1809.} Account of i homas ALapor s Confinement inthe bastilieé. 551 
preservation is the first law of nature. 
It was happy for me that I did not 
know it, otherwise I could not have en- 
joyed that peace of mind, which is the 
constant attendant upon innocence in 
distress. 1 am not surprised at the many 
reports (common even at Paris) of 
eruelty exercised in the Bastille. This 
suspicion may arise from the impossi- 
bility of coming at the knowledge of any 
transaction in this place. This‘is verified 
by Monsieur Voltaire, in his 19th Letter 
upon the English Nation: speaking of 
Sir JohnVanbrugh, he says, “ This Knight 
having taken a tour to France, before 
the war, 1704, was put in the Bastille, 
without ever being able to learn. the 
cause why the minister of state had 
confined him,”* 
When the means of an éclaircissement 
-eannot be obtained, it must be owned, 
and very naturally, that fears are often 
raised in the mind, without foundation. 
‘« Many are the shapes 
Of death, and many are the ways that lead 
‘To his grim cave ;.all dismal! yet to-sense 
More.terrible at the entrance than within.” 
Milton. 
. It is this impossibility that creates a 
dread and horror to a generous soul; the 
very apprehension of what may be done 
in private (all intercourse ‘with the 
human species being entirely cut off) is 
sufficient to excite conjectures, and per- 
haps gave rise to various Tales, such as 
the [ron Mask, the Oubliette, &c.t 
It is said, in the reign of Louis XI. 
* Vanbrugh tells: us, Ins amusement and 
exercise, was throwing a quantity of pins 
into the air, and picking them up, one by 
one; and verily believed, if he bad not thought 
‘of this expedient, that he should have lost 
his Senses. 
+ TheOubliette is an horrible contrivance 
in a chamber, wherein was a trap-door, which 
suddenly opening, destroyed the victim by 
machinery beneath. Theseinfernal Oubliettes, 
have been at last discovered. Several complete 
skeletons of human_bodies, have been dug out, 
and it is expected that many more will be 
found.” These wretched victims of tyranny, 
who were doomed to die in these dungeons, 
were generally told, when taken from their 
cells, that they were sent for by the gover- 
nor. In their passage to his house, they had 
‘to walk through a long gallery, in which was 
a concealed trap-door; there they were sud- 
denly plunged into this dreadful abyfs, where 
they perished in the most horrid manner. 
“The mind revolts with horror, at the con- 
templation of such diabolical contrivances, 
for the punishment of the human race, 
Montnuty Mac. No, 186, 
that Tristan ?Hermite, (the king’s com- 
panion,) a man of execrable memory, 
‘Grand Prevét, and Governor of this 
place, was himself judge, witness, and 
executioner; he put to death, by his 
vindictive rage, more than four thousand 
people in this manner. In the strong 
castle of Iiam, in Picardy, (also a state- 
prison,) were formerly two or three of 
these Oubliettes; only one is now res 
maining. ‘This was built by Monsieur 
le Conetable de St. Paul, and by the ex- 
traordinary turn of human affairs, he 
there ended his days in close confine- 
ment.* It seems, as if Providence or- 
dained, that the wicked themselves should 
fall into those traps, whieh they had 
artfully constructed for others, and as a 
lesson to mankind, to be more humane 
and generous to their fellow-beings. . If 
I may judge of their behaviour to their 
prisoners, from the treatment I met with, 
I would willingly hope, that many of the - 
reports are groundless. However, where 
there is no law, or any check on those in 
power, who govern by an absolute will, 
these things, in a great measure, must 
depend on the disposition of the mi- 
nister, and the humanity of the go- 
vernor. Asa proof of which, the Che- 
valier De Launey, governor of the Bastille, 
in 1785, and Monsieur de Montbory, were 
discharged from their employ, for being 
too humane to the prisoners; but on 
their promise of future rigour, and of im-= 
plicitly obeying the cruel orders given to 
them, they were replaced. They fulfilled 
their promise but too well, as by the 
event proved at its destruction; and they 
justly inet the reward of their treachery, 
from the hands of the enraged populace. 
We have had many woeful examples, 
how little mankind is to be trusted with 
‘such lawless, and unlimited sway. Good 
sense, and humanity, are not frequent 
enough to restrain those who are in- 
vested with such an absolute controul, 
from exercising that rage of tyranny, to 
which their natural dispositions may 
excite them, prompted by mad ambition, 
and the lust of power; for we daily see 
ambition and pride get: the better of 
justice. Cardinal Richelien, | under 
Louis XII. extended his authority with 
the utmost cruelty, filling the fortresses 
and prisons. veith wretches sacrificed to 
Saha: ye A PREPS koe Gee 
* There are also state-prisons, one at ° 
Pierrencise, at Lyons, Vincennes; Tsle St. 
Marguerite, in Provence; te Mont Sr. 
Michel, in Normandie ; le Chateau da Tau- 
reauy in Brittany; de Saumur, in Anjou. 
C his 
