The Savannah morning news., 1901-05-14
TAKING THE BASTILE.
TRUTH ABOUT THAT FAMOUS PRis-
on COMING TO LIGHT.
Unnamed Horrors in Its Depths
What Was Found when the walls
We're Torn DOwn-Instruments of

hundred odd years ago, fell on that an
| cient prison-castle called the Bastie
Killed its governor and garrison and set
It's victims free they found unnamed
horrors in it's dark depths.
! or late years it has been the fashion
Tor historians to deny the horrors NJ
lolietle-Duc discovered that its famed
oubliettes (whose floors sunk To conicaI
points so that those forgotten in them
might have no resting place for their
teeU were merely ice houses; another
student of the archives, M Funck- Rre-
natho' has shown that only people who
would to-day be counted rich could afford
70 teed themselves as the Bastile's prison
ers were fed" and an English apologist.
IN work of two bulky volumes. saws
that prisoners were less harshlv treated
IN the Bastile than in other French or
HnShSh prisons" that Its courtyards
resemoled college play ground in which
p.'sohers received their friends and play
ca games, and that the accusation of
prisoners being tortured in the Bastile
mas no serious foundation
Ihese painstaking historians came to
thelr conclusions from studying the do
cunents. Unfortunately for the truth of
history they were the documents OF the
hastile Other documents have come to
horror.
More Than "a Prison
me Bastile was more than prison. 1t
was a fortress and a castle, the key of
Fails. originally gate in a wall of the
or
across the plain was the royal residence
of Vincennes, another prison-castIe AT
the approach of an insurgent force. the
KING could signal from his window at
Nihcennes. and the guns of both places
could ne pointed to sweep the plain be-
tween them. While the kings standard
noated over the eight towers of the Bas-
tile. Paris and France were his
The Bastile was always considered i'm
pregnable. To the people of Paris It rep
resented the tyranny of ages. The ami
Versary OF its capture by the Paris mob
is the French Fourth-the 14th of July.
The people had already begun to look
the king and mobiles in the face. The self
constituted national assembly of June II
had met in the dismantled handbaII court
OF versailles TO swear not to separate
until 1t had given a constitution to
France On June % these same deputies
of the third estate, persisting In their
resistance to the vote by order (Which
would have left them In the minority
AGAIN., the king sent the Marquis de
DreuX-Breze to summon them to retire"
II was then that Mlrabeau-who himself
had known imprisonment at Vincennes
under a lettre de cachet-tbundered his
famous reply: Tell those who sent YOU
that we are here by the will Of the
people -
Growing Discomfort
For long time public opinion had been
profoundly irritaed at the kings resist
ance to a meeting of the popular assem-
bly,, and famine increased the discomfort
AS early as April 2S, a report having cir
culated In the workingmens quarters Of
st. Antoine that the employees of the
Revillon paper mandatory were TO be
taxed cents per day, and that bread
was too good for Them a mob attacked
the mandatory.
Detachments, both of French Guards
and Royal Cracats, were sent to dispense
this riot, but only the Royal Cravats
had orders to charge the people The
killed and wounded were numerous. this
being the first blood shed in the streets
of Paris during the revolution. The French
Guards having sworn to obey no order
contrary to that of the national assembly
were imprisoned by their colonel. Liberat-
ed BY the mob, they were Toasted in the
gardens of the Palais Royal the same day,
June 30
On July 70. In the Palais Royal gardens.
Camille Desmoulins an unknown young
man, stood on a table, pistol i'm hand
and cried: ITO arms! The Germans of the
Champ de Mars enter Paris tonight to
cut the threats of the inha bitants! Let
us put on cockadesr With that he. tore
a leaf from one of the branches and put
it in his hat. The small sickly trees of
the garden had no leaves left on them
that night!
Many Were Killed.
These mobs in general and the enthu-
slastic reception of unknown Camille
Desmoulins daring words in particular,
decided the court to do the very thing
the unknown young man had unwarrant-
eddy predicted The Swiss Guards were
ordered to hold the Champs Elysee, and
a German cavalry company was assem-
bled In the present Place de la Concorde
Prince de Lambese, leading a charge OF
his German cavalry, trampel and killed
young and old in the Tuilleries gardens
Under the restoration the Burbons named
this man a peer of France.
The same night of July u the people,
enraged at the massacre, prevented the
nobility from entering the opera-now
the Theater de la Porte ST. Martin where
they are playing QUO Vadis." On the
afternoon and night of July 10 the east
ern part of Paris was full OF barricades.
Patrols Of citizens under arms walked the
street In the morning of July IA the
mob pillaged the Soldiers Home of the
Invalides. took twenty-four cannon and
10000 mixed rifles, pistols. swords and
bayonets ITO the Bastile," was the cry.
They ran to the Bastile.
Certainly the Bastile had always been
considered Improbable. recently found
stamp. dated the day after its taking. is
seen TO bear the legend:
This fortress. before which the courage
Of the great Condo oozed away and which
the greatest warriors judged impregnable.
was attacked on July IL and carried by
storm In less than four hours by the
prodigious bravery OF the citizens OF
Paris. armed for the defense of their
liberty and the salvation of their coun-
try"
II Is also certain that De Launay, it's
governor. used every effort, down 10 the
most perfidious Of ruses. TO hold IT, Hav-
ing let down the first drawbridge as II in
surrender. he allowed a great number
OF the citizens to enter the first court
yard Then he drew back the drawbridge
and massacred them at leisure. As
proof OF the length which his resistance
went, II is now well settled that De
Launay in the last moments attempted
to fire the powder magazine and was
prevented by the soldier Ferrand. How