Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1862-01-16
From the New York Ledger.
STORMING THE BASTILE.
BY JOHN S. C. ABBOTT.

BY JOHN S. C. ABBOTT.
In the year 1889 there stood, at the east
ern enterance gate of Paris, the world re-
nowned fortress and prison called the Bastile
The massive pile of rock and iron was sur
mounted by eight towers, which darken the
air with their gothic gloom The vast build
ing was surrounded by wall of stone nine
feet in thickness and one hundred feet high
The whole was encircled by ditch twenty
five feet deep and one hundred and twenty
feet wide.
The Bastile was universally regarded
with terror. 1t was the most dreadful in
strument Of punishment which despotic pow
er could WELD. There were few hearts
sufficiently bold to brave its menace I'm
imagination can scarcely conceive any abode
more loathsome than the dens of the Bastie.
The stone walls were Shiny with the damp
and mould of ages. The floor swarmed with
all those reptiles who seek darkness and
mire The most favored of these cells ad-
mitted a few rays of light through a narrow
slit in the wall. Ponderous double doors.
seven inches thick, and provided with enor-
nous locks and bolts, shut the captive as
effectually from the world as if he were in
his grave.
There were vaults in this horrible prison
called ouJliettes, where the victim was drop
ped into oblivion. They were sunk into the
ground beneath the vaults of the Bastile,
shaped like bottle, with narrow neck
and expanding beneath. Into these tombs
of massive stone, twenty-five feet deep and
about eighteen in -diameter.-the victim of
despotic jealousy was thrust. where he was
left in Egyptian darkness, with reptiles and
mire. crushing beneath his tread the bones
of those who had perished before him.
Sometimes the doomed man was left to all
the horrors of immediate starvation. Some
times coarse food was daily thrown to the
wretched captive, and he dragged out an
existence of weary years until death came
slowly to his relief
A gentleman by the name of Dessault,
for refusing to obey an iniqutous command
of Richelicu, was thrust into one Of those
oubliettes, where he passed sinty-one gears =!
His family never knew what became of him,
as he was dragged from them at midnight
"Oh, who can tell what days, what nights he spent
OF tidelcss, waveless, sailless, shoreless woe?''
All this he endured as punishment for
his virtue. The mind is appalled, by the
contemplation of such woes The terrors
of the Bastile frowned down all remonstrance
against the prohigate government of France.
If any one was but suspected of disaffection
he was seized by the secret police, and
plunged into the dungeon where he was lost
forever, as much as if he were in his grave
During the long reign Of Louis XIV. one
hundred and fifty thousand victims were
consigned to the Bastiles of France.
One of the first acts of the French Revo-
luton was to seize upon this execrable for.
tress and raze it to its foundations.
.Our fathers" says Michelet, .'shivered
that Bastile to pieces, tore away its stones
with bleeding hands, and flung them afar
Afterwards they seized them again, anc
having hewn them into different form, ir
order that they might be trampled under
foot by the people forever, built with then
the bridge of Revolution
De Launey was governor of the Bastile
detestable man, who contrived to cxtort
through the energies which he welded il
the fortress, an income of twenty-five thou.
sand dollars year. AS the people of Paris
rose against that atrocious government which
: had so long defrauded them of all their rights,
it was manifest that one of the most essen.
tial measures was to capture the Bastile =
The terrible fortress, bristling with guns.
commanded the city, and could throw its
heavy shot into almost any of the streets
But how could the Bastile be taken? In
its massive strength Of iron and stone, well
garrisoned and amply supplied with the
munitions of war, it was apparently impreg
nable. Nothing could seem more prepos-
ferrous than for Partisan mob to undertake
the storming of the Bastile.
The idea" says Michelet. 'was by nc
means reasonable. It was an act of faith y
The people had not even any muskets.
There was, however, large supply at the
Hotel Of the Invaldes. The alarm bells
rang from every steeple, and thirty thousand
men, mostly unarmed. but utterly desperate,
soon surrounded the great arsenal The
governor of the Invalides had loaded his
cannon to the muzzle with grape, and could
easily have swept down the assailants by
thousands; but shocked at the idea Of SO ter
rible slaughter, he did not venture to give
the command to FIRE. The multitude. in a
simultaneous rush, lcaped the trenches,
clambered the low wall. for the Hotel was
not fortress, an |, like an inu13ation,