The Topeka state journal., 1899-12-30
THE CHATEAU.
IFrom the New York Tribune

TFrom the New York Tribune.1
A correspondent of the Paris Temps
who attended the recent festival in Mar
seilles commemOrating the twenty-five
hundredth anniversary of the foundation
of the city, visited the Chateau II ana
made some interesting Investigations of
the prison where Dumas Count of Monte
CriStO was confined. A boat makes three
trips a day to the island-One indication
Of how widely Dumas is still read. The
boat was full and every body maintained
mage. The trip takes about half hour.
The castle, situated on an islet about 500
yards in circumference entirely surrounds
it with its wall. 1t is a heavy structure,
with short, thickset towers and square
donjon, yet there is a certain beauty IN
the color of its stones. { h in its massive
conformation. 1t was neN er used as any
tile Francis l in 1924 laid the first stone
He through personal experience
The cells open into a small. gloomy in
side court. Many have no windows; some
are merely low dungeons, below the level
Of the ground. Three larger and more
cheerful ones on the second story have
the Iron Mask who was transferred in
1856 to the Island of St. Marguerite; Phil
ippe, who was behcaded on NoXenber o.
1873, and Mirabeau, by virtue OF a lettre
de cachet obtained by his father. But
these f Pl4Ges o are 1iei{org lG[ S ones 'i'
They all direct their steps first to a dun
geOn on the first hoor, dreadful OF appear
ance, with an iron bound door Grilled
peephoIe, a bolt weighing a dozen pounds.
Enter this door ana you are IN a cnaIn2eF
dry but gloomy, lighted by one little win
dow. Written outside it are these words
Cell of the Able Faria, expelled from
Rome in 1911, confined in the Chateau d If
as a cOnSpiratOr. died in 1923 1t is new
ertheless only an ante-chamber Far1a s
cell is in a kind of recess, where a man
can hardly stand and where no ray Of
light penetrateS. In this cell can be seen
the hole dug by the abbe to communicate
with Dantes! Yes. it really exists, this
holel What southern genius dug it2 It IS
not known but it is there, unfa11ng PROOF
of the power of a popular book illusion
of reality. Through this hole DanteS' cell
can be dimly seen, and in a glamOr OF
mystery the more terrifying because the
door has been walled up and no one can
enter
According to serious archaeo1ogieal in
VestigatOrs, there were really prisoners
confined in this dreadful hole, among
them one named Bernadot, a rich uner-
chant of Marseilles, arrested on the
leu and left there to die of hunger Jean
Paul a sailor who had struck his COM
manding officer died there in the tower
in 1879, after thirty-One years OF. captivity.
It was doubtless the story of these men,
literally buried alive, that. inspired Du-
mas Today for the whole world the
Chateau q If is the prison of FarIa and
DanteS, and the inscriptions are there to
certify to their existence An 1iaI1an
visitor some years ago kissed the stones
of these dungeons and Wept cOplOuSly-
The correspondent embarked for the
mainland. The captain of the boat pointed
the sea-a mass of rocks, wave beaten
and tragic in aspect
''Tiboulen," he said, where Dantes first
landed after his eSCaDe.'