Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-04-01
THE BASTILE.
Prof. Currss Lecture.

The history of the French Bastile is one
of peculiar interest. Who has not INDUCED
in strange speculations concerning tht
thousands of u~nfortunates who have beer
incarcerated therein, from the days of the
hon Mask down through all those dread
ful scenes which have drenched in blood
the soil of "La Belle France"
An a~ppreciative audience assembled at
Masonic hall last evening, to hear Prof
Curr's farewell lecture in Nashville, his
subject being: 1.-The Storning Of the Bas-
tile.p He said that the famous Bastile OF
Paris has many romantic incidents connect
ed with it. France and Paris have at last
waded through their political difficulties,
and are to-day smiling in freedom and their
banners once more float triumphantly to
the breeze.
menced in 1896, and many years were re-
quired to complete it. 1t was built by two
different nations. The building was sur
rounded by a stone wall eight feet thick
and four feet high, and was used as a prison
in which all classes Of prisoners were placed
tor the smallest or greatest offenses,
and very few ever came out
alive, as they were allowed no
exercise or light, and in a few years they
became blind and even died. The key of
the building is now at Mount Vernon, Ills,
having been secured by a soldier under
great difficulties. The governor of the Bas-
tile undertook to deliver the Bastile over
to the enemy, but was prevented by one of
his soldiers, who took the key from him as
he was opening the door Of the building.
In those days as IN the present, a man
would resort to anything low and treason
able for a small compensation.
One man by the name Of MaSsel turned
traitor, because the King would not give
him a more lucrative position than he was
then enjoying. The lecturer said there
was as much skullduggery prac-
ticed in those days as in the pres
ent, in political affairs, and that
the road to any prominent office was the
worst road on record, but in the language
of some great poet, "Many there be who
enter therein"
The Bastile was held for seventeen years
by the British, and was used as a prison for
those who believed in whitchcraft. If his
tory can be relied upon, most Of the witch
es OF former days were women, and at one
time there were confined in this prison,
four hundred women charged with being
witches. They were tried by throwing
them into a ditch that surrounded the wall,
four feet deep and six wide, which was
always filled with water and it was believed
that if they were not drowned, it was by
the help of the devil they were saved, and
consequently they were thrown back into
prison to die.
One notorious man, who enjoyed seeing
suffer, invented a cage in which to
conine the prisoners while in the Bastile,
which was so constructed as to make their
situation very painful, but he was at last
thrown into n of those cages, where he
for twenty years, when he died.
Another mode of causing death was to
build a scaffold of plank, leaving space
enough between the planks to admit the
head of the victim to fall through after it
was severed from the body. Under this
was confined the children of the
nan that was to be beheaded, on whom the
blood would fall, thus being a warning
for them to never be thrown into this
One unfortunate wretch was thrown in
TO this prison and kept there for twenty
years, because he would not accept the at
Lentions bestowed upon him by a lady of
oAA WHICH, PCloOh Wa W OC oCHI W
the Bastile,h he was informed by mail, to ap-
pear at the prison, as the king vas not al
together pleased with his conduct. Sher-
ifs and constables were not known in those
days. This prison was filled with water
whenever there was rain, and was also in
tested with mice and other vermin.
De Latude was c.nfined thirty years
being allowed to change his cloth
- - IL - -
1uty, the prisoner was given clean shirt,
IN which he wrote with a splinter dipped
in his own blood a history Ofhis prison life,
and pushed it through the bars of
his prison, where it was seen by a woman,
who gave it to the press, and was printed
n pamphlet form and sent broadcast over
hat country and this.
This terrible prison was finally destroyed
~ 100000 men, and the ground upon
which it stood converted into a pleasure
round.