Chapter VII: The Fourteenth of July (2)

In his edition of the _Memoirs of Barras_, M. George Duruy has well explained the transformation of opinion. "In the _Memoirs_, the capture of the Bastille is merely the object of a brief and casual mention. Barras only retained and transmits to us one single detail. He saw leaving the dungeons the 'victims of arbitrary power, saved at last from rack and torture and from living tombs.' Such a dearth of information is the more likely to surprise us in that Barras was not only a spectator of the event, but composed, in that same year 1789, an account of it which has now been discovered. Now his narrative of 1789 is as interesting as the passage in the _Memoirs_ is insignificant. The impression left by these pages, written while the events were vividly pictured in his mind, is, we are bound to say, that the famous capture of the Bastille was after all only a horrible and sanguinary saturnalia. There is no word of heroism in this first narrative: nothing about 'victims of arbitrary power' snatched from 'torture and living tombs'; but on the other hand, veritable deeds of cannibalism perpetrated by the victors. That is what Barras saw, and what he recorded on those pages where, at that period of his life, he noted down day by day the events of which he was a witness. Thirty years slip by. Barras has sat on the benches of the 'Montagne.'[58] He has remained an inflexible revolutionist. He gathers his notes together in view of _Memoirs_ he intends to publish. At this time, the revolutionist version of the capture of the Bastille is officially established. It is henceforth accepted that the Bastille fell before an impulse of heroism on the part of the people of Paris, and that its fall brought to light horrible mysteries of iniquity. This legend, which has so profoundly distorted the event, was contemporary with the event itself, a spontaneous fruit of the popular imagination. And Barras, having to speak of the capture in his _Memoirs_, discovers his old narrative among his papers, and reads it, I imagine, with a sort of stupefaction. What! the capture of the Bastille was no more than that!--and he resolutely casts it aside."

In the provinces, the outbreak had a violent counterpart. "There instantly arose," writes Victor Fournel, "a strange, extraordinary, grotesque panic, which swept through the greater part of France like a hurricane of madness, and which many of us have heard our grand-fathers tell stories about under the name of the 'day of the brigands' or 'the day of the fear.' It broke out everywhere in the second fortnight of July, 1789. Suddenly, one knew not whence, an awful rumour burst upon the town or village: the brigands are here, at our very gates: they are advancing in troops of fifteen or twenty thousand, burning the standing crops, ravaging everything! Dust-stained couriers appear, spreading the terrible news. An unknown horseman goes through at the gallop, with haggard cheeks and dishevelled hair: 'Up, to arms, they are here!' Some natives rush up: it is only too true: they have seen them, the bandits are no more than a league or two away! The alarm bell booms out, the people fly to arms, line up in battle order, start off to reconnoitre. In the end, nothing happens, but their terrors revive. The brigands have only turned aside: every man must remain under arms." In the frontier provinces, there were rumours of foreign enemies. The Bretons and Normans shook in fear of an English descent: in Champagne and Lorraine a German invasion was feared.

Along with these scenes of panic must be placed the deeds of violence, the assassinations, plunderings, burnings, which suddenly desolated the whole of France. In a book which sheds a flood of light on these facts, Gustave Bord gives a thrilling picture of them. The châteaux were invaded, and the owner, if they could lay hands on him, was roasted on the soles of his feet. At Versailles the mob threw themselves on the hangman as he was about to execute a parricide, and the criminal was set free: the state of terror in which the town was plunged is depicted in the journals of the municipal assembly. On July 23, the governor of Champagne sends word that the rising is general in his district. At Rennes, at Nantes, at Saint-Malo, at Angers, at Caen, at Bordeaux, at Strasburg, at Metz, the mob engaged in miniature captures of the Bastille more or less accompanied with pillage and assassination. Armed bands went about cutting down the woods, breaking down the dikes, fishing in the ponds.[59] The disorganization was complete.

Nothing could more clearly show the character of the government under the _ancien régime:_ it was wholly dependent on traditions. Nowhere was there a concrete organization to secure the maintenance of order and the enforcement of the king's decrees. France was a federation of innumerable republics, held together by a single bond, the sentiment of loyalty every citizen felt towards the crown. One puff of wind sent the crown flying, and then disorder and panic bewilderment dominated the whole nation. The door was open to all excesses, and the means of checking them miserably failed. Under the _ancien régime_, devotion to the king was the whole government, the whole administration, the whole life of the state. And thus arose the necessity for the domination of the Terror, and the legislative work of Napoleon.

THE END.

INDEX

Allègre, Latude's fellow prisoner, 154, 185-192, 217.

Ameilhon, city librarian, 55.

Argenson, D', 60, 72, 95, 175, 182.

Arsenal library, 55, 56.

Atrocities of the mob, 258-266.

Avedick, Armenian patriarch, 133.

Barras, 272.

Bastille, its situation, 47;
appearance, 48;
repute, 49, 50;
archives, 50-56;
origin, 57;
site, 58;
construction, 59, 60;
additions to, 61;
appearance in later days, 61, 62;
early uses, 63;
becomes state prison, 63, 64;
prisoners, 65;
its administration, 66;
gradual transformation, 67;
character of prisoners, 68, 69;
secretary, 70;
office of lieutenant of police, 71;
his duties, 71, 72;
becomes like modern prisons, 77, 78;
abolition of torture, 78;
duration of prisoners' detention, 80;
expenses, 81;
plans for altering, 81-83;
a _prison de luxe_, 85;
treatment of prisoners, 86;
the rooms, 87;
manner of prisoners' entrance, 88, 89;
cells, 92, 93;
tower rooms, 93, 94;
furniture, 95, 96;
examination of prisoners, 96, 97;
indemnified if innocent, 98, 99;
allowed companions, 100, 101;
prison fare, 102-107;
clothes, 107, 108;
books, 108, 109;
exercise, 109;
diversions, 109, 110;
funerals, 110, 111;
liberation, 111, 112;
the Iron Mask, 114-146;
men of letters, 147-165;
capture, 238-272.

Berryer, 175, 176, 178, 184, 188, 189, 193.

Besmaus, de, 70.

Binguet, 171, 179.

Bread riots, 242, 243.

Breteuil, 78, 248.

Brigands, 241, 245, 250.

Burgaud, 135.

Campan, Madame de, 144, 145.

Carutti's theory of Iron Mask, 134.

Cellamare conspiracy, 72, 73.

Character of French government and society, 239-241.

Chevalier, major, 49, 51, 120, 121, 187, 189, 194.

Citizen militia, 251-253.

Clothes of prisoners, 107, 108.

Crosne, de, lieutenant of police, 244-246.

D'Aubrespy, Jeanneton, 169, 201.

Dauger suggested as Iron Mask, 135.

Desmoulins, 247, 249.

Diderot, 165.

Diversions of prisoners, 109, 110.

Du Junca's journal, 69, 89, 90, 114-116, 122.

Dusaulx, 51.

Encyclopædia, 80.

Estrades, Abbé d', 138-142.

Food of prisoners, 102-107.

Funerals, 110.

Games of prisoners, 101, 102.

Gleichen, baron, 130.

Griffet, Father, 120.

Heiss, Baron, first to suggest true solution of Iron Mask, 136.

Henriot, 245.

Houdon, sculptor, 82.

July 14th, 255-276.

Jung's theory of Iron Mask, 134.

Kingston, Duchess of, 225, 227.

La Beaumelle, 152-155.

Lagrange-Chancel, 132.

La Reynie, 71.

Latude, 168-237.

Launay, Mdlle. de, _see_ Staal, Madame de.

Launey, de, governor, 256, 258, 260.

Lauzun, 91.

Legros, Madame de, 223-226, 232, 233.

Lenoir, lieutenant of police, 186.

_Lettres de cachet_, 240.

Lieutenancy of police created, 97.

Linguet, 163-165.

Loiseleur's theory of Iron Mask, 134.

Loquin's theory of Iron Mask, 133.

Losme, de, 261.

Louis XIV. and Iron Mask, 137-140.

Louis XV. and Iron Mask, 144.

Louis XVI. and Iron Mask, 144.

Louvois, 70, 141.

Maisonrouge, king's lieutenant, 73-76.

Malesherbes, 78, 156, 216.

Man in the Iron Mask, documents, 114-125;
legends, 125-136;
true solution, 136-146.

Marmontel, 158-163.

Mattioli, the Iron Mask, 136-146.

Maurepas, 144, 173-175.

Mirabeau, 166, 167.

Morellet, 155-158, 253.

Moyria, de, 218-220.

Necker, 248.

Palatine, Madame, 125.

Palteau, M. de, 118, 119.

Papon's theory of Iron Mask, 127.

Parlement, 76, 77.

Pensions to prisoners, 98, 99.

Pompadour, Madame de, 173, 206.

Pontchartrain, 69.

Puget, king's lieutenant, 83.

Quesnay, Dr., 175, 177, 178.

Ravaisson, librarian, 54, 55, 134.

Register of St. Paul's church, 117, 142, 143.

Regnier's lines, 59.

Renneville's meals, 103, 104.

Réveillon, 245, 246.

Ricarville, companion of the Iron Mask, 123, 124.

Richelieu, Cardinal, 63-66.

Richelieu, Duke de, 76, 129, 130.

Rigby, Dr., 253, 254.

Risings in the provinces, 273.

Rochebrune, commissary, 195.

Rohan, Cardinal de, 222.

Sade, Marquis de, 95.

Saint-Mars, governor, 87, 115-119, 127, 142.

Saint-Marc, detective, 169, 176, 180, 183, 192.

Sartine, de, 49, 202, 203, 207, 210, 215.

Sauvé, Madame de, her dress, 108.

Solages, de, 84.

Staal, Madame de, 73-76, 94, 95, 102.

Taulès, de, 132.

Tavernier, 106.

Theories on Iron Mask, 125-136.

Thuriot de la Rosière, 256.

Tirmont, companion of Iron Mask, 123, 124.

Vieux-Maisons, Madame de, 128.

Villette, Marquis de, 224.

Vinache's library, 109.

Vincennes, 165-167, 180.

Voltaire, 99, 126, 128, 129, 148-152.

LONDON:

GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LD.

ST. JOHN'S HOUSE, CLERKENWELL, E.C.

* * * * *

Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The castle of Tours, 147 miles south-west of Paris, which Louis XI. made his favourite residence. See Scott's _Quentin Durward_.--T.

[2] Jean Balue (1471-1491), chaplain to Louis XI. For traitorously divulging the king's schemes to his enemy, the Duke of Burgundy, he was for eleven years shut up in the castle of Loches, in an iron-bound wooden cage.--T.

[3] A French author (1624-1693) who was involved in the fall of Louis XIV.'s dishonest finance minister, Fouquet, in 1661, and was imprisoned for five years in the Bastille, amusing himself with reading the Fathers of the Church and taming a spider. See Kitchin's _History of France_, iii. 155-157.--T.

[4] Antoine de Caumont, duc de Lauzun (1633-1723), a courtier of Louis XIV., whose favours to the Duke made Louvois, the minister, his bitter enemy. He was twice imprisoned in the Bastille, the second time at the instance of Madame de Montespan. He commanded the French auxiliaries of James II. in Ireland. See Macaulay's _History_, Chaps. IX., XII., XV.--T.

[5] A game played with a sort of box, in the top of which are cut holes of equal size, and with metal discs or balls, the object being to pitch the balls into the holes from a distance. A similar game may be seen at any English country fair.--T.

[6] The famous president of the Cour des Aides and Minister of the Interior, renowned for his consistent support of the people against oppression. He was banished in 1771 for remonstrating against the abuses of law; but returning to Paris to oppose the execution of Louis XVI., he was guillotined in 1794.--T.

[7] Antonio del Giudice, prince de Cellamare (1657-1733), the Spanish ambassador, was the instigator of a plot against the Regent in 1718. See Kitchin, _ib._ iii. 474.--T.

[8] The Hôtel des Invalides, residence of pensioned soldiers, &c. still a well-known building of Paris.--T.

[9] A château, four miles east of Paris, notable as the place where St. Louis, the royal lawgiver of France, dispensed justice. The _donjon_ still exists, serving now as a soldier's barracks.--T.

[10] One of the first prisons on the system of solitary confinement in cells erected in Paris. It dates from 1850.--T.

[11] The Abbé de Buquoy (1653-1740) owed his imprisonment originally to having been found in company with dealers in contraband salt when the _gabelle_, or salt-tax, compelled the French people to buy salt, whether they wanted it or not, at a price _two thousand times_ its true value. He was a man of very eccentric views, one of which was that woman was man's chief evil, and that was why, when the patriarch Job was stripped of children, flocks, herds, &c., his wife was left to him!--T.

[12] The madhouse, eight miles east of Paris.--T.

[13] A château originally outside Paris, now included in the city itself, once used as a hospital and jail, now a hospital for aged and indigent poor and for lunatics. The first experiments with the guillotine were tried there.--T.

[14] See _infra_, p. 83.

[15] The title rôle in a comedy by Henri Mounier, entitled _Grandeur et décadence de M. Joseph Prudhomme_ (1852). He is a writing-master, very vain, given (like Mr. Micawber) to tall talk and long-winded periods. He has become typical of "much cry and little wool." As an officer of the National Guard he says, "This sabre constitutes the finest day in my life! I accept it, and if ever I find myself at the head of your phalanxes, I shall know how to use it in defence of our institutions--and, if need arise, to fight for them!"--T.

[16] In the early days of the Revolution, Paris was divided into sections or wards, and as the _pike_ had played a great part in the recent disturbances, one of the wards was known as the "Pike" section.--T.

[17] A disciple of the Marquis de Sade (see p. 35), a notorious debauchee, whose book _Justine_ was a disgusting mixture of brutality and obscenity.--T.

[18] The pseudonym of Beffroy de Reigny (1757-1811), author of farces, and of a _Précis historique de la prise de la Bastille_.--T.

[19] The name given to the constitutional struggles of the nobles and the Parlement of Paris against Mazarin and the royal power (1648-1654). The name is derived from _fronde_, a sling. A wit of the Parlement, one Bachaumont, "told the lawyers of that august body that they were like schoolboys playing in the town ditches with their slings, who run away directly the watchman appears, and begin again when his back is turned." See Kitchin, iii. pp. 102-128.--T.

[20] See _Monte-Cristo_.--T.

[21] Delivered to the French Association for the Advancement of Science in 1893.

[22] The battle fought on August 10, 1557, in which Egmont with a combined force of Spaniards, Flemish, and English (sent by Queen Mary) routed Constable Montmorency and the finest chivalry of France. It was in commemoration of this victory that Philip II. built the palace of the Escurial, shaped like a gridiron because the battle was fought on St. Lawrence's day.--T.

[23] The following unpublished letter from Pontchartrain to Bernaville, intimating his probable nomination as governor of the Bastille, shows exactly what Louis XIV.'s government demanded of the head of the great state prison:-

"Versailles, September 28, 1707.

"I have received your letter of yesterday. I can only repeat what I
have already written: to pay constant attention to what goes on in
the Bastille; to neglect none of the duties of a good governor; to
maintain order and discipline among the soldiers of the garrison,
seeing that they keep watch with all the necessary exactitude, and
that their wages are regularly paid; to take care that the
prisoners are well fed and treated with kindness, preventing them,
however, from having any communication with people outside and from
writing letters; finally, to be yourself especially prompt in
informing me of anything particular that may happen at the
Bastille. You will understand that in following such a line of
action you cannot but please the king, and perhaps induce him to
grant you the post of governor; on my part, you may count on my
neglecting no means of representing your services to His Majesty in
the proper light.

"I am, &c.,

"PONTCHARTRAIN."

[24] The appellation of the eldest brother of the reigning king.--T.

[25] Under the _ancien régime_, there being no Minister of the Interior (Home Secretary), each of the ministers (the War Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs, &c.) had a part of France under his charge. The Minister of Paris was usually what we should call the Lord Chamberlain.--T.

[26] The court which up to the time of the Revolution was the seat of justice, presided over by the Provost of Paris. It held its sittings in the castle known as the Châtelet.--T.

[27] A judicial, not a legislative body. It was constantly in antagonism to the king.--T.

[28] The famous Encyclopædia edited by D'Alembert and Diderot. It occupied twenty years of the life of the latter, and went through many vicissitudes; its free criticism of existing institutions provoking the enmity of the government. Voltaire was one of its largest contributors.--T.

[29] This raised Linguet's indignation. "The consideration of this enormous expense has given to some ministers, among others to M. Necker, a notion of reform; if this should come to anything, it would be very disgraceful to spring from no other cause. 'Suppress the Bastille out of economy!' said on this subject, a few days ago, one of the youngest and most eloquent orators of England."

[30] The Hôtel Carnavalet, museum in Paris, where a large number of documents and books are preserved relating to the history of the city.--T.

[31] It may be noted that the different escapes contributed to the gradual tightening of the rules of the Bastille. After the escape of the Comte de Bucquoy, such ornaments as the prisoners could attach cords to were at once removed, and knives were taken from them; after the escape of Allègre and Latude, bars of iron were placed in the chimneys, and so forth.

[32] The second of the four principal officers of the Bastille. The officers were: (1) the governor; (2) the king's lieutenant; (3) the major; (4) the adjutant. There was also a doctor, a surgeon, a confessor, &c. The garrison consisted of Invalides.--T.

[33] The most surprising instance is that of an Englishman, who returned spontaneously from England to become a prisoner in the Bastille. "On Thursday, May 22, 1693, at nightfall, M. de Jones, an Englishman, returned from England, having come back to prison for reasons concerning the king's service. He was located outside the château, in a little room where M. de Besmaus keeps his library, above his office, and he is not to appear for some days for his examination, and is to be taken great care of."--Du Junca's Journal.

[34] This was not the Lauzun already mentioned, but his nephew, Armand Louis de Gontaut, duke de Biron (1747-1793), who was notorious throughout Europe for his gallantries.--T.

[35] An official of the royal council, whose function originally was to examine and report on petitions to the king. He became a sort of superior magistrate's clerk.--T.

[36] "1751, March 2. I have received a letter from Dr. Duval (secretary to the lieutenant of police), in which he tells me that M. Berryer (lieutenant of police) is struck with the cost of the clothes supplied to the prisoners for some time past; but, as you know, I only supply things when ordered by M. Berryer, and I try to supply good clothes, so that they may last and give the prisoners satisfaction."--Letter from Rochebrune, commissary to the Bastille, to Major Chevalier.

[37] These extracts are translated literally, in order to preserve the clumsy constructions of the unlettered official.--T.

[38] Step-sister of Louis XIV. The following extracts from her correspondence show how, even in circles that might have been expected to be well informed, the legend had already seized on people's imaginations:--

"Marly, October 10, 1711. A man remained long years in the Bastille, and has died there, masked. At his side he had two musketeers ready to kill him if he took off his mask. He ate and slept masked. No doubt there was some reason for this, for otherwise he was well treated and lodged, and given everything he wished for. He went to communion masked; he was very devout and read continually. No one has ever been able to learn who he was."

"Versailles, October 22, 1711. I have just learnt who the masked man was, who died in the Bastille. His wearing a mask was not due to cruelty. He was an English lord who had been mixed up in the affair of the Duke of Berwick (natural son of James II.) against King William. He died there so that the king might never know what became of him."

[39] The insurgents who rose for the king against the Revolutionists in Brittany: see Balzac's famous novel. The movement smouldered for a great many years.--T.

[40] The Gregorian calendar was abolished by the National Convention in 1793, who decreed that September 22, 1792, should be regarded as the first day of a new era. The year was divided into twelve months, with names derived from natural phenomena. Nivose (snowy) was the fourth of these months. Thus, the period mentioned in the text includes from December 21, 1800, to January 19, 1801.--T.

[41] Since M. Funck-Brentano's book was published, his conclusions have been corroborated by Vicomte Maurice Boutry in a study published in the _Revue des Etudes historiques_ (1899, p. 172). The Vicomte furnishes an additional proof. He says that the Duchess de Créquy, in the third book of her _Souvenirs_, gives a _résumé_ of a conversation on the Iron Mask between Marshal de Noailles, the Duchess de Luynes, and others, and adds: "The most considerable and best informed persons of my time always thought that the famous story had no other foundation than the capture and captivity of the Piedmontese Mattioli."--T.

[42] "I have seen these ills, and I am not twenty yet."

[43] These verses were, of course, in Latin.--T.

[44] Palissot was a dramatist and critic who in his comedy _Les Philosophes_ had bitterly attacked Rousseau, Diderot, and the Encyclopædists generally.--T.

[45] The old prison of Paris. It was the debtors' prison, famous also for the number of actors who were imprisoned there under the _ancien régime_. It was demolished in 1780.--T.

[46] "Not unto us, O Lord, but unto Thy name give glory!

"Know our heart and search out our ways."

[47] "The victory is won!"--T.

[48] Charenton was under the direction of a religious order known as the _Frères de la Charité_, who undertook the care of sick and weak-minded poor.--T.

[49] This was Elizabeth Chudleigh (1720-1788), the notorious beauty who privately married the Hon. Augustus Hervey, afterwards Earl of Bristol, separated from him after three years, and became the mistress of the second Duke of Kingston, whom she bigamously married. After his death she was tried by the House of Lords for bigamy, and fled to France to escape punishment. Her gallantries and eccentricities were the talk of Europe.--T.

[50] Instructed by his misfortunes and his captivity how to vanquish the efforts and the rage of tyrants, he taught the French how true courage can win liberty.

[51] Jocrisse is the stock French type of the booby, and as such is a character in many comedies. He breaks a plate, for instance; his master asks him how he managed to be so clumsy, and he instantly smashes another, saying, "_Just like that!_" His master asks him to be sure and wake him early in the morning; Jocrisse answers: "Right, sir, depend on me; _but of course you'll ring_!"--T.

[52] The Girondists (so called from Gironde, a district of Bordeaux) were the more sober republican party in the Assembly, who were forced by circumstances to join the Jacobins against Louis XVI. With their fall from power in the early summer of 1792 the last hope of the monarchy disappeared.--T.

[53] Referring to the horrible massacres of September, 1792, when about 1400 victims perished.--T.

[54] The French Dick Turpin. Of good education, he formed when quite a youth a band of robbers, and became the terror of France. Like Turpin, he is the subject of dramas and stories.--T.

[55] A forest near Paris, on the line to Avricourt. It was a famous haunt of brigands. There is a well-known story of a dog which attacked and killed the murderer of its master there.--T.

[56] Literally "cut-top": we have no equivalent in English.--T.

[57] A five-act comedy by Victorien Sardou.

[58] The nickname given to the Jacobins, the extreme revolutionists, who sat on the highest seats on the left in the National Assembly.--T.

[59] Which were the strict preserves of the aristocrats: to fish in them was as great a crime as to shoot a landlord's rabbit was, a few years ago, in England.--T.

End of Project Gutenberg's Legends of the Bastille, by Frantz Funck-Brentano