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327 



Bastile. in extreme grief, and that his children had disappear- 

 ed, without any visible cause. The old man groaned 

 under the weigh., of such accumulated misery ; and 

 presenting himself before the minister to whom he 

 was indebted for his release, he bowed himself down 

 and addressed him in the following words-i-*' Restore 

 me again to that prison from which you have taken 

 me : I cannot survive the loss of my nearest rela- 

 tions, of my friends, and, in one word, of a whole ge- 

 neration. Is it possible in the same moment to be 

 informed of this universal destruction, and not to wish 

 for death i This general mortality, which to the 

 rest of mankind comes slowly and by degrees, has to 

 me been instantaneous, the operation of a moment. 

 Whilst secluded from society, I lived with myself on- 

 ly ; but here I can neither live with myself, nor with 

 this new race to whom my anguish and despair appear 

 only as a dream. There is nothing terrible in dying ; 

 but it is dreadful indeed to be the last." This speech 

 had an obvious effect upon the minister. He order- 

 ed the ancient domestic above alluded to still to at- 

 tend his master, as he a'one was able to converse with 

 him on the subjects of his lost children and friends. 

 The old man would talk of nothing else ; for he 

 avoided all intercourse with the world, and continued 

 to live in the midst of Paris as much a stranger to so- 

 ciety as when he was confined in the dungeons of the 

 Bastile, till death put an end to his existence. 



We may now enquire what were those crimes for 

 which the severe retribution of the Bastile was des- 

 tined ? Were the dungeons of that castle, which stood 

 for ages the terror of France and the disgrace of Eu- 

 rope, filled with assassins and traitors, with wretches 

 who had plotted against the welfare of their country- 

 men, and longedto riot in the plunder which they might 

 obtain ? If this were the case, France must have 

 been regarded as peopled with conspirators ; and that 

 nation, which of all others most readily submitted to 

 the yoke of despotism, must have been almost wholly 

 composed of rebels and murderers. But the case was 

 far otherwise. The dungeons of the Bastile were often 

 filled, especially in later times, ~with innocent and 

 peaceful citizens, who had unjustly become the objects 

 of punishment, or with humble individuals, who, from 

 their inferior situation and limited means, could never 

 have been formidable to the state. * Did a man, , 

 conscientious in the discharge of his duty, refuse to 

 violate the principles of integrity and honour at the 

 command of the minister ? he was instantly sent to 

 the Bastile. Had any one the misfortune to incur 

 the displeasure of a favourite mistress ? he experienced . 

 a similar fate. If any purpose was to be served, or 

 any passion to be gratified, even a word or a look 

 was reckoned a sufficient cause of imprisonment. And 

 an individual once shut up, might be allowed to re- 

 main for years in his cell, not because he continued to 

 be suspected or feared, but because he was forgotten. 

 The consequence of all this was, that men livt d in 

 constant apprehension : They " were denied that in- 

 estimable privilege, the free communication of their 



thoughts and sentiments : Dissimulation became ne- 

 cessary for their safety. The towers of the Bastile 

 seemed to stand aloft over the kingdom, for the 

 purpose of scaring its inhabitants;" and on each 

 of them might have been written the inscriptiou 

 sometimes to be found on grave- stones, hodie mihi, 

 eras tibi. 



It is remarkable, that the first prisoner confined in- 

 the Bastile was d'Aubriot, the architect who planned . 

 it. During the prosecutions on account of religion 

 in the reign of Louis XIV., when the well-known 

 edict of Nantz was revoked, and during the contests 

 with the Jansenists under the administration of Cardi- 

 nal Fleury, the annual number received was very great. 

 Many of these were tried and executed ; some pe- 

 rished in confinement, and others were set at liberty. 

 Of all the prisoners, however, the most celebrated is 

 the " man in the mask." He was brought from the 

 island St Margaret on the 18th September, A. D. 

 1698, and immediately shut up in the Bastile. The 

 mask, which he wore, was made of black velvet, and 

 fitted with springs of steel, so that it was unnecessa- 

 ry to take it oft when he ate. On his journey to 

 Paris, those who conducted him had orders to put 

 him to death if he made the smallest attempt to shew 

 his face, or otherwise to discover himself. Historians 

 have been so lost in probabilities while endeavouring 

 to ascertain his name and quality, that to this hour it 

 is doubtful who he was. There is reason to believe 

 that he wa 6 a person of the first condition : He could 

 read and write ; attainments not common at the pe- 

 riod in which he lived. He understood music, and 

 could play on the guitar. When at St Margaret, the 

 Marquis de Louvois, who went to visit him, spoke to 

 him standing with every testimony of respect : And, 

 in the Bastile, the governor very rarely sat down in 

 his presence. His dress was sumptuous, and his table 

 furnished with the utmost care. On one occasion he 

 wrote something with his knife, upon a plate, and 

 threw it out from the window of his apartment ; but 

 the plate was found by a fisherman who could not 

 read, and .who carried it without delay to the gover- 

 nor. The ignorance of the fisherman was the cause 

 of his safety; for after a few days confinement the 

 governor dismissed him, saying, " You may rejoice 

 that you cannot read." It is probable that the name 

 and some account of the unknown person were writ- 

 ten on the plate. This happened at St Margaret. 

 The illustrious and unfortunate prisoner with the 

 mask, died in the Bastile A. D. 1704. Immediate ]y 

 after his death, his clothes, linen, and all his apparel, 

 were burnt with the most anxious care : the very 

 floor of his apartment was i mped and taken up, and 

 every vestige of his existence annihilated. The most 

 plausible conjecture with respect to him is, that he 

 was the twin brother of Louis XIV.; but for the 

 reatoai o which this conjecture is founded, as well . 

 as for other information, we must refer to the Hhiory 

 iiftke Bastile. Appendix No. vi. 



In the heat of the French Revolution, the Bastile 



Bastile 



* In the register of prisoners for the year 1(S87, we find the name of Laurence Lemicre, shoemaker, who w,<:< c infin. 

 gether with his wife, " for dangerous discourse about the king." And in the register fur 1690, that of John Blonde! 

 mit, " a suspected person.'! 



