The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1880-08-05

10 the lnvallu6S, on wnOm, however, IL
produces but q mixed, indistinct i'm
preston. The old heads are none of the
clearest, besides, it is said, DE Launay
has been profuse of beverages. They
think they will not fire-if not fired on
If they can help it, but must, on the
whole, be ruled considerably by circum-
stances.
"Woo to thee, De Launay," continues
Carlyle, sin such an hour, if thou canst
not rule circumstances; soft speeches
will not serve; hard grape-shot is ques-
tionable, but lowering between the two
is unquestionable. Even wilder swells
the tide of men; their infinite hum wax
ing even louder, into imprecations, per-
haps into crackle of strong musketry,
which later, on walls nine feet thick,
cannot do execution. The outer draw
bridge has been lowered for Thuriot;
new deputations of citizens-it is the
third and noisest of all-penetrate that
way into the outer court; soft speeches
producing no clearance of these. DE
Launay gives fire. pulls up his draw
bridge. A slight sputter-which has
kindled the too combustible- chaos
made it a roaring fire chaos. Burst
forth insurrection at sight of its own
blood--for there were deaths by that
sputter of fire-into endless rolling ex-
plosion of musketry, distraction, execra-
ton; and overhead, from the fortress:
let one great gun with its grape-shot go
booming, to show what we could do.
The Bastile is besieged! On, then, all
Frenchmen that have hearts in your
bodies! Roar, then. with all your throats
of cartilage and metal, We sons of Lib
ertyi stir spasmodically whatsoever of
utmost faculty is in you; soul. body or
spirit; for it is the hour. Down with
it, man; down with it to Orcus; let the
whole accursed edifice sink thither, and
Tyranny be- swallowed up forever!
Mounted, some say, on the roof of the
guard-room, some on bayonets stuck
into joints of the wall, Louis Tourney
smites, brave Aubin Bonnemere helping
him; the chain yields, breaks; the huge
drawbridge slams down, laundering.
Glorious; and yet, alas! it is but the
outworks. The eight grim towers, with
their 1nvalides musketry, their paving
stones and cannon mouths, still soar
aloft intact-ditch yawning, impassive,
stone-faced; the inner drawbridge with
its back toward us. the Bastile is still
to take.
Ordinance. of all calibers; throats of
all capacities; men of all plans, every
man his own engineer; seldom since the
war of pigmies and cranes was there so
anomalous thing. Frantic patriots
hot to the Hotel de Vile. Paris, you
see, is to be burned. At every street
barricade there whirls, simmering, a
minor whirlpool, and all minor whirl-
pools play distractedly into that grand
fire maelstrom which is lashing round
the Bastile. And so it lashes and 1t
roars. Cholat, the wine merchant, has
become an impromptu oannoneer. Up
ward from the esplanada, horizontally
from all lneighboring roofs and windows,
flashes one irregular deluge of musket-
ry-without effect. Let confiagration
rage; guard-rooms are burnt; Inval-
ides mess rooms; straw is burnt;
three cart loads of it, hauled thither,
go up in white smoke, almost to the
choking Of patriotism itself. What
to doP The fircmen are here, squirt
ing with their fire-pumps on the In
valides cannon to wet the touchholes;
they unfortunately cannot squirt SO
high, and still the fire deluge abates
not; even women are firing. Gardes
Franchises have come; real cannon,
real cannoneers. What shall De Launay
do? One thing only De Launay could
have done; what he said he would do.
Fancy him, sitting from the first, with
lighted taper within arms length oi
the powder magazine. DE Launay
could not do it. For four hours now
has the world Bedlam roared. The
poor Invalides have sunk under their
ba attlements, or rise only with reversed
m muskets; they have made a white flag
of napkins. The very Swiss at the
portcullis look weary of firing. A port
hole is opened at the drawbridge as by
one who would speak. Terms of sur,
render; the Bastile is fallen."-N y
| Graphic.