Part 8 (2/2)
_Monsieur le Gouverneur_, envoyant en mon chateau de la Bastille le sieur _N----_, je vous fais cette lettre pour vous dire que mon intention est que vous ayez a l'y recevoir et retenir en toute serete, jusques a nouvel ordre de moy. Et la presente n'estant pour autre fin, je prie Dieu qu'il vous ait, Monsieur le Gouverneur, en sa sainte garde.
Ecrit a ---- le ---- de l'an ----.
_Signature du Roi._
Once issued, this condemned a man to perpetual imprisonment, unless by some happy chance some one could prevail on the king to sign the following _Ordre de mise en Liberte:_ ”Monsieur le Gouverneur, ayant bien voulu accorder la liberte au sieur _N----_ detenu par mes ordres en mon chateau de la Bastille, je vous fais cette lettre pour vous dire que mon intention est qu'aussitot qu'elle vous aura ete remise, vous aiez a faire mettre le dit sieur _N----_ en pleine et entiere liberte. Et la presente n'estant pour autre fin, je prie Dieu qu'il vous ait, Monsieur le Gouverneur, en sa sainte garde.
Ecrit a ---- le ---- de l'an ----.
_Signature du Roi._
Many prisoners became lunatics, others died there whose friends never knew their fate, for a man's name and individuality were lost when once he pa.s.sed the gates.
Those who regained their liberty were sworn to secrecy concerning all that they had seen or heard in the Bastille: ”Etant en liberte, je promets, conformement aux ordres du Roi, de ne parler a qui que ce soit, d'aucune maniere que ce puisse etre, des prisonniers ni autre chose concernant le chateau de la Bastille, qui auraient pu parvenir a ma connaissance.”
As a rule this oath was observed, the dread of another incarceration being sufficient to inculcate the wisdom of silence, the well-known memoirs of Linguet being an exception.
Under Louis XVI., committals were less numerous, and when the Marquis de Launay surrendered the Bastille to the Parisian revolutionaries in July, 1789, only seven prisoners were found in it, although it must be remembered that the governor, recognizing the possibility of an attack, had sent away some of the most important prisoners to Vincennes. If he had had the forethought at the same time to have caused the Bastille to be well supplied with provisions he, with his small garrison of 114 men, might have held out for an almost indefinite period against the attacks of the half-armed, undisciplined Parisian mob.
[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF CLAUDE MARTIN.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF THE COLONEL DE CUZIEU.]
As it was, the Marquis behaved during a trying time as a brave soldier and a humane gentleman. At length, but only when his scanty provisions were exhausted, he yielded up the castle on condition that the lives of the garrison should be spared. But the inrus.h.i.+ng crowd cared nothing for conditions, nor for the rules of civilized warfare, and in a few minutes nearly every man was killed. De Launay himself was aimlessly dragged about for some time, then killed, and his head paraded on a pike round the streets of Paris.
[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF THE CHaTEAU ROYAL DE LA BASTILLE.]
The Bastille itself was demolished by the people, the place where it stood alone preserves its name, and the stones which once formed its melancholy walls are now trodden under foot by the countless myriads who pa.s.s over the Pont de la Concorde.
Most of the books found in the prison were destroyed, but a few escaped, and these contained the ex-libris of the Chateau Royal de la Bastille, certainly one of the scarcest and most interesting in the world.
The accession of Louis XVI. gave rise to great hopes for the regeneration of France, retrenchment in her finances, and reformation in the morals of her court.
The king was young, married to a beautiful and virtuous princess, and was himself credited with the domestic virtues of chast.i.ty and sobriety.
Indeed, as a master locksmith he might no doubt have earned a comfortable livelihood, for in that occupation, if in no other, he displayed considerable skill and dexterity.
The French have always had a knack of affixing very humorous and catching nicknames to their kings and public men; they might appropriately have christened their new king Louis Trop-tard. He was always Lewis the Too-Late; he was born too late, he resisted the wishes of his people till it was too late; he made concessions when they were too late to conciliate anyone; he practised economy when it only brought him into ridicule; too late he fled from Paris; drank Burgundy, and ate bread and cheese at Varennes until it was too late to escape across the frontier, and finally he died when his death was too late to save his good name, his family, or the monarchy.
He lacked decision of character, and clearness of purpose or perception.
He was incapable of reading the signs of the times, or of reforming the vicious system of government he had inherited from his forefathers. So he, who was in many respects the best of the later Bourbons, had to pay the penalty for the crimes, the cruelty, and the follies of his ancestors.
[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF PASQUIER DE MESSANGE, 1792.]
In the best period of French heraldry, supporters were less frequently found than in British heraldry, and it was a rule, or a tradition, that, as marking the divine right of kings, only members of the royal family of France should carry angels as supporters. They were, however, a.s.sumed by the illegitimate descendants of the kings, who carried the royal arms with the usual differences.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ACHIEVEMENT OF LOUIS XVI.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF MONSIEUR LEJOURDAN, CONSEILLER EN L'AMIRAUTe, 1786]
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