Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1918-09-06

successor Louis XVI credited with being an am
liable ruler sent forth 14,500 their missions of
oppression.
1t might well have been written over the en-
trance of the Bastille Gle who enters here,
leaves hope behind" The place realized the dark
est visions of Dantes Inferno. Separated from
the streets of the city by moat 125 feet wide
and % feet deep, and accessible only by draw
bridge, it was like an Isle of the Dead.
In its noiSome dungeons abOmnable crueltes
visited upon unfortunate prisoners, who
condemned to the rack and the boot and the
Wheel or chained to pillars and logged There
circular cells with cOniCal tops, in which the
inmates could neither stand erect, nor sit nor lie.
The roll of the sufferers of the Bastille is long
one. Various degrees of punishment meted
out to the prisoners, according to the Whims of
the sovereign. Some of them, like the Man with
the Iron Mask, for time prisoner in the Bas-
tile, treated with consideration. They
had bounteOus meals, and were assigned to rooms
in which there was fair amount of light, and
were even permitted to walk in the garden.
They had scant enjoyment, however, for they
never knew when they would be doomed to the
fate of their less favored fellows. Men lived 80
and even GO years in the Bastille, until they lost
all connection with the world beyond the moat
In that world toward the close of the eighteenth
century mighty changes came to pass The line
of the Louis had so impoverished the nation that
XVI came to the throne debt of $SOO,OOOOO0 had
been piled up, and it continued to pyramid The
common people had been footing the BILL and
came the proposal, strange in those days that
the nobility and the clergy, the privileged classes,
should share the burden with the Third Estate.
1t was day of questioning and hearkening and
soul searching. The words of Voltaire, Rousseau
and Dider0t were sinking deep into the national
consciousness. Hence assemblies to talk over
these proposals.
In vain were the prisons filled with agitators
and the Voltaires sent into exile. The storm was
gathering. If the monarchy was to be sustained
in its extravaganza and feudalism to be upheld
the mailed fist must do its work. But there was
more to deal with than murmuring serfs and
handful of encyclopedias. The soldiers of France,
who were expected to uphold the old regime,
showed that they unwilling to kill their IA
theirs and brothers like dogs.
The people of Paris ransacked their city until
they found arms the material for making
pixies. The time had come when the rights of
should prevail, and men who starving
under tyranny are easily recruited. AS the forces
of the order grew they thought with
cord of the hated symbol of that CALLING oppres-
sion which was the cause of all their suffering.
The cry 'To the Bastille!" rose from hundred
thousand throats.
Men and women armed with weapons as effec-
tive as popguns would be against dreadnaught
moved against the ancient stronghold Bullets
battered and fattened against the massive walls.
The defense only half hearted, and the
French guards on the battlements were soon wav-
ing flags Of truce. force greater than all the
munitions ever made at work-a public senti-
ment which had become a resstless torrent. De-
aunay the governor of the Bastille, trembled be-
fore 1t and surrendered Down came the creak-
ing drawbrdge and across 1t rushed the nfuri-
ated citizenry. The tide flowed In and out of the
dim corridors and searched out the narrow cells.
AS there was the semblance of govern
ment arrangements made for removing the
Bastille. The work took the contractor nearly
year, although he employed large force There
was thriving business in its relics, for hundreds
of the blocks of stone were carved into models
of the prison and sold mementoes. Locks and
bolts we're distributed all the world as
souvenirs
Although the demolition of the Bastille itself
proceeded, the thing for which 1t stood was not
so easily swept aside. Feudal Germany and
Austria blocked the r0ud to liberty. We Of this
day, with the perspective OF century and more
of history and belonging TO nation which is even
now In arms against the powers which sought to
fost the yoke of serfdom once more upon the