32G 



B A S T I L E. 



Bastile. was entrusted, distinctly stales, that an order was 

 ~~ "V ' produced by the commissary acting under the lieu- 

 tenant of the police, for putting him to torture in case 

 of obstinacy, and that he was conducted to a room 

 where the different instruments were show n him, and 

 their application pointed out. Finally, there is good 

 reason to believe, that in the reign of Louis XI. not 

 a few peqshed in the dungeons of the Bastile, by 

 -means of poison secretly introduced into their food. 



In later times, however, the torture of the mind 

 appears to have been studied by the agents of despo- 

 tism rather than that of the body. No sooner had a 

 prisoner, for some reason or for none, entered the 

 fiastile, than he passed at once into a state of utter 

 exclusion from the rest of mankind. If his friends 

 enquired after him, it was denied, even with oaths and 

 imprecations, that he wa3 in confinement. And the 

 governor has been known to express his astonishment, 

 that they should suppose him to be in the Bastile. 

 The only persons who visited the prisoners were the 

 turnkeys and officers of the house. On these occa- 

 sions the most insidious questions were put to them, 

 and their answers, carefully remembered, were after- 

 wards written down. No one was allowed to approach 

 them in whom they could confide, or from whom they 

 could ask advice. And if, in particular circumstan- 

 ces, a companion was allowed to certain prisoners 

 more guarded and cautious in their answers than 

 others, this companion having drawn from them the 

 requisite intelligence, soon appeared to be a 6py pla- 

 ced there by the orders of the governor. The friend 

 of the captive was kept in a state of fixed uncertain- 

 ty. He was uncertain even for what cause he was 

 detained. He was uncertain whether his wife and 

 family yet existed, whether they breathed the vital air 

 in the enjoyment of <heir liberty, or whether they 

 were shut up in the next apartment of the castle 

 doomed to the same misery which he endured. Of 

 his own destiny he was equally uncertain. He might 

 be confined to his dungeon for many years, still che- 

 rishing the hope, and meditating on the blessings of 

 freedom, or a painful death might speedily terminate 

 his existence. The morning returned and the evening 

 came, the year revolved and passed over him in the 

 same state of suspence and silence. Or roused at 

 some time by the hope of liberty, offered to him on 

 the conditions of acknowledging his guilt, and decla- 

 ring his accomplices, he indulged-perhaps in a momen- 

 tary transport : but finding, that though the terms of 

 the agreement had been adhered to on his part, his 

 keepers had spoken only to deceive him ; he often 

 funk into an unchangeable melancholy, which at length 

 overpowered his reason. It is not possible for the 

 language of men to describe this torture of the soul, 

 which those victims ol tyranny were in forne instances 

 compelled to undergo. Many of the prisoners, how- 

 ever, bore their sufferings with greater fortitude, or 

 rather from a peculiarity of constitution, or from the 

 power of habit, they suffered less than others who were 

 unhappily placed in similar circumstances. They even 

 contrived to amuse themselves during their confine- 

 ment ; though the methods which they adopted for 

 this purpose appear to indicate little else tliRn the sad 

 necessity of their condition. The histories of the Bits- 



tile are full of attempts made to train spiders by sup- Bastil*. 

 plying them \iith food, and to avert the horrors of re- ' /~ 

 flection by ascertaining the dimensions of the room, 

 or counting in different directions the studs upon the 

 door. Some have spent whole days in pouring water 

 from one dish into another, or in disposing in fanciful 

 arrangements the pieces of which their faggots were 

 composed. After a certain time also the rigour of 

 confinement was in some degree abated. The prison- 

 ers were allowed to walk daily for an hour in one of 

 the courts, though still within the view of a soldier 

 on guard. If any stranger appeared, they were 

 obliged instantly to retire. By applying to the lieu- 

 tenant of the police, they might obtain permission 

 to attend mass, which was performed at least every 

 Sunday in the chapel belonging to the castle. They 

 were conducted separately from their apartments, and 

 sat in covered niches, where they could hear without 

 being seen. Some were allowed the conveniency of 

 pens, ink, and paper, and were permitted to write to 

 their friends ; but all their letters passed through the 

 hands of the lieutenant of the police, by whom they 

 were frequently opened and read, so that few of them 

 reached the persons for whom they were intended. 

 They likewise had the use of books from a library 

 founded by a prisoner in the beginning of the last cen- 

 tury, and augmented by the contributions of his suc- 

 cessors. It consisted of about .500 volumes. Some 

 of the captives were permitted to read in the library, 

 while others had the books brought to them by their 

 keepers. After much and frequent solicitation, Lin- 

 guet, whose name has already been mentioned so fre- 

 quently, obtained the use of mathematical instru- 

 ments ; but on inspecting the case, he found that the 

 compasses were exceedingly small, and made of bone. 

 There is one passage in the history of the Bastile, 

 without which this branch of our article might be 

 reckoned incomplete. We shall therefore give it in 

 as few words as possible. Louis XVI. at the com- 

 mencement of his reign, ordered the registers of the 

 Bastile to be examined, and a number of prisoners to 

 be set at liberty. The intelligence was received with 

 surprise and unbounded joy. On one old man alone 

 it produced these effects in a very inferior degree. 

 He had been imprisoned for the space of 47 years ; 

 age had diminished his sensibility, and habit had, in 

 some measure, reconciled him to nis situation. When 

 a 6trange voice announced his liberty, and permission 

 to depart, he appeared to be stiipiiied, at a loss what 

 to say, or how to act. Recovering himself, however, 

 he slowly quitted his dungeon, and repaired to the 

 street where he had formerly lived : But no vestige 

 of his house remained, other buildings occupying the 

 place where it stood. His family and near relatives 

 were all dead, or gone into foreign climates. No one, 

 even the most aged of those whom he accosted, either 

 knew him, or could be brought to recollect any of 

 the occurrences which he detailed, in order to assist 

 their memory. A whole generation had passed away, 

 and he found himself a stranger in the very city where 

 he was born. An ancient domestic, to whom he was 

 accidentally directed, at length recognised the fea- 

 tures of the master whom he had served. From him 

 he learned, that his wife had died thirty years before, 



