not specially recom mended were confined in cells most of them below the level of the river. As it was repugnant to patriots to nourish their enemies, the rich prisoners were made to pay for the poor. The " Almanach des Prisons " tells us what kind of place Ste. Pelagie, or Pelagie, was under the new regime. It says: " This prison, damp, and unhealthy, under the reign of the terrible Robespierre contained about 350 prisoners — men whom he accused of being assassins, and courageous Republicans who had at tempted to unmask his hypocrisy. They were thrown into prison without being informed on what charge; and such an one who flattered himself in the morning that no jury would convict him, at 2 p.m. was trans ferred to the Conciergerie, and was guillotined the next day. No time was left for a prisoner to prepare his defence, and the man who had not a talent for im provisation found it impossible to make clear his innocence to the jury." 455 The Bastille The cells are described as six feet square, lighted by a small window with iron bars. The food was detestable — a pound and a half of bad bread and a dish of dried beans cooked in bad grease or tallow. The rich, under this reign of equality, could purchase some thing better at an exorbitant price. Dauban, in his " Prisons of Paris," gives us the diary of Cointat, who was confined in " Port Libre." On the 16th Pluviose he says: "They came to examine eight nuns who were in solitary confinement. They wished to make them take the oath of liberty and equality. The nuns refused, saying that they could not possibly be living under a reign of liberty, since they were prisoners; nor under a reign of equality, seeing the arrogance with which they were questioned. They were threatened with the Revolutionary Tribunal. . . These eight nuns were afterwards guillotined as fanatics." And on the 29th Floreal we read: " The Citoyenne Melessi has just been delivered of a daughter in our prison. It was in vain that the unfortunate mother, who is kept in solitary confinement, asked to see her child. This inhumanity makes us all shudder with indignation. . . . " In the Faubourg Antoine (sic) the Monopoly Commissioners seized thirty-six eggs in the house of a private individual, and had them distributed one by one. This citizen was sent to prison, and the women murmured a good deal at this imprisonment. In the same faubourg a citizen had a little pig sent to him from a place six leagues from Paris, and then 456 Arbitrary Arrests killed it; three hours afterwards the pig was seized by the Commissioners, and distributed to the people, without the proprietor (who was sent to prison, to the great astonishment of the people) being able to obtain a morsel." So said the police agent, Baron, in a report. Paris was then no better off for food than in the days of the Pacte de famine, in spite of a number of curious enactments, such as one which prohibited the use of hair-powder, because it was manufactured from the potato, which, thanks to Parmentier and Louis XVI., had recently become an article of food. Louis had worn potato flowers in his button-hole; had made the quondam army apothecary a count; and had given him one of his royal fingers, while Marie Antoinette had allowed him to kiss her on either cheek. Curious conduct on the part of sovereigns intent on starving the people! We find a hairdresser, called Vivian, confined in St. Lazare on the charge of imbecility and want of civism. He was kept a whole year in solitary confinement. And entries like the following: "The 20th Frimaire, year n. — Joseph Lebrun, of Douai, aged 38 years, suspected of being a warm partisan of that fop Lafayette. "The 1 8th May, 1793. — Boisset, 36 years, weaver, accused of fanaticism and endeavouring to propa gate it. "The 15th May, 1793. — Lavaincourt, accused of being a bad fellow and of committing excesses of which he boasts. 457 The Bastille " A woman called Bourry was arrested on the charge of selling shirts belonging to the nation." Against the name of many prisoners was written : " Not known for what cause arrested." On the 3rd August, 1793, the actors of the Theatre Frangais were arrested.* On the 7th Brumaire, year in., a woman " charged with having stabbed herself twice with a knife, and with leading a bad life (sic)," was thrown into prison. In the days of tyranny people were sometimes ar rested upon trivial charges, but under the reign ol liberty they were arrested upon mere suspicion. The Convention, at the instance of Merlin of Douai, passed what it called " the Law of Suspects," which rendered every one who was suspected in consequence of his actions, his connections, his language, or his writings, liable to be thrown into prison, and once in prison there was little chance of leaving it, except for the scaffold. " No frightfuller Law," says Carlyle, " ever ruled in a Nation of men. All Prisons and Houses of Arrest in French land are getting crowded * The actors of the Theatre Frangais were arrested for having presumed to play not only Laya's Ami des Lois but the Pamela of Francois de Chateauneuf, both directed against the excesses of the Revolution. Collot d'Herbois, who had formerly been a player himself and who had been hissed off the stage, wished to send the leading actor of the Theatre Frangais to the scaffold and to transport the remainder of the troupe. This proposition was not approved of. The author of Pamela, who took his piece from Richardson's novel, removed the objectionable portions, and the play was then tolerated. To humour patriots, Pamela, instead of turning out to be a lady, remained a country girl, and virtue, not nobility, was rewarded. 458 Law of Suspects to the ridge-tile: Forty-four thousand Committees, like as many companies of reapers or gleaners, gleaning France, are gathering their harvest, and stor ing it in these Houses. Harvest of Aristocrat tares! Nay, lest the Forty-four thousand, each on its own harvest-field, prove insufficient, we are to have an ambulant ' Revolutionary Army: ' six-thousand strong, under right captains, this shall perambulate the country at large, and strike-in wherever it finds such harvest work slack. . . ." We have seen how in the days of tyranny the officer who lost Martinique was committed to the Bastille. Carlyle adds: " Neither has the Revolutionary Tri bunal been keeping holiday. Blanchelande, for losing Saint-Domingo ; ' Conspirators of Orleans,' for ' assas sinating,' for assaulting the sacred Deputy Leonard- Bourdon : these with many Nameless, to whom life was sweet, have died." And again : " Luxembourg Palace, once Mon sieur's, has become a huge loathsome Prison; Chan- tilly Palace, too, once Conde's. ... In Paris are now some Twelve Prisons; in France some Forty- four Thousand: thitherward, thick as brown leaves in Autumn, rustle and travel the suspects; shaken down by Revolutionary Committees, they are swept thitherward, as into their store-house, — to be con sumed by Samson and Tinville. . . ." Lamartine, on his side, tells us * that in Paris there were eighteen prisons, into which all the mem bers of the Parliament of Paris, all the receivers- * Chap, lvi., " Histoire des Girondins." 459 The Bastille general, all the magistracy, all the nobility, and all the clergy were heaped, to be dragged thence to the scaffold. More than 8,000 suspects encumbered these prisons in the month preceding the death of Danton. In a single night 300 families belonging to the Faubourg St. Germain were thrown into them. Their name, their rank, or their wealth, was con sidered a sufficient crime. Neither age, nor sex, nor infirmity procured immunity. This man suffered for having manifested his opinions, that for his silence; one person for having served royalty, another for having ostentatiously embraced Republican ideas, a third for not having adored Marat. Others suffered for having regretted the Girondins, for having approved of the clemency of Danton (!) or having applauded the excesses of Hebert. One for having emigrated, another for not leaving home; this man for not spending his income and starving the people, and that man for having displayed an amount of luxury which was an insult to the public misery. Four thousand heads fell in the course of a few months. All the young girls who attended a ball given to the King of Prussia after he had captured Verdun, were brought up to Paris and executed. The eldest was eighteen years old. They were all clothed in white; the cart which conveyed them to the scaffold resembled a basket of lilies. The executioners wept with their victims. The next day all the nuns of the Abbey of Montmartre were guillotined, and the day after the venerable Abbe Fenelon, who was followed to the place of execution by a number of little Savoyards, whose tears and 460 September Massacres entreaties were unable to soften the hearts of his assassins. Never was the history of any nation sullied with more terrible crimes than those so graphically de scribed by Lamartine, when the same mob which had delivered seven captives from the Bastille emptied the prisons of Paris.* On the 2nd September, 1792, the barriers of the city were closed, and an indiscriminate massacre, known as the massacre of September, commenced. Five thousand suspected persons were torn from their homes, and the next morning at daybreak the town-hall, the sections, the old prisons of Paris, and the convents which had been converted into prisons were crowded with cap tives. The poissonniere ward condemned prisoners to death en masse. It was the same in the Therms ward. Robespierre, who knew that thousands of his fellow creatures were being assassinated, paced up and down his room all night ; he remonstrated with Saint-Just for going to bed. The massacre commenced with the slaughter of a number of priests, thirty of whom, in five carriages, were being conveyed from the Hotel de Ville to the prison of the Abbaye. The mob attacked the carriages, plunging swords and bayonets into the windows to the applause of the populace. When the cortege reached the Abbaye eight priests had already succumbed, while four were seized and murdered on the threshold of the prison. One of the priests who escaped was the Abbe Sicard, the charitable founder of * Colonel Munro's account of those horrors is well worth perusal. Vide Gower despatches, etc. 461 The Bastille the Deaf and Dumb Schools. The courtyard of the Abbaye had been transformed into a kind of tribunal. Round a table, covered with the prison books, writing materials, glasses, bottles, pistols, sabres, and pipes, sat twelve judges ; some wore woollen caps on their heads, had hob-nailed shoes, and butchers' aprons; others had taken off their coats, and had tucked up their shirt sleeves. A man in a gray coat, with a sword by his side, a pen in his hand, and whose inflexible features seemed as though they were petrified, presided over this Court. Maillard was the name of this demon. " He loved blood, he carried about heads, he displayed hearts, and cut up dead bodies," says Lamartine. There were a hundred and fifty Swiss soldiers in the Abbaye ; they were all massacred. The Commune paid each of the assassins twenty-four francs; when they had refreshed themselves and drunk brandy mingled with gunpowder, they slaughtered the King's guard, pro longing their tortures. The fall of each body was hailed with shouts of applause, while women and children sang and danced the Carmagnole round the bleeding corpses. Maillard and the judges supped, smoked their pipes, and fell asleep in their seats, so as to be ready to continue their sanguinary work on the morrow. The massacres recommenced the next day. A few of the prisoners were allowed to escape. Manuel saved Beaumarchais, and Mdlle. de Sombreuil saved her father by consenting to drink a glass filled with blood.* The last prisoner left was M. de St. * Colonel Munro saw M. de Sombreuil acquitted, to the great delight of the mob. He adds that the old man was feeble with 462 M. de St. Marc Marc, the colonel of a cavalry regiment. The assassins agreed among themselves to prolong his tortures in order that each of them might share in the sport. They made him walk between two rows of men armed with sabres, who carefully avoided inflicting a mortal wound, lest the sufferings of their victim should be too speedily terminated. A pike was then thrust through his body, and his executioners, with roars of laughter, imitated his convulsions. Finally, after being hacked about, he was despatched by half-a-dozen bullets being fired into his head. Similar scenes were enacted in the Carmelite prison, where a number of bishops were foully murdered, together with the King's confessor and other priests; women and children joining in the sanguinary pastime. The tumbrils carried 190 corpses away from this prison. The same horrors were repeated at La Force, and also at the Chatelet and the Conciergerie, after the criminals against the common law had been removed. La Force furnished 80 victims, the Chatelet 220, and the Conciergerie 290. In the latter prison, a hand some young girl, known as La Belle Bouquetiere, was subjected to tortures more infamous than those inflicted on Damiens. At the Seminary of St. Firmin 92 priests were massacred, and the same scenes polluted the cloisters of the Bernardins. Nor were the prisons of Bicetre and the Women's Hospital of the Salpetriere spared. fear and suspense, and overcome by the caresses of his daughter. They both sank lifeless into the arms of the spectators, and were borne away. Not a word about the glass of blood. 46"3 The Bastille Even while these massacres were going on, more victims were being committed to prison. M. Maurice Barthelemy quotes the following entry from a gaol book: "The 4th September, 1792. — Claude Guyet entered the prison of the Abbaye and was executed a quarter of an hour afterwards by the people." What saved the Abbe Sicard was the following letter: " Mr. President, " The deaf and dumb pupils have had their teacher and their father carried away from them. He has been thrown into prison as if he were a thief or a crim inal; and yet he has not killed any one, nor has he stolen. He is not a bad citizen. All his life has been passed in instructing us and teaching us to love virtue and our country. He is good, just, and pure. We demand his liberty! Restore him to his children, for we are his sons. He loves us as if he were our father. It is he who has taught us all we know; without him we should be like wild animals. Since he was taken from us we have been sorely grieved; restore him to us and we shall be happy." This letter was carried to the bar of the Assembly by Massieu, Abbe Sicard's favourite pupil, was read out by one of the secretaries, and was greeted with applause. A decree was at once voted, calling on the Minister of the Interior to make known the reasons of Abbe Sicard's arrest. Here the matter ended for the time being as far as the Assembly was concerned, 464 Bicetre and the philanthropist was carried to the Abbaye with the other prisoners, but was afterwards released. M. Thiers, in his " History of the Revolution," has given us a description of what happened at Bicetre under the Terror — a description copied from Pettier, who wrote: " It was here that the carnage was the longest, the most sanguinary, and the most terrible. This prison was the den of every vice, the hospital for the most affecting maladies, the sewer of Paris. Every one was killed. It would be impossible to fix the number of victims. I have heard them estimated at 6,000. Death did not for an instant cease its work through eight consecutive days and nights; pikes, sabres, muskets, did not suffice for the ferocity of the assassins, who employed guns. Two sections allowed them to take those which had been confided to them for the defence of humanity. For the first time prisoners were to be seen defending their dungeons and their fetters. The resistance was long and deadly. ..." Colonel Munro (4th September, 1792), writing to Lord Grenville on the subject of the massacres, said: . " On Monday morning a detachment with seven pieces of cannon went to attack the Bicetre. It is reported that these wretches charged their cannon with small stones and fired promiscuously among the prisoners. I cannot, however, vouch for this. They have, how ever, not finished their cruelties there yet, and it is now past six o'clock Tuesday evening." Writing again on the 6th September, the Colonel said: " I find that the massacre at Bicetre only ended yesterday, and one may 465 The Bastille form an idea of the number of victims by the time they took to murder them." He calculated that at La Force and Bicetre 7,000 persons were destroyed. Who were the victims? Lord Palmerston, who visited Bicetre the year before the massacres, wrote in his diary: "31st August, 1791. — Went to see the Bicetre. It is a prison and at the same time an hos pital, particularly for madmen and idiots; it is likewise a kind of workhouse for infirm persons who have an allowance. The prisons consist of a great number of small cells. . . . We found that, notwithstanding the new laws on liberty, this prison was full of people who had been there for many months, and some of them for years, without being brought to trial. The truth is, that hitherto the machine does not move. The destruction of old institutions has been complete enough, but the substitution of new ones is very imperfect. . . ." Bicetre, a corruption of Bicester, was built by the English bishop of Winchester when Paris was in our hands in the 15th century. Taine, on his side, gives a fearful picture of these times. He says, that in Paris there were thirty-six vast prisons and ninety-six provisional gaols, which were incessantly filled by the Revolutionary Commit tees, and were found insufficient. It is calculated that in France there were more than 40,000 of these tem porary gaols and 1,200 prisons filled to overflowing, each containing 200 captives. In Paris, in spite of the voids created daily by the guillotine, the number of persons detained amounted, on the 9th Floreal, year 466 Treatment of Prisoners ii., to 7,840; and in Messidor following, notwithstand ing the batches of 50 and 60 victims conveyed every day to the scaffold, the number was still 7,502. There were 975 captives in the prisons of Brest ; over 1 ,000 in those of Arras; more than ,1,500 in those of T6ulouse; over 3,000 in those of Strasbourg; and more than 13,- 000 in those of Nantes. In the two departments of the Vaucluse and the Bouches du Rhone, between 12,000 and 15,000 persons were arrested. Shortly before Thermidor the Representative Beaulieu said that ac cording to the registers of the Committee of Public Safety, there were 400,000 persons in prison. Among these unfortunates were children, not only in the pris ons of Nantes, where revolutionary battues swept away all the rural population, but elsewhere. In the prisons of Arras, among twenty similar cases, I find a coal mer- ¦ chant and his wife, with their seven children between six and sixteen years of age; a widow with four chil dren between twelve and seventeen years old; the widow of a noble, with nine children between three and seventeen years old; six children of the same family, with neither father nor mother, between nine and twenty-three years of age. Nearly everywhere the prisoners were treated as robbers and assassins were treated under the ancient regime. To begin with they were subjected " au rapiotage," that is to say, they were stripped naked and searched: women and girls fainted under this ordeal, which was formerly reserved for convicts before going to the galleys. Often, before being confined in their cells or their chambers, they were left for two or three nights, pell-mell, in a 467 The Bastille low room on benches, or in the courtyard on the paving stones, without beds or straw. They were tor mented in their affections; everything was taken from them, their property, their assignats, their furniture, their food, the light of day, and that of lamps ; they were deprived of the aid required by their infirmities; the knowledge of public events; all communication with father, son, or wife. They had to pay for their food, which was of the most disgusting description — rotten fish, putrefied meat, etc., washed down with a glass of Seine water tinged with red. The prisoners were starved, knocked about, and vexed in order to wear out their patience and drive them to revolt, so as to justify the increased rapidity with which they were sent to the guillotine. They were crowded by tens, twenties, and thirties into the same room. At La Force there were eight prisoners in a room fourteen feet square; two of them had to sleep on the ground, which was covered with vermin; the air was poisonous. In many places the proportion of dead and dying was greater than on board a slave ship. " Out of ninety persons with whom I was imprisoned," wrote a captive at Stras bourg, " seventy were taken to the hospital in a week. In two months, in the prisons of Nantes, out of 13,000 prisoners 3,000 died of typhus and rot. Four hundred priests were confined between decks on board a ship lying in the roads at Aix, heaped one on top of the other, attenuated with hunger, eaten by vermin, suffocated for want of air, half frozen, beaten, insulted, and perpetually menaced with death, suffering more than negroes in the hold. . " There were 178 tribunals, of these 40 were 468 Executions perambulating, which, throughout the territory, pro nounced sentence of death, which was instantly carried out. From the 16th April, 1793, to the 9th Thermidor, year 11.,* that of Paris sent 2,625 persons to the scaffold; and the judges in the provinces worked as assiduously as those of Paris. In the little town of Orange 331 persons were guillotined. In Arras 299 men and 98 women were executed. At Nantes 100 persons a day were guillotined or shot, in all 1,971. In Lyons there were 1,684 executions. The list of these murders is not complete; most of them were accomplished without formalities or proofs; among these was the murder of 1,200 women, several of whom were octogenarians and infirm. No less than 60 women were sentenced to death for attending mass said by a non-juring priest. . . . Hundreds of sentences were passed at the rate of one a minute. Children of seven, of five, and of four years old were tried. A father was condemned for his son, and a son for his father. A dog was sentenced to death. A parrot was called as a witness. At Angers 400 men and 360 women were executed in order to disencumber the prisons. . . . The slightest pretext sufficed to send a prisoner to the guillotine. The young de Maille, sixteen years of age, was guillotined for having flung a rotten herring at the head of his jailer. Madame de Puy Verine was guillotined as " culpable " for not having taken from her husband, who was blind, deaf, and in his second childhood, some counters marked with the royal arms." M. Taine then refers to the fusillades of Toulon * 27th July, 1794. 469 The Bastille and the noyades of Nantes, during which 4,800 men, women, and children were drowned; to the September massacres in Paris; and the prisoners cut down with out trial at Lyons. In the eleven departments of the West he says that half a million persons perished. And the revolutionary tribunals accomplished this sanguinary work in seventeen months. What said one of the apostles of this new gospel: " We will turn France into a new country, sooner than not regenerate her after our own fashion." And Danton declared: " It is necessary to give a lesson to the trading aristocracy, and to show ourselves as terrible towards the shopkeepers and merchants as towards the nobles and the priests." After commerce came the turn of agriculture. In the spring of 1794 there were no less than 2,000 agriculturists in the prisons of Paris. In the Vendee whole cantons were depopulated; and in the Pyrenees provinces the Basques furnished over' 1,000 victims, most of whom died in prison. The slaughter was indiscriminate. Out of 12,000 persons con demned to death, there were 7,500 peasants, plough men, soldiers, servant men and women, the wives and daughters of artisans, dressmakers, etc. M. Taine informs us that the tribunal which sat in the section of the Bonnet Rouge was thus composed — a gendarme who had been cashiered, a forger, four con victed thieves, a bankrupt, two street messengers, and a nightman. An account of the trial of Antoine Pessoneaux shows how these matters were managed at Lyons. The abbe 470 The Abbe Pessoneaux who was a professor in the college of Vienne, in the Isere, was thrown into prison as a priest, and appeared before the revolutionary tribunal established in the second city of France. In one of the halls of the Hotel de Ville sat seven judges round a table covered with a black cloth. Each judge wore round his neck a small silver axe. When the trial was over, if the judges spread their hands out on the table, that signified that the prisoner was to be set at liberty; one hand raised to the forehead meant that he was to be shot; and when the silver axe was touched that was a silent order that he should be sent to the guillotine. This proceed ing was probably borrowed from the pollice verso and the pollice recto of the Roman amphitheatre. In the case of the abbe the hands of the judges were spread out on the table. His life was spared on account of being the author of the last verse of the Marseillaise, entitled " Les Enfants," which was appended to the National Anthem written by Rouget de l'lsle. The abbe was more fortunate than poor Rouget de l'lsle himself. Three abbes, therefore, had their lives spared in those days of blood. Abbe Morellet, because he had been confined in the Bastille; Abbe Sicard, the teacher of the deaf and dumb; and the Abbe Pes soneaux. To return to Taine. This is how he writes on the subject of the seventy-three Deputies of the Gironde, who signed a protest against the acts of the Conven tion, and were thrown into prison without trial. " In 47i The Bastille the midst of the vociferations and the insults of the furies who lined the streets through which they passed, the seventy-three were taken to a guard-room in the Hotel de Ville, which was already crowded. There they passed the night standing up, and hardly able to breathe. The next day they were thrust into the prison of La Force, with robbers and assassins, on the sixth floor. This garret was so confined that their beds touched each other, while two Deputies had to sleep on the floor. The stench was abominable; the air was vitiated; the beds were mere sacks of straw swarming with vermin. The representatives were obliged to feed like convicts out of a common trencher. . . . They passed months in this condition, with the blade of the guillotine continually hanging over their heads." Beugnot, in his " Memoirs," which were first published in La Revue Frangaise of 1838, gives a very graphic and interesting account of his incarceration in the Conciergerie, into which prison he was thrown in 1794, for the better security of the Republic. The first sight he beheld was two men bound hand and foot, waiting to be taken to the guillotine. " What a sight," he exclaims, " did the place in which they awaited their last hour present ! Mattresses, stretched on the floor, showed that they had passed the night there. Beside them were to be seen the remnants of their last repast; their clothes were thrown here and there; and two candles, which they had neglected to ex tinguish, shed a funereal light over the scene. I was 472 Beugnot in Prison taking stock of the horrors of this living sepulchre, when the door was noisily flung open. I saw the gen darmes, the turnkeys, and the executioners appear; then nothing more. I swooned away. . . . We awaited our destination. At the end of a certain time I perceived among the new arrivals a dandy, who had lost nothing of the impertinence of his manner. His clothes betrayed the greatest respect for the ridiculous fashions of the day. He monopolised the narrow space accorded to us, walking up and down with nonchalance, treading on the feet of his neighbours, being profuse in his apologies, recommencing, and all the while hum ming an Italian air. He would have been remarked, even in the cloak-room of the Opera, to such perfection did he betray his folly. His name greatly resembled mine; but that was all which we had in common. He had been arrested for making false assignats, and I as a measure of general security." We are then told how the gaoler made a mistake between the two, confining the Count in a cell and the dandy in the infirmary. This cell was only fifteen feet square, and the sole light it received was through a hole bored in the door — sufficient to show the horror of the place. " I found there two companions. One, accused of having assas sinated his mother, was about forty years of age. I never saw a face upon which crime was more plainly written. ... By a curious concatenation of cir cumstances he was executed on the day I recovered life and liberty, and I had once more an occasion for recognising and adoring that eternal Providence which sometimes condescends to associate itself with 473 The Bastille human justice for the instruction of feeble mortals." After indulging in this pious reflection, the Count describes his other companion, and the torture he suf fered in his dungeon, torture which would soon have ended fatally had not the gaoler's mistake been discov ered, and had not poor Beugnot been removed to the infirmary. This is the description which the Count gives of that favoured spot. " It was the most loath some hospital in the world. It was twenty-five feet broad by ioo long, closed at each extremity by an iron grating. It was paved with flag-stones. The light was admitted by two narrow little windows, pierced in the ceiling, which made it resemble the hell one sees in the Opera. From forty to fifty stretchers occupied the two sides of this narrow chamber, and on these were lying, in twos or threes, unfortunate wretches suffering from different diseases. It was impossible to renew the air; no one thought of purifying it, of changing the straw, or of cleaning the blankets." . . . And so on, for several pages, filled with horrors. Beugnot afterwards relates how an elderly prisoner, high up in the legal profession, congratulated him on being received in the infirmary, which he considered the most convenient place for a quiet chat ! Poor Baron Trenck, like several other foreigners — Thomas Paine, Anacharsis Clootz, Adam Lux, Marshal Luchner, etc. — was harshly treated by the Revolution. Dauban, in his " Paris in 1794," gives the follow ing curious letter, written by the famous Baron: " It was on the 7th Thermidor (25th July) that he was 474 Baron Trenck executed, in company with Andre Chenier, the Marquis de Montalembert, and twenty-three other prisoners." As Dauban remarks, " The terrorists themselves would have found it difficult to say why this man was condemned to lose his head." The letter in question runs thus : " Citizen Administrators, a scoundrel could not experience greater contempt and cruelty in your prisons than Baron Trenck. " I have passed sixty-three days here without being examined, without the observance of any legal form, in the greatest possible misery, without murmuring, with out complaining, having suffered everything by the revolutionary crisis which, disregarding my innocence and inflexible virtue, has placed me among the number of suspected persons. " It is impossible for any honest man in the universe to suspect Trenck, who has sacrificed everything to brave tyrants on the soil of liberty. It is, therefore, evident that the emissaries of the Kings have played me this trick in order to work my ruin in Paris. I have no friends, no resources here. " Citizen Administrators, you avoid speaking to me, and I implore your humanity and your protection in the cause of a just man who is ill-treated. Here is a petition to the Committee of Public Safety or to the National Convention. I hand it to you, and beg and implore you to give it to the representatives of the French people, in order to procure me justice. I have been without money and in the most deplor- 475 The Bastille able state for the last sixty-three days. I am an old man, and I lost a revenue of 20,000 francs by coming to France. I have been hung in effigy in my country; I am lost for ever to my family, and I find myself arrested in Paris as a scoundrel without being examined or tried. " It is the first duty of a true Republican to help men of virtue and true patriots in distress. I am the first of your prisoners who has a right to demand justice. No one speaks or acts for me, and the emissaries of the Kings in Paris have nothing to hinder them from sacrificing me to their intrigues. " I am already beginning to succumb to the suffering of an abominable cell, never deserved in France. Fly to the rescue of Trenck. Millions of men who are aware of my innocence watch the issue of my fate in France. " Be just, be humane, and interest yourself in behalf of a man who has never been either cowardly or un grateful. Up to the present I have served as the model of frankness and moral courage in all the countries of Europe. Nothing can blacken the renown I have acquired. You may massacre me, you may let me perish from want in your barbarous cells, but nothing will daunt my resolute Republican spirit, or damage the credit which no nation has hitherto refused me. I know how to live for France, and how to die as a hero in fighting against tyranny. « Trenck." In this same year we find our old friend, Gouverneur Morris, writing thus : 476 The Directory TO THOMAS JEFFERSON. " Paris, January 21st, 1794. " The young man, Mr. Griffiths,* whom I mentioned in mine of the 26th November, is at length out of prison; but another of the name of Hoskins still remains in confinement, and this merely because the multiplicity of business before the Committee prevents them from attending to anything. " I learn that the number of persons arrested in this city amounts to 15,000, and throughout the Republic the prisoners are more than tenfold more numerous. The petitions before the Committee could not be read through in less than a year, supposing ten hours a day devoted to that purpose; and, as the arrestations are daily continued, those who are confined are in a sad and hopeless condition. ... I must mention that Thomas Paine is in prison, where he amuses himself with publishing a pamphlet against Jesus Christ. I do not recollect if I mentioned to you that he would have been executed along with the rest of the Brissotins, if the adverse party had not viewed him with contempt. I incline to think that, if he is quiet in prison, he may be forgotten." . . . We shall not detain our readers much longer. The " Reign of Terror " came to a close in 1795 — closed in blood as became it, and was succeeded by the Directory, which imprisoned and transported in its turn, some- * Griffiths had lost the certificate or passport given to him by Gouverneur Morris, and, of course, was suspected. 477 The Bastille times on very light pretexts, as one may see by the fol lowing lines to be found in the " Anti- Jacobin : " And ah ! what verse can grace thy stately mien, Guide of the world, preferment's golden queen, Necker's fair daughter — Stael the Epicene ! Bright o'er whose flaming cheek and purple nose The bloom of young desire unceasing glows ! Fain would the Muse — but ah ! she dares no more, A mournful voice from lone Guyana's shore — Sad Quatremer — the bold presumption checks, Forbids to question thy ambiguous sex. " These lines," says a note, " contain the secret history of Quatremer's deportation. He presumed, in the Council of Five Hundred, to arraign Madame de Stael's conduct, and even to hint a doubt of her sex. He was sent to Guyana. The transaction naturally brings to one's mind the dialogue between Falstaff and Hostess Quickly in Shakespeare's Henry IV." We have seen how one of the great crimes alleged against Louis XVI. and his Government was that troops had been ordered up to Versailles to intimidate the National Assembly. Now what happened under the Directory? In accordance with the Constitution of the year m., there were two Chambers, that of the Five Hundred and the Ancients. It was decreed that no troops should be brought into Paris or within twelve leagues of the capital without a special law. In 1797, the Directors, with the connivance of Bonaparte, in troduced 1,200 men, commanded by Augereau, into Paris; forty-two members of the Council of Five Hun dred, eleven members of the Ancients, and two of the Directors were arrested and condemned to transporta- 478 The First Consul tion. The editors of thirty-five journals were im prisoned, and the elections of forty-eight departments were annulled. The victims of this despotic measure were accused of Royalist tendencies. Such was the way in which Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality were understood by Barras and his friends. Two years later, the remaining members of the Ancients and the Five Hundred were treated by Bonaparte as Bussy de Clerc treated the Parliament in the days of the League. It would be tedious to enumerate all the acts of violence committed during the despotism of the Consulate and the Empire. Suffice it to say that when the Royalists attempted to blow up the First Consul in the Rue St. Nicaise, sentence of transportation was pronounced against 132 Jacobins or ex-Jacobins, without any preliminary trial. Bonaparte had the names of these men down in his black book, and he seized the op portunity to get rid of them. Some idea of the justice of this measure may be formed from the fact of it having been afterwards discovered that one of the condemned persons had been for some time dead, and that a second had for five years been acting as a judge at Guadaloupe. All the men arrested, with the exception of two, died at the places to which they had been transported. Nine other individuals were exe cuted on the suspicion of having plotted against the life of the First Consul, and shortly afterwards two of the real authors of the explosion in the Rue St. Nicaise were arrested by the police, confessed their guilt, and paid the penalty of their abortive attempt. Their arrest and punishment, however, did not mitigate the 479 The Bastille position of the unfortunate Jacobins, for Bonaparte declared that if they did not actually commit the crime imputed to them, they were quite capable of it ! And these arbitrary acts were committed within two lustres of the fall of the Bastille, and France was deprived of every vestige of liberty. Under the Directory the number of prisoners fell gradually away, and if a good many Jacobins were transported to a deadly climate, and were harshly treated, they only met with their deserts. When Na poleon Bonaparte assumed power there were not more than 9,000 State captives in prison, which was a decided improvement on the " Reign of Ter ror." Of what use was the destruction of the Bastille when France was once more subjected to a despotic form of Government? Alison, in his " History of Europe," speaking of the Bastilles of the Empire, says that: " Persons of the most elevated station and noblest character were confined in these State prisons during the remainder of Napoleon's reign. An order signed by the Emperor, the Minister of Police, or the Privy Council, was a sufficient warrant for the arrest of any suspected person, not only in France, but in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and the Papal States. Nobles of the highest rank, priests of the most exalted station, citizens of the most irreproachable lives, were seized in every part of Europe subject to French influence, paraded through the towns of the countries to which they belonged, with shackles on their hands or chains 480 The Restoration round their necks, and then consigned to the gloomy oblivion of the State prisons, there to languish in captivity for the remainder of their lives. The offences for which this terrible penalty, worse than death, was inflicted, were of the most trivial kind. . . . Numbers of persons were immured against whom no definite charge or overt act could be alleged." It is well known how Napoleon treated some of his prisoners; the Pope, whom he almost starved to death at Savona; the Due d'Enghien, whom he ordered to be tried and shot at Vincennes; Pichegru, Villeneuve, and Captain Wright, supposed to have been assassinated by his directions; the Marquis de Frotte, and Toussaint l'Ouverture, who, after capitulating on the faith of receiving pardon, died, the first being shot, and the second brought to France and thrown into an under ground cell, where he probably expired from cold or was murdered. After the exile of Napoleon I., the Restoration indulged in many arbitrary and oppressive measures, and in 1830, freedom had once more to be conquered by violence and a change in the system of Govern ment. From the Constitutional Monarchy great things were expected by our old friend Lafayette, who reappeared on the scene, and by the Liberals. But the son of poor Philippe Egalite, " who had carried the national colours at Jemappes, who had never spilt French blood," etc., was destined to share the fate of Charles X. In 1848, he was driven from the throne for resisting popular aspirations, and freedom had once 481 The Bastille more to be purchased by a resort to physical force. Then came the Second Republic, which soon perished, and was succeeded by the Second Empire. Napoleon III. repeated some of the exploits of his uncle. He violated the Chamber, throwing some of the Deputies into Mazas, others into Mont Valerien, while, after an abortive attempt to blow him up in the Rue Lepelletier, numerous arbitrary arrests were made, a law of general surety was passed, and mixed commissions, with the most arbitrary powers, were established in various parts of France, which rendered services rather than administered justice, transporting guilty and innocent alike. As a proof that arbitrary and cruel punishments were destined long to survive the destruction of the stronghold of tyranny, we may mention that in 1846 M. Bureaux de Pusy declared in the Chamber of Deputies that various arbitrary pains were inflicted in the army of Africa. These punishments were five in number; to wit, the silo, the barre, the clou rouge, the clou bleu, and the crapaudine. The barre somewhat resembles our stocks. The crapaudine, as its name sug gests, consists in lashing a man up until he assumes the form of a crapaud, or toad. The right arm was at tached to the left leg, which was drawn up, and the left arm to the right leg. If neither the barre nor the crapaudine — under the infliction of which a man was left exposed in the open air to excessive heat, to rain, or to cold — daunted him, then the clou rouge was resorted to. In this case the man, lashed up like a toad, was no longer left on the ground, but was strung up to a nail. 482 Torture Revived It is hardly necessary to say that the suffering endured in this position was atrocious. We are told that the patient breathed with difficulty, that the circulation was almost suspended, and that in a very few minutes the eyes were injected with blood. If this punishment had not the desired effect, then the clou bleu was applied, that is to say, the victim was kept strung up until he became blue in the face. The silo consisted in putting a man into one of the silos or pits, used by the Arabs for storing corn, instead of into an ordinary prison. The Chamber was highly indignant that such tortures should be inflicted on French soldiers, and their abolition was at once ordered. The crapaudine, etc., may have been abolished in the reign of Louis Philippe, under a Constitutional Government, as far as French soldiers of the regular army were concerned, but not in the discipline or punishment companies, nor in the Foreign Legion. In La Lanterne of the 26th March, 1886, we read that General Boulanger, War Minister, has just ordered the abolition of all corporal punishments, which (" incomprehensible remnant of barbarity ") are still inflicted in the corps above named. The writer, after describing these methods of torture, talks of " these abominable usages, at the most worthy of savages." And to think that such practices should have survived the abolition of torture by Louis XVI. one hundred years, and up to the date when the Third Republic is preparing to celebrate the centenary of the fall of the Bastille. In 1885 there appeared in Paris a work on the 483 The Bastille police, written by M. Ives Guyot, now a Deputy. In this volume he wrote: " The Prefect of Police can go into the office of M. Jacob (chief of the detectives) any day, and be pres ent at the examination of some poor devil accused of a misdemeanour or of a crime. This is what he will see: the wrists of the individual are tied together, and the cord is tightened till it cuts into the flesh; the flesh swells; the blood appears; the cord is drawn tighter, until the prisoner confesses. Should the prisoner still resist, he is beaten and kicked. What! in the 19th century, under the Republic, the Prefect of Police re establishes the question? Is this possible? . . . Many of the unfortunate wretches who confess crimes to the police through fear of torture, are afterwards released or acquitted by the examining magistrate." ¦ That there must have been truth in these accusa tions is proved by the result produced — the resigna tion of the Minister of the Interior and the Prefect of Police, together with several of the chief detectives. The latest known instance of the infliction of la crapaudine was reported in the French papers as re cently as April, 1886, when it was related that a man called Okolowicz, a Pole belonging to the Foreign Legion serving in Tonquin, expired during the ordeal. He was left for several hours on the parade ground exposed to a burning sun, and was so brutally handled that two of his ribs were broken. As he is reported to have died of congestion of the brain, he was probably subjected to the clou bleu. This punish ment is said to have been ordered by a sergeant of the 484 Mazas victim's company! An inquiry has been ordered by the War Minister. There can be little doubt about a great deal of cruelty, which would have been loudly condemned in the Bastille, still obtaining in the French penal settle ments, such as New Caledonia, Cayenne, etc., and also at home; and that innocent persons are often detained for months in prison before being brought to trial. We find in La France of the ioth August, 1882, a description of Mazas, now the chief prison in Paris. What says the writer, M. Jules Valles? " From the depths of the solitudes of Mazas, at once as narrow as a tomb and as vast as the desert, the innocence of a hundred despairing people cries for the last twenty years against this new Inquisition, without those cries being heard. Pain breaks its wings against the walls, and, the daily necessities of politics absorbing the attention of polemists, the cause of these prisoners remains eternally abandoned." After saying that several members of the Commune in 187 1 were opposed to the infamous regime of solitary confinement, M. Jules Valles adds: "In these terrible moments (during an insurrection) Justice veils its face, like the sun, blinded with blood. Cruel exceptions have their excuse in the hurly-burly of the tempest; but routine still continues to strangle prisoners under the vaults of this model prison. After, as before, revolutions, the jailer's scep tre, in the shape of his iron keys, remains firm in his hand, being transmitted from generation to genera tion without interregnum." Reading on, one finds 4«5 The Bastille such expressions as " active cruelty, mechanical tort ure, violence, humiliation, brutality, mute cages, in voluntary assassination, and assassination by order of the State." And then these concluding observations: " In the system of solitary confinement there is noth ing but shame for humanity, danger for justice, and a pitfall for truth. Let Republicans who defend this barbarous system reflect twice before they continue their protection. This torture of the mind is nothing more nor less than the blind sister of Catholic torture. The Municipal Council of Paris ought to vote the demolition of this Bastille." One may smile at an ex-member of the Commune writing in this strain — the Commune which indulged in arbitrary arrest, confinement, assassination, and arson; which wantonly steeped its hands in the blood of such liberal-minded victims as the Archbishop of Paris, Senator Beaujean, etc. A report recently made on the " Prisons of the Seine " shows that there are ten prisons comprised in the department; eight in Paris, one at St. Denis, and the tenth at Nanterre. The Depot, which is a sort of antechamber to the other places of confinement, con tains 96 cells for men, 96 for women, and 8 for mad people: also 4 large rooms capable of holding 400 men and 120 women. The Conciergerie, we see, can receive 250 prisoners, and has 76 cells. Mazas is built to receive 1,217 prisoners, all in cells. La Roquette, where men con demned to death and convicts re-convicted are con fined, has 250 cells and dormitories, with 205 places. 486 French Prisons St. Lazare, built in the 15th century, and described in " Manon Lescaut," can contain as many as 1,500 women. Sainte Pelagie, which dates from 1665, con tains 810 beds and 53 cells. In this prison, offending journalists are confined in one portion, and very des perate characters in another; the gentlemen of the press being usually treated with great indulgence. Some idea of French prisons of the present day may be gathered from the experiences of Prince Krapot- kine, which appeared in the Nineteenth Century, March, 1886. The filth, the bad food, and ill-treatment in vogue in the prisons of Lyons and Clairvaux, where the Prince was confined, will remind the reader of the Luxembourg and the Conciergerie in the palmy days of the Terror. We find ill-ventilated cells, swarming with vermin, execrable food, bad bread, rations of rice or beans not fit to eat, and revolts in the prisons traced to the state of semi-starvation in which the inmates are kept. This forms a curious contrast with the prisoners in the Bastille, asking the Governor to curtail their rations and to share the profits! In an essay on the state of prisons Sydney Smith says: " It is a mere mockery of punishment to say that a prisoner should spend his money on luxurious viands, and sit down to dinner with fetters on his feet and fried pork in his stomach." But there is a great difference between such a state of affairs and starving prisoners until they break into mutiny. On the 4th May, 1886, a French editor, Jean Frollo, after relating the sufferings endured by French 487 The Bastille prisoners on board English and Spanish hulks, gave an account of the tortures which some of the victims of Napoleon III. underwent, adding: " Alas! nineteen years afterwards the hulks were destined to receive more political prisoners. After the Commune of 1 87 1 a great number of victims were sent to the hulks, where they were kept for many a long month before being tried by court-martial." Alas! as long as the world endures there will be crimes committed against the State and against society, for the heart of man is desperately wicked, sometimes through am bition, sometimes through baser motives, and as long as there are crimes there will be Bastilles. 488 Index B Abolition, the power of, i. 98 Agincourt, battle of, i. 107 Alfieri, ii. 368, 369 Allegre, ii. 114 Alpheston, i. 190 Ameilhon, i. 43, 44 Anne of Austria, i. 241, 242, 370 Archives, the, i. 37, 274, 342, 346, 360, 366, 399, 422, 464; ii. 90, 95, 97, 153, 160 Armagnac, Count of, i. 127, 129 Arnould, Alexis, ii. 229 Arouet, fils. (See Voltaire.) Articles, the twenty-seven, i. 241, 242 Assembly, the National, ii. 284, 286, 292, 320, 452 Attempt on the life of Louis XV., ii. 167 Aubriot, Hugues, Provost of Paris, i. 29, 30-32, 34 Aumary, widow, ii. 66, 79 Auvergne, Count of, i. 166 Avedick, Patriarch of the Ar menians at Constantinople, i. 370; ii. 12—31. (See also Mask, The Iron.) Bastille, building of the, i. 27; first victim, i. 32; Carlyle' s picture of, in 1789, i. 35 ; cita del of Royalty, i. 36; sur render sold by Governor, i. 36; description of, i. 37; av erage number of prisoners, i. 39; first used as a State prison, i. 39; additional "houses" to, i. 40; taking of, in 1789, i. 42; pillaged papers restored, i. 43; com mittee appointed to publish them, i. 43 ; M. Ameilhon appointed Custodian, i. 43 ; Bastille papers sent to the Li brary of the Arsenal, i. 45 ; first name found in regis ter, i. 45 ; interesting letters found, i. 46; documents re lating to orders and registers found in the Bastille when it fell, i. 46 ; visitors to the Cas tle, i. 49; Peter the Great not allowed to enter, i. 52; staff of the prison, i. 55 ; food in the Bastille, i. 56; remains 489 Index discovered in 1789, i. 59 liberties of the Bastille, i. 60 torture in the Bastille, i. 63 de Legarde's study of, i. 65 points of resemblance be tween the Bastille and the Tower of London, i. 66 ; re semblance between the Bas tille and Newgate, i 84; Howard's remarks on the Bastille, i. 86; fetters seldom used in the Bastille, i. 88; three Ministers of Charles VI. imprisoned 1393, i. 100; surrounded by 20,000 Paris ians, i. 105 ; surrendered by Pierre des Essarts, i. 105; the Dauphin taken to the Bastille for safety, i. 108; English garrisons placed in the Bastille, i. no; Indenture made between Henry V. and Sir John Falstaff, i. 115; Due de Guise takes posses sion of, i. 142; surrender of Leclerc, i. 147; Henry IV. becomes master of the for tress, i. 159; plot to seize the Bastille, i. 225 ; besieged in 1649, i- 244; command of the fortress handed over to Bachelerie, 1652, i. 255 ; crowded through the reign of Louis XIV, i. 298; seized by the Burgundians in 1418, i. 108; first fury of the Revo lution wreaked on the, ii. 277; had long ceased to be a strategical point, ii. 279; capture of, in 1789, ii. 286; conquerors of the, ii. 291 ; first anniversary of the tak ing of, ii. 406; celebration in London of the first anniver sary of the taking of, ii. 425 ; demolition of, decided on in 1784, ii. 432; report of sub terranean cells in, ii. 438; relics of, ii. 441 ; Place de la, ii. 446; Bastille, writers on the : Bord, on the capture of, ii. 437; Green, on the, ii. 399 ; Marat, on the taking of, ii. 395 ; Lacroix, on the, ii. 394; Sir James Mackintosh, on the, ii. 369 Bailly, Mayor of Paris, ii. 303, 387 Balagny, i. 190 Balue, Cardinal de la, i. 126 Bandon, i. 342 Bandouin, ii. 419 Barbin, i. 180 Barentin, Comte de, i. 66 Barricades, battle of the, i. 140 Bassompierre, Marshal, i. 167, 178, 180, 213 Beaufort, Due de, i. 248, 279 Beaumarchais, Comte de, i. 191 Beaumelle, de la, ii. 120 Beaumont, le Prevot de, ii. 194 Beauvais, de la Boissiere de, i. 419 Bechade, i. 246 Bedford, Duke of, i. 112 Belin, de, i. 365 Belle Isle, Comte de, ii. 106 Benchart, Marquis de, i. 420 Benedict IV., Pope, ii. 83 490 Index Bequard, ii. 283, 289 Beranger, Jacques, ii. 440 Berliere, de la, i. 425 Bernard, i. 327 Beugnot in prison, ii. 480 Bezenval, Baron de, ii. 241, 256 Biron, Marshal de Gontaut, i. 159 Blache, Abbe, i. 457 Blangy, ii. 107 Blutel, ii. 330, 332 Bon, de, Cure, ii. 207 Bonnesson, de, i. 284 Bonrepas, Marquis de, ii. 107 Bord, G. de, ii. 209 Boslabbe, ii. 207 Bouillon, Due de, i. 162, 300; Duchesse de, i. 252; Mdlle. de, i. 268 Boulay, Alexis, ii. 95 Bourg, Anne du, i. 135 Bournonville, de, i. 180 Bouteville, de, i. 195 Bragelonne, i. 328 Bras, President de, i. 300 Breaute, Marquis de, i. 189 Brett, Captain, i. 296 Brinvilliers, Marquise de, i. 299 Brion, Chabot de, i. 131-134 Briosne, Comte de, i. 440 Brissac, Marshal de Cosse, i. 138 Brisson, President, i. 145 Brissot, ii. 231, 387, 399 Briviliers, i. 259 Broomfield, a Quaker, i. 469 Brulot, ii. 100 Bryon, i. 192 Bucquoy, Abbe du, ii. 36 Burdett, Sir Francis, i. 82 Burgundy, Duke of, i. 103 Burke, William, an Irishman, i. 463 Cagliostro, ii. 241 Calottes, i. 22 Cambridge, letter from, ii. 421 Capin, Jean, turnkey, ii. 231 Caraman, Comte de, i. 116 Cardel, a Protestant Minister, i. 440 Carnavalet, de, i. 268 Carra, Jean Louis, i. 421, 457; ii- 395 Carrege, ii. 246 Casimir, Jean, i. 190, 233 Cavellier de, Cure, ii. 207 Celamare-Alberoni conspiracy, ii. 46-52, 64 Chalotais, de la, ii. 179 Chambre, Ardente, i. 62, 299 Chambre, Royale, the, ii. 163 Chamoran, ii. 244 Chapelles, des, i. 191 Charles V., i. 30, 102 Charles VI., i. 31, 101, 102, 107 Charles VII., i. 95 Charles IX., i. 138 Charles X., ii. 330 Charles Edward, Prince, the Pretender, ii. 100 Charluz, Comte de, i. 189 Charpentier, i. 48, 386 Chartaloup, Father, i. 190 Chastelet, Hay du, i. 189 Chastenier, i. 420 Chastenil, de, i. 289 491 Index Chateaubriand, ii. 336 Chatillon, de, ii. 247 Chaux, la, i. 312 Chavagnac, i. 197 Chavaille, de, i. 226 Chavigny, a monk, i. 427 Cinq Mars, i. 190 Coigny, de, i. 419 Column of July, ii. 472 Complaints, deputation to re ceive, i. 79 Conches, Captain, ii. 107 Concini, Marshal d'Ancre, I. 176 Condamine, Brun de, ii. 212 Conde, Prince de, i. 177, 181. 241, 243-285 Council of Sixteen, i. 143 Courland, Prince of, ii. 171 Courtilz, Gatien de, i. 456 Cramail, Comte de, i. 220 Crebillon, fils, i. 46, 81 Crequy, Due de, i. 206, 308 Crequy, Marquise de, corre spondence with, ii. 321 > ¦ Croissy, Fouquet de, i. 275 ' Croix, Abbe de, i. 207 Crussol, Count of, i. 345 D'Achon, Comte, i. 195 D'Aglie, Comte, i. 197 D'Allaye, Comtesse, i. 428 Dameret, ii. 107 Damiens, ii. 150 Dammartin, Count of, i. 125 Dangeau, i. 350 Danton, ii. 317 D'Arnaud, ii. 101 Dassigny, Marquis, i. 189 Davot, Giles, i. 330 Dayles, i. 269 Declaration, King's, 1780, i. 85 D'Elbert, Prince, i. 63 Delisle, an alchemist, ii. 38 D'Epernon, Due, i. 162, 207 D'Eresby, Lord WiUoughby, j. 118 D'Esclainvilliers, Marquise, ii. 43 Desforges, Abbe, ii. 162 Desmoulines, Camille, ii. 263, 330, 386 D'Estrees, Due, i. 402; ii. 9 Diderot, ii. 175 Diesback, an alchemist, i. 45 Disraeli, Isaac, on torture, i. 7i Dixon, Hepworth, on Tower of London, i. 83 Dorat, Abbe, i. 283 Douay, Jaquet dc la, police agent, ii. 231 Dourdan, Cure, ii. 207 Driscol, Cornelius, i. 463 Dubarry, Comtesse, ii. 265 Dubois, Mayor of Beaumont, ii. 207 Duelling prohibited, i. 204 Dufaure, i. 127 Dumouriez, General, ii. 197 Durand, i. 199 Dussault, ii. 265, 271 Dussault's " Seven Days," ii. 287 Dutreil, Charles, ii. 168 Duvernet, T., ii. 229 492 Index Edelsheim, Baron von, ii. 183 Edict of Nantes, i. 190 Elie, ii. 286, 339 Empire, Second, ii. 499 Entragues, Count of, i. 169 Erlington, i. 453 Essarts, Pierre des, i. 103 Executions: Urban Grandier, i. 64; Dolet, i. 68; two her mits, i. 104; Montgomery, i. 140; Brisson, i. 166; Biron, i. 180; La Galigai, i. 210; Brinvilliers, i. 299; Giles Davot, i. 344 ; Damiens, ii. 154; Lally, ii. 189; Abbe Fleur, ii. 134 Exeter, Duke of, i. 115 Falstaff, Sir John, i. 115-122 Famine in Paris, ii. 480 Farcy, Eustache, ii. 201 Fargis, Comte du, i. 195 Faucan, Langlois, i. 189 Fauchet, Abbe, ii. 266, 387 Fayolles, Abbe, i. 142 Feast of Lendit, i. 27 Feast of Reason, ii. 430 Feast of the Federation, ii. 440 Feast of the Supreme Being, ii. 214 Felton, trial of, i. 73 Fenon, " a good Protestant," ii. 20 Ferrand, ii. 424 Ferriere, Comte de la, i. 45 Ferron, de, i. 364 Ferry, the brothers, ii. 259 Feuillade, Comte de, i. 370 Fevre, Abbe de, ii. 291 Flamarens, Chevalier de, i. 328 Fleur, Abbe, ii. 134 Fleuriot, Lescot, Mayor of Paris, ii. 465 Florence, a ballet girl, ii. 35 Flue, de la, Lieut., ii. 273, 280 Foix, Due de, i. 349 Fontaine, i. 348 Fontrailles, Marquis de, i. 240, 267 Force, Due de la, i. 438 Fors, Marquise de, i. 329 Fouquet, i. 330 France, distracted condition of, i. 103 ; condition of parties in, i. 142; condition of, by Taine, ii. 359; condition of, by Lanfrey, ii. 393 Francis I., i. 131 Frateaux, Marquis de, ii. 218 French shake off the English yoke, i. 102 Freret, son of Crebillon, ii. 40 Freron, Catherin, ii. 105, 161 ; Renaud, i. 102 Fresnoy, Lenglet du, Abbe, i. 370; ii. 85-88 Fronde, the, i. 36, 240 Fruglaye, de la, ii. 247, 248 Gace, Comte de, i. 49 Galigai, la, Madame D'Ancre, i. 181 493 Index Gaulmin, Master of Requests, i. 213 Genard, ii. 187 Gerente, Abbe, i. 289 Gergy, Languet de, i. 424 Gordon Riots, i. 82 Gourville, Jean de, i. 276 Governors, French and Eng lish, of the Bastille, i. 92 Gramont, Due de, i. 350 Grancey, Count, i. 189 Grassin, Director-General of the Mint, ii. 89 Gravelle, Madame, i. 195 Grenier D'Abondance, ii. 211 Guerre des Farines, ii. 222 Guidomare, Etienne, i. 28 Guillem, Arnaud, i. 101 Guise, Due de, i. 142 Guy, a Protestant, i. 460 Guyenne, Duke of, i. 104 Guyon, Madame, i. 157, 464 H Hache, i. 287 Hallot, Louis Charles, ii. 231 Ham, Father de, an Irish Jaco bite, i. 389, 435 Harancourt de, Bishop of Ver dun, i. 120 Harfleur, capitulation of, i. 106 Harlay, Achille d', i. 144, 163 Hastain, Michel, ii. 213 Hautefort, Mdlle. de, i. 224 Henri II. , death of, i. 136 Henri III., assassination of, i. 141 Henri IV. enters Tours, i. 156; enters Paris, i. 158; letter from, to Queen Elizabeth, i. 162 Henry V., of England, pro claimed Regent of France, i. no Herce, i. 190 Huguenots, truce with the, 1. 138 Hulin, ii. 286, 388 I Importants, the Cabal of, i. 248 Imprisonment under Napoleon I., ii. 484 Institutions, French, i. 94 Insurrection of 1871, ii. 449 J Jacobins, ii. 221 Jansenists, the, i. 345 Jardine, on torture, i. 72 Jars, Chevalier de, i. 215 Jonchere, la, ii. 89 Jouffroy, Cure of Ferroles, ii. 207 Julie, i. 125 Jumelle, ii. 213 Jumilhac, Comte de, ii. 198 K Kavanagh's Performances, ii. 333 Kergalaun, Comte de, ii. 246 494 Index Labourdonnais, de, ii. 108 Lacroix, Paul, ii. 365 Lafayette, ii. 297, 387 Lagrange, i. 52 Lallier, Marie, ii. 213 Lally, Thomas, ii. 185 Langlois, i. 190 Laporte, i. 214, 223 La Roche, i. 193 Latude, Jean Henri, ii. 112 Launay de, Governor of the Bastille, ii. 272—292 Lauzun, Due de, i. 338, 342 Law of Suspects, ii. 480 League, the, i. 146 Leclerc. Bussy, i. 142 Le Clerc, Presidente, i. 212 Lenancourt, de, i. 216 Lenglet-Dufresnoy,. Abbe, i. 370; ii. 85-88 Lenoir, the Theologian, i. 307 Lenormand, Frangois, ii. 245 L'Espinasse, Dubourg, i. 158 L'Estrange, Viscomte de, i. 196 Lestore, a Scotch Gendarme, i. 363 Leuville, Marquis de, i. 210 L'Hopital, Marquise de, i. 181, 285 Libardiere, Captain de la, i. 296 Linguet, Simon Nicholas, ii. 220, 387 LTsle-Adam, Jean, i. 140 L'lsle, Rouget de, ii. 426 Longueville, Due de, i. 172 Losme, Major de, ii. 284 Louis XL, i. 128, 129 Louis XIIL, i. 181, 186 Louis XIV., i. 285, 295, 342, 395 Louis XV., ii. 446 Louis XVI., ii. 261-306, 386, 411, 428, 449 Lupin, Anne, i. 328 Luxembourg, Due de, i. 409 Luynes, Due de, i. 180 Lynch, Mark, i. 463 M Maccabees, the, i. 158 Magnon, Jean, Historiographer to Louis XIV., i. 318 Maillotins, Rioters called, i. 33 Maistre, Abbe de Sacy, i. 345 Malesherbes, i. 292; ii. 204, 390 Malleville, Whyte de, ii. 233, 254, 354 Manuel, ii. 394 Maratte, i. 289 Marie Antoinette, ii. 268 Marseillaise, author of the, ii. 426 Martel, Marquis de, i. 392 Mask, the Iron, i. 301, 366-391. (See Avedick.) Massareene, Lord, ii. 269, 354 Matta, Comte de, i. 267 Mayenne, Due de, i. 145 Mazarin, Cardinal, i. 242, 274, 295. 312 Medicis, Catherine de, i. 138 Medicis, Marie de, i. 167, 176, 240 Mehegan, Abbe, ii. 139 495 Index Mirabeau, ii. 387 Molton, Lord, ii. 124 Montagu, Jean de, i. 102 Montgomery, Comte de, i. 138; ii- 33 Montgomery, James, ii. 425 Montmorency, Constable of France, i. 131, 138 Montpensier, Mdlle. de, i. 251, 253, 267 Morellet, Abbe, i. 291 Morin (a false Christ), i. 298 Morris, Gouverneur, diary and letters of, ii. 367-385 Mountjoy, Lord, i. 435 N Nassau, Princesse de, ii. 41 Nelson, Chevalier, i. 454 Nemours, Due de, i. 127, 129, 130 Newgate, i. 83 Ninon (de l'Enclos), i. 280 Nourry, Abbe, ii. 99 Nuncio's valet sent to the Bas tille, i. 450 O Oliva, ii. 264 Orleans, Philippe Egalite. Duke of, ii. 430 Ornano, Marshal, i. 141 Oubliettes, i. 39, 41 Pacte de famine, ii. 195, 209 Pagano, Comte de, i. 274 Paine, Tom, ii. 396 Palatine, Prince, i. 190, 232, 241 Palloy, contractor for the demolition, ii. 436 Paoli, ii. 470 Parliament of Paris, i. 95, 134; arrest of the members of, i. 241 ; release of the mem bers of, i. 242; of Brittany, ii. 176, 258 Pasquier, ii. 207 Piedeleu, Agnes, i. 29 Prevost, Abbe, ii. 95 Prisoners, i. 51, 54; liberties of, i. 56 Prisons, since the fall of the Bastille, ii. 451 Q Quesnel, Father, i. 297; ii. 31 Quietists, the, i. 60, 464 Rabutin, Bussy de, i. 334 Rantzau, i. 269 Ravaisson's work on the Bas tille, extracts from, i. 36, 42, 44, 55, 59, 60, 62, 63, 316, 328, 349, 392, 402, 408, 428 Regulations relating to the Bas tille, i. 48 Reign of Terror, ii. 487 Renneville, Constantin de, ii. n Restoration, the, ii. 488 Retz, Cardinal de, " Mem oires," i. 220, 241, 245, 276 496 Index Reveillon, the last prisoner who entered the Bastille, ii. 248 Revolution of 1789, ii. 222-300 Richelieu, Cardinal, i. 187, 195, 238 Rigby, Mr., ii. 344 Riviere, Abbe de la, i. 195 Robertson, i. 189 Robespierre, ii. 214 Rochefoucauld, La, i. 190, 252; ii. 300, 387 Rohan, Cardinal de, i. 388; ii. 239 Rohan, Chevalier de, i. 366, 412 Roy, ii. 90 Sabloniere, Marquis de la, i. 45 Sade, Marquis de, ii. 233 St. Aignan, Comte de, i. 308 St. Antoine, battle of, i. 259 St. Etienne, Rabaud, i. 366, 389 St. Germain, Comte de, ii. 540 St. Pol, Comte de, i. 127 Senneterre, Chevalier de, i. 363 Soissons, Comte de, i. 220; Comtesse de, i. 300, 308 Solages, Comte de, ii. 232, 254 Sombreuil, M. de, ii. 269 Spanish Marriages, i. 180 Staal, Mme. de, ii. 46 States-General, i. 97 Sully, i. 166, 169 Tavannes, Viscount of, on tor ture, i. 78, 172; ii. 32 Tavernier, ii. 253 Tellier, Le, i. 268, 284, 295 ; ii. 230 Termes, Marquis de, i. 349 Theot, Catherine, ii. 212 Thionville, defeat of the French at, in 1639, i. 236 Thou, Jacques de, i. 150 Tobacco, allowed in Bastille, i. 58 Tolendal, Lally, ii. 303 Tortures, i. 67; Larousse on, i. 68; of the boot, i. 63; of water, i. 63; illegal, i. 72; abolished in Prussia, i. 77; abolished by Louis XVI., i. 325 ; last instance of, in Eng land, i. 76 Tower of London, i. 80, 83 ; French Governors of, i. 125 Treaty of Dover, 1670, i. 414 Treaty of Troyes, i. 1 10 Trenck, Baron, ii. 475 Tudesquin, Madame de la Roche, i. 321 Turenne, Marechal de, i. 253, 355 U Ulfeld, Count of, i. 321 University privileges abol ished, i. 25 Tallard, Comte de, i. 66 Tapin, ii. 172 Valbonne, Comte de, ii. 261 Valois, Mme. de, ii. 260 497 Index Vanbrugh, Sir John, i. 443 Vane, i. 453 Venae, Baron de, ii. 170 Vendome, Philippe de, the Grand Prior of France, i. 190, 460 Vermandois, Comte de, i. 369 Vion, an Englishwoman, i. 431 Vitry, Due de, i. 179, 219 Voltaire, ii. 65-84 W Wal, Mathias, i. 463 War, civil, between the Ar- magnacs and Burgundians, i. 103, 108; religious, i. 190; declared against England, 1666, i. 410; the Seven Years', ii. 280 Weber, " Memoirs," i. 293 ; ii. 433 498 ¦ .;¦ o , to ¦>. ^fslkfiSI v%.'.i^'*i'^' *v £^ • if mm Immmm