Evening star., 1901-04-20

I'D Print.
crazy men under restraint" Tavernier and
DE Whyte, and "a young gentleman, the
Comte de Soiages, who, after committing
monstrous crimes, had been locked up in
the Bastile on pension paid by his fam
ily.' The explanation is that the students
of documents give only the names found in
the peculiarly-kept Bastie register. The
forty and more prisoners released by the
Paris mob made off fast as their legs
would carry them, without giving their
names or addresses. on that day. the 14th
of July the archives of the Bastile We're
thrown into the moat. Anyone who pleased
might hunt through them to make a collec-
ton of curious documents. Quantities were
taken for old paper and parchment. When,
few days later on, the savants had gath
cred together what they had saved at the
depot of Saint Louis la Culture, it was an
incomplete set of archives.
Lettres de Cachet.
The young Comte de Solages had been
thrown into the Bastile on a lettre de ca
chet procured from the king by his family,
who continued to pay his board. 1t was
this practice of the lettres de cachet by
which people of influence might use the
prison for their family affairs and private
vengeances. that most enraged the people
of Paris against it. The kings lettre de
cachet ran:
Monsieur lie Mqis. de Jumilhac. This
letter is to tell you to receive in my Chateau
of the BastiIe - and to there de-
tain him COR herr until new order from me.
Monsieur lie Mqis. de Jumilhac. L pray
God that He will have you in His holy
keeping.
fsiguen louis"
And below the name of the minister.
They have even tried to prove that the
lettre de cachet was seldom abused R1-
la Ar,ah de- IA
Bastie declares that extreme care WAS
taken to avoid errors and abuses. The
great sa feguard was that each lettre de
cachet was signed by the king himself and
counterSigned by one OF his ministers - 90
These same "closed letters were neverthe-
less the instruments of imprisoning thou
sands in whose affairs neither the king nor
his ministers had the slightest interest,
whose names they had never heard. Dur
ing the reign of Louis Nv alone 10000 let
tres de cachet were issued. The King
wrote his name on the blank forms,
a hundred at a time, rainy afternoons
He and his ministers distributed them
among their friends. Wives obtained
them against their husbands, husbands
against their wives fathers against
their children. debtors against their cred
itors, opera dancers against lovers who had
sighted them. Persons who had never
been convicted of any crimes remained in
the BaStile mot because anybody I'm par
ticular is anxious they should remain, but
because they happen to be there They
have been forgotten. and there is nobody
to ask for their release" as Mirabeau
wrote in his thunderbolt, ''Lettres de
Cachet.''
Mirabeau's Pamphlet.
The great tribune, while still young
man. had been imprisoned on the order Of
Marquis de Mirabeau, his father, whose
lifelong jealousy of his brilliant son is a
matter of history. In the course of his life
the marquis procured no less than fifty let
tres de cachet against members of his own
family! While lying in prison Mirabeau
wrote his great pamphlet against this
abuse. He wrote on scraps OF paper torn
from books, on pieces of linen, even. torn
from his shirts. Though often searched,
he concealed the growing work with WON
derful ingenuity Later on its publication
was to electrify France and prepare the
revolution.
The historian. Ravaisson. says that only
two kinds of torture Were applied in the
Bastile-the boot and the torture by water.
The ordeal of 'the boot needs no descrip-
ton; In 1t the leg was crushed by success
sively driven wedges. For the torture by
water the victim was bound on a trestle
and water was poured down his throat by
the gallon until his sufferings became un-
endurable. Torture was practiced in the
Bastile quite up to the revolution, in spite
of the well-advertiSed edict of Louis XVI.
The mutiated archives themselves contain
the full relation of the questions ordinary
named Alexis Danouilh. as late as the
year 1888.
His Head on a Pike.
On the morning of July Ia, 17S9, this in
solent private prison of the king and his
nobility proudly foated its flag seemingly
as secure as it had ever been. On the
of July 10 it's doors were open its
prisoners released. its interior sacked. its
archives thrown into the moat. its garrison
killed and the head of De Launay, its gov
ernor, was promenading Paris on The end
Of pike. In spite of certain generous ef-
forts to save him. this man was literally
torn to pieces by the crowd. In the Cabi-
net des Estampes of the National Library
there is shown page of the sketch book
of the artist Girodet, who. a young man
Of twenty. mixed with the mob that day to
make sketches like a modern newspaper IL
lustrator. There you will his quickly
made sketch of De Launays head, with
lowing hair and staring eyes, borne on
kind of pitchfork. Other heads were cut
off that day, not by the guillotine, but by
cilor Foulon and that of Berthier de Sau-
1igny, intendent Of the palace. 1t was the
beginning. -...
As to the Bastile. not even its bare walls
survived to see the revolution that had
already begun. On July IL an Imposing
body Of mobiles. deputies and business men
IF Paris MOUNTED to the upper platforms
If the Bastile. where they made speeches
ln a movement of enthusiasm these gener-
Jus mobiles and citizens. pick and crowbar
n hand. themselves began the demolition of
he old pile. Aided by workmen ca ch noble
oosened a single stone and dumped II over
he parapet. Inviting the French people
o continue the good work" as the account
'uns, they retired"
STERLING HELLO