Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 11.pdf/445

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
412
The Green Bag.

lighted huge fires round it in hope of smok ing out the garrison. After a short resistance the governor consented to surrender on con dition of being allowed to leave Paris unmo lested. His conditions were accepted, but he had no sooner opened the gates than he was dragged to the Chatelet and be headed. In 141 8 another governor sur rendered the Bastille, and another massacre took place. The fortress was then handed over to the English, and Sir John Falstaff was named governor. Some years later Sir John was succeeded by Lord Willoughby d'Eresby, who capitulated in 1436 and was allowed to march out with arms and bag gage, unmolested. During the League Bussy Leclerc surrendered the Bastille and was permitted to leave the country, and in 1593 Dubourg opened the gates to Henry • IV. During the Fronde the place was beseiged by the Due d'Elbceuf, and after two shots had been fired the governor, Du Tremblay, capitulated, and a few years later Louviere, on being threatened with death if he did not open the gates in two hours, fol lowed the example of Du Tremblay. From that period, until the Revolution, the Bas tille, whose record was not a brilliant one, was allowed to enjoy tranquillity. Attacked once more in 1789 the old for tress capitulated after a resistance of two hours, the governor consenting to open the gates on condition of the garrison being al lowed to depart in peace. As upon more than one previous occasion, the conditions were not observed, and the capitulation was followed by the massacre of De Launay and a number of his officers and men, whose heads were paraded through the city. — The towers of the Bastille were thus desig nated : — Towards the eity : 1. La tour du Puits. 2. La tour de la Liberte. 3. La tour de la Bertandiere. 4. La tour de la Bassiniere.

Towards the faubourg : 1. 2. 3. 4.

La La La La

tour tour tour tour

du de du de

Coin. la Chapelle. Tresor. la Comte.

It was in one of the towers of this fortress that Louis XI, in 1475, caused the cele brated wooden cage to be constructed for Guillaume de Harancourt, bishop of Ver dun. It was extremely substantial, being composed of thick planks fastened together by iron bars, and so heavy that it was necessary to build a new arch for it to rest upon. Nineteen carpenters were employed twenty days in its construction. In this cage, or one similar to it, Anne Dubourg, councillor of the Parlement, condemned to be burnt for heresy, was shut up in 1559. In 1553 the fortifications were augmented by the construction of a curtain flanked with bastions and surrounded by a wide flat-bottomed ditch. For the expense of the new works the proprietors of houses in Paris were taxed from four livres to twentyfour, according to their value. This fortress became not only a state prison, but upon some occasions a place of deposit for the king's treasures. In the memoirs of the reign of Henry IV it is re lated that, at the death of that monarch, a sum of thirty-six millions was found at the Bastille. The entrance to the Bastille was by a gate which opened at the extremity of the rue Saint Antoine; on the right were bar racks; on the left of a small area was a gate leading into the governor's court, on the right of which stood the government house; at the bottom was a terrace which com manded the city ditches, and on the left were the moat of the Bastille and a double drawbridge leading into the interior. At the period of the Revolution the Bas tille was commanded by a governor and three general officers, who had under them two captains and eighty-two invalids.