We had formerly in the Tower of London, a straight room or dungeon,
called, from the misery the unhappy occupiers of this very confined
place endured, the Little-Ease. But this will appear a luxurious
habitation, when compared with the inventions of Louis XI. of France,
with his iron cages, in which persons of rank lay for whole years;
or his oubliettes, dungeons made in the form of reversed cones,
with concealed trap-doors, down which dropped the unhappy victims
of the tyrant, brought there by Tristam L'Hermite, his companion and
executioner in ordinary; sometimes their sides were plain, sometimes
set with knives, or sharp-edged wheels; but in either cases they were
complete _oubliettes;_ the devoted were certain to fall into the land
where all things are forgotten.--(_Pennant's London._)
When the Bastille of France was demolished, three iron cages were
discovered, they were made of strong bars of iron, about eight feet high
and six feet wide, and such have been used in other prisons in that
country. The Bishop of Verdun, according to Mezeray, was the inventer,
and was himself the first man confined in them, and remained a prisoner
thus for eleven years, so that he could speak practically as to his own
invention.
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