The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1901-02-15
A FAMOUS BASTILE.
CHATEAU D'!F 10 ONE OF THE GREAT
6lGHTS IN FRANCE.

Crowds of Pilgrims Visit the Prison
Wherein Dumas Located His Great
Characters In "Monte-Christo," Ed
mund Dantes and Able Faria.
els 1t true" 1 asked Of M. Chanot, the
president Of the general council Of Mar.
settles, that they actually show the
cells of Dantes and the Able Faria al
the Chateau DIFF" says a Marseilles cor
respondent of the Paris Temps.
Certainly, no doubt of it, replied NJ.
Chanot. and everything that he added
was enough to send fellow into pro
found reverie. The next day I took the
steamboat which goes three times day
to the Chateau diff. What an immense
number of readers Dumas still has! The
big boat was crowded. In the throng
there were three priests, one military
man, a number Of Englishmen, knights
of the Legion of Honor, workmen and
business men. The trip lasted about halt
an hour. Everybody was serious, and
very properly when on a pilgrimage.
Soon the Chateau diff appeared. Upon
an island of about 800 meters in circum-
ference, entirely surrounded by walls
stands the heavy building with its great
towers and square dungeon. There Is
something imposing in the thing, which
comes from the somewhat golden color
of the stones, the very heaviness of the
mass and the abundance Of the solids
over the voids, as an architect might say.
It was never anything but state prison,
the bastile of the south, and Francis
himself In 1924 laid the first stone Of 1t.
Through personal experience he was well
up In prisons.
The cells open upon a sort Of interior
courtyard, narrow and somber. Many
are without windows, and some are veri-
table dungeons below the surface Of the
exterior soil. Three of the largest and
most striking are on the first floor. They
are the cells of the famous prisoners-the
Iron Mask. who In 1886 was taken thence
to the island of Ste. Marguerite; Phi
lippe Egaiite. the father of Louis Phi
hppe. who was decapitated on Nov. 6,
1903, and Mirabeau, who was sent there
by virtue of a lettre de cachet demanded
by his father after his separation from
Mile. de Marignane. a sensitive woman
and about as inconstant as her inconstant
husband.
But my companions paid little atten-
ton to these cells. They made a rush
for cell on the ground floor. perfectly
terrible In It's aspect. with a door framed
In iron. a bolt that weighed at least IL
pounds and with little barred window.
After passing through that door we en-
tered a dry cave lighted solely BY little
lamp. There Is a notice outside which
reads as follows; Sell Of Able
Faria, expelled from Rome IN 1911; i'm
prisoned In the Chateau diff as q con-
spirator; died In 1924"
Nevertheless this Is only an antecham-
Der. The cell Of Faria Is q sort of tomb
In the farthest corner and In which one
can hardly stand upright. In one of the
walls Is the hole made BY the able to
communicate with Dantes. Sure enough,
there Is the holel What son of the south
ever made III Nobody knows. But there
II Is, iTrefutabls proof Of the power fol
realization that a popular work possesses.
And the cell of Dantes can be vaguely
seen through that hole. II Is seen in q
mystery all the more terrifying because
the military engineers walled up the door
80 that It Is impossible to enter.
"Dantes, Dantesr' cried one Of the pill
grims who wanted to play the practical
joker. But he did not do 1t well. His
voice was almost trembling. and II Dan
tes really did reply the joker would not
have been at all astonished. How admt
rable and touching is the creative power
of imagination!
According to the serious psychologists,
among whom Is NJ. Espearandieu, the ia.
nous architect, there were really prison.
ers In that horrible cave. One was nam.
ed Bernardot, a rich merchant of Mar
settles, who was arrested on the charge o.
having spoken unexpectedly Of Cardinal
Richelieu He died there Of starvation,
and Jean Paul, a sailor, who struck his
commander, died there In 1770. after 81
years captivity.
1t is doubtless the story Of these two
men. literally buried alive, that inspired
Dumas. Today for everybody 1t is the
prison Of Faria, and the inscriptions are
there 10 certify the existence Of The un-
fortunate able. Is 1t not true that cpl
graphic monuments constitute the most
authentic source Of historyf Well. the
epigraph Of the Chateau diff afhrms that
Dantes and Faria really lived. Can pos
terity ask for anything moref The old
guide, Grosson, who was probably the
author Of this mise en- scene, gave details
still more precise, Here is the hole, I"
said he, "made by Mgr. Faria with fish
boneT
And 50 at the present time Faria and
Dantes really live. A few years ago an
Italian kissed the stones of these cells
and wept. Doubtless It was while read
ing Monte Christie" that this son of the
peninsula had his first dreams Of the
freedom of his country: for the Able Fa-
ria was sent to the Chateau DIFF. accord
Ing to the fancy of the romancer, for hav-
ing taken up again the plan Of Borgia.
The man who could create such a legend
was certainly no ordinary person. There
IL only one writer perhaps who shares
his glory, Rabelais. The peasants of
Touraine will show today In all serious
ness the localities which Gargantua loved
to haunt
In thinking all these things returned
with the crowd back to the steamer. The
captain showed me little island In the
sea, a mass of rugged and tragic looking
rocks. THAT is Tiboulen," said he.
"where Dantes landed after his escaped
must confess that. as / write, really
believe that the story of Monte Christie"
Ii oil perfectly true.
Male and Female Queernesses.
Call a girl chick and she smiles; call