THE BASTILLE
So we come to Place de la Bastille.
The famous prison which stood there from the end of the fourteenth
century to the memorable summer of 1789, was built by Hugues Aubriot,
Prévôt du Roi, as a fortified castle to protect the palais St-Pol close
by, and Paris in general, against hostile inroads from the country
beyond. Its form is well known. A perfect model of it is to be seen at
Carnavalet, in that most interesting _salle_--the Bastille-room. It had
eight towers each 23 mètres high, each with its distinct name and use.
White lines in the pavement of the _place_ show where some of its walls,
some of its towers rose, houses stand upon the site of others. The great
military citadel became a regular prison in the time of Charles VI--a
military prison, though civilians were from the first shut up there from
time to time. Aubriot himself was put there by the mob, to be quickly
released by the King. Under Richelieu it became a State prison, the
prison of _lettres de cachet_ notoriety. The Revolutionists attacked it
in the idea that untold harshness, cruelty, injustice dominated there.
As a matter of fact, the Bastille was for years rather a luxurious place
of retirement for persons who themselves wished or were desired by
others to lie low for a time, than a fort of durance vile. The last
governor, M. de Launay, in particular, was generous and kind even to
the humblest of those placed beneath his rule. And we know the attacking
mob found seven prisoners only--two madmen, the others acknowledged
criminals. M. de Launay was massacred nevertheless. The Revolutionists
seized all the arms they could find, a goodly store; the walls were
razed soon afterwards and a board put up with the words “Ici on dance.”
In reality the attack upon the Bastille was a milder under-taking than
is generally supposed, and its entire destruction took place later on in
quite a business-like way by a contractor.
[Illustration: LA BASTILLE]
The _place_ was finished in 1803. The Colonne de Juillet we see there
dates from 1831. The bones of the victims of the two minor Revolutions
(1830-48) are beneath it. Louis Philippe’s throne was burnt before it in
1848.