Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-08-10
sToRMINo THE BAsTILE,

That grim fortress had for ages been iden.
titled with despotism, and had grown hateful
to every soul with the slightest instinct of
justice or freedom. Originally the castle OF
Paris, 1t was built, during the Fourteenth
century, by order Of Charles V, surnamed
the Wise, by Hugo Aubriot, provost OF that
capital, at the gate st. Antoine as defense
against the English. When employed long
afterward as state prison, it was provided
with great bulwarks and bitches Oneach Of
its longer sides, it had four towers five stories
high, above which ran q gallery armed with
cannon. The prisons were situated partly in
those towers, and partly below the level OF
the ground. Their inmates were so shut away
from the world as often to be wholly forgot
ten, and, in some instances, all trace OF them
was lost as well as the cause Of their incar-
ceration The Bastile would bold seventy or
eighty prisoners, who were generally persons
Of distinction, noblemen, authors, scholars,
priests or publishers They had seldom COM
mitted any crime; they were usually shut up
for political or ecclesiastic reasons, from tho
caprice Of tyrants or the hostility Of private
foes.
During the last century the prison had
governor, royal intendant, major,
majors aid and surgeon, with garrison OF
q hundred men. The walls were thirty to
forty feet at the base, and twelve feet thick
above Each cell had narrow aperture in
the wall, protected by thick iron gratings
The subterranean dungeons were five feet be-
low the level OF the ditch, which was twenty
five feet deep, and communicated by small
loophole therewith. The unhappy wretches
confined there had little food and that the
coarsest, in consequence Of the dishonesty of
the governor, who was literally paid by the
state for their support. They were UNANIMOUSLY
treated; they were locked up without accusa-
tion or trial; they We're allowed no communi-
ton with their friends, mere lettre do
cachet serving for their arrest and detention
any length of time. They were in a sense,
buried alive Early in the Fifteenth century
the populace, who had been greatly abused by
the princes Of Armagnac, broke into the
place, where they had taken refuge, and put
them to death.
There died Charles de Gontaut marshal Of
France, who had been guilty Of treason
against Henry ". Bassompierre, the cour-
tier and soldier was shut up there eleven
years; likewise, for q time, was Marshal
Richelieu, the most licentious and worthless
nobleman of his time; Voltaire, also, and
Masers dc Latude spent thirty years there
for having offended Nine. de Pompadour,
the notorious mistress Of Louis XIV. There,
too, the Man in the Iron Mask was impris-
oned for Ave wears. an object of Louis XIV's
v.rcssnco dvino at last In his yigilantly
s,,oedsd cali To this dav his identity has
not hesn discovered The existence of such
r,.rsor hos hesn repeatedly denied. hut
,.csnt rssssrcbes bava left no doubt of il
:, 80. ,,,. -o.ord ~ tba
ne ws prsone. p,i ', - 500 49, 10 nos com.
Puc'Pa, .u ,e yapa Ia,;an hoa,, sn,ovad
n'.o. oeP., -, 81 Mn,,ar;,o ~ g.
o ,r .uS A .h0t ,oar ar,r,,,;ntsJ s,oyernor
p...,s II. 80 horna IN a cioss
.ue ,,,ai ~, ,,o,ntsd guard nj,
u aipS ,S;.h hlacL vaISet masL