The Washington herald., 1912-12-22
The very market porter;

monument. The. very market porters
felt this.
De Lussac, an imaginative man,
shared the feeling of the people, and
as the carriage rumbled across the
draWbridge. it seemed to him that IN
the growl of the wheels he heard the
voice of the Bastile, ventral, deep, ia
tai to hope, indifferent as the voice OF
jailer.
Sol another prisoner; pass him
on
They passed through a courtyard,
were again checked BY sentries. De
LuSsac could hear their harsh voices
as they challenged, and the coach
mans reply as he showed his permit.
and drove on through a gateway, and
across another courtyard to a doorway.
This doorway, the main entrance for
prisoners, possessed a door iron-stud-
ded and a foot thick. 1t stood half
open, and guarded by SentrieS who
were already apprised of the entrance
of the carriage, and as Beauregard de-
scIended and gave his arm TO his pris--
oner the scntrieS presented arms, and
from somewhere in the deep recesses
of the fortress came the hoarst clang-
ing of a bell.
1t was the bell that announced to
turnkeys and sentries the arrival OF a
prisoner At its sound all corridors
would be. cleared, prisoners returning
from exercise would be hurried along
to their cells, the governor would be
summoned, and the clerk who had to
deal with the books of the prison. De
Lussac, following Monsieur Beaure-
gard and followed by sentry, passed
along a stone corridor to a door bar
red, bolted, and studded with nail
heads each as big as a child's FIST. A
turnkey. who had already removed the
bars and slid the bolts, opened the
door, and. as they passed through, It
closed behind them, and the clang of
the bars replaced came family and in
muffied manner speaking of the
doors thickness and strength.
This corridor which they had enter
ed was family lighted, and led to the
room of audience, where prisoners
were received by the governor, and it
was in this corridor that De Lussac
encountered something more depress-
ing than the thickness of the walls,
the strength of the doors, or the gloom
of the corridors. 1t was the smell
of the Bastile
La Bastile had faint and poisonous
breath of her own that, once encoun-
tered. endured in the memory forever; !;
whether from fungus in the cellars,
oubliettcS, and dungeons far below the
fortress or simply from the very an
tiquity of the stone and mortar, who
can say. but the faint tomb-like odor
remained, ineradicable as the evil of
her builders.
De Launay. the governor. was abb
sent, and Monsieur Vitry. the deputy
governor. filled his place. He was
seated at a desk, and close to him,
bending over a huge book placed on
another desk, was the clerk whose
duty it was to enter the name OF the
prisoner, his station in life, his ofense
and. what was of most importance to
the unfortunate, the remarks of the
authorities about him. These secret
reports, unseen by the prisoner. un-
seen by all but God. the governor and
the clerk, were, in themselves and Of
their own nature. an infamy. By viz
tue of them a man might be held for
ever: or at least until his death. a
prisoner lost and forgotten. 1t did not
ildAltl III lllG lNdSl lilul Ills AdlllllN "NAN
starving, that his wife and loved ones
were in despair; the secret report
cared nothing for this.
He might hope against hope, see the
spring cast a brighter beam of light
on his wall, feel that with the warm
breath of summer through the bars
of his window release must surely
come The secret writing in the book
below held him in its wizard spell.
Very dangerouS-to be kept in the
stricteSt confinement"
Governors might change. kings die,
the mans very offense be forgotten,
but through the gloomy days of vim
ter. the bright days of spring, those
words would hold him prisoner still,
uniudged and forgotten.
When the BaStile was destroyed men
were found like this, some of them
idiotic. Tavcrnier could not remem-
Der for what he was imprisoned. He
had forgotten himself as completely
as the authorities had forgotten him
De Lussac watched the face of Mon
sieur Vitry. who was finishing a letter
on which he was engaged, and who