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diff --git a/old/54493-0.txt b/old/54493-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 3b828b0..0000000 --- a/old/54493-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8074 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dungeons of Old Paris, by Tighe Hopkins - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: The Dungeons of Old Paris - Being the Story and Romance of the most Celebrated Prisons - of the Monarchy and the Revolution - -Author: Tighe Hopkins - -Release Date: April 6, 2017 [EBook #54493] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUNGEONS OF OLD PARIS *** - - - - -Produced by deaurider, Barry Abrahamsen and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - -[Illustration: IN THE GRIP OF THE BASTILLE.] - - The Dungeons of Old Paris - - - - - Being the Story and Romance - of the most Celebrated Prisons - of the Monarchy and - the Revolution - - - - - By - - Tighe Hopkins - - Author of "Lady Bonnie's Experiment," "Nell Haffenden," "The - Nugents of Carriconna," "The Incomplete Adventurer," - "Kilmainham Memories," etc. - - ------- - - Illustrated - - ------- - - - - - G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS - - NEW YORK AND LONDON - - The Knickerbocker Press - - 1897 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY - G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS - Entered at Stationers' Hall, London - By WARD & DOWNEY - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CONTENTS. - - --------- - - - CHAPTER - - I. INTRODUCTION - - II. THE CONCIERGERIE - - III. THE DUNGEON OF VINCENNES - - IV. THE GREAT AND LITTLE CHÂTELET AND THE FORT-L'ÉVÊQUE - - V. THE TEMPLE - - VI. BICÊTRE - - VII. SAINTE-PÉLAGIE - - VIII. THE ABBAYE - - IX. THE LUXEMBOURG IN '93 - - X. THE BASTILLE - - XI. THE PRISONS OF ASPASIA - - XII. LA ROQUETTE - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - ILLUSTRATIONS. - - - IN THE GRIP OF THE BASTILLE - - MADAME DUBARRY - - CELL OF MARIE ANTOINETTE IN THE CONCIERGERIE - - THE KEEP OR DUNGEON OF VINCENNES - - MIRABEAU ON THE TERRACE OF VINCENNES - - THE GREAT CHÂTELET - - THE TEMPLE PRISON - - A TURNKEY - - A STREET SCENE DURING THE MASSACRES - - THE GALLANT SWISS - - THE BASTILLE - - PLAN OF THE BASTILLE - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration] - - - - - THE DUNGEONS OF OLD PARIS. - - - CHAPTER I. - - INTRODUCTORY. - - -_Triste comme les portes d'une prison—Sad as the gates of Prison_, is an -old French proverb which must once have had an aching significance. To -the citizen of Paris it must have been familiar above most other popular -sayings, since he had the menace of a prison door at almost every turn! -For the "Dungeons of Old Paris" were well-nigh as thick as its churches -or its taverns. Up to the period, or very close upon the period, of the -Revolution of 1789, everyone who exercised what was called with quite -unconscious irony the "right of justice" (_droit de justice_), possessed -his prison. The King was the great gaoler-in-chief of the State, but -there were countless other gaolers. The terrible prisons of State—two of -the most renowned of which, the Dungeon of Vincennes and the Bastille, -have been partially restored in these pages—are almost hustled out of -sight by the towers and ramparts of the host of lesser prisons. To every -town in France there was its dungeon, to every puissant noble his -dungeon, to every lord of the manor his dungeon, to every bishop and -Abbé his dungeon. The dreaded cry of "_Laissez passer la justice du -Roi!_" "Way for the King's justice!" was not oftener heard, nor more -unwillingly, than "Way for the Duke's justice!" or "Way for the justice -of my lord Bishop!" For indeed the mouldy records of those hidden -dungeons and torture rooms of château and monastery, the _carceres duri_ -and the _vade in pace_, into which the hooded victim was lowered by -torchlight, and out of which his bones were never raked, might shew us -scenes yet more forbidding than the darkest which these chapters unfold. -But they have crumbled and passed, and history itself no longer cares to -trouble their infected dust. - -Scenes harsh enough, though not wholly unrelieved (for romance is of the -essence of their story), are at hand within the walls of certain prisons -whose names and memories have survived. I have undone the bolts of -nearly all the more celebrated prisons of historic Paris, few of which -are standing at this day. One or two have been passed by, or but very -briefly surveyed, for the reason that to include them would have been to -commit myself to a certain amount of not very necessary repetition. I -fear that even as the book stands I must have repeated myself more than -once, but this has been for the most part in the attempt to enforce -points which seemed not to have been brought out or emphasised with -sufficient clearness elsewhere. Dealing with prisons which were in -existence for centuries, and some of which were associated with almost -every great and stirring epoch of French history, selection of periods -and events was a paramount necessity. The endeavour has been to give -back to each of these cruel old dungeons, Prison d'État, Conciergerie, -or Maison de Justice, its special and distinctive character; to shew -just what each was like at the most interesting or important dates in -its career; and, as far as might be, to find the reason of that dreary -proverb, "Sad as the gates of Prison." Light chequers the shades in some -of these dim vaults, and the echoes of the dour days they witnessed are -not all tears and lamentations. Something is shewn, it is hoped, of -every kind of "justice" that was recognised in Paris until the days of -'89, when everything that had been, fell with the terrific fall of the -monarchy:—feudal justice, the justice of absolute kings and of ministers -who were but less absolute, provosts' and bishops' justice, and the -justice of prison governors and lieutenants of police. Often it is no -more than a glimpse that is afforded; but the picture as a whole is, -perhaps, not altogether lacking in completeness. Once inside a prison, -the prisoner is the first study; and there are no more moving or pitiful -objects in the annals of France than the victims of its criminal justice -in every age. Slit the curtain of cobweb that has formed over the narrow -_grille_ of the dungeon, put back on their shrill hinges the double and -triple doors of the cell, peer into the hole that ventilates the conical -_oubliette_, and one may see once more under what conditions life was -possible, and amid what surroundings death was a blessing, in the days -when Paris was studded with prisons, when every abbot was free to -wall-up his monks alive, and every seigneur to erect his gallows in his -own courtyard. - -For during all these days, dragging slowly into ages, justice has seldom -more than one face to shew us: a face of cruelty and vengeance. The -thing which we call the "theory of punishment" had really no existence. -Punishment was not to chasten and reform; it was scarcely even to deter; -it was mainly and almost solely to revenge. What the notion of prison -was, I have tried briefly to explain in the chapters on "The -Conciergerie," "The Dungeon of Vincennes," and, I think, elsewhere. We -are strictly to remember, however, that the vindictive idea of -punishment, and the idea of prison as a place in which (1) to hold and -(2) to torment anyone who might be unfortunate enough to get in there, -were not at all peculiar to France. The history of punishment in our own -country leaves no room for boasting; and France has not more to reproach -herself with in the memory of the Bastille, than we have in the actual -and visible existence of Newgate. France has _Archives de la Bastille_; -we have Howard's _State of Prisons_ and Griffiths's _Chronicles of -Newgate_. We are not to forget that, in the "age of chivalry" in -England, it was unsafe for visitors in London to stroll a hundred yards -from their inn after sunset; and that, in the reign of Elizabeth, -Shakespeare might have penned his lines on "the quality of mercy" within -earshot of the rabble on their way to gloat over the disembowelling of a -"traitor," or flocking to surround the stake at which a woman was to die -by fire. In a word, the sense of vengeance, and the thirst for -vengeance, which underlay the old criminal law of France, and of all -Europe, were not less the basis of our own criminal law until well on -into the second quarter of this century. But the French, it would seem, -have paid the cost of their quick dramatic sense. They have handed down -to us, in history, drama, and romance, the picture of Louis XI. arm in -arm with his torturer and hangman, Tristan; the spectacle of the noble -whose sword was convertible into a headsman's axe; and of the abbot -whose girdle was ever ready for use as a halter. Histories akin to these -(and, at the root, there is more of history than of legend in all of -them) are to be delved out of our own records; but the French have been -more candid in the matter, and a good deal more skilled with the pen in -chronicles of the sort. - -On the other hand, England never had quite such bitter memories of her -prisons as France had of hers. The struggle for freedom in England was -never a struggle against the prisons; and it was not consciously a -struggle against the prisons in France. But the destruction of a prison -was the beginning of the French Revolution; and when the Revolution was -over, its first historians took the prisons of France as the type and -example of the immemorial tyranny of their kings. In one important -respect, therefore, the dungeons of old Paris stand apart from the -prisons of the rest of Europe. - -I had proposed to myself, in beginning this introductory chapter, to -attempt a comparison, more or less detailed, between these ruined and -obliterated prisons of historic Paris and the French or English prisons -of to-day. But a final glance at the chapters as they were going to -press counselled me to abstain. There is no point to start from. The old -and the new prisons have a space between them wider than divides the -poles. The key that turned a lock of the Châtelet, Bicêtre, or the -Bastille will open no cell of any modern prison, French or English. -Punishment is systematised, and has its basis in two ideas,—the safety -of peoples living in communities, and the cure of certain moral -obliquities; or, it is quite without system, and means only the -vengeance of the strong upon the weak. Between the prison which was -intended either as a living tomb, or as a starting-place for the -pillory, the whipping-post, or the scaffold; and the prison which -proposes to punish, to deter, or to reform the bad, the diseased, the -weak, or the luckless members of society, there is not a point at which -comparison is possible. - -[Illustration] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration] - - - - - CHAPTER II. - - THE CONCIERGERIE. - - -If walls had tongues, those of the Conciergerie might rehearse a -wretched story. This is, I believe, the oldest prison in Europe; it -would speak with the twofold authority of age and black experience. Give -these walls a voice, and they might say: - -"Look at the buildings we enclose. There is a little of every style in -our architecture, reflecting the many ages we have witnessed. Paris and -France, in all the reigns of all the Kings, have been locked in here, -starved here, tortured here, and sent from here to die by hanging, by -beheading, by dismembering by horses, by fire, and by the guillotine. We -have found chains and a bitter portion for the victims of all the -tyrannies of France,—those of the Feudal Ages, those of the Absolute -Monarchy, those of the Revolution, and those of the Restoration. There -is no discord, trouble, passion, or revolution in France which is not -recorded in our annals. Politics, religion, feuds of parties and of -houses, private rancours and the enmities of queens, the vengeance of -kings and the jealousies of their ministers, have filled in turn the -vaults of this little city of the dead-in-life. We have seen the killing -of the innocent; the torment of a Queen; the tears of a Dubarry and the -stoicism of a hideous Cartouche; the collapse of a Marquise de -Brinvilliers under torture and the silent heroism of a Charlotte Corday -on her way to the guillotine; the bold immodesty of a La Voisin on the -rack and the solemn abandon of the 'last supper' of the Girondins. We -have seen the worst that France could shew of wickedness and the best -that it could shew of patriotism; we have seen the beginning and the end -of everything that makes the history of a prison." - -Most French writers who have touched upon the Conciergerie seem to have -felt the oppression of the place; their recollections or impressions are -recorded in a spirit of melancholy or indignation. - - "Ah, that Conciergerie!" exclaims Philarète Chasles; "there is a - sense of suffocation in its buildings; one thinks of the prisoner, - innocent or guilty, crushed beneath the weight of society. Here are - the oldest dungeons of France; Paris has scarcely begun to be when - those dungeons are opened." - -The strain of Dulaure, the historian of Paris, is not less depressing: - - "The Conciergerie, the most ancient and the most formidable of all - our prisons, which forms a part of the buildings of the Palais de - Justice, one time palace of the kings, has preserved to this day the - hideous character of the feudal ages. Its towers, its courtyard, and - the dim passage by which the prisoners are admitted, have tears in - their very aspect. Pity on the wight who, condemned to sojourn - there, has not the wherewithal to pay for the hire of a bed! For him - a lodging on the straw in some dark and mouldy chamber, cheek by - jowl with wretches penniless like himself."[1] - -Footnote 1: - - _Histoire de Paris._ - -[Illustration: MADAME DUBARRY.] - -In the days when Paris had not so much as a gate to shut in the face of -the invader, the citizen raftsmen of the Seine thought it well to have a -prison, and "dug a hole in the middle of their isle." This, it seems, -was the sorry beginning of the Conciergerie; but the details of that -vanished epoch are scant. Palace and prison are thought to have been -constructed at about the same date: the palace, which was principally a -fortress, was the residence of the kings; the Conciergerie was their -dungeon. Rebuilt by Saint Louis, the Conciergerie became in part—as its -name implies—the dwelling of the Concierge of the palace. According to -Larousse, the Concierge "was in some sort the governor of the royal -house, and had the keeping of the King's prisoners, with the right of -_low_ and _middle_ justice" (_basse et moyenne justice_). In 1348, the -Concierge took the official title of _bailli_; the functions and -privileges of the office were enlarged, and it was held by many persons -of distinction, amongst whom was Jacques Coictier, the famous doctor of -Louis XI. As the practice was, in an age when every gaoler "exploited" -his prisoners, the concierge-bailli taxed the victuals he supplied them -with, and charged what he pleased for the hire of beds and other -cell-equipments; while it happened more than once, says Larousse, "that -prisoners who were entitled to be released on a judge's order, were -detained until they had paid all prison fees." On such a system were the -old French gaols administered. The office of concierge-bailli, with its -voluminous powers, and its manifold abuses, was in existence until the -era of the Revolution. - -Justice under the old régime counted sex as nothing. The physical -weakness and finer nervous organisation of woman were allowed no claim -upon its mercy. Primary or capital punishment, as to burning and -beheading, was the same for women as for men, and the shocking apparatus -of the torture chamber served for both sexes. The elaborate rules for -the application of the Question published in Louis XIV.'s reign (and -abolished only in the reign of Louis XVI.) specified the costume which -women _and girls_ should wear in the hands of the torturer.[2] - -Footnote 2: - - "Si c'est une femme ou fille, lui sera laissé une jupe avec sa chemise - et sera sa jupe liée aux genoux." - -The black walls of the torture chamber in the Conciergerie, with their -ring-bolts and benches of stone, gave back the groans of many thousands -of mutilated sufferers. There were the "Question ordinary" and the -"Question extraordinary"; and if the first failed to extract a -confession, the second seems almost always to have been applied. The -extravagant cruelty of the age frequently added sentence of torture to -the death sentence; and this was probably done in every case in which -the condemned was thought to be withholding the name of an accomplice. -Far on into the history of France these sentences were dealt out to, and -executed upon, women as well as men; and with as artistic a disregard of -human pain or shame in the one sex as in the other. - -We are in the presence of a high civilisation, or at least a highly -boasted one, in the days of Louis XIV.; but public sentiment is not -offended by the knowledge that a woman is being tortured by the -_questionnaire_ and his assistants in the Conciergerie; nor are many -persons shocked by seeing a woman on the scaffold semi-nude in the -coarse hands of the headsman, or struggling amid blazing faggots in a -Paris square. Nowadays, whether in France or in England, the _mauvais -quart d'heure_ (which, at the guillotine or on the gallows, is usually a -half-minute at the utmost) pays the score of the worst of criminals; but -in the advanced and cultured France of the seventeenth and eighteenth -centuries a Marquise de Brinvilliers must pass through the torture -chamber on her way to the block, and a Ravaillac and a Damiens (after a -like ordeal) are put to death in a manner which sends a thrill of horror -through Europe, and which is not afterwards outdone in any camp of -American Red Indians. - -The extraordinary criminal drama of the Marquise de Brinvilliers has -been vulgarised not a little by legend, by romance, and by the stage; -but is there cause for wonder that a series of crimes which made Paris -quake from its royal boudoirs to the extremities of its darkest alleys -should have inspired writers to the fourth and fifth generations? - -In the hands of De Brinvilliers and her lover and accomplice, the Gascon -officer Sainte-Croix, poison became a polite art; and the accident of -marriage associated the Marchioness with an industrial art which was of -great renown in Paris,—I mean, the Gobelin Manufacture, or Royal -Manufacture of Crown Tapestries. From the fourteenth century, in the -Faubourg Saint-Marcel and on the Bièvre River—the water of which was -considered specially good for dyeing purposes,—there were established -certain drapers and wool-dyers; and amongst them, in 1450, was a wealthy -dyer named Jean Gobelin, who had acquired large possessions on the banks -of the river. His business, after his death, was continued by his son -Philibert, who made it more than ever profitable, and who on his -death-bed bequeathed handsome portions to his sons. The family divided -between them, in 1510, ten mansions, gardens, orchards, and lands. Not -less fruitful were the labours of their successors, and when the name of -Gobelin had grown into celebrity, the popular voice bestowed it, says -Dulaure, upon the district in which their establishment was situated. - -Immensely enriched, the Gobelins ceased to occupy themselves with -business, and took over various employments in the magistracy, army, and -finance. Some of them succeeded in obtaining the rank and title of -Marquis. From the middle of the sixteenth to the middle of the -seventeenth century, the Gobelins held high offices, or married into -office; and were notable amongst the merchant princes whose illustrious -coffers and power to assert themselves won places for them amid the -hereditary aristocracy of France. Into this family entered by marriage, -in 1651, Marie Marguerite d'Aubrai, daughter of the _Lieutenant Civil_, -or Civil Magistrate of Paris. Her husband, Antoine Gobelin, was the -Marquis de Brinvilliers; a title which she was to cover with an infamy -as great and enduring as the fame of the Gobelin Tapestries. - -The Marquise's gallantries (a term which in the seventeenth century -embraced a greater variety of moral eccentricities than the Decalogue -has provided for) were quite eclipsed by her celebrity as a poisoner. -With her performances in this art—in which she seems to have been -trained by Sainte-Croix—began that incredible series of murders, and -attempted murders, known as _L'Affaire des Poisons_, which both -characterised and lent a _special_ character to the morals of the age of -the Grand Monarque. - -It was the accidental death of her lover, in 1675, which exposed and -brought the vengeance of the law on La Brinvilliers. Sainte-Croix was -conducting some experiment with poisons in his laboratory, when the -glass mask with which he had covered his face suddenly broke, and he -fell dead on the spot. Letters of Mme. de Brinvilliers were amongst the -suspicious objects found in the laboratory by the police, and she fled -to London. One of Sainte-Croix' servants was put to the Question, and -his confession did not improve the situation of the Marquise. Leaving -London, she hid by turns in Brussels and Liège; and in a convent in the -latter town she was discovered by the detective Desgrais, who got her -out by a ruse, and brought her back to Paris. Her appearance in the -torture chamber of the Conciergerie was not long delayed. All her -fascinations failed her with those bloodless cross-examiners, and as she -persisted in denying one charge after another, she saw the executioner -and his attendants make ready the apparatus for the torture by water. -She summoned a little shew of raillery: "Surely, gentlemen, you don't -think that with a figure like mine I can swallow those three buckets of -water! Do you mean to drown me? I simply cannot drink it." "Madame," -replied the examiner-in-chief, "we shall see"; and the Marchioness was -bound upon the trestle. - -For a time her courage sustained her, but, as the torture grew sharper, -avowals came slowly, which must have amazed the hardened ears that -received them. - -"Who was your first victim?" - -"M. d'Aubrai—my father." - -"You were very devout at this time, attending church and visiting -hospitals?" - -"I was testing the powers of our science on the patients. I gave -poisoned biscuits to the sick." - -"You had two brothers?" - -"Yes ... we were two too many in my family. Lachaussée, Sainte-Croix' -valet, had instructions to poison my brothers; they died in the country, -with some of their friends, after eating a pigeon-pie which Lachaussée -used to make to perfection." - -"You poisoned one of your children?" - -"Sainte-Croix hated it!" - -"You wanted to poison your husband?" - -"Sainte-Croix for some reason prevented it. After I had administered the -poison, he would give my husband an antidote." - -Before she was released from the trestle, Madame's confession was -complete. Sainte-Croix, imprisoned in the Bastille, on a -_lettre-de-cachet_ obtained by M. de Brinvilliers, had there made the -acquaintance of an Italian chemist, named Exili, who had taught him the -whole art and mystery of poison. Exili's cell in the Bastille was the -first laboratory of Sainte-Croix, who proved afterwards so apt a pupil -that, as his mistress and accomplice avowed, he could conceal a deadly -poison in a flower, an orange, a letter, a glove, "or in nothing at -all." - -After sentence of death had been passed on this most miserable woman, -she was denied the consolations of the Church, but a priest found -courage to give her absolution as she was carried to the scaffold. The -Marchioness was followed to her death by the husband whom she had tried -in vain to send to _his_ death, and who, it is said, wept beside her the -whole way from the Conciergerie to the Place de Grève. Conspicuous in -the enormous crowd assembled in the square were women of fashion and -rank, whom the noble murderess rallied on the spectacle she had provided -for them. One of the ladies was that distinguished gossip, Madame de -Sévigné, who wrote the whole scene down for her daughter on the -following day. De Brinvilliers was beheaded, and her body burnt to -ashes. - -This signal example—the torture, beheading, and burning of a peeress of -France—was signally void of effect. - -The secrets of Sainte-Croix and La Brinvilliers had not been buried with -the one, nor scattered with the ashes of the other. Four years later, -Paris talked of nothing but poison and the revival of the "black art" -which was associated with it; and, in 1680, the King established at the -Arsenal a court specially charged to try cases of poisoning and magic. -The notoriety of the widow Montvoisin, more commonly known as La Voisin, -who dealt extensively in both arts, was inferior only to that of the -Brinvilliers. Duchesses, marchionesses, countesses, and other high dames -of the Court were concerned in this scandal, and Louis himself was -active in seeking to bring the culprits of title to justice,—or to get -them out of the way. He sent a private message to the Comtesse de -Soissons, advising her that if she were innocent she should go to the -Bastille for a time, in which case he would stand by her, and that if -she were guilty, it would be well for her to quit Paris without delay. -The Comtesse, who was "famous at the Court of Louis XIV. for her -dissolute habits," fled and was exiled to Brussels; the Marquise -d'Alluye or d'Allaye was banished to Amboise, Mme. de Bouillon to -Nevers, and M. de Luxembourg was imprisoned for two years in the -Bastille. A far more terrible expiation was prepared for La Voisin. - -Outwardly, this was a woman of a grosser type than the Marchioness -Brinvilliers. The Marchioness, is described as "_gracieuse, élégante, -spirituelle et polie_." La Voisin was a repellent fat creature, as -coarse in speech as in appearance. Yet she lived as a woman of society -(_en femme de qualitè_); and composed and sold to the beauties and -gallants of the Court, poisons, charms, philters, and secrets to procure -lovers or to outwit rivals; she called up spirits for a fee, and would -shew the Devil if one paid the tariff for a glimpse of that -celebrity.[3] - -Footnote 3: - - Dulaure. - -Her attitude in the Salle de la Question of the Conciergerie became her -well. She cursed, flouted the examiners, and "swore that she would keep -on swearing" if they racked her to pieces. "Here's your health!" she -cried, when the first vessel of water was forced down her throat; and, -as they fastened her on the rack,—"That's right! One should always be -growing. I have complained all my life of being too short." It is said -that, having been made to drink fourteen pots of water during the water -torture, she drank fourteen bottles of wine with the turnkeys in her -cell at night. Her sentence was death at the stake, and on her way to -the place of execution she jeered at the priest who accompanied her, -refused to make the _amende honorable_ at Notre-Dame, and fought like a -tigress with the executioners on descending from the cart. Tied and -fettered on the pile, she threw off five or six times the straw which -was heaped on her. Sévigné, who looked on, detailed the scene with -animation, and without a touch of feeling, in a letter to her daughter. - -Confounding the real crimes with chimerical ones, the new court -continued to prosecute poisoners and "sorcerers" together; and even at -that credulous and superstitious date, when judges listened gravely to -the most baseless and fantastic accusations, there were persons -interrogated on charges of sorcery who had the spirit to laugh both -judges and accusers in the face. Mme. de Bouillon said aloud, on the -conclusion of her examination, that she had never in her life heard so -much nonsense so solemnly spoken (_n'avait jamais tant ouïdire de -sottises d'un ton si grave_); whereat, it is chronicled, his Majesty -"was very angry." It was not until the bench itself began to treat as -mere charlatans the wizards of both sexes who appeared before it, that -trials for sorcery and "black magic" fell away and gradually ceased. - -It was the Conciergerie which presided over the examination, torture, -and atrocious punishment of Ravaillac, the assassin of Henri IV., and -Damiens, who attempted the life of Louis XV. Ravaillac, the first to -occupy it, left his name to a tower of the prison. - - "You shiver even now in the Tower of Ravaillac," say MM. Alhoy and - Lurine in _Les Prisons de Paris_,—"that cold and dreadful place. - Thought conjures up a multitude of fearful images, and is aghast at - all the tragedies and all the dramas which have culminated in the - old Conciergerie, between the judge, the victim, and the - executioner. What tears and lamentations, what cries and - maledictions, what blasphemies and vain threats has it not heard, - that pitiless _doyenne_ of the prisons of Paris!" - -Ravaillac, most fearless of fanatics and devotees, said, when -interrogated before Parliament as to his estate and calling, "I teach -children to read, write, and pray to God." At his third examination, he -wrote beneath the signature which he had affixed to his testimony the -following distich: - - "Que toujours, dans mon cœur, - Jésus soit le vainqueur!" - -and a member of Parliament exclaimed on reading it, "Where the devil -will religion lodge next!" - -He was condemned by Parliament on the 2d of May, 1610, to a death so -appalling that one wonders how the mere words of the sentence can have -been pronounced. Our own ancient penalty for high treason was a mild -infliction in comparison with this. Before being led to execution, -Ravaillac did penance in the streets of Paris, wearing a shirt only and -carrying a lighted torch or candle, two pounds in weight. Taken next to -the Place de Grève, he was stripped for execution, and the dagger with -which he had twice struck the King was placed in his right hand. He was -then put to death in the following manner. His flesh was torn in eight -places with red-hot pincers, and molten lead, pitch, brimstone, wax, and -boiling oil were poured upon the wounds. This done, his body was torn -asunder by four horses; the trunk and limbs were burned to ashes, and -the ashes were scattered to the winds. - -Eight assassins had preceded Ravaillac in attempts on the life of Henri -IV., and six of them had paid this outrageous forfeit. The torments of -the Conciergerie and the Place de Grève were bequeathed by these to the -regicide of 1610, and Ravaillac left them a legacy to Robert François -Damiens. - -The _Tower of Ravaillac_ was equally the _Tower of Damiens_. François -Damiens, a bilious and pious creature of the Jesuits, not unfamiliar -with crime, pricked Louis, as his Majesty was starting for a drive, with -a weapon scarcely more formidable than a penknife. He was seized on the -spot, and there were found on him another and a larger knife, -thirty-seven louis d'or, some silver, and a book of devotions,—the -assassins of the Kings of France were always pious men. "Horribly -tortured," he confessed nothing at first, and it is by no means certain -what was the nature or importance of his subsequent avowals. But, -although there is little question that Damiens was merely the instrument -of a conspiracy more or less redoubtable, no effort was made to arraign, -arrest, or discover his supposed accomplices. The examination and trial, -conducted with none of the publicity which such a crime demanded, were -in the hands of persons chosen by the court, "persons suspected of -partiality," says Dulaure, "and bidden to condemn the assassin without -concerning themselves about those who had set him on—which gives colour -to the belief, that they were too high to be touched" (_que ces derniers -étaient puissans_). - -One hundred and forty-seven years had passed since the Paris -Parliament's inhuman sentence on Ravaillac, but not a detail of it was -spared to Damiens on the 28th of March, 1757. Enough of such atrocities. - -In the days of the Regency there was in one of the suburbs of Paris a -tea-garden which was at once popular and fashionable under the name of -La Courtille. In the groves of La Courtille, on summer evenings, amid -lights and music, russet-coated burghers might almost touch elbows with -"high-rouged dames of the palace"; and here one night Mesdames de -Parabère and de Prie brought a party of elegant revellers. As one of the -guests strolled apart, humming an air, he was approached softly from -behind, and a hand was laid upon his shoulder. - -"My gallant mask, I know you! So you have left Normandy, eh? Well, you -have made us suffer much, but I fancy it will be our turn now. One of -our cells has long been ready for you, and you shall sleep at the -Conciergerie to-night. Cartouche!" - -Yes, it was indeed the great Cartouche whom a deft detective had trapped -on the sward of La Courtille. The capture was a notable one, and the -next day and for many days to come Paris could not make enough of -it,—Paris which had suffered beatings, plunderings, and assassinations -at the hands of Cartouche and his band for ten years past. He lay three -months at the Conciergerie, and every day his fame increased. The -Regent's finances and the "ministerial rigours" of Dubois were -disregarded; Cartouche was a godsend to rhymesters, journalists, wits, -and diners-out; pretty lips repeated the dubious history of his amours, -and a theatrical gentleman announced a "comedy" named after the -distinguished cut-throat. Cartouche awaited stoically enough death by -breaking on the wheel. It required a severe application of the Question -to bring him to a betrayal of his band, but "his tongue once loosed, he -passed an entire night in naming the companions of his crimes." The -villain even denounced "three pretty women who had been his mistresses." - -He consented one day to the visit of a person whose indiscreet candour -was passing cruel. This was the dramatist Legrand who, with his -_Cartouche_ comedy in preparation, sought the "local colour" of the -condemned cell. Cartouche had the vanity which characterises the great -criminal, and willingly allowed himself to be "interviewed"; he answered -all Legrand's questions, and then asked one himself: "When is your piece -to be represented?" "On the day of your execution, my dear Monsieur -Cartouche." "Ah, indeed! Then you had better interview the executioner -also; he will come in at the climax, you see." - -Having entertained the playwright with his wit, the murderer next -essayed the part of patriot, and said to his Jesuit confessor, Guignard, -in speaking of the assassination of Henri IV.: - - "All the crimes that I have ever committed were the merest - peccadilloes (_de légères peccadilles_) in comparison with those - which your Order is stained with. Is there any crime more enormous - than to take the life of your King, and such a King as that was? The - noblest prince in the universe, the glory of France, the father of - his country! I tell you that if a man whom I were pursuing had taken - refuge at the foot of the statue of Henri IV., I should not have - dared to kill him." - -The condition of the Conciergerie at this date was at all events better -than it had been two or three centuries earlier. No Mediæval prisons -were fit to live in. Sanitation was a science as yet undreamed of in -Europe, and even had there been such a science, it is improbable that -the inmates of prisons would have tasted its advantages. In the Middle -Ages, nothing was more remote from the official mind, from the minds of -all judges, magistrates, governors, gaolers, and concierges, than the -notion that prisoners should live in wholesome and decent surroundings. -Two very definite ideas the Middle Ages had about prisons, and only two: -the first was, that they should be impregnable, and the second was, that -they should be "gey ill" to live in; and their one idea regarding the -lot of all prisoners and captives was, that it should be beyond every -other lot wretched and unendurable. - -In the age we live in, civilised governments setting about the building -of a new prison do not say to their architects, "You must build a -fortress which prisoners cannot break, and you must put into it a -certain quantity of conical cells below the level of the ground, in -which prisoners may be suffocated within a given number of days," but, -"You must build a prison of sufficient strength; and in planning your -cells you must secure for every prisoner an ample provision of space, -air, and light." Those are the supreme differences between ancient and -modern gaols. Prison in the old days was of all places the least healthy -to live in; nowadays, it is often the most healthy. Good control and -strict surveillance confer security upon prisons which are not built as -fortresses; but nothing gives such immense distinction to the new -system, by contrast with all the earlier ones, as the elaborate and -minute regard of everything which may make for the physical well-being -of the prisoners. - -Then comes the moral question; and from the standpoint of morals the -situation tells even more in favour of the modern system. Imprisonment -should never be cruel; but, when the prisoner is fairly tried and justly -sentenced, it should always be both irksome and disgraceful. The -disgrace of prison, however, depends upon the absolute impartiality of -the tribunal and the soundness of public sentiment. Nobody is disgraced -by being sent into prison in a society in which arrest is arbitrary, and -in which arraignment at the bar is not followed by an honest examination -of the facts. Princes of the blood, nobles, ministers, and judges and -magistrates themselves were equally liable with the commonest offenders -against the common law to be spirited into prison, and left there, -without accusation and without trial, during many centuries of French -history. Most tribunals were corrupt, and during many ages all were at -the mercy of the Crown. A Daniel on the bench was rare, and in great -danger of being hanged; and public sentiment was not yet articulate. - -In such insecurity of justice, imprisonment could carry with it no -social stigma, as it carries inevitably in these days. But, where there -is no shame in imprisonment, there is no question of the reform of the -prisoner, and this—one of the main endeavours of modern penal -systems—was not only quite ignored by the old régime, but was an aspect -of the matter to which it was entirely indifferent, and which had -evidently no place whatever in its conceptions. In the progress of -civilisation, no institution has been so completely transformed as the -prison. It was an instrument of vengeance; it is seeking, not at present -too successfully, to be an instrument of grace. - -Prisons neglected or encumbered with filth are natural hotbeds of -disease, and epidemic sicknesses were frequent. In 1548, the plague -broke out in the Conciergerie, and then for the first time an infirmary -was established in the prison, though I cannot find that it made greatly -for the comfort of the sick. Doctor's work was grudgingly and carelessly -done in the prisons of those days, and there was no great disposition to -hinder the sick from yielding up the ghost; the bed or the share of a -bed allotted to the patient was always wanted. The Conciergerie was -devastated by fire in 1776, and this visitation resulted in a royal -command to rehabilitate the whole interior of the prison. In this -attempt to realise the generous thought of his minister Turgot, Louis -XVI. did not imagine, we may be sure, that he was preparing a last -lodging for Marie Antoinette! - -Here then we stand on the threshold of the Conciergerie of the -Revolution—the ante-chamber of the scaffold, in the fit words of -Fouquier-Tinville. - -It was at four o'clock on the morning of the 14th of October, 1793, at -the close of the sitting of the revolutionary tribunal, that the -dethroned and widowed Queen was brought to the Conciergerie. Poor, -abandoned, outraged Queen, they thrust her into one of their common -cells, and gave her for attendant a galley-slave named Barasin. This -must have been a brave, good fellow, with a loyal heart under his -galley-slave's vest, for at the risk of his life he waited devoutly and -devotedly on the queenly woman, a queen no longer, who could in nothing -reward his devotion. One should name also the concierge Richard, who -shewed himself not less a man in his care of the "beautiful high-born," -and who for his humanity to her was stripped of all his goods. - -The gendarmes guarded her last hours, sat there in the cell with her, -though republican modesty allowed the intervention of a screen. - -It is known what a sublime dignity sustained her to the end; and indeed -almost the worst was over when she had quitted Fouquier-Tinville's bar, -after the "hideous indictment" and the condemnation. She withdrew to -die, and she could die as became a Queen. Louis had gone before her, and -all the mother's dying thoughts and prayers must have been for the -children who were to live after her—how long, she knew not. She sat in -the dingy cell, clasping her crucifix, waiting her call to the tumbril; -"dim, dim, as if in disastrous eclipse; like the pale kingdoms of Dis!" - -From this time on to the end of the Reign of Terror, the Conciergerie -offered such a spectacle as was never seen before within the walls of -any prison. The guillotine - - "smoked with bloody execution." - -The Revolution was eating not her enemies only but her children, and -those victims and prospective victims, men and women, old and young, -filled the cells of the Conciergerie, the chambers, the corridors, and -the yards. They swarmed there in disorder, dirt, and disease, guarded -and bullied by drunken turnkeys, who had a pack of savage dogs to assist -them. They went out by batches in the tumbrils, to leave their heads in -Samson's basket, and ever fresh parties of proscribed ones took the -places of the dead. "I remained six months in the Conciergerie," says -Nougaret, one of the historians of the period, "and saw there nobles, -priests, merchants, bankers, men of letters, artisans, agriculturists, -and honest _sans-culottes_." Often as this population was decimated, -Fouquier-Tinville filled up the gap; and throughout the whole of the -Terror the condemned and the untried proscribed ones, herded together, -seldom had space enough for the common decencies of life. - -Then some sort of classification was attempted, and three orders were -established in the prison. The _Pistoliers_ were those who could afford -to pay for the privilege of sleeping two in a bed. The _Pailleux_ lay -huddled in parties, in dens or lairs, on piles of stale straw, "at the -risk of being devoured by rats and vermin." Nougaret remarks that in -some cells the prisoners on the floor at night had to protect their -faces with their hands, and leave the rest of their persons to the rats. -The _Secrets_ were the third class of prisoners, who made what shift -they could in black and reeking cells beneath the level of the Seine. - -And the sick in the infirmary? Listen once more to Nougaret in his -_Histoire des Prisons de Paris et des Départemens_: - - "There were frightful fevers there, and you took your chance of - catching them. The patients, lying in pairs in filthy beds, were in - as wretched a plight as ever mortals found themselves in. The - doctors hardly condescended to examine them. They had one or two - potions which, as they said, were 'saddles for all horses,' and - which they administered quite indiscriminately. It was curious to - see with what an air of contempt they made their rounds. One day, - the head doctor approached a bed and felt the patient's pulse. 'Ah,' - said he to the hospital warder, 'the man's better than he was - yesterday.' 'Yes, doctor, he's a good deal better,—but it's not the - same man. Yesterday's patient is dead; this one has taken his - place.' 'Really?' said the doctor, 'that makes the difference! Well, - mix this fellow his draught.'" - -When the prisoners were to be locked in for the night, there was always -a great to-do in getting the roll called. Three or four tipsy turnkeys, -with half-a-dozen dogs at their heels, passed from hand to hand an -incorrect list, which none of them could read. A wrong name was spelled -out, which no one answered to; the turnkeys swore in chorus, and spelled -out another name. In the end, the prisoners had to come to the -assistance of the guards and call their own roll. Then the numbers had -to be told over and over again, and the prisoners to be marched in and -marched out three or four times, before their muddled keepers could -satisfy themselves that the count was correct. - -One seeks to know what the feeding was like in the "ante-chamber of the -guillotine." When, in the midst of the Terror, Paris was pinched with -hunger, the pinch was felt severely in the Conciergerie. Rations ran -desperately short, and a common table was instituted. The aristocrats -had to pay scot for the penniless, and came in these strange -circumstances to "estimate their fortunes by the number of -_sans-culottes_ whom they fed, as formerly they had done by the numbers -of their horses, mistresses, dogs, and lackeys." - -All histories, memoirs, chronicles, and legends are agreed that the -Conciergerie of the Revolution was a frightful place. The political -prisoners endured all the horrors, physical and mental, of an -unparalleled régime. Sick and unattended, hungry and barely fed, cold -and left to shiver in dark and naked cells—these were amongst the ills -of the body. But greater by far than these must have been the pangs of -the mind. - -Nearly all of these prisoners, men and women both, regarded death as a -certainty; before ever they were tried, from the moment that the outer -door of the prison had closed behind them, the guillotine was as good as -promised to them. They had no help to count on from without, they had -not even the animating hope of a fair hearing by an upright judge. The -judgment bar of Fouquier-Tinville did not pretend to be impartial. - -Nevertheless, though the blade of the guillotine was suspended over all -heads, and fell daily upon many, an air of mingled serenity and -exaltation reigned throughout the gaol. There were few tears, and there -was no weak repining. Morning and evening, the political prisoners -chanted in chorus the hymns of the Revolution, and these were varied by -witty verses on the guillotine, composed in some instances by prisoners -on the eve of passing beneath the knife. Some had brought in with them -their favourite books, and reading led to long discussions, of which -literature, science, religion, and politics were alternately the themes. -Devoted priests like the Abbé Emory went about making converts, and -opposing their efforts to those of the militant atheist, Anacharsis -Clootz, who styled himself the "personal enemy of Jesus Christ." For -recreation, old games were played and new ones invented. Imagine a crowd -of prisoners of both sexes, living in daily expectation of the scaffold, -who played for hours together at the _guillotine_! A hall of the prison -was transformed into Tinville's tribunal, a Tinville was placed on the -bench who could parody the voice and manner of the terrible original, -the prisoner was arraigned, there were eloquent counsel on both sides, -and witnesses; and when the trial was finished, and the inevitable -sentence had been pronounced, the guillotine of chairs and laths was set -up, and amid a tumult of applause the wooden blade was loosed and the -victim rolled into the basket. Sometimes the game was interrupted, and -there was a general rush to the window to catch the voice of the crier -in the street,—"Here's the list of the brigands who have won to-day at -the lottery of the blessed guillotine!" - -Famous figures, and a few sublime ones, detach themselves from the -groups: a Duc d'Orléans, a Duc de Lauzun, a General Beauharnais (who -writes to his wife Josephine that letter of farewell which she shewed to -Bonaparte at her first interview with him), Charlotte Corday, the great -chemist Lavoisier (on whose death Lagrange exclaimed, "It took but a -moment to sever that head, and a hundred years will not produce one like -it"), Danton the Titan of the Revolution, Camille Desmoulins, and -Robespierre himself. - -One evening, a few days after the death of Marie Antoinette, the -twenty-two Girondins, condemned to die in twenty-four hours, passed into -the keeping of Concierge Richard. These were some of the most heroic men -of the Revolution, "the once flower of French patriotism," Carlyle calls -them; tribunes, prelates, men of war, men of ancient and noble stock, -poets, lawyers. One of their number had killed himself in court on -receiving sentence, and the dead body was carried to the prison, and lay -in a corner of the room in which the twenty-two spent their last night. -They gathered at a long deal table for a farewell supper, at which, says -Thiers, they were by turns, "gay, serious, and eloquent." They drank to -the glory of France, and the happiness of all friends. They sang -solemnly the great songs of the Revolution, and at five in the morning, -when the turnkey came to call the last roll, one of them arose and -declaimed the _Marseillaise_. A few hours later, the twenty-two went -chanting to their death; and the chant was sustained until the last head -had fallen. - -These are amongst the loftier memories of those bloody days. It is -impossible within the limits of a chapter to give a tithe even of the -names that were written in the registers of the _maison de justice_ of -the Revolution. Well, indeed, might Fouquier-Tinville have named it the -ante-chamber of the guillotine, for two thousand prisoners, drawn from -all the other gaols of Paris, went to the scaffold from the -Conciergerie. And they died, most of them, as children of a Revolution -should die; virgin girls were no longer timid, women were weak no -longer, when their turn came to mount the steps of the scaffold. A sense -of patriotism so high and pure and penetrating as to resemble the -spiritual exaltation and abandonment of the Christian martyrs seemed to -extinguish in the frailest breasts the natural fear of death. "_On meurt -en riant, on meurt en chantant, on meurt en criant: Vive la France!_" - -The fierce political interests of the revolutionary period absorb all -others; those who are not Fouquier-Tinville's victims languish obscurely -in their cells, or travel towards the guillotine almost unnoticed. But -who is this in a condemned cell of the Conciergerie in the year '94, not -sent there by sentence of Tinville? It is honest, unfortunate Joseph -Lesurques, unjustly convicted of the murder of a courier of Lyons,—one -of the saddest miscarriages of justice. English play-goers are familiar -with the dramatic version of the story, which gave Sir Henry Irving the -material of one of his most remarkable creations. In the drama, -playwright's justice snatches Lesurques from the tumbril within sight of -the guillotine, but the Lesurques of real life fared otherwise. He died, -innocent and ignorant of the crime, but the shade of the murdered -courier had a double vengeance, for the actual assassin, Dubosc, was -taken later, and duly stretched on the _bascule_. - -In the Napoleonic era, the Conciergerie lost two-thirds of its -lugubrious importance. It continued to receive prisoners of note, but -their sojourn was brief; the prison of the Terror passed them on to -Sainte-Pélagie, Bicêtre, the Temple, or the Bastille. With the return to -France of the dynasty of Louis XVI., the old gaol went suddenly into -mourning, as one may say, for Marie Antoinette. When Louis XVIII. -commanded the erection of an "expiatory monument" in the Rue d'Anjou, -the authorities of the Conciergerie made haste to blot out within its -walls all traces of the Queen's captivity. They broke up the mean and -meagre furniture of her cell, the wooden table, the two straw chairs, -the shabby stump bedstead, the screen behind which her gaolers had -gossiped in whispers; and the cell itself ceased its existence in that -form, and was converted into a little chapel or sacristy. Some poor -prisoner with a thought above his own distresses may be praying there -to-day for the soul of Marie Antoinette. - -[Illustration: CELL OF MARIE ANTOINETTE IN THE CONCIERGERIE.] - -A ghostly souvenir of 1815 may give us pause for a moment. There is no -need to rehearse the story of Marshal Ney, bravest of the sons of -France, Napoleon's _le brave des braves_, whose surpassing services in -the field might have spared him a traitor's end. A few days after he had -"gathered into his bosom" the bullets of a file of soldiers in the -Avenue de l'Observatoire, behind the Luxembourg, the public prosecutor, -M. Bellart, was entertaining at dinner the great men of the bar, the -army, and society. At midnight, the door of the inner salon was suddenly -thrown open, and a footman announced: _Le Maréchal Ney!_ - -M. Bellart and his guests, smitten to stone, looked dumbly towards the -door. The talk stopped in every corner, the music stopped, the play at -the card-tables stopped. In a moment, the tension passed. It was not the -great Marshal, nor his astral. It was a blunder of the footman, who had -confounded the name with that of a friend of the family, M. Maréchal -Aîné. - -[Illustration] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration] - - - - - CHAPTER III. - - THE DUNGEON OF VINCENNES. - - I. - - -Louis XI. strolled one day in the precincts of Vincennes, wrapped in his -threadbare surtout edged with rusty fur, and plucking at the queer -little peaked cap with the leaden image of the Virgin stuck in the band. -There was a smile on the sallow and saturnine face. - -At his Majesty's right walked a thick-set, squab man of scurvy -countenance, wearing a close-fitting doublet, and armed like a hangman. -On the King's left went a showy person, vulgar and mean of face, whose -gait was a ridiculous strut. - -Louis stopped against the dungeon and tapped the great wall with his -finger. - -"What's just the thickness of this?" he asked. - -"Six feet in places, sire, eight in others," answered the squab man, -Tristan, the executioner. - -"Good!" said Louis. "But the place looks to me as if it were tumbling." - -"It might, no doubt, be in better repair, sire," observed the showy -person, Oliver, the barber; "but as it is no longer used——" - -"Ah! but suppose I thought of using it, gossip?" - -"Then, sire, your Majesty would have it repaired." - -"To be sure!" chuckled the King—"If I were to shut you up in there, -Oliver, you could get out, eh?" - -"I think so, sire." - -"But you, gossip," to his hangman, "you'd catch him and have him back to -me, _hein?_" - -"Trust me, sire!" said Tristan. - -"Then I'll have my dungeon mended," said Louis. "I'm going to have -company here, gossips." - -"Sire!" exclaimed Oliver. "Prisoners so close to your Majesty's own -apartments! But you might hear their groans." - -"Ha! They groan, Oliver? The prisoners groan, do they? But there's no -need why I should live in the château here. Hark you both, gossips, I'd -like my guests to groan and cry at their pleasure, without the fear of -inconveniencing their King." - -And the King, and his hangman, and his barber fell a-laughing. - - ------- - -From that day, in a word, Louis ceased to inhabit the château of -Vincennes, and the dungeon which appertained to it was made a terrible -fastness for his Majesty's prisoners of State. It was already a place of -some antiquity. The date of the original buildings is quite obscure. The -immense foundations of the dungeon itself were laid by Philippe de -Valois; his son, Jean le Bon, carried the fortress to its third story; -and Charles V. finished the work which his fathers had begun. - -All prisons are not alike in their origin. In the beginnings of states, -force counts for more than legal prescripts, and ideas of vengeance go -above the worthier idea of the repression of crime. Such-and-such a -prison, renowned in history, is the expression in stone and mortar of -the power or the hatred of its builders. Thus and thus did they plan and -construct against their enemies. There was no mistaking, for example, -the purpose of the architect of the Bastille,—it must be a fortress -stout enough to resist the enemy outside, and a place fit and suitable -to hold and to torture him when he had been carried a prisoner within -its walls. - -But Vincennes, in its origin, at all events, may be viewed under other -and softer aspects. Those prodigious towers, for all the frightful -menace of their frown, were not first reared to be a place of torment. -The name of Vincennes came indeed, in the end, to be not less dreadful -and only less abhorrent than that of the Bastille. A few revolutions of -the vicious wheel of despotism, and the King's château was transformed -into the King's prison, for the pain of the King's enemies, or of the -King's too valiant subjects. But the infancy and youth of Vincennes were -innocent enough, a reason, perhaps, why it was always less hated of the -people than the Bastille. Vincennes lived and passed scathless through -the terrors and hurtlings of the Revolution; and presently, from its -cincture of flowers and verdant forest, looked down upon that high -column of Liberty, which occupied the blood-stained site of the -vanquished and obliterated Bastille. - -[Illustration: THE KEEP OR DUNGEON OF VINCENNES.] - -King Louis lived no more in the château, and his masons made good the -breaches in the dungeon which neglect, rather than age, had occasioned. -When it stood again a solid mass of stone,— - -"Gossip," said Louis to his executioner and torturer-in-chief, "if there -were some little executions to be done here quietly and secretly—as you -like to do them, Tristan—what place would you choose, _hein_?" - -"I've chosen one, sire; a beautiful chamber on the first floor. The -walls are thick enough to stifle the cries of an army; and if you lift -the stones of the floor here and there, you find underneath the most -exquisite _oubliettes_! Ah! sire, they understood high politics before -your Majesty's time." - -King Louis caressed his pointed chin, and laughed: - -"I think it was Charles _the Wise_ who built that chamber." - -"No, sire; it was John _the Good_!" - -"Ah, so! Go on, gossip. My dungeon is quite ready, eh?" - -"Quite ready, sire." - -"To-morrow, then, good Tristan, you will go to Montlhéry. In the château -there you will find four guests of mine, masked, and very snug in one of -our cosy iron cages. You will bring them here." - -"Very good, sire." - -"You will take care that no one sees you—or them." - -"Yes, sire." - -"And you will be tender of them, gossip. You are not to kill them on the -way. When we have them here—we shall see. Start early to-morrow, -Tristan. As for friend Oliver here, he shall be my governor of the -dungeon of Vincennes, and devote himself to my prisoners. If a man of -them escapes, my Oliver, Tristan will hang you; because you are not a -nobleman, you know." - -"Sire," murmured the barber, "you overwhelm me." - -"Your Majesty owed that place to me, I think," said Tristan. - -"Are you not my matchless hangman, gossip? No, no! Besides, I'm keeping -you to hang Oliver. Go to Montlhéry." - -Thus was Vincennes advanced to be a State prison, in 1473, when Louis -XI. held the destinies of France. From that date to the beginning of the -century we live in, those black jaws had neither sleep nor rest. As fast -as they closed on one victim, they opened to receive another. At a -certain stage of all despotic governments, the small few in power live -mainly for two reasons—to amuse themselves and to revenge themselves. -One amuses oneself at Court, and a State prison-controlled from the -Court—is an ideal means of revenging oneself. The tedious machinery of -the law is dispensed with. There is no trouble of prosecuting, beating -up witnesses, or waiting in suspense for a verdict which may be given -for the other side. The _lettre de cachet_, which a Court historian -described as an ideal means of government, and which Mirabeau (in an -essay penned in Vincennes itself) tore once for all into shreds, saved a -world of tiresome procedure to the King, the King's favourites, and the -King's ministers. For generations and for centuries, absolutism, -persecution, party spirit, public and private hate used the _lettre de -cachet_ to fill and keep full the cells and dungeons of the Bastille and -Vincennes. It was, to be sure, a two-edged weapon, cutting either way. -He who used it one day might find it turned against him on another day. -But, by whomsoever employed, it was the great weapon of its time; the -most effective weapon ever forged by irresponsible authority, and the -most unscrupulously availed of. It was this instrument which, during -hundreds of years, consigned to captivity without a limit, in the -_oubliettes_ of all the State prisons of France, that "_immense et -déplorable contingent de prisonniers célèbres, de misères illustres_." - -Vincennes and the Bastille have been contrasted. They were worthy the -one of the other; and at several points their histories touch. In both -prisons the discipline (which was much an affair of the governor's whim) -followed pretty nearly the same lines, and owed nothing in either place -to any central, preconceived and ordered scheme of management. Prisoners -might be transferred from Vincennes to the Bastille, and from the -Bastille again to Vincennes. For the governor, Vincennes was generally -the stepping-stone to the Bastille. At Vincennes he served his -apprenticeship in the three branches of his calling—turnkey, torturer, -and hangman. Like the callow barber-surgeon of the age, he bled at -random, and used the knife at will; and his savage novitiate counted as -so much zealous service to the State. - -But Vincennes wears a greater colour than the Bastille. It stood to the -larger and more famous fortress as the _noblesse_ to the _bourgeoisie_. -Vincennes was the great prison, and the prison of the great. Talent or -genius might lodge itself in the Bastille, and often so did, very -easily; nobility, with courage enough to face its sovereign on a -grievance, or with power enough to be reckoned a thought too near the -throne, tasted the honours of Vincennes. To be a wit, and polish an -epigram against a minister or a madam of the Court; to be a rhymester, -and turn a couplet against the Government; to be a philosopher, and -hazard a new social theory, was to knock for admission at the wicket of -the Bastille. But to be a stalwart noble, and look royalty in the eye, -sword in hand; to be brother to the King, and chafe under the royal -behest; to be a cardinal of the Church, and dare to jingle your breviary -in the ranks of the Fronde; to be leader of a sect or party, or the head -of some school of enterprise, this was to give with your own hand the -signal to lower the drawbridge of Vincennes. - -At seasons prisoners of all degrees jostled one another in both prisons; -but in general the unwritten rule obtained that philosophy and unguarded -wit went to the Bastille; whilst for strength of will that might prove -troublesome to the Crown ... _voilà le donjon de Vincennes!_ - -Yes, Vincennes was the _State_ prison, the prison for audacity in high -places, for genius that could lead the general mind into paths of danger -to the throne. The fetters fashioned there were for a Prince de Condé to -wear, a Henri de Navarre, a Maréchal de Montmorency, a Bassompierre or a -Cardinal de Retz, a Duc de Longueville or a Prince Charles Edward, a La -Môle and a Coconas, a Rantzau or a Prince Casimir, a Fouquet or a Duc de -Lauzun, a Louis-Joseph de Vendôme, a Diderot or a Mirabeau, a d'Enghien. - -History, says a French historian, shews itself never at the Bastille but -with manacles in one hand and headsman's axe in the other. At Vincennes, -ever and anon, it appears in the rustling silks of a king's favourite, -who finds within the circle of those cruel walls soft bosky nooks and -bowers, for feasting and for love. Sometimes from the bosom of those -perfumed solitudes, a death-cry escapes, and the flowers are spotted -with blood: Messalina has dispensed with a _lettre de cachet_. At one -epoch it is Isabeau de Bavière, it is Catherine de Médicis at another; -what need to exhaust or to extend the list? Catherine made no sparing -use of the towers of Vincennes. It was a spectacle of royal splendours -on this side and of royal tyrannies on that; banquets and executions; -the songs of her troubadours mingling with the sighs of her captives. -Often some enemy of Catherine, quitting the dance at her pavilion of -Vincennes, fell straightway into a cell of the dungeon, to die that -night by stiletto, or twenty years later as nature willed. Yes, indeed, -Vincennes and the Bastille were worthy of each other. - - ------- - -Two mysterious echoes of history still reach the ear from what were once -the vaulted dungeons of Vincennes. The note of the first is gay and -mocking, a cry with more of victory in it than of defeat, and one -remembers the captivity of the Prince de Condé. The other is like the -sudden detonation of musketry, and one recalls the bloody death of the -young Duc d'Enghien, the last notable representative of the house of -Condé. - -The Prince de Condé's affair is of the seventeenth century. It was Anne -of Austria, inspired by Mazarin, who had him arrested, along with his -brother the Prince de Conti and their brother-in-law the Duc de -Longueville. A lighter-hearted gallant than Condé never set foot on the -drawbridge of Vincennes. On the night of his arrival with De Conti and -the duke, no room had been prepared for his reception. He called for -new-laid eggs for supper, and slept on a bundle of straw. De Conti -cried, and De Longueville asked for a work on theology. The next day, -and every day, Condé played tennis and shuttle-cock with his keepers; -sang and began to learn music. He quizzed the governor perpetually, and -laid out a garden in the grounds of the prison which became the talk of -Paris. "He fasted three times a week and planted pinks," says a -chronicler. "He studied strategy and sang the psalms," says another. -When the governor threatened him for breaches of the rules, the Prince -offered to strangle him. But not even Vincennes could hold a Condé for -long, and he was liberated. - -Briefer still was the sojourn of the Duc d'Enghien—one of the strangest, -darkest, and most tragical events of history. In 1790, at the age of -nineteen, he had quitted France with the chiefs of the royalist party. -Twelve years later, in 1802, he was living quietly at the little town of -Ettenheim, not far from Strasbourg; in touch with the forces of Condé, -but not, as it seems, taking active part in the movement which was -preparing against Napoleon. A mere police report lost him with the First -Consul. He was denounced as having an understanding with the officers of -Condé's army, and as holding himself in readiness to unite with them on -the receipt of instructions from England. Napoleon issued orders for his -arrest, and he was seized in his little German retreat on March 15, -1804. Five days later he was lodged in the dungeon of Vincennes. - -Here the prison drama, one of the saddest enacted on the stage of -history, commences. "_Tout est mystérieux dans cette tragédie, dont le -prologue même commence par un secret._" (Everything is mysterious in -this tragedy, the very prologue of which begins with a secret.) - -The Duke had married secretly the Princess Charlotte de Rohan, who, by -her husband's wish, continued to occupy her own house. The daily visits -of the constant husband were a cause of suspicion to the agents of -Napoleon. They said that he was framing plots; he was simply enjoying -the society of his wife. He was engaged, they said, in a conspiracy with -Georges and others against the life of Napoleon; he was but turning love -phrases in the boudoir of the Princess. - -The mystery accompanied the unfortunate prisoner from Ettenheim to -Strasbourg, from Strasbourg to Paris, and went before him to Vincennes. -Governor Harel was instructed to receive "an individual whose name is on -no account to be disclosed. The orders of the Government are that the -strictest secrecy is to be preserved respecting him. He is not to be -questioned either as to his name or as to the cause of his detention. -You yourself will remain ignorant of his identity." - -As he was driven into Paris at five o'clock on the evening of March -20th, the Duke said with a fine assurance: - -"If I may be permitted to see the First Consul, it will be settled in a -moment." - -That request never reached Napoleon, and the prisoner was hurried to -Vincennes. His only thought on reaching the château was to ask that he -might have leave to hunt next day in the forest. But the next day was -not yet come. - -The mystery does not cease. The military commission sent hot-foot from -Paris to try the case were "_dans l'ignorance la plus complète_" both as -to the name and the quality of the accused. An aide-de-camp of Murat -gave the Duke's name to them as they gathered at the table in an -ante-chamber of the prison to inquire what cause had summoned them. -D'Enghien was abed and asleep. - -"Bring in the prisoner," and Governor Harel fetched d'Enghien from his -bed. He stood before his judges with a grave composure, and not a -question shook him. - -"Interrogated as to plots against the Emperor's life, taxed with -projects of assassination, he answered quietly that insinuations such as -these were insults to his birth, his character, and his rank."[4] - -Footnote 4: - - _Histoire du Donjon de Vincennes._ - -The inquiry finished, the Duke demanded with insistence to see the First -Consul. Savary, Napoleon's aide-de-camp, whispered the council that the -Emperor wished no delay in the affair,[5] and the prisoner was -withdrawn. - -Footnote 5: - - It is moderately certain at this day that everyone representing - Napoleon in this miserable affair of d'Enghien _mis_-represented him - from first to last. - -Some twenty minutes later a gardener of the château, Bontemps by name, -was turned out of bed in a hurry to dig a grave in the trenches against -the Pavilion de la Reine; and the officer commanding the guard had -orders to furnish a file of soldiers. - -D'Enghien sat composedly in his room against the council-chamber, -writing up his diary for his wife, and wondering whether leave would be -given him to hunt on the morrow. Enters, once more, Governor Harel, a -lantern in his hand. It was on the stroke of midnight. - -"Would monsieur le duc have the kindness to follow?" It is still on -record that the governor was pale, looked troubled, and spoke with much -concern. - -He led the way that conducted to the Devil's Tower. The stairs from that -tower descended straight into the trenches. At the head of the -staircase, looking into the blackness beyond, the Duke turned and said -to his conductor: "Are you taking me to an _oubliette_? I should prefer, -_mon ami_, to be shot." - -"Monsieur," said Harel, "you must follow me,—and God grant you courage!" - -"It is a prayer I never yet needed to put up," responded d'Enghien -calmly, and he followed to the foot of the stairs. - -"Shoulder arms!" - -A lantern glimmering at either end of the file of soldiers shewed -d'Enghien his fate. As the sentence of death was read, he wrote in -pencil a message to his wife, folded and gave it to the officer in -command of the file, and asked for a priest. There was no priest in -residence at the château, he was told. - -"And time presses!" said the Duke. He prayed a moment, covering his face -with his hands. As he raised his head, the officer gave the word to -fire. - -Volumes have been written upon this tragedy, but to this day no one -knows by whose precise word the blood of the last Condé was spilled in -the trenches of Vincennes. That d'Enghien was assassinated seems beyond -question—but by whom? Years after the event, General Hullin, president -of the commission, asserted in writing that no order of death was ever -signed; and that the members of the commission, still sitting at the -council-table, heard with amazement the volley that made an end of the -debate. Napoleon bore and still bears the opprobrium, but the proof -lacks. Yet who, under the Consulate, dared shoot a d'Enghien, failing -the Consul's word? The stones of Vincennes, wherein the mystery is -locked, have kept their counsel. - - ------- - -Let the curtain be drawn for a moment on the last scene in the tragedy -of La Môle and Coconas. It is a lurid picture of the manners of the -time—the last quarter of the sixteenth century, Charles IX. on the -throne. The tale, which space forbids to tell at length, is one of love -and jealousy, with the wiles of a _soi-disant_ magician in the -background. The prime plotter in the affair was the Queen-Mother, -Catherine de Médicis. La Môle was the lover of Marguerite de Navarre; -Coconas, the lover of the Queen's friend, the Duchesse de Nevers. -Arrested on a dull and senseless charge of conspiring by witchcraft -against the life of the King, the two courtiers were thrown into -Vincennes. The first stage of the trial yielding nothing, the accused -were carried to the torture chamber, and there underwent all the -torments of the Question. After that, being innocent of the charge, they -were declared guilty, and sentenced to the axe. - -"Justice" was done upon them in the presence of all Paris, wondering -dumbly at the iniquity of the punishment. - -Night had fallen, and the executioner was at supper with his family in -his house in the tower of the pillory. All good citizens shunned that -accursed dwelling, and those who had to pass the headsman's door after -dark crossed themselves as they did so. All at once there was a knocking -at the door. - -On his dreadful days of office the "Red Man" sometimes received the -stealthy visit of a friend, brother, wife, or sister, come to beg or -purchase a lock of hair, a garment, or a jewel. - -"There's money coming to us," said the headsman to his wife. He opened -the door, and on the threshold stood a man, armed, and two women. - -"These ladies would speak with you," said the man; and as the headsman -stood aside, the two ladies, enveloped in enormous hoods, entered the -house, their companion remaining without. - -"You are the executioner?" said an imperious voice from behind an -impenetrable veil. - -"Yes, madame." - -"You have here ... the bodies of two gentlemen." - -The headsman hesitated. The lady drew out a purse, which she laid upon -the table. "It is full of gold," she said. - -"Madame," exclaimed the "Red Man," "what do you wish? I am at your -service." - -"Shew me the bodies," said the lady. - -"Ah! madame, but consider. It is terrible!" said the headsman, not -altogether unmoved. "You would scarcely support the sight." - -"Shew them to me," said the lady. - -Taking a lighted torch, the headsman pointed to a door in a corner of -the room, dark and humid. - -"In there!" he said. - -The lady who had not yet spoken broke into an hysterical sob. "I dare -not! I dare not! I am terrified!" she cried. - -"Who loves should love unto death ... and in death," said she of the -imperious voice. - -The headsman pushed open the door of a cellar-like apartment, held the -torch above his head, and from the black doorway the two ladies gazed in -silent horror upon the mutilated spoils of the scaffold. In the red ooze -upon the bare stone floor the bodies of La Môle and Coconas lay side by -side. The severed heads were almost in their places, a circular black -line dividing them from the white shoulders. The first of the two -ladies, with heaving bosom, stooped over La Môle, and raised the pale -right hand to her lips. - -"Poor La Môle! Poor La Môle! I will avenge you!" she murmured. - -Then to the executioner: "Give me the head! Here is the double of your -gold." - -"Ah! madame, I cannot. I dare not! Suppose the Provost——" - -"If the Provost demands this head of you, tell him to whom you gave it!" -and the lady swept the veil from her face. - -The headsman bent to the earth: "Madame the Queen of Navarre!" - -"And the head of Coconas to me, maître," said the Duchesse de Nevers.[6] - -Footnote 6: - - In effect, Margaret of Navarre bore away the head of La Môle, and the - Duchesse de Nevers that of Coconas. It is said that La Môle on the - scaffold bequeathed his head to the Queen. - - ------- - -Amongst Louis XV.'s State prisoners, a long and picturesque array, may -be singled out for the present Prince Charles Edward, son of the -Pretender. Under the wind of adversity, after Culloden, Prince Charles -was blown at length upon French soil. Louis was gracious in his offer of -an asylum, and courtly France was enthusiastic over the exploits and -fantastic wanderings of the young hero. All went gaily with him in Paris -until the signatures had been placed to the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. -Then the wind began to blow from the east again. - -One morning the visit was announced of MM. de Maurepas and the Duc de -Gèvres. - -"Gentlemen," said Prince Charles to his friends, "I know what this visit -bodes. His Majesty proposes to withdraw his hospitality. We are to be -driven out of France." - -His handful of followers were stupefied, but the Prince was right. M. de -Maurepas announced himself as commanded by the King to request Prince -Charles Edward's immediate departure from France. - -"Sir," returned the Prince, "your King has given me shelter, and the -title of brother." - -"Monseigneur," said M. de Maurepas, "circumstances have changed——" - -"To my advantage, sir! For over and above the rights which Louis XV. has -acknowledged in me, I have those more sacred ones of misfortune and -persecution." - -"His Majesty, monseigneur, is beyond doubt deeply touched by your -misfortunes, but the treaty he has just signed for the welfare of his -people compels him now to deny you his succour." - -"Does your King indeed break his word and oath so lightly?" said Prince -Charles. "Is the blood of a proscribed and exiled prince, to whom he has -but just given his hand, so trifling a matter to him?" - -"Monseigneur," said de Maurepas, "I am not here to sustain an argument -with you. I am only the bearer of his Majesty's commands." - -"Then tell the King from me that I shall yield only to his force." - -This was on December 10, 1748. - -When Louis's emissaries had retired, Prince Charles announced his -intention of going to the Opera in the evening. His followers feared -some public scandal, and did their utmost to dissuade him. - -"The more public the better!" cried the Prince in a passion. - -In effect, he drove to the Opera after dinner. De Maurepas had -surrounded the building with twelve hundred soldiers, and as the -Prince's carriage drew up at the steps, a troop of horse encircled it, -and he himself was met with a brusque request for his sword. - -"Come and take it!" said young Hotspur, flourishing the weapon. - -In a moment he was seized from behind, his hands and arms bound, and the -soldiers lifted him into another carriage, which was forthwith driven -off at a gallop. - -"Where are you taking me?" asked the Prince. - -"Monseigneur, to the dungeon of Vincennes." - -"Ah, indeed! Pray thank your King for having chosen for me the prison -which was honoured by the great Condé. You may add that, whilst Condé -was the subject of Louis XIV., I am only the guest of Louis XV." - -M. du Châtelet, governor of Vincennes at that epoch, had received orders -to make the Prince's imprisonment a rigorous one, and fifty men were -specially appointed to watch him. But du Châtelet, a friend and admirer -of the young hero, took his part, and counselled him to abandon a -resistance which must be worse than futile, "You have had triumph -enough," said the prudent du Châtelet, "in exposing the feebleness and -cowardice of the King." - -Prince Charlie's detention lasted but six days. He was liberated on -December 16th, and left Paris in the keeping of an officer of musketeers -to join his father in Rome. - - ------- - -Absolutism, _l'arbitraire_, all through this period was making hay while -the sun shone, and playing rare tricks with the liberties of the -subject. Vincennes was a witness of strange things done in the name of -the King's justice. Take the curious case of the Abbé Prieur. The Abbé -had invented a kind of shorthand, which he thought should be of some use -to the ministry. But the ministry would none of it, and the Abbé made -known his little invention to the King of Prussia, a patron of such -profitable things. But one of his letters was opened at the post-office -by the _Cabinet Noir_, and the next morning Monsieur l'Abbé Prieur awoke -in the dungeon of Vincennes. He inquired the reason, and in the course -of months his letter to the King of Prussia was shewn to him. - -"But I can explain that in a moment," said the Abbé. "Look, here is the -translation." - -The hieroglyphs, in short, were as innocent as a verse of the Psalms, -but the Abbé Prieur never quitted his dungeon. - -A venerable and worthy nobleman, M. Pompignan de Mirabelle, was -imprudent enough to repeat at a supper party some satirical verses he -had heard touching Madame de Pompadour and De Sartines, the chief of -police. Warned that De Sartines had filled in his name on a _lettre de -cachet_, M. de Mirabelle called at the police office, and asked to what -prison he should betake himself. "To Vincennes," said De Sartines. - -"To Vincennes," repeated M. de Mirabelle to his coachman, and he arrived -at the dungeon before the order for his detention. - -Once a year, De Sartines made a formal visit to Vincennes, and once a -year punctually he demanded of M. de Mirabelle the name of the author of -the verses. "If I knew it I should not tell you," was the invariable -reply; "but as a matter of fact I never heard it in my life." M. de -Mirabelle died in Vincennes, a very old man. - -A Swiss, by name Thoring, in the service of Madame de Foncemargue, told -a dream in which his mistress had appeared to him with this message: -"You must assassinate the King, and I will save you. You will be deaf -and dumb until the deed is accomplished." - -The man was clearly of unsound mind, but weak intellects were not -allowed to murder kings in their sleep, and he was cast into Vincennes. -Twenty years later he was seen chained by the middle to the wall of his -cell, half naked and wholly mad. - -But we may leave the prisoners for a while, and throw a glance upon the -great castellany itself. It is best viewed, perhaps, as it stood at the -commencement of the eighteenth century. Nine gigantic towers composed -the fortress. A tenth out-topped them—the tower of the dungeon, -distinguished as the royal manor. Two drawbridges gave access to the -prison proper, the one small and very narrow, the other of an imposing -size, to admit vehicles. Once beneath the wicket, the prisoner saw -himself surrounded on every side by walls of prodigious elevation and -thickness. He stood now immediately at the foot of the dungeon, which -reared its vast height above him. Before beginning the ascent, three -heavy doors must be opened for him, and that which communicated directly -with the dungeon could be unfastened only by the joint action of the -turnkey from within and the sergeant of the guard from without. Straight -from this inner door rose the steep staircase which led to the dungeon -towers. There were four of these towers, one at each angle, and -communication between them was by means of immense halls or chambers, -each defended by its own iron-ribbed doors. - -To each of the four towers, four stories; and at each story a hall -thirty feet long, and from fifteen to eighteen feet wide. At the four -corners of the hall, four dismal chambers—the prisoners' cells. These -cells were like miniature fortresses. A solid outer door being opened, a -second one presented itself. Beyond the second was a third; and the -third, iron-plated on both sides, and armed with two locks and three -bolts, was the door of the cell. The three doors acted upon one another -in such a manner that, unless their secret were known, the second barred -the first, and the third barred the second. Light entered the cells -through four loopholes, of which the inner orifices were a foot and a -half in width, and the outer only six inches. - -In the great halls on which the cells opened, prisoners were exercised -for a limited time (never more than an hour) on rainy days, or when the -orders of the governor forbade them to descend to the walled garden of -the dungeon. - -The hall of the first floor, celebrated in the annals of barbarism, was -called the _Salle de la Question_, or torture chamber. It had its stone -benches, on which, the miserable creatures were placed to wait and watch -the preparations for their torment; and great iron hoops or rings -attached to the walls, to compress their limbs when the Question was to -be put. Hard by this frightful chamber—which was fitted with every -contrivance for the infliction of bodily suffering—were certain -diminutive cells, deprived of light and air, and furnished with plank -beds, on which prisoners were chained for a moment of repose between the -first and second applications of the torture.[7] - -Footnote 7: - - Up to the reign of Louis XVI., every prison in Paris and the principal - courts of justice had a torture chamber, and precise rules existed as - to the various kinds of torture that might be resorted to, the mode in - which each was to be applied, the persons who were to be present - during the Question, the preliminary examination of the prisoner by a - surgeon, the manner of binding, stretching, etc., together with the - minutest details respecting the several forms of the Question, and the - means to be employed to restore the sufferer for a second application. - -On the ground floor of the dungeon were the dark cells. These were in no -way connected with the _Salle de la Question_, but served as the abodes -for months, or even for years, of those unhappy prisoners against whom -absolutism had a special grudge, or whom the governor took a pleasure in -reducing to the last extremity of misery. Here was a bed hollowed in the -stone wall, and littered with mouldy straw; and rings in the wall and -floor for waist-chains and leg-irons. Such a dwelling as this might -receive the unfortunate whose _lettre de cachet_ bore the appalling -legend: _Pour être oublié!_—(_To be forgotten!_). - -But there were darker profundities yet in this Tartarus of the Kings of -France. Almost as far as its towers rose above the ground, the dungeon -plunged downwards in subterranean abysses, deep below deep. How many -victims sank in those secure abysses, and were silently extinguished! - -In a place which witnessed so many last earthly moments, a chapel was a -necessity. Hasty absolution was often given for the crimes real or -imaginary which were so rudely expiated within the royal manor; and -sometimes prisoners were carried in a dying state from the _Salle de la -Question_ to receive the last rites of the Church in one of the three -small chapel cells with double doors. Here, on the very threshold of -death, one lay in semi-darkness to hear the mass which was pronounced on -the other side of the wall. Over the chaplain's apartment was the -singular inscription, _Carcer sacerdotis_ (_Prison of the Priest_), -which allows the inference that the chaplain, whilst in the exercise of -his functions, was not allowed to communicate with the outer world. - -A narrow stone staircase of two hundred and sixty-five high steps, -obstructed at frequent intervals by sealed doors, conducted to a small -and well made terrace at the very top of the dungeon. It is probable -that this terrace is still in existence.[8] It was little used—perhaps -because it was the pleasantest place in the prison,—but tradition has -represented Mirabeau as taking an occasional airing on that superb -summit. The little lantern-shaped tower placed here contained the chapel -which was once the oratory of the Kings of France. Some nerve must have -been needed for Majesty to pray at ease, whilst crushing with its knees -that mass of human wretchedness! - -Footnote 8: - - Vincennes is now a fort and artillery barracks, and may neither be - sketched nor photographed. - -The great court below was parcelled into little close gardens, where, -under rigid surveillance, favoured prisoners took their dreary exercise. - -Few prisons the like of Vincennes have been erected. Those tremendous -towers, those almost impenetrable walls, those double and triple doors -garnished with iron, the trenches forty feet in depth, those wide outer -galleries to give the sentries command at every point—what more could -genius and industry invent to combat the prisoner's passion for liberty? -There were, indeed, few escapes from Vincennes. The prisoner who broke -prison from the Bastille, and won his way into the trenches, nearly -always made good his flight; but in the trenches of Vincennes, if he -ever reached them, he was more helpless than a rat in a bucket. The -architect of Vincennes was up some half-hour earlier than the architect -of the Bastille. - -Twice every hour of the twenty-four the patrol made a complete tour of -the dungeon; and night and morning, before the closing and opening of -the doors, the trenches (which were forbidden to the turnkeys except by -express order) were surveyed from end to end, that no letters might be -thrown there by prisoners upon whom the State had set a seal like that -of the _Masque de Fer_. - -Over and above all these _précautions barbares_, the sentries had orders -to turn the eyes of every passerby from the dungeon towers. No one might -stand or draw bridle in the shadow of Vincennes. It might be a relative -or friend seeking to learn in what exact cell the captive was lodged! -From light to dusk, the sentry reiterated his changeless formula: -_Passez votre chemin!_ - -We have yet to see what life the prisoners led. - - - II. - -The hour, the manner, and the circumstances of his reception at -Vincennes were little adapted to lessen the apprehensions of a prisoner -regarding the fate that awaited him. It was generally at night that the -arrest was effected, and the dismal ceremony of admission lost nothing -amid the general gloom of the scene, streaked here and there by the thin -light of the warders' lanterns. It would have been distressing enough to -pass into that black keep as the King's prisoner, after a fair trial in -open court, and with full knowledge of the term of one's captivity; how -much more so to find oneself thrust in there on some vague or fabulous -charge, a victim not of offended laws but of some cold caprice of -vengeance, to stay the pleasure of an enemy who might forget his -prisoner before he forgot his wrath. At Vincennes as in the Bastille, -prisoners lived on, hopelessly forgotten, years after the death of their -accusers. - -On arrival at the dungeon the prisoner was searched from head to foot, -and all papers, money, or other valuables were taken from him. This was -done under the eyes of the governor, who then, preceded by two turnkeys, -led his charge up that steep, narrow and winding staircase which has -been described. One vast hall after another was slowly traversed, with -frequent halts for the unbarring of doors which creaked on their rusty -hinges. The flicker of the lanterns amid that sea of shadows brought -into dim evidence huge locks and padlocks, loopholes and casements, -garnished with twisted iron bars; and every footfall found an echo in -the vaulted ceilings. - -At the end of this oppressive journey, the prisoner came to his den, a -miserable place containing a wooden stump bedstead, a couple of rush -chairs, and a table stained with the dishes of every previous occupant. -If it were past the hour at which prisoners were served with supper, he -would probably be denied a morsel of food; and the governor left him, -after bestowing his first injunction: "I would have you remember, -monsieur, that this is the house of silence." - -The prisoner had now to keep himself in patience until the governor -decided on his lot—that is to say, on the life that he should lead. -There was no ordered system such as regulates the existence of an army -of convicts undergoing sentence of penal servitude in these days. The -power of the governor was all but autocratic, and though he made -constant reference to "the rules," he interpreted those shadowy -prescriptions entirely as it pleased him. "It is the rule," said the -governor, when enforcing some petty tyranny. "It is not the rule," he -said, when denying some petty favour. Sometimes the prisoner was -forbidden by superior order the use of books and writing materials, but -more frequently such an order issued from the lips of the governor -himself. If permission to read and write were accorded, new difficulties -arose. There was no special library attached to the dungeon, and as the -governor's tastes were seldom literary, his store of books was scanty, -and the volumes were usually in the keeping of those few prisoners whom -he favoured. As for writing materials, little books of note-paper were -sparsely doled, each sheet numbered and to be accounted for; and no -letter could leave the prison without the governor's scrutiny. - -As the prisoner read and wrote, so also did he eat and drink, by favour -of the governor. An allowance sufficient for each prisoner's maintenance -was authorised and paid by the State, but most of the King's bounty -contributed to swell the governor's private fortune. The tariff allowed -and paid out of the royal treasury was: - - For a prince of the blood, about £2 _per diem_. - - For a marshal of France, about £1 10_s._ - - For a lieutenant-general, about £1. - - For a member of Parliament, about 15_s._ - - For an ordinary judge, a priest, a captain in the army, or an official - of good standing, about 7_s._ 6_d._ - - For a barrister or a citizen of means, about 2_s._ 6_d._ - - For a small tradesman, about 1_s._ 6_d._ - -At such rates as these, all prisoners should have been well cared for in -those days; but the truth is that the governors who entered Vincennes -with small means left it rich men. Not only the moneys allotted for -food, but the allowances of wood, lights, etc., were shamelessly -pilfered; and prisoners who were unable or forbidden to supplement the -royal bounty from their own purses were often half-starved and -half-frozen in their cells. As for the quality of the food, warders and -kitchen-assistants sometimes tried to sell in Vincennes meat taken from -the prison kitchen, but it had an ill name amongst the peasants: "That -comes from the dungeon; it's rotten." On the other hand, wealthy -prisoners who enjoyed the governor's favour, or who could bring -influence to bear on him from without, were allowed to beguile the -tedium of captivity by unlimited feasting and drinking. The inmate of -one cell, lying in chains, dirt, and darkness, might be kept awake at -night by the tipsy strains of his neighbour in the cell adjoining. -Governors avaricious above the common generally had their dark cells -full, so as to be able to feed on bread and water the prisoners for whom -they received the regular daily tariff. Ordinarily, there were but two -meals a day, dinner at eleven in the morning and supper at five in the -evening; hence, if your second ration were insufficient, you must go -hungry for eighteen hours. A privileged few were allowed a valet at -their own charge, but the majority of the prisoners of both sexes were -served by the turnkeys. - -The turnkeys visited the cells three times a day, rather as spies, it -seems, than as ministers to the needs of the prisoners. "They came like -heralds of misfortune," says one. "A face hard, expressionless, or -insolent; an imperturbable silence; a heart proof against the sufferings -of others. Useless to address a question to them; a curt negative was -the sole response. 'I know nothing about it,' was the turnkey's eternal -formula." - -Some prisoners, but by no means all, were allowed to walk for an hour a -day in one of the confined gardens at the base of the tower; always in -company with a warder, who might neither speak nor be spoken to. As the -hour struck, the exercise ceased. - -Such seems to have been the external routine of life at Vincennes. -Beneath the surface was the perpetual tyrannous oppression of the -governor and his subordinates on the one side, and on the other a weight -of suffering, extended to almost every detail of existence, endured by -the great majority of the prisoners; silently even unto death in some -instances, but in others not without desperate resistance, long -sustained against overwhelming odds. - -The recital of Mirabeau's captivity throws into curious relief the inner -life of the dungeon. The governor was a certain De Rougemont, of most -unrighteous memory, whom Latude describes as having written his name in -blood on the walls of every cell. Elsewhere the same narrator says that -prisoners occasionally strangled themselves to escape the rage of De -Rougemont, who was seventeen years in charge of Vincennes. - -The fiery, impetuous Mirabeau was ceaselessly at variance with this -"despotic ape," who delighted in trying to repress by the most -contemptible annoyances that irrepressible spirit. Complaint was a fault -in the eyes of De Rougemont, impatience a crime. - -The future tribune,[9] whose head was always in the clouds, complained -incessantly and was impatience incarnate. Night or day he gave his -gaoler no peace. Mirabeau's lodging in the fortress was a small -tower-chamber between the second and third story, rarely visited by the -sun; it was in existence fifty years ago, and bore the number 28. De -Rougemont began by submitting him to all the rigours of "the rules." -Mirabeau demanded leave to write, it was refused; to read, it was -refused; to take a daily airing, it was refused. He could not get -scissors to cut his hair, nor a barber to dress it for him. He was four -months in altercation with De Rougemont before he could obtain the use -of a blunt table-knife. He could not get at his trunk to procure himself -a change of linen. - -Footnote 9: - - He was imprisoned mainly on the order of the Marquis de Mirabeau, his - father, whose lifelong jealousy of that brilliant son is matter of - history; a finished example of the domestic bully, and a matchless - humbug and hypocrite, whose every action gave the lie to his by-name - _Friend of Man_. In the course of his life, the Marquis procured no - fewer than fifty _lettres de cachet_ against members of his own - family. - -[Illustration: MIRABEAU ON THE TERRACE OF VINCENNES.] - -"Is it by 'the rules' that my trunk is kept from me?" he demanded of the -governor. - -"What need have you of your trunk?" - -"Need! I want clothes and linen. I am still wearing what I brought into -this rat-hole!" - -"What does it matter? You see no company here." - -"I am to go foul, then, because I see no company! Is that your rule? -Once more, let me have my trunk." - -"We have not the key of it." - -"Send for a locksmith,—an affair of an hour." - -"Where am I to find the hour? Have I no one and nothing else to attend -to? Are you the only prisoner here?" - -"That is no answer. You are here to take care of your prisoners. Give me -my trunk, I tell you!" - -"_It is against the rules._ We shall see by-and-bye." - -"As usual! 'We shall see.' In the meantime perhaps you will have the -goodness to send a barber to shave me and cut my hair." - -"Ah! I must speak about that to the minister." - -"What! The minister's permission to——" - -"Yes. _It is the rule._" - -"Indeed! The doctor said as much, but I refused to credit him." - -"You were wrong, you see!" - -"Now that I remember, he told me something else, that in the present -state of my health a bath, with as little delay as possible, was -indispensable. Perhaps he did not mention that to you?" - -"I fancy he did say something about it." - -"Oh, he did! But the King and the Government have not debated it yet, I -suppose? Well, sir, I want a bath and I'm going to have one." - -"You have no right to give orders here, sir." - -"Nor have you the right to withhold what the doctor prescribes for me." - -"M. de Mirabeau, you are insolent. Do you forget that I represent the -King?" - -"He could not be more grotesquely represented. The distance between you -and his Majesty is short, sir." - -The governor (to make the joke more apparent) was short and of a full -habit. He went out speechless, and Mirabeau would doubtless have felt -the effects of his rage had it not been for the interest of Lenoir, -Lieutenant-General of Police, who was always ready to stand between the -prisoner and the vengeful gaoler. Through Lenoir, who won for him the -intercession of the Princesse de Lamballe, Mirabeau got the use of books -and pen, and some other small indulgences. He wrote to his father: "Will -you not ease me of my chains? Let me have friends to see me; let me have -leave to walk. Let me exchange the dungeon for the château. There as -here I should be under the King's hand, and close enough to the prison, -if I should abuse that measure of liberty." The implacable _Friend of -Man_ vouchsafed no response to this entreaty. The prisoner buried -himself in the books that were given him, but they were for the most -part "_de mauvais auteurs_," who had nothing to teach him. He flung them -from him one by one, and as he paced his cell he began those brilliant -improvisations which were soon to electrify France, and which struck -absolutism at its root. In this way he worked out the scheme of the -_lettres de cachet_, that work of flaming eloquence in which the genius -of liberty approaches, seizes, and strangles the dragon of despotism. -Deprived of all but his pen, Mirabeau let fall from the height of his -dungeon on the head of royalty that thunderbolt of a treatise. Since De -Rougemont would never, for a hundred chiefs of police, have aided him -with materials for this purpose, he tore out of all the books he could -lay hands on the fly-leaves and blank spaces, and covered them with his -fine close writing. Each completed slip he concealed in the lining of -his coat, and in this manner did the tribune compose and preserve his -work, every page of which was a prophecy of the coming Revolution. When -inspiration lacked for a time, he prostrated himself on the flags of his -cell and wept for his absent mistress, or he renewed hostilities with De -Rougemont. The battle of the trunk was followed by the battle of the -looking-glass. - -He could not go through his toilet without a looking-glass, he insisted; -and in a letter to the governor which must have filled several -manuscript pages he exhausted his logic and his sarcasm in enforcing -this modest request. He got his mirror in the end, and then renewed his -fruitless correspondence with his father, and made an eloquent attempt -to move the clemency of the King. "Deign, sire, to save me from my -persecutors," he wrote to Louis. "Look with pity on a man twenty-eight -years of age, who, buried in full life, sees and feels the slow approach -of brutish inertia, despair, and madness, darkening and paralysing the -noblest of his years." M. Lenoir himself placed this letter in the -King's hands, but nothing came of it for Mirabeau, who continued in the -pauses of astonishing literary labours his fight for liberty from behind -his prison bars. By clamours and entreaties he succeeded at length in -forcing his way through them. - - ------- - -Amongst the prisoners of renown of the eighteenth century Latude must -not pass unnoticed. His sojourn in and escape from the Bastille have -been much more widely bruited than his captivity at Vincennes, where -also he did things wonderful and suffered pains and indignities -incredible. Needless to say that he gave his guards the slip, and -equally needless to add that he was recovered and brought back. His -second incarceration was in one of De Rougemont's _cachots_ (De -Rougemont always had a _cachot_ available), from, which, on the -surgeon's declaration that his life was in danger, he was removed to a -more habitable chamber. On his way thither he found and secreted one of -those handy tools which fortune seemed always to leave in the path of -Latude, and used it to establish a most ingenious means of communication -with his fellow-prisoners. No one ever yet performed such wonders in -prison as Masers de Latude. No one accomplished such unheard-of escapes. -No one, when retaken, paid with such cruel interest the penalty of his -daring. Was the man only a splendid fable, as some latter-day sceptics -have suggested? The question has been put, but no one will ever affirm -it with authority, and the weight of the evidence seems to lie with -Latude the man and not with Latude the legend. - -No great distance separated the chamber of Latude from the _cachot_ of -the Prévôt de Beaumont. The Prévôt was a great criminal: he had had the -courage to denounce and expose that gigantic State fraud, the _pacte de -famine_, in which the De Sartines before named and other persons of -consequence were involved. Those were not the days for Prévôts de -Beaumont to meddle as critics with criminal ventures of this sort, and -the Prévôt had his name written on the customary form. He spent -twenty-two years in five of the State prisons of France, and fifteen of -them in the dungeon of Vincennes. - - "There is not in the _Saints' Martyrology_," he wrote (in the record - which he gave to the people of the Revolution of his experiences in - the dungeon of the Monarchy), "such a tale of tribulations and - torments as were suffered by me on twelve separate occasions in the - fifteen years of my captivity at Vincennes. On one occasion I was - confined four months in the _cachot_, nine months on another - occasion, eighteen months on a third; of my fifteen years in the - dungeon, _seven years and eight months_ were passed in the black - hole. The cruel De Sartines never ceased to harry me; the monster De - Rougemont surpassed the orders of De Sartines. Yes, I have lain - almost naked and with fettered ankles for eighteen months together. - For eighteen months at a time, I have lived on a daily allowance of - two ounces of bread and a mug of water. I have more than once been - deprived of both for three successive days and nights."[10] - -Footnote 10: - - I have summarised here the extracts in the original from the pamphlet - of the Prévôt de Beaumont quoted at great length by the authors of the - _Histoire du Donjon de Vincennes_. As a curiosity of prison - literature, the Prévôt's pamphlet, if correctly cited, goes above the - little eighteenth-century work on Newgate by "B. L. of Twickenham." - -The dramatic interest of the Prévôt's imprisonment culminates in an -assault upon him in his cell, renewed at four several ventures by the -whole strength of the prison staff "and the biggest dog that I have ever -seen." The Prévôt had devoted five years to the stealthy composition of -an essay on the _Art of True Government_, which was actually a history -of the _pacte de famine_. His attempts to get it printed were discovered -by the police, and the attack on his cell was designed to wrest from him -the manuscript. He sets out the affair in detail with the liveliest -touches—"First Round," "Second Round," etc.—shews himself levelling De -Rougemont with a brick in the stomach, the dog with a blow on the nose, -and blinding a brace of warders with the contents of his slop-bucket. At -last, faced by an order in the King's writing, he allowed himself to be -transferred from Vincennes to Charenton, on the express understanding -that his precious manuscript should be transferred with him. The Prévôt -himself arrived duly at Charenton, but he never again set eyes on the -essay on the _Art of True Government_. De Rougemont had arranged that it -should be stolen on the journey, and the manuscript was last seen in the -archives of the Bastille. - - ------- - -Mirabeau was not the only polemic of genius who helped to sharpen -against the gratings of Vincennes the weapons of the dawning Revolution. -Was not Diderot of the _Encyclopedia_ there also? He paid by a month's -rigorous imprisonment in the dungeon, and a longer period of mild -captivity in the château, the publication of his _Letter on the Blind -for the Use of those who See_. This, at least, was the ostensible reason -of his detention; the true reason was never quite apparent. At the -château he was allowed the visits of his wife and friends, and amongst -the latter Jean Jacques Rousseau was frequently admitted. Literary -legend is more responsible than history for the statement that the first -idea of the _Social Contract_ was the outcome of Rousseau's talks with -Diderot and Grimm in the park of Vincennes. - - ------- - -Year after year, reign after reign, the picture rarely changes within -the four walls of the dungeon. Vincennes was perhaps fuller under Louis -XV. than in the reigns of preceding or succeeding sovereigns, but the -difference could not have been great. During the twenty years of -Cardinal Fleury's ministry under Louis XV., 40,000 _lettres de cachet_ -were issued by him, mostly against the Jansenists. Madame de Pompadour -made a lavish use of the _lettres_ in favour of Vincennes; Madame -Dubarry bestowed her patronage chiefly on the Bastille. Richelieu at one -epoch, Mazarin at another, found occupants in plenty for the cells of -Vincennes. It was Richelieu who passed a dry word one day apropos of -certain mysterious deaths in the dungeon. - -"It must be grief," said one. - -"Or the purple fever," said the King. - -"It is the air of Vincennes," observed Richelieu, "that marvellous air -which seems fatal to all who do not love his Majesty." - - ------- - -Ministers themselves were apt to fall by the weapon of their own -employment. A minister of Louis XIV., who had chosen for his proud -device the motto, _Quò non ascendam?_—_What place too high for me?_—and -whom chroniclers have suspected of pretensions to the gallant crown of -Mademoiselle de la Vallière, fell one day from a too giddy pinnacle -plump into the dungeon of Vincennes. It was Fouquet the magnificent. - -Up to a point, Fouquet was the best courtier in France. The King's -passion was for pomp and glitter; the minister cultivated a taste for -the dazzling. Louis was prodigal to extravagance; Fouquet became lavish -_jusqu'à la folie_. The King dipped both hands into the public moneys; -the minister plunged elbow-deep into the coffers of the State. The King -offered to his servitors fêtes the most sumptuous; the minister regaled -his friends with spectacles beyond compare. Then Louis wearied of this -too splendid emulation, and Fouquet the magnificent was attached. He all -but sacrificed his head to his lust of rivalry; but Louis relented, and -took from him only his goods and his freedom. Despoiled and dishonoured, -the ex-minister fared from prison to prison,—Vincennes, Angers, Amboise, -Moret, the Bastille, and Pignerol. _Quò non ascendam?_—_Whither may I -not mount?_ The unfortunate minister, who had thought to climb to the -sun of Louis XIV., sank to his death in a _cachot_. - - ------- - -The contrasts presented by the diverse fates of certain prisoners are -sufficiently striking. Fouquet was preceded at Vincennes by Cardinal de -Retz, the last prisoner of distinction whom Anne of Austria sent to the -dungeon. The Cardinal's was a gilt-edged captivity. He lived _en prince_ -at Vincennes; he had valets, money, and a good table; great ladies came -to distract him, friends to flatter him, and players to divert him. -Literature, politics, gallantry, and the theatre—the Cardinal found all -of these at Vincennes. When he chanced to remember his priestly quality, -he obtained leave to say mass in the chapel of the château, "carefully -concealing the end of his chain under the richest of vestments." But the -chain was there, and the lightest of fetters grows heavy in prison;—the -Cardinal resolved on flight. - -It was a clever and most original plan. On a certain day, a party of the -Cardinal's friends, mounted as for a desperate ride, were to assemble -under the walls of the keep, and at a given signal were to whirl away in -their midst a man attired at all points like the Cardinal himself. A -rope hanging from a severed bar in the window of the cell was to give -his guards to suppose that the prisoner had escaped that way; but all -this while the Cardinal was to lie _perdu_ in a hole which he had -discovered on the upper terrace of the prison. When the excitement over -the imaginary flight had subsided, and the vigilance of the sentries was -relaxed, the Cardinal was to issue from his hiding-place, disguised as a -kitchen-man, and walk out of the dungeon. It might have succeeded, but -the elements played into the hands of Anne d'Autriche. A storm blew up -on the night that the Cardinal was to have quitted his chamber, and the -wind closed a heavy door on the staircase that led to the terrace. All -the Cardinal's efforts to wrest it open were unavailing, and he was -forced to return to his cell. He was removed to the château of Nantes, -and the imaginative daring of his flight from that place has ranked it -high in the annals of prison-breaking. - - ------- - -One echo more shall reach us from these lugubrious caverns. Towards the -beginning of the eighteenth century, a young man, Du Puits by name -(victimised by an Italian Abbé into forging orders on the King's -treasury), received as cell-companion the Marquis de la Baldonnière, a -reputed or suspected alchemist. Du Puits, a laughing philosopher now on -the verge of tears, recovered his spirits when he learned the -new-comer's name. - -"I heard all about you, sir, before I came here," he said. "I was -secretary to M. Chamillart, the minister, and you were often talked of -at the bureau. I told M. Chamillart that if you could turn iron into -gold, it was a pity you were not appointed manager of the iron mines. -But it is never too late to turn one's talents to account, monsieur le -marquis, and as a magician of the first water you shall effect our -escape." - -The achievements of the noble wizard came short of this end, but they -were far from contemptible. He took surreptitious impressions in wax of -the keys dangling from the very belt of the warder who visited them, and -manufactured a choice set of false ones, which gave the two prisoners -the range of the dungeon. There was no night watch within the tower, and -when the warders had withdrawn after the prisoners' supper-hour, Du -Puits and the Marquis ran up and down the stairs, and from hall to hall, -called on the other prisoners in their cells, and made some agreeable -acquaintances, including that of a pretty and charming young sorceress. -Trying a new lock one night, they found themselves in the governor's -pantry—after this, some rollicking supper parties. The feasts were -organised nightly in one cell or another, Du Puits and the Marquis -furnishing the table from the ample larder of the governor. Healths were -being drunk one night, when the door was rudely opened, and the guests -found themselves covered by the muskets of the guard. An unamiable -prisoner whose company they had declined had exposed the gay conspiracy, -and there were no more supper parties. - - ------- - -The last years of Vincennes as a State prison have little of the -interest either of romance or of tragedy. Its fate in this respect was -settled by Mirabeau's _lettres de cachet_. Vincennes was the only prison -of which he had directly exposed the callous and cruel régime, and the -ministry thought well to close it, as a small concession to the rising -wrath of the populace. In 1784, accordingly, Vincennes was struck off -the list of the State prisons of France. A singular and oddly ludicrous -fate came upon it in the following year, when it was transformed into a -sort of charitable bakery under the patronage of Louis XVI.! The -_cachot_ in which the Prévôt de Beaumont had lain hungry for eighteen -months, and for three days without food, was stored with cheap loaves -for the working people of Paris. A little later, the dungeon was a -manufactory of arms for the King's troops. After the destruction of the -Bastille, Vincennes was attacked by the mob, but Lafayette and his -troops saved it from their hands. Under the Republic it was used for a -time as a prison for women. The wretched fate of the Duc d'Enghien, -Napoleon's chief captive in this fortress, has been told; and there is -only to add that the last prisoners who passed within the walls of -Vincennes were MM. de Peyronnet, de Guernon Ranville, de Polignac, and -Chantelauze, the four ministers of Charles X. whose part in the -"Revolution of July" belongs to the history of our own times. Brave old -General Daumesnil, "Old Wooden-Leg," who died August 17, 1832, was the -last governor of the Dungeon of Vincennes. - -[Illustration] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration] - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - - THE GREAT AND LITTLE CHÂTELET, AND THE FORT-L'ÉVÊQUE. - - -Louis VI., called le Gros, whose reign was from 1108 to 1137, did much -to enlarge and to embellish the mean and narrow Paris of his day. He -built churches and schools both in the Cité and beyond the river, and -thanks to the lectures of Abelard his schools were famous. He built a -wall around the suburbs, and for the further defence of the Cité he set -up the two fortresses called Le Grand and Le Petit Châtelet, "at the -extremities of the bridge which united the Cité with the opposite bank." - -Here was established the court of municipal justice, and here the -Provost of Paris had his residence. The prison of the Châtelet became -one of the most celebrated in Paris, and prison and fortress were not -completely demolished until 1802. - -The functions of the Châtelet—_cette justice royale ordinaire à -Paris_—were great and various. It was charged in effect, says -Desmaze,[11] with the maintenance of public safety in the capital, with -the settlement of divers causes, with the repression of popular -agitations, with the ordering of corporations and trades, with the -verification of weights and measures. It punished commercial frauds, -defended "minors and married women," and kept in check the turbulent -scholars of the University. Its magistrates were fifty-six in number; it -had its four King's Counsel and its King's Procurator; its -clerk-in-chief and his host of subordinates; its receivers, bailiffs, -and ushers; its gaolers and its sworn tormentor; its "sixty special -experts"; its surgeon and his assistants, including a _sage-femme_ or -mid-wife; and its two hundred and twenty _sergents à cheval_. - -Footnote 11: - - _Le Châtelet de Paris._ - -All in all, the Châtelet was one of the most formidable powers in Paris. -The court of the Châtelet comprised four divisions, administered by -councillors who sat in rotation. The four sections were distinguished as -the _parc civil_, the _présidial_, the _chambre du conseil_, and the -_chambre criminelle_. - -But the Prison of the Châtelet is our principal concern. Although, says -Desmaze, the prison was instituted for the safe-keeping and not for the -maltreatment of the accused, the law's design was too often eluded or -ignored. Much the same might be said in respect of any other prison in -Europe at that epoch. Antique papers cited by Desmaze show, -nevertheless, that Parliaments of Paris sought by successive decrees to -modify the rigour of the prisoner's lot, to restrain the cupidity of his -gaolers, and to maintain decent order within the prison. There were -provisions against gambling with dice, rules for the distribution of -alms amongst the prisoners, and penalties for those who absented -themselves from chapel. In 1425, a new _ordonnance_ fixed the scale of -fees (_geôlage_) which prisoners were to pay to the governor or head -gaoler on reception. (This ironic jest of compelling persons to pay for -the privilege of going to prison obtained for centuries in Newgate.) A -count or countess was charged ten livres, a knight banneret (_chevalier -banneret_) passed in for ten sols, a Jew or a Jewess for half that sum; -and so on to the end of the scale. There were particular injunctions as -to the registering of prisoners, and as to the mode of keeping the -prison books. The bread served out was ordered to be _de bonne qualitè_, -and not less than a pound and a half a day for each prisoner: in 1739, -the baker who supplied the Châtelet was condemned to a fine of 2000 -livres for adulterating the prisoners' bread. A special ration of bread -and meat was distributed at the Châtelet on the day of the annual feast -of the confraternity of drapers, and the goldsmiths of Paris gave a -dinner on Easter Day to such of the prisoners as would accept their -bounty. - -The deputies of the _Procureur Général_ were instructed to visit the -prison once a week, to examine and receive in private the requests and -complaints of the prisoners, and to see that the doctors did their duty -by the sick. The first Presidents of the Paris Parliament seem to have -visited the Châtelet frequently from the end of the fourteenth to the -middle of the sixteenth century. - - ------- - -But there was one circumstance which, in Mediæval Paris and in the Paris -of a much later date, must have gone far to nullify all good intentions -and humane precautions of kings and parliaments alike. Under an -_ordonnance_ of July, 1319, Philippe le Long decreed that the -governorships of gaols should be sold at auction. The purchasers were, -of course, to be "respectable persons" (_bonnes gens_), who should -pledge their word to deal humanely by (_de bien traiter_) the prisoners; -but of what use were such provisos? In no circumstances, indeed, could a -saving clause of any description ensure the proper administration of a -prison the governor of which had bought the right to make private gain -out of his prisoners. For this was what the selling of gaolerships came -to. Having paid for his office (having bought it, moreover, over the -heads of other bidders), the governor recouped himself by fleecing his -wealthy prisoners and by stinting or starving his poorer ones. It was no -worse in France than elsewhere; until Howard demanded reform, prisoners -in Newgate were plundered right and left under a similar system, and -those who could not pay the illegal fees of the governor and his -subordinates were lodged in stinking holds, and fed themselves as they -could. - -We shall see what the prisons of the Châtelet and the Fort-l'Évêque were -like amid the luxuries and refinements which surrounded them in the -eighteenth century. An _ordonnance_ of 1670 had enjoined that the -prisons should be kept in a wholesome state, and so administered that -the prisoners should suffer nothing in their health. Never, says -Desmaze, was a decree so miserably neglected. - -What are the facts? He quotes from an "anonymous eighteenth-century -manuscript" ("by a magistrate") entitled: _Projet concernant -l'établissement_ _de nouvelles Prisons dans la Capitale_. The -Fort-l'Évêque and the Châtelet are turned inside out for such an -inspection as Howard would have made with a gust. - -In the court or principal yard of Fort-l'Évêque, thirty feet long by -eighteen wide, from four to five hundred prisoners were confined. The -prison walls were so high that no air could circulate in the yard; the -prisoners were "choked by their own miasma." The cells "were more like -holes than lodgings"; and there were some under the steps of the -staircase, six feet square, into which five prisoners were thrust. Other -cells, in which it was barely possible to stand upright, received no -light but from the general yard. The cells in which certain prisoners -were kept at their private charge were scarcely better. Worst of all -were the dens belowground. These were on a level with the river, water -filtered in through the arches the whole year round, and even in the -height of summer the sole means of ventilation was a slit above the door -three inches in width. Passing before one of the subterranean cells, it -was as though one were smitten by fire (_on est frappé comme d'un coup -de feu_). They gave only on to the dark and narrow galleries which -surrounded them. The whole prison was in a state of dilapidation, -threatening an immediate ruin. - -The Châtelet was "even more horrible and pestilential." The prison -buildings, having no external opening, received air only from above; -there was thus "no current, but only, as it were, a stationary column of -air, which barely allowed the prisoners to breathe." This is far from a -realisation of the _ordonnance_ of 1670! Like the Fort-l'Évêque, the -Châtelet had its horrors of the pit. Dulaure[12] has a curious passage -on the subject. It appears, says one of the best of the historians of -Paris, that prisoners were let down into a dungeon called _la fosse_, as -a bucket is lowered into a well; here they sat with their feet in water, -unable to stand or to lie, "and seldom lived beyond fifteen days." -Another of these pits, known as _fin d'aise_ (a name more bodeful than -the Little Ease of old Newgate), was "full of filth and reptiles"; and -Dulaure adds that the mere names of most of the Châtelet cells were -"frightfully significant." - -Footnote 12: - - _Histoire de Paris._ - - ------- - -The Provost of Paris, rendering justice in the King's name, took -cognisance of all ordinary causes, of capital crimes, and of petty -offences. His officers arrested and imprisoned "all manner of criminals, -vagabonds, and disturbers of the public peace." In the reign of -Philippe-Auguste, he was charged with the duty of "bringing to justice -the Jews" who at that epoch were "accused of seeking to convert -Christians to Judaism, of taking usurious interest, and of profaning the -sacred vessels which the churches gave them in pledge." After the King, -said Pasquier, the Provost of Paris was the most powerful man in the -kingdom. - -The headsman of Paris depended on the jurisdiction of the Châtelet. -There was a small chamber in the prison called the _réduit aux -gehennes_, where, when an execution was to take place, Monsieur de Paris -received the Provost's warrant. In 1418, the headsman Capeluche was -himself sentenced to be beheaded, and in the _réduit aux gehennes_ he -put the new Monsieur de Paris through his facings with the axe. - -[Illustration: THE GREAT CHÂTELET.] - - ------- - -An account of the sentences decreed by the Châtelet would be little less -than a history of punishment in France. The Châtelet gave reasons for -its sentences, a practice not followed by the superior courts. Terrible -were the pains and penalties decreed sometimes from beneath the -Provost's dais. Torture wrung some avowal from the frothy lips of the -accused, and then he was shrived and carried to the place of execution. -The fierce canonical law lent its ingenuity in punishment to the judges -of the Châtelet; but many of the penalties, such as hanging, beheading, -burning, whipping, mutilation, and the pillory, are found on our own -criminal registers of the same period. Coiners and forgers were boiled -alive; there is an entry of twelve livres for the purchase of a cauldron -in which to boil to death a _faux monnoyeur_. In 1390, a young female -servant, convicted of stealing silver spoons from her master, was -exposed in the pillory, suffered the loss of an ear, and was banished -from Paris and its environs, "not to return under penalty of being -buried alive." For the crime of marrying two wives, one Robert Bonneau -was sentenced to be "hanged and strangled." Geoffroy Vallée was burned, -in 1573, for the publication of a pamphlet entitled _The Heavenly -Felicity of the Christians, or the Scourge of the Faith_; and, in 1645, -a bookseller was sent to the galleys "for having printed a libel against -the Government." - -Some of the old registers of the Châtelet examined by Desmaze showed -entries of charges of pocket-picking and card-sharping at public -processions, fairs, and spectacles. Little thieves defended themselves -before the magistrates in the style familiar at Bow Street to-day,—a lad -of fifteen charged with stealing handkerchiefs from pedestrians said he -had "picked up one in the street." - - ------- - -The Châtelet, or rather the Little Châtelet, was the Provost's residence -until the end of the sixteenth century. In 1564, the Provost was Hugues -de Bourgueil, "distinguished for the possession of a terrific hump and a -beautiful wife." One day Parliament consigned to the cells of the Little -Châtelet a young Italian, accused of having set up in Paris a -"gambling-house and fencing-saloon," where he corrupted the morals of -the young nobility, "teaching them a thousand things unworthy of -Christians and Frenchmen." - -In his quality of Italian, the prisoner, Gonsalvi by name, invoked the -protection of Catherine de Médicis. The Queen-Mother, while respecting -the decree of Parliament, recommended the young compatriot to the -Provost's particular care. De Bourgueil accordingly lodged him in his -own house, where Gonsalvi was soon on intimate terms with the family. -One night he eloped with the Provost's wife. Madame had contrived to -possess herself of the keys of the prison, thinking that if she let -loose the whole three hundred prisoners, M. le Prévôt would have a good -night's work on hand, and the course would be clear for her lover and -herself. And so it resulted; for the Provost, faithful to his duty, -despatched horse and foot after his three hundred fugitives, and let -Madame and Gonsalvi take their way. - -The next day, an errant wife was missing from the Little Châtelet, but -at night the keys were turned as usual on the full contingent of three -hundred prisoners. It was the scandal of this affair, say MM. Alhoy and -Lurine, which decided the King to shift the Provost's residence from the -Châtelet to the Hôtel d'Hercule, wherein was presently installed -Nantouillet, "successeur de ce pauvre diable de Bourgueil." - -Nantouillet was not too well off, it would seem, in the Hôtel d'Hercule. -No sooner was he established there than he was bidden to prepare for the -visit of three Kings,—France, Poland, and Navarre,—who would do -themselves the pleasure of lunching with him. Nantouillet, who had just -declined to marry a cast-off mistress of the King of Poland, suspected -some scheme of vengeance on their Majesties' part; he could not, -however, refuse to spread his board for them. He spread it, and the -Kings came down and swept it bare. They swooped upon Nantouillet's -silver plate and sacked his coffers of fifty thousand francs. There was -a fierce fight in the Hôtel, but the Kings got away with the plunder. On -the following day, the First President of Parliament waited upon Charles -IX. and said that all Paris was shocked; and his Majesty in reply bade -him "not trouble himself about that." This _tableau moral_ of the period -is presented by several historians. - -With such examples in the seats of Royalty, one can feel little surprise -at the charges of venality, and worse, which were brought from time to -time against the Provosts. In the reign of Philippe le Long, a certain -wealthy citizen lay under sentence of death in the Châtelet. The Provost -Henri Caperel made him a private proposal of ransom, a bargain was -struck. Dives was set free, and the Provost hanged some obscure prisoner -in his stead. Provost Hugues de Cruzy is said to have trafficked openly -at the Châtelet in much the same way, Royalty itself sharing the booty -with him. Now and again, justice took her revenge; and both Henri -Caperel and Hugues de Cruzy finished on the gallows. The noble brigand, -highwayman, and cut-throat, Jourdain de Lisle, who led a numerous band -in the fourteenth century, bought the interest of the Provost of Paris; -and the Châtelet "refused to take cognisance of his eighteen crimes, the -least of which would have brought to an ignominious death any other -criminal." A new Provost had to be appointed before Jourdain de Lisle, -tied to the tail of a horse, could be dragged through the streets of -Paris to the public gallows. He had married a niece of Pope Jean XXII., -and when justice had been done, the curé of the church of Saint-Merri -wrote to Rome: "Scarcely had your Holiness's nephew been hanged, when, -with much pomp, we fetched him from the gibbet to our church, and there -buried him _honorablement et gratis_." - - ------- - -Ordinarily, the Châtelet relied for its defence upon the archers of the -Provost's guard, a reedy support when the mob turned out in force. It -was seized in 1320 by the _Pastoureaux_, a swarm of peasants who had -united themselves under two apostate priests, and who said they were -"going across the sea to combat the enemies of the faith and conquer the -Holy Land." To rescue some of their number who had been arrested and -thrown into the Châtelet, they marched on that place, broke open the -gaol, and effected a general delivery of the prisoners, as Madame de -Bourgueil was to do some two centuries later. - -Between the conflicting powers of the Châtelet, as represented by the -Provost of Paris, and the University, which was accountable only to the -ecclesiastical tribunals, and intensely jealous of any interference by -the secular arm, a long and bitter struggle was sustained. In 1308, -Provost Pierre Jumel hanged a young man for theft on the highway. -Unfortunately for Jumel, this was a scholar of the University, and the -clergy of Paris went in procession to the Châtelet and briefly harangued -the Provost: "Come out of that, Satan, accursed one! Acknowledge thy -sin, and seek pardon at the holy altar, or expect the fate of Dathan and -Abiram, whom the earth swallowed." While they were thus engaged, a -messenger came from the Louvre with the announcement that the King had -sacrificed his chief magistrate to the wrathful demands of the clergy -and University. For a like encroachment on the sacred privileges of the -University, Guillaume de Thignonville was degraded from his office of -Provost, led to the gallows, and there compelled to take down and kiss -the corpses of two students whom he had hanged for robbery. - -In 1330, Hugues Aubriot, in his capacity of Provost, lent the shelter of -the Châtelet to a party of Jews flying for their lives before the mob. -This service to the causes of humanity and public order renewed against -the Provost an ancient enmity of the clerics and University, by whom, in -the words of MM. Alhoy and Lurine, "it was determined that Aubriot -should be ruined." Condemned by the ecclesiastical tribunal "for the -crime of impiety and heresy," he was ordered to be "preached against and -publicly mitred in front of Notre-Dame." On his knees, he demanded -absolution of the bishop, and promised an offering of candles for his -iniquity in befriending the Jews. "His crimes were read aloud by the -Inquisitor of the Faith, and the bishop consigned him to perpetual -imprisonment, with the bread of sorrow and the water of affliction, as -an abettor of the Jewish infidelity, and a contemner of the Christian -faith." From that, the Provost descended to an _oubliette_ of the -Fort-l'Évêque. - - ------- - -The Fort-l'Évêque, in the Rue Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, was one of the -two prisons of the Bishop of Paris. Its _oubliettes_ were subterranean -dungeons, separated from one another by stout timbers. The prisoners, -attached to a common chain, were fastened to the wall by iron rings, in -such a manner that they could not approach one another. They never saw -their gaolers, and their meagre rations were handed in through a narrow -wicket in the door. Hugues Aubriot occupied his _oubliette_ for many -years. In the insurrection of the _Maillotins_ he was discovered by the -rioters and set free. In 1674, the Bishop's jurisdiction was reunited -with that of the Châtelet, but the prison of the Fort-l'Évêque was in -existence until 1780. - -Dulaure says that the penalties imposed by the episcopal court were -inflicted in various places, according to the gravity of the offence. -Sentences of hanging or burning were carried out beyond the precincts of -Paris; but if it were "a mere bagatelle of cutting off the culprit's -ears," justice was done at the Place du Trahoir. - - ------- - -In the middle of the seventeenth century, the Fort-l'Évêque was the -prison for "debtors and refractory comedians"; and about a hundred years -later, in 1765, it received the entire company of the Comédie-Française. -The episode is one of the oddest in the history of the House of Molière. -A second-rate member of the famous troupe, named Dubois, who had been -under medical treatment for some malady, refused to pay the doctor's -bill. Mademoiselle Clairon, the tragic actress, delicate on the point of -honour, summoned the rest of the company, and it was resolved to appeal -to M. de Richelieu, _gentilhomme de la chambre_. This functionary -treated it as "an affair of vagabonds," and told the company to settle -it amongst themselves. Dubois, accordingly, was put out of the troupe. -His daughter carried her father's grievance and her own charms (_elle -met en œuvre tous ses charmes_) to the Duc de Fronsac, through whose -intervention she succeeded in forcing for Dubois the doors of the -Comédie-Française. But the company were resolved not to act with him -again, and put a sudden stop to the performances of that very successful -piece, the _Siège de Calais_. De Sartines, of the police, now came -forward in the pretended interests of the public, and ordered the arrest -of Dauberval, Lekain, Molé, Brisard, Mademoiselle Clairon, and others of -the company. The public, however, were on the side of the players, and -Mademoiselle Clairon and her fellows had a semi-royal progress to the -Fort-l'Évêque; roses and rhetoric were showered on them, and _les plus -nobles dames de Paris_ disputed the honour of attending the tragédienne -to the threshold of the prison. Their captivity lasted, nevertheless, -for five and twenty days; but the final victory was with the players, -for Dubois was dismissed with a pension, and appeared no more on the -stage of the Théâtre Français. - - ------- - -Fêted every day in her chamber in the ecclesiastical prison—for there -was scarcely question of an _oubliette_ in her case,—receiving the -visits of noblemen and dames of fashion, artists, wits, and poets, -Mademoiselle Clairon had small leisure to bethink her that, under the -litter of flowers pressed by her dainty feet, lay the bones of whole -generations of victims of the church's tyranny; victims of those too -familiar charges of magic, heresy, and sacrilege. - -Yet (I quote again from MM. Alhoy and Lurine) had she in the still night -lent a listening ear to those grey walls, the wailing murmurs of the -phantoms of Fort-l'Évêque might have chilled her heart:— - - "We expiated in the _oubliettes_ of the Fort-l'Évêque, under the - reign of Francis I., the wrong of believing in God without believing - also in the infallibility of the Pope. Look ... there is blood on - our shrouds!" - - "We are two poor Augustine monks. They accused us, in Charles VI.'s - time, of being idolaters, invokers of evil spirits, utterers of - profane words. They accused us of making a pact with the powers - below; our only crime was believing that our science might heal the - madness of the King. Look ... there is blood on our shrouds!" - - "I am the sorcerer of the château of Landon. I promised an Abbé of - Citeaux to find, by magic, a sum of money that had been stolen from - him. Alas! it was a dear jest for me; torture, and death on the - Place de Grève. Look ... there is blood upon my shroud!" - - "I am a poor madman. I thought that heaven had given me the glorious - mission of sustaining on earth the servants of Jesus Christ. I went - humbly to the bishop and said: The envoy of God salutes you! They - brought me here to an _oubliette_, and I left it only with the - headsman. Look ... there is blood on my shroud!" - - ------- - -The factions of the Armagnacs and the Bourguignons cost Paris a river of -blood in the early years of the fifteenth century, and the massacre of -the Armagnacs in May-August, 1418, was a terrible affair. On the first -day, five hundred and twenty-two were put to the sword by the -Bourguignons in the streets of the capital. Every Armagnac, or suspected -Armagnac, was laid hold of, and the prisons overflowed with the -captives. The Bourguignons assailed the Châtelet, "and the threshold of -the prison became the scaffold of fifteen hundred unfortunates." The -attack upon the Châtelet was renewed by the Bourguignons in August; and -the Provost of Paris, powerless to check or even to stem their fury, -bade them at length "Do what they would": _Mes amis, faites_ _ce qu'il -vous plaira_. This time the prisoners organised a defence, and a regular -siege began. On the north side of the fortress was a lofty terrace, -crowning the wall, so to say, and running the length of the prison. Here -the imprisoned Armagnacs threw up barricades, but the Bourguignons -reared scaling-ladders, and made light of climbing the walls, sixty feet -in height. The attack on the one side and the defence on the other were -long, bloody, and desperate; but the advantage was with the assailants. -Foiled at this point and that, they fired the prison; and where the -flames did not penetrate, they hacked their way in, and drove their game -to take refuge on the heights. As the fire soared upwards, the Armagnacs -flung themselves over the walls, and were caught upon the pikes of the -Burgundians, "who finished them with axe and sword." - - ------- - -The name of Louis XI., which is writ large in the histories of the -Bastille and the Dungeon of Vincennes, attaches to one curious episode -in the history of the Châtelet. In 1477, on the day of the festival of -Saint Denis, Louis "took the singular fancy of giving their liberty" to -the prisoners of the Great and Little Châtelet. A chronicler of this -fact, evidently puzzled, "hastens to add" that at that epoch the two -Châtelets "held merely robbers, assassins, and vagabonds. Not even to -honour the memory of Saint Denis could Louis bring himself to liberate -his political prisoners in Vincennes and the Bastille." It was in Louis -XI.'s reign that one Chariot Tonnelier, a hosier turned brigand, lying -in the Châtelet on a score of charges, and dreading lest the Question -should weaken him into betrayal of his companions, snatched a knife from -a guard at the door of the torture chamber, and deliberately cut his -tongue out. - - ------- - -The Fort-l'Évêque and the Little Châtelet were suppressed in 1780, in -virtue of an _ordonnance_ of Louis XVI., countersigned by Necker; and -the prisoners were transferred to La Force. The buildings, which were -even then in a state of ruin, were thrown down two years later. The -Great Châtelet existed as a prison for another decade, and the fortress -itself was not demolished until 1802-4. A triumphal column replaced the -ancient dungeon of the Provosts of Paris. - -[Illustration] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration] - - - - - CHAPTER V. - - THE TEMPLE. - - -When they came to Paris in the twelfth century, the Templars obtained -leave to settle in the Marshes, whose baleful exhalations cost the town -a plague or two every year. In no long time they had completely -transformed that dismal and pestilential swamp. Herculean labours -witnessed as their outcome oaks, elms, and beeches growing where the -rotten ooze had bred but reeds and osiers. Vast buildings, too, arose as -if by magic, with towers and turrets protecting them, drawbridges, -battlemented walls, and trenches. The principal tower of the pile -enclosed the treasure and arsenal of the Order, and four smaller towers -or turrets served as a prison for those who had transgressed the stark -monastic rules. On the broad terrace of the Temple three hundred men had -space for exercise at cross-bow and halberd. - -Philip III. bestowed a royal recompense on the laborious monks who had -reclaimed those miasmatic marshes and given new means of defence to the -capital; and towards the close of the thirteenth century the Templars -had become an extraordinary power in France. In Paris they exercised -large justiciary rights, and had their gallows standing without the -Temple walls. They were concerned in all enterprises, civil, political, -and military; their sovereignty was such that princes had to reckon with -them, on pain of contact with the monkish steel. They had great -monopolies of grain, and owned some of the richest lands in the kingdom; -they touched the revenues of from eight to ten thousand manors. The -Templars guarded at need the towns, treasures, and archives of royalty; -and kings, popes, and nobles were their visitors and guests. - -The fortress dwelling of the Temple which had sprung fairy-like from the -foul marshes of Paris shone with a splendour above that of the royal -residence. Twenty-four columns of silver, carved and chased, sustained -the audience-chamber of the grand master; and the chapter-hall, paved in -mosaic, and enriched with woodwork in cedar of Lebanon, contained sixty -huge vases of solid gold and a veritable armoury of Arabian, Moorish, -and Turkish weapons, chiselled, damascened, and crusted with precious -stones. The private chamber of every knight of the Order was -distinguished by some particular object of beauty; whilst the chambers -of the officers and commanders were stored with riches "so that they -were a wonder to behold." - -How great a gulf separated the wealthy and powerful Templars of Paris -from those "poor brothers of the Temple who rode two on one horse, lived -frugally, without wives or children, had no goods of their own, and who, -when they were not taking the field against the infidels, were employed -in mending their weapons and the harness of their horses, or in pious -exercises prescribed for them by their chief." - -The first institution of the Order of the Temple dates from the year -1118, when "certain brave and devout gentlemen" obtained from King -Baudouin III. "the noble favour of guarding the approaches to -Jerusalem." The Council of Troyes, in 1128, confirmed the religious and -military Order of the Templars. The knights clothed themselves in long -white robes adorned with a red cross; and the standard of the Order, -called the _Beaucèant_, was white and black, for an emblem of life and -death,—death for the infidels and life for the Christians of the Holy -Land. Bravery in battle was almost an article of their faith; no Templar -would fly from three opponents. - -In the day of their military and political power, the Templars of France -acknowledged none but the authority of the grand master of the Order, -and treated with royalty as between power and power. Up to the reign of -Philippe le Bel, the Kings of France were little more than courtiers of -the Temple, Royalty knocked humbly at those august, defiant portals, for -leave to deposit within them its treasures and its charters, or to -solicit a loan from the golden coffers of the knights. Not so, however, -Philippe le Bel. - -This was the sovereign who, in 1307, broke the power of the Knights -Templars of France. The act of accusation which he flung at the Order -proscribed its members as "ravening wolves," "a perfidious and -idolatrous society, whose works, nay, whose very words soil the earth -and infect the air." The last grand master, Jacques de Molay, seized by -the King's Inquisitor, passed through the torments of the torture -chamber, and thence to the torments of the stake. The Knights of the -Temple in their turn, loaded with chains, were led before the -Inquisitor, Guillaume de Paris, to answer his charges of heresy and -idolatry. The Templars were pursued through all the States of Europe, -the Pope encouraging the hue and cry. Jacques de Molay, and his -companion in misfortunes, Gui, Dauphin of Auvergne, were burned alive in -Paris; and the persecution of the Templars lasted for six years. Their -Order was abolished, and most of their wealth was bestowed by Philippe -upon the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. - -The prison of the Temple became a prison of the State; and the Temple -and the Louvre were the forerunners of the Bastille. The Dukes of -Aquitaine and Brabant were confined in the Temple under Philippe V. and -Philippe de Valois, the Counts of Dammartin and Flanders under King -John. Four sovereigns, indeed, Charles VII., Louis XI., Charles VIII., -and Louis XII., seemed to have forgotten the dungeon which the Templars -had bequeathed them (they might well have done so, since Mediæval Paris -had its prisons at every turn); and the cells and chambers in the great -tower of the Temple remained closed,—to be opened no more until after -the 10th of August, 1792. - -But there were social passages of interest in the history of this famous -fastness, and it was not unfitting that Francis I., the magnificent -monarch of the Renaissance, should repair the palace of the Templars, -restore those historic ruins, re-establish the spreading gardens, gild -afresh those illustrious halls,—re-create, in a word, the once brilliant -dwelling of the Chevaliers of the Cross: in 1540, the Temple became the -sumptuous abode of the Grand Priors of France. - -In the last years of the seventeenth century, Philippe de Vendôme, -prince of the blood and knight of Malta, was named Grand Prior of the -Temple. He would have his priory worthy of the gallant and graceful -Court of the Palais-Royal; and the handsomest and most amiable of -ladies, and the finest and gayest of wits were bidden to his historic -suppers. The oaks that had shadowed the cross of Jacques de Molay lent -their shelter now to "all the gods of Olympus," summoned within the -green enclosure of the Temple by the lively invocations of La Fare and -de Chaulieu. - -In the eighteenth century, this same enclosure had a population of four -thousand souls, divided into three distinct classes. There was first the -house of the Grand Prior, the dignitaries of the Order, and certain -nobles; then, a numerous body of workers of all grades; and lastly, a -rather heterogeneous collection of debtors who were able to elude their -creditors within these precincts, in virtue of a Mediæval -prescript—which justice ceased to respect in 1779. - -At this epoch, the Government of Louis XVI.—as if with a presentiment of -what the Temple was shortly to become for the King of France—ordered the -demolition of the old fortress of the Templars. But the destroyers of -1779 overthrew only a portion of the tower; the dungeon itself remained, -to be witness of a royal agony. - -[Illustration: THE TEMPLE PRISON.] - -See, then, at length, after the revolution of the 10th of August, Louis -XVI. and Marie Antoinette prisoners in the prison of the Temple! Marie -Antoinette, most imprudent and most amiable, most unfortunate and most -calumniated of women; Louis XVI., poor honest gentleman, whose passive -intelligence drew from Turgot this prophetic word: "Sire, a weak prince -can make choice only between the musket of Charles IX. and the scaffold -of Charles I." The King was without force and without prestige; the -Queen was incapable either of giving or of receiving a lesson in -royalty. - -Taciturn, and subject to sudden fits of temper; as much embarrassed by -his wife as by his crown, Louis divided his time between hunting and -those little harmless hobbies which showed that, had the fates desired, -he might have made an excellent artisan. As for Marie Antoinette, what -rôle was there for her, the victim of perpetual suspicion, in the midst -of a tremendous political reaction? It was reproached against her, not -without reason, that she could never fashion for herself the conscience -of a queen. She felt herself a woman, young and beautiful; she forgot -that she was also the partner of a throne. Full of personal charm, -liking to toy with elegant pleasures, wedded to a man so little made for -her, surrounded by gallant courtiers whom her beauty and graces -intoxicated, Marie Antoinette had her share of ardent emotions, and more -than once she was at last forgetful of her pride, _cette pudeur des -reines_; but her position at the Court of France was so false and so -complicated that, let her have done what she would, she might not have -escaped the abyss towards which her own feet impelled her. - -To the Temple, then, they were hurried, Louis and his family, on the -14th of August, 1792. The tower of the fortress was allotted to them, -and a portion of the palace and all the adjacent buildings were -levelled, so that the dungeon proper was completely isolated. The space -of garden reserved for their daily exercise was enclosed between lofty -walls. Louis occupied the first floor of the prison and his family the -second. Every casement was protected by thick iron bars, and the outer -windows were masked in such a manner that the prisoners obtained -scarcely a glimpse of the world beyond their cage. Six wickets defended -the staircase which led to the King's apartment; so low and narrow that -it was necessary to squeeze through them in a stooping posture. Each -door was of iron, heavily barred, and was kept locked at all hours. -After Louis' imprisonment, a seventh wicket with a door of iron was -constructed at the top of the stairs, which no one could open -unassisted. The first door of Louis' chamber was also of iron; so here -were eight solid barriers betwixt the King and his friends in -freedom,—not counting the dungeon walls. A guard of some three hundred -men watched night and day around the Temple. - -These costly preparations on his Majesty's account (great sums, it is -said, were spent on them) were not completed in a day, and in the -meantime the Royal family inhabited that portion of the palace of the -Temple which had been left standing. In his daily walks in the garden, -King Louis looked on at the building of his last earthly mansion, and -must have noticed the desperate haste with which the builders worked! In -the middle of September, he passed into the shades of the dungeon. - -Once locked in there, he was forbidden the use of pens, ink, and paper; -no writing materials were allowed him until the national convention had -commanded his appearance at the bar. - -The large chamber assigned to the King was partitioned into four -compartments; the first served as a dining-room, the second was Louis' -bed-chamber, and his valet slept in the third; the fourth was a little -cabinet contrived in a turret, to which the royal prisoner was fond of -retiring. His bed-chamber was hung in yellow and decently furnished. A -little clock on the chimney-piece bore on its pedestal the words -"Lepante, Clockmaker for the King." When the convention had decreed -France a republic, Louis' gaolers scratched out the last three words of -the inscription. They hung in his dining-room the declaration of the -rights of the Constitution of 1792, at the foot of which ran the legend: -"First year of the Republic." This was their announcement to Louis that -he had fallen from his king's estate. - -Like a murderer of these days in the condemned hold, Louis had two -guards with him night and day. They passed the day in his bed-chamber, -following him to the dining-room when he took his meals; and in the -dining-room they slept at night, after locking the doors of the -apartments. - -Their captivity was full of indignity for the illustrious unfortunates, -whose guards were incessantly suspicious. If Louis addressed a question -during the night to the valet who slept close to him, the answer must be -spoken loudly. The members of the family were not allowed to whisper in -their conversations, and if at dinner Louis, or his wife, or his sister -chanced to speak low in asking anything of the servant who waited on -them, one of the guards at the door cried, "_Parlez plus haut!_" - -Apart from suspense as to the future, a terrible dreariness must have -marked those days in the Temple. The early morning was given by the King -to his private devotions, after which he read the office which the -Chevaliers of the Order of the Saint-Esprit were accustomed to recite -daily. His piety was not without its inconveniences to himself. The -table was furnished with meat on Fridays, but Louis dipped a slice of -bread in his wine glass with the remark: "_voilà mon diner!_" To the -gentle suggestion that such extreme abstinence might be dispensed with, -he replied: "I do not trouble your conscience; why trouble mine? You -have your practices, and I have my own; let each hold to those which he -believes the best." - -His devotions engaged the King until nine o'clock, at which hour his -family joined him in the dining-room,—that is to say, during the period -in which it was still permitted him to communicate with them. He sat -with them at breakfast, eating nothing himself; he had made it a rule in -prison to fast until the dinner-hour. After breakfast the King took his -son for lessons in Latin and geography, and whilst Marie Antoinette -taught their daughter, sister Elizabeth plied her needle. The children -had an hour's play at mid-day, and at one o'clock the family assembled -for dinner. The table was always well supplied, but Louis ate little and -drank less, and the Queen took nothing but water with her food. - -After dinner the parents amused their children again as best they could, -round games at the table being the favourite recreation. To these poor -little pleasures succeeded reading and conversation, and at nine the -prisoners supped. After supper, Louis took the boy to his bed-chamber, -where a little bed was placed for him beside his own. He heard him -recite his prayers, and saw him to bed. Then he returned to reading, and -fell to his own prayers at eleven. When the doomed King, husband, and -father was denied the solace of his family, the time that he had devoted -to them was given almost wholly to his books. The Latins were his -favourite authors, and a day seldom passed on which he had not conned -afresh some pages of Tacitus, Livy, Seneca, Horace, Virgil, or Terence. -In French he was especially fond of books of travel. He read the news of -the day as long as he was supplied with it, but his not unnatural -interest in the affairs of revolutionary France seemed to trouble his -gaolers, and the newspapers were withdrawn from him. Thrown back upon -his books, he studied more than ever, and on the eve of his death he -summed up the volumes he had read through during the five months and -seven days of his captivity in the Temple: the number was two hundred -and fifty-seven. - -Towards the end he suffered some brusque interruptions of his -ignominious solitude. Three times he awoke to find a new valet in his -bedroom. Chamilly's place in this capacity was taken by Hue, and Hue was -succeeded by Cléry, who was all but a stranger to the King. Chamilly and -Hue barely came off with their lives in the prisons to which they were -removed from the Temple. The abandoned King took shock upon shock with -not a little fortitude. He was skimming his Tacitus one day when the -cannibals of September stopped under his window to brandish on a pike -the bleeding and disfigured head of the Princess Lamballe. - -Severely as they had guarded him, his gaolers began to double their -precautions. The concierge of the dungeon, the chief warder,—all, in a -word, who were specially charged with the keeping of the King, were -themselves constituted prisoners of the Temple. Did you wait on Louis, -or were you suffered to approach him, your person was searched minutely -at the governor's discretion. Not the commonest instrument of steel or -iron was allowed to be carried by anyone who went near the King: Cléry -was deprived of his penknife. Every article of food passed into the -prison for Louis' table was rigorously examined; and the prison cook had -to taste every dish, under the eyes of the guard, before it was -permitted to leave the kitchen. Never was suicide more strenuously -denied to a man who had no thought of it. - -The prisoners themselves were not spared the indignity of the search. -Louis, his wife, and his sister had their cupboards, drawers, and -closets ransacked; they were spoiled of knives, scissors, and -curling-irons. Louis' pains were prolonged to the end. The courage he -had mustered for death, and it was a very commendable portion, failed -him a moment at the last. In his confessor's hands, on the morning of -his death, whilst the carriage was waiting for him in the courtyard, he -halted in his prayers. He had, as he thought, caught a note of tears on -the other side of the partition, and he dreaded a second last embrace. -His ear strained at the wall, whilst the priest's hand was on his head. -But there was no weeping there, for Marie Antoinette was on her knees -under her crucifix; and Louis went down to his carriage. There is no -need to tell again the last scene of all.... - -Marie Antoinette was removed to the Conciergerie, which she quitted only -for the scaffold. After the parents had passed under the knife, the -young dauphin and his sister Marie Thérèse continued in the prison of -the Temple "the sorrowful Odyssey of the Royalty of France." The -daughter of Marie Antoinette must quit the Temple to go into exile, the -son of Louis XVI. must die wretchedly in the prison of his father. The -"education" of the poor little dauphin was entrusted to Simon the -shoemaker, whose wife, it is said, used to teach him ribald songs. He -had a charming face and a crooked back, "as if life were already too -heavy for him." In the hands of those singular preceptors he came to -lose nearly all his moral faculties, and the sole sentiment which he -cherished was that of gratitude, "not so much for the good that was done -him—which was small—as for the ills that were spared him. Without -uttering a word, he would precipitate himself before his guards, press -their hands, and kiss the hems of their coats."[13] After the retreat of -Simon, who had not used his gentle captive over-tenderly, the dauphin's -imprisonment was somewhat kinder, though he continued to be watched as -closely as before. His gaoler one day asked him: "What would you do to -Simon, little master, if you were to become king?" "I would have him -punished as an example," answered the young Capet. He had had no news of -Simon for two years, and did not know that the ungentle shoemaker had -perished on the scaffold.[14] - -Footnote 13: - - Nougaret. - -Footnote 14: - - Idem. - -The little dauphin's own untimely death, while still a prisoner in the -Temple, induced more than one audacious adventurer to seek to assume the -mask of Louis XVI's son. Hervagaut, Mathurin Bruneau, and more recently -the Duc de Normandie essayed in turn the rôle of pretender, "draped in -the shroud of Louis XVII." The first-named, condemned in 1802 to four -years' imprisonment, died ten years later in Bicêtre. The second, tried -at Rouen in 1818, received a sentence of seven years; and the Duc de -Normandie ended his days in Holland. - -The Convention seems to have given no political prisoners to the tower -of the Temple, which was again a prison of State under the Directory, -the Consulate, and the Empire. - -It was the Directory which consigned to the Temple the celebrated -English Admiral, Sir Sidney Smith, M.P. for Rochester, who had defended -Acre against Napoleon, and who was arrested at Havre "on the point of -setting fire to the port." He was transferred to the Temple from the -Abbey, the order of transfer bearing the signature of Barras. - -On the 10th of May, 1798, certain friends of the Admiral, disguised in -French uniform, presented to the concierge of the Temple a document -purporting to be an order of the Minister of War for the removal of Sir -Sidney to another prison. The concierge fell into the trap, and bade -adieu to his prisoner, who, a few days later, found himself safe in -London. - -The mysterious conspiracy of the Camp de Grenelle furnished the Temple -with a batch of one hundred and thirty-five prisoners; and the _coup -d'État_ which swept them in proscribed also the editors of twenty-two -French journals. During the next eight years the most distinguished of -the "enemies of the Republic" whose names were entered on the Temple -register were Lavalette; Caraccioli, the Ambassador of the King of -Naples to the Court of Louis XVI.; Hottinguer, the banker of the Rue de -Provence; Hyde de Neuville; the journalist Bertin; Toussaint-Louverture, -the hero of Saint-Domingue, who had written to Buonaparte: "_Le premier -homme des noirs au premier homme des blancs_"; the two Polignacs, the -Duc de Rivière, George Cadoudal, Moreau, and Pichegru. - -General Pichegru, arrested on the 28th of February, 1804, "for having -forgotten in the interests of the English and the Royalists what he owed -to the French Republic," was found dead in his cell on the 6th of April -following, having strangled himself with a black silk cravat. Moreau, -liberated by the First Consul, took service in the ranks of the enemy, -and was slain by a French bullet before Dresden, in 1813. - -Toussaint-Louverture's detention in the Temple is an episode which -reflects little credit upon the military and political history of the -Consulate. Certainly the expedition of Saint-Domingue, under the command -of General Leclerc, Napoleon's brother-in-law, makes a poor page in the -annals of that period. After having received Toussaint-Louverture's -submission, Leclerc, afraid of the great negro's influence, made him a -prisoner by the merest trick, and despatched him to France. Confined at -first in the Temple, he was afterwards removed to the fort of Joux, -where he died in April, 1803. - -Five years after this, in June, 1808, the prisoners of the Temple were -transferred by Fouché's order to the Dungeon of Vincennes. Amongst them -was General Malet, that bold conspirator who, in 1812, "_devait porter -la main sur la couronne de l'Empereur_." - -The tower of the Temple was demolished in 1811, and, four years later, -Louis XVIII. instituted, on the ruins of the ancient dwelling of the -Templars and the prison of Louis XVI., a congregation of nuns, who had -for their Superior a daughter of Prince de Condé. - -[Illustration] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration] - - - - - CHAPTER VI. - - BICÊTRE. - - -"Where there are monks," exclaimed brusquely the authors of _Les Prisons -de Paris_, "there are prisoners." The folds of the priestly garb -concealed a place of torment which monastic justice, with a grisly -humour, named a _Vade in Pace_; the last bead of the rosary grazed the -first rings of a chain which bore the bloody impress of the sworn -tormentor. At Bicêtre, as at the Luxembourg, ages ago, big-bellied -cenobites sang and tippled in the cosy cells piled above the dungeons of -the church. - -Bicêtre—more anciently Bissestre—is a corrupt form of Vincestre, or -Winchester, after John, Bishop of Winchester, who is thought to have -built the original château, and who certainly held it in the first -years of the thirteenth century. It was famous amongst the -pleasure-houses of the Duc de Berri, who embellished it with windows -of glass, which at that epoch were only beginning to be an ornament of -architecture—"objects of luxury," says Villaret, "reserved exclusively -for the mansions of the wealthiest seigneurs." In one of the rather -frequent "popular demonstrations" in the Paris of the early fifteenth -century, these "objects of luxury" were smashed, and little of the -château remained except the bare walls. It was rebuilt by the Duc de -Berri, a noted amateur of books, and was by him presented to an order -of monks in 1416. - -A colony of Carthusians under St. Louis; John of Winchester under -Philippe-Auguste; Amédée le Rouge, Count of Savoy, under Charles VI.; -the Bourguignons and the Armagnacs in the fifteenth century; the canons -of Notre-Dame de Paris under Louis XI.; the robbers and _bohèmiens_ in -the sixteenth century; the Invalides under Cardinal Richelieu, and the -foundlings of St. Vincent de Paul,—all these preceded at Bicêtre the -vagabonds, the _bons-pauvres_, the epileptics and other diseased, the -lunatics, and "all prisoners and captives." In becoming an asylum and -hospital, in a word, Bicêtre became also one of the most horrible of the -countless prisons of Paris; it grew into dreadful fame as "the Bastille -of the canaille and the bourgeoisie." - -The enormous numbers of the poor, the hordes of sturdy mendicants who -"demanded alms sword in hand," and the soldiers who took the road when -they could get no pay, became one of the chief scourges of Paris. Early -in the seventeenth century it was sought to confine them in the various -hospitals or houses of detention in the Faubourg Saint-Victor, but under -the disorders and weaknesses of the Government these establishments soon -collapsed. Parliament issued decree after decree; all strollers and -beggars were to be locked up in a prison or asylum specially -appropriated to them; the buildings were commenced and large sums of -money were spent on them, but they were never carried to completion. In -course of time the magistrates took the matter in hand, dived into old -records, but drew no counsel thence, for the evil, albeit not new, was -of extraordinary proportions; went to the King for a special edict, and -procured one "which ordered the setting up of a general hospital and -prescribed the rules for its governance." The château of Bicêtre and the -Maison de la Salpêtrière were ceded for the purpose. - -Children and women went to the Salpêtrière; at Bicêtre were placed men -with no visible means of subsistence, "widowers," beggars, feeble or -sturdy, and "young men worn out by debauchery." Before taking these last -in hand, the doctors "were accustomed to order them a whipping." - -This destiny of Bicêtre is pretty clear, and as hospital and asylum -combined it should, under decent conduct, have played a useful part in -the social economy of Paris. But the absolutism of that age had its own -notions as to the proper functions of "hospitals," and the too familiar -_ordres du roi_, and the not less familiar _lettres de cachet_ (which -Mirabeau had not yet come forward to denounce), were presently in hot -competition with the charitable _ordonnances_ of the doctors. Madness -was a capital new excuse for vengeance in high places, and the cells set -apart for cases of mental disease were quickly tenanted by "luckless -prisoners whose wrong most usually consisted in being strictly right." -Bicêtre, it must be admitted, did the thing conscientiously, and with -the best grace in the world. Rational individuals were despatched there -whom, according to the authors of _Les Prisons de Paris_, Bicêtre -promptly transformed into imbeciles and raging maniacs. - -Indeed the "philanthropists" and the criminologists of the early part of -this century need not have taxed their imaginations for any scheme of -cellular imprisonment. The system existed in diabolical perfection at -Bicêtre. That much-abused "depôt" of indigent males, "widowers," and -young rakes had an assortment of dark cells which realised _à merveille_ -the conditions of the vaunted programme of the penitentiary—isolation -and the silence of the tomb. Buried in a _cabanon_ or black hole of -Bicêtre, the prisoner endured a fate of life in death; he was as one -dead, who lived long, _tête-à-tête with God and his conscience_. If a -human sound penetrated to him, it was the sobbing moan of some companion -in woe. - -There was a subterranean Bicêtre, of which at this day only the dark -memory survives. For a dim idea of this, one has to stoop and peer in -fancy into a far-reaching abyss or pit, partitioned into little tunnels: -in each little tunnel a chain riven to the wall; at the end of the chain -a man. Now there were men in these hellish tunnels who had been guilty -of crimes, but far oftener they stifled slowly the lives or the -intelligences, or both, of men who had done no crimes at all. Innocent -or guilty, Bicêtre in the long run had one way with all its guests; and -when the prisoners and their wits had definitely parted company, the -governor of the prison effected a transfer with his colleague the -administrator of the asylum. It was expeditious and simple, and no one -asked questions or called for a report. - -It is on record, nevertheless, that existence in underground Bicêtre was -a degree less insupportable than a sojourn in the _cabanons_. Hear the -strenuous greet of Latude, with its wonted vividness of detail: - - "When the wet weather began, or when it thawed in the winter, water - streamed from all parts of my cell. I was crippled with rheumatism, - and the pains I had from it were such that I was sometimes whole - weeks without getting up.... In cold weather it was even worse. The - 'window' of the cell, protected by an iron grating, gave on the - corridor, the wall of which was pierced exactly opposite at the - height of ten feet. Through this aperture (garnished, like my own - window, with iron bars), I received a little air and a glimmer of - light, but the same aperture let in both snow and rain. I had - neither fire nor artificial light, and the rags of the prison were - my only clothing. I had to break with my wooden shoe the ice in my - pail, and then to suck morsels of ice to quench my thirst. I stopped - up the window, but the stench from the sewers and the tunnels came - nigh to choke me; I was stung in the eyes, and had a loathsome - savour in the mouth, and was horribly oppressed in the lungs. The - eight and thirty months they kept me in that noisome cell, I endured - the miseries of hunger, cold, and damp.... The scurvy that had - attacked me showed itself in a lassitude which spread through all my - members; I was presently unable either to sit or to rise. In ten - days my legs and thighs were twice their proper size; my body was - black; my teeth, loosened in their sockets, were no longer able to - masticate. Three full days I fasted; they saw me dying, and cared - not a jot. Neighbours in the prison did this and that to have me - speak to them; I could not utter a word. At length they thought me - dead, and called out that I should be removed. I was in sooth at - death's gate when the surgeon looked in on me and had me fetched to - the infirmary."[15] - -Footnote 15: - - _Mémoires._ - -Whether Masers de Latude existed, or was but a creature projected on -paper by some able enemy of La Pompadour, those famous and titillating -_Mémoires_ are excellent documents—all but unique of their kind—of the -prisons of bygone France. If the question be of the Bastille, of the -Dungeon of Vincennes, of Charenton, or of Bicêtre, these pungent pages, -with a luxuriance and colour of realistic detail not so well nor so -plausibly sustained by any other pen, are always pat and complete to the -purpose. To compare great things with small, it is as unimportant to -inquire who wrote _Shakespeare_ as to seek to know who was the author of -the _Mémoires_ of Latude. It is necessary only to feel certain that the -writer of this extraordinary volume was as intimately acquainted with -the prisons he describes as Mirabeau was with the Dungeon of Vincennes, -or Cardinal de Retz with the château de Nantes. His book (an epitome of -what men might and could and did endure under the absolute monarchy, -when his rights as an individual were the least secure of a citizen's -possessions) is the main thing, and the sole thing; the name and -identity of the author are not now, if they ever were, of the most -infinitesimal consequence. - - ------- - -A fine sample of the work of Bicêtre, considered as a machine for the -manufacture of lunatics, is offered in the person of that interesting, -unhappy genius, Salomon de Caus. A Protestant Frenchman, he lived much -in England and Germany, and at the age of twenty he was already a -skilled architect, a painter of distinction, and an engineer with ideas -in advance of his time. He was in the service of the Prince of Wales in -1612, and of the Elector Palatine, at Heidelberg, 1614-20. In 1623 he -returned to live and work in France, _dans sa patrie et pour sa patrie_. -He became engineer and architect to the King. - -Eight years before his return to France, De Caus had published at -Frankfort his _Raison des Forces Mouvantes_, a treatise in which he -described "an apparatus for forcing up water by a steam fountain," which -differs only in one particular from that of Della Porta. The apparatus -seems never to have been constructed, but Arago, relying on the -description, has named De Caus the inventor of the steam engine. - -It is not, however, with the inventive genius that we are concerned, but -with the ill-starred lover of Marion Delorme. The minister Particelli -took De Caus one day to the _petit lever_ of the brilliant and beautiful -Aspasia of the Place Royale. Particelli, one of the most prodigal of her -adorers, wanted De Caus to surpass, in the palace of Mademoiselle -Delorme, the splendours he had achieved in the palace of the Prince of -Wales. "At my charge, look you, Monsieur Salomon, and spare nothing! -Scatter with both hands gold, silver, colours, marble, bronze, and -precious stuffs—what you please. Imagine, seek, invent,—and count on -me!" - -But Monsieur Salomon had no sooner seen the goddess of Particelli than -he too was lifted from the earth and borne straight into the empyrean. -At the moment of leaving her, when she suffered him to kiss her hand, -and let him feel the darts of desire which shot from those not too -prudish eyes, Salomon de Caus "_devint amoureux à en perdre la tête_." -Thenceforth, in brief, - - "His chief good and market of his time" - -was to obey and anticipate every wild and frivolous fantasy of Marion -Delorme. Michel Particelli's hyperbolical commission should be fulfilled -for him beyond his own imaginings! He threw down the palace of Marion -and built another in its place. The new palace was to cede in nothing to -the Louvre or Saint-Germain. With his own hands Salomon de Caus -decorated it; and then, at the bidding of his protector, Particelli, he -consented, _bon grè, mal grè_, to paint the picture of the divinity -herself. - -"Alone one morning with his delicious model," the distracted artist -flung brushes and palette from him, and cast himself at her feet. "_Mon -cœur se déchire, ma tête se perd.... Je deviens fou, je vous aime, et je -me meurs!_" It was a declaration of much in little, and Marion, a -_connaisseuse_ of such speeches, absolved and accepted him with a kiss. - -Installed by right of conquest in that Circean boudoir, which drew as a -magnet the wit and gallantry of Paris, Salomon stood sentinel at the -door "like a eunuch or a Cerberus." Brissac and Saint-Evremont received -the most Lenten entertainment, and the proposals of Cinq-Mars were -rejected. Marion was even persuaded to be not at home to Richelieu -himself. But the happy Salomon grew unhappy, and more unhappy. Every -moment he came with a sigh upon some souvenir, delicately equivocal, of -the _vie galante_ of his mistress; and when love began to feed upon the -venom of jealousy, his complacent goddess grew capricious, vexed, -irritated, and at length incensed. After that, she resolved coldly on -Salomon's betrayal. It was the fashion of the age to be cruel in one's -vengeance. Marion penned a note to Richelieu: - - "I want so much to see you again. I send with this the little key - which opens the little door.... You must forgive everything, and you - are not to be angry at finding here a most learned young man whom - the love of science and the science of love have combined to reduce - to a condition of midsummer madness. Does your friendship for me, to - say nothing of your respect for yourself, suggest any means of - ridding me instantly of this embarrassing lunatic? The poor devil - loves me to distraction. He is astonishingly clever, and has - discovered wonders—mountains that nobody else has seen, and worlds - that nobody else has imagined. He has all the talents of the Bible, - and another, the talent of making me the most miserable of women. - This genius from the moon, whom I commend to your Eminence's most - particular attention, is called Salomon de Caus." - -A missive of that colour, from a Marion Delorme to a Richelieu, was the -request polite for a _lettre de cachet_. Salomon de Caus was invited to -call upon the Cardinal. Behind his jealous passion for his mistress, -Salomon still cherished his passion for science, and he went hot-foot to -Richelieu with his hundred schemes for changing the face of the world, -with steam as the motive power. It must have been a curious interview. -At the end, Richelieu summoned the captain of his guard. - -"Take this man away." - -"Where, your Eminence?" - -"To what place are we sending our lunatics just now?" - -"To Bicêtre, your Eminence." - -"Just so! Ask admission for Monsieur at Bicêtre." So, from the meridian -of his glory, Salomon de Caus hastened to his setting, and at this point -he vanishes from history. Legend, not altogether legendary, shows him -once again. - -Some eighteen months or two years after he had been carried, "gagged and -handcuffed," to Bicêtre, it fell to Marion Delorme (in the absence of -her new lover Cinq-Mars) to do the honours of Paris for the Marquis of -Worcester. The marquis took a fancy to visit Bicêtre, which had even -then an unrighteous celebrity from one end of Europe to the other. As -they strolled through the _quartier des fous_ a creature made a spring -at the bars of his cell. - -"Marion—look, Marion! It is I! It is Salomon! I love you! Listen: I have -made a discovery which will bring millions and millions to France! Let -me out for God's sake! I will give you the moon and all the stars to set -me free, Marion!" - -"Do you know this man?" said Lord Worcester. - -"I am not at home in bedlam," said Marion, who on principle allowed no -corner to her conscience. - -"What is the discovery he talks of?" asked Lord Worcester of a warder. - -"He calls it steam, milord. They've all discovered something, milord." - -Lord Worcester went back to Bicêtre the next morning and was closeted -for an hour with the madman. At Marion Delorme's in the afternoon he -said: - -"In England we should not have put that man into a madhouse. Your -Bicêtre is not the most useful place. Who invented those cells? They -have wasted to madness as fine a genius as the age has known." - -Salamon de Caus died in Bicêtre in 1626. - - ------- - -Earlier than this, Bicêtre the asylum shared the evil renown of Bicêtre -the prison. To prisoners and patients alike popular rumour assigned an -equal fate. The first, it was said, were assassinated, the second were -"disposed of." Now and again the warders and attendants amused -themselves by organising a pitched battle between the "mad side" and the -"prison side"; the wounded were easily transferred to the infirmary, the -dead were as easily packed into the trench beneath the walls. - -The very name of Bicêtre—dungeon, madhouse, and _cloaca_ of obscene -infamies—became of dreadful import; not the Conciergerie, the Châtelet, -Fort-l'Évêque, Vincennes, nor the Bastille itself inspired the common -people and the bourgeoisie with such detestation and panic fear. The -general imagination, out-vieing rumour, peopled it with imps, evil -genii, sorcerers, and shapeless monsters compounded of men and beasts. -Mediæval Paris, at a loss for the origins of things, ascribed them to -the Fairies, the Devil, or Julius Cæsar. It was said that the Devil -alighted in Paris one night, and brought in chains to the "plateau de -Bicêtre" a pauper, a madman, and a prisoner, with which three -unfortunates he set agoing the prison on the one side and the asylum on -the other, to minister to the _menus plaisirs_ of the denizens of hell. -Such grim renown as this was not easily surpassed; but at the end of -Louis XIV.'s reign the common legend went a step farther, and said that -the Devil had now disowned Bicêtre! Rhymes sincere or satirical gave -utterance to the terror and abhorrence of the vulgar mind. - - ------- - -Throughout the whole of the eighteenth century, up to the time of the -Revolution, say MM. Alhoy and Lurine,[16] Bicêtre continued a treatment -which in all respects is not easily paralleled: the helot's lot and -labour for pauperism; the rod and worse for sickness of body and of -mind; the dagger or the ditch, upon occasion, for mere human misfortune. -Till the first grey glimmer of the dawn of prison reform, in the days of -Louis XVI, Bicêtre offered to "mere prisoners" the "sanctuary of a -lion's den," and lent boldly to king, minister, nobles, clergy, police, -and all the powers that were, the cells set apart for the mad as -convenient places for stifling the wits and consciences of the sane. - -Footnote 16: - - _Les Prisons de Paris._ - - ------- - -In 1789, Paris had thirty-two State prisons. Four years later, the -Terror itself was content with twenty-eight. One of the earliest acts of -that vexed body, the National Assembly, was to appoint a commission of -four of its members to the decent duty of visiting the prisons. The -commissioners chosen were Fréteau, Barrière, De Castellane, and -Mirabeau. Count Mirabeau at least—whose hot vagaries and the undying -spite of his father had passed him through the hands of nearly every -gaoler in France—had qualifications enough for the task! - -The commissioners found within the black walls of _ce hideux Bicêtre_ a -population of close upon three thousand creatures, including "paupers, -children, paralytics, imbeciles and lunatics." The administrative staff -of all degrees numbered just three hundred. The governor, knowing his -inferno, was not too willing to accord a free pass to the explorers, and -Mirabeau and his colleagues had to give him a taste of their authority -before he could be induced to slip the bolts of subterranean cells, -whose inmates "had been expiating twenty years the double crime of -poverty and courage," against whom no decree had been pronounced but -that of a _lettre de cachet_, or who had been involved, like the Prévôt -de Beaumont, in the crime of exposing some plot against the people's -welfare. Children were found in these cells chained to criminals and -idiots. - - ------- - -In April, 1792, Bicêtre gave admission to another set of commissioners. -This second was a visit of some mystery, not greatly noised, and under -cover of the night. It was not now a question of diving into moist and -sunless caverns for living proofs (in fetters and stinking rags) of the -hidden abuses of regal justice. The new commissioners came, quietly and -almost by stealth, to make the first official trial of the Guillotine. - -The invention of Dr. Guillotin (touching which he had first addressed -the Constituent Assembly in December, 1789: "With this machine of mine, -gentlemen, I shall shave off your heads in a twinkling, and you will not -feel the slightest pain") does not date in France as an instrument of -capital punishment until 1792; but under other names, and with other -accessories, Scotland, Germany, and Italy had known a similar -contrivance in the sixteenth century. In Paris, where sooner or later -everything finishes with a couplet, the newspapers and broadsheets, not -long after that midnight _essai_ at Bicêtre, began to overflow gaily -enough with topical songs (_couplets de circonstance_) in praise of the -Doctor and his "razor." Two fragmentary samples will serve:— - - Air—"Quand la Mer Rouge apparut." - - "C'est un coup que l'on reçoit - Avant qu'on s'en doute; - A peine on s'en aperçoit, - Car on n'y voit goutte. - Un certain ressort caché, - Tout à coup étant laché, - Fait tomber, ber, ber, - Fait sauter, ter, ter, - Fait tomber, - Fait sauter, - Fait voler la tête ... - C'est bien plus honnête." - - II. - - "Sur l'inimitable machine du Mèdecin Guillotin, propere à couper les - têtes, et dite de son nom Guillotine." - - Air—"Du Menuet d'Exaudet." - - "Guillotin, - Médecin - Politique, - Imagine un beau matin - Que pendre est inhumain - Et peu patriotique; - Aussitôt, - Il lui faut - Un supplice - Que, sans corde ni poteau, - Supprime du bourreau - L'office," etc. - -It was on the 17th of April, 1792, that proof was made of the first -guillotine—not yet famed through France as the nation's razor. Three -corpses, it is said (commodities easily procured at Bicêtre), were -furnished for the experiment, which Doctors Guillotine and Louis -directed. Mirabeau's physician and friend Cabanis was of the party, -and—a not unimportant assistant—Samson the headsman, with his two -brothers and his son. "The mere weight of the axe," said Cabanis, -"sheared the heads with the swiftness of a glance, and the bones were -clean severed (_coupés net_)" Dr. Louis recommended that the knife -should be given an oblique direction, so that it might cut saw-fashion -in its fall. The guillotine was definitely adopted; and eight days -later, the 25th of April, it settled accounts with an assassin named -Pelletier, who was the first to "look through the little window," and -"sneeze into the sack (_éternuer dans le sac_)." - - ------- - -Four months after the first trial of the "inimitable machine" Bicêtre -paid its tribute of blood to the red days of September. In Bicêtre, as -elsewhere in Paris, that Sunday, 2d of September, 1792, and the three -days that followed were long remembered. "All France leaps distracted," -says Carlyle, "like the winnowed Sahara waltzing in sand colonnades!" In -Paris, "huge placards" going up on the walls, "all steeples clangouring, -the alarm-gun booming from minute to minute, and lone Marat, the man -forbid," seeing salvation in one thing only—in the fall of "two hundred -and sixty thousand aristocrat heads." It was the beginning or presage of -the Terror. - -The hundred hours' massacre in the prisons of Paris, beginning on the -Sunday afternoon, may be reckoned with the hours of St. Bartholomew. -"The tocsin is pealing its loudest, the clocks inaudibly striking -three." The massacre of priests was just over at the Abbaye prison; and -there, and at La Force, and at the Châtelet, and the Conciergerie, in -each of these prisons the strangest court—which could not be called of -justice but of revenge—was hurriedly got together, and prisoner after -prisoner, fetched from his cell and swiftly denounced as a "royalist -plotter," was thrust out into a "howling sea" of _sans-culottes_ and -hewn to pieces under an arch of pikes and sabres. "Man after man is cut -down," says Carlyle; "the sabres need sharpening, the killers refresh -themselves from wine-jugs." Dr. Moore, author of the _Journal during a -Residence in France_, came upon one of the scenes of butchery, grew sick -at the sight, and "turned into another street." Not fewer than a -thousand and eighty-nine were slaughtered in the prisons. - -The carnage at Bicêtre, on the Paris outskirts, was on the Monday, and -here it seems to have been of longer duration and more terrible than -elsewhere. Narratives of this butchery are not all in harmony. -Prud'homme, author of the _Journal des Révolutions de Paris_, says that -the mob started for Bicêtre towards three o'clock, taking with them -seven pieces of cannon; that a manufactory of false paper-money -(_assignats_) was discovered in full swing in the prison, and that all -who were concerned in it were killed without mercy; that Lamotte, -husband of the "Necklace Countess," was amongst the prisoners, and that -the people "at once took him under their protection"; that the debtors -and "the more wretched class of prisoners," were enlarged; and that the -rest fell under pike, sabre, and club. - -Barthélemi Maurice contradicts Prud'homme wholesale. The attack was at -ten in the morning, he says, and not at three; there were no cannon; the -paper-notes manufactory existed only in M. Prud'homme's imagination; -prisoners for debt were not lodged in Bicêtre; the sick and the lunatics -suffered no harm; and the famous Lamotte "never figured in any register -of Bicêtre." - -Thiers[17] insists upon the cannon, says the killing was done madly for -mere lust of blood, and that the massacre continued until Wednesday, the -5th of September. - -Footnote 17: - - _Histoire de la Révolution._ - -Peltier in his turn, royalist pamphleteer, gives his version of the -tragedy. This Bicêtre, says Peltier, was "the den of all the vices," the -sewer, so to speak, of Paris. "All were slain; impossible to figure up -the number of the victims. I have heard it placed at as many as six -thousand!" Peltier is not easily satisfied. "Eight days and eight -nights, without one instant's pause, the work of death went forward." -Pikes, sabres, and muskets "were not enough for the ferocious assassins, -they had to bring cannon into play." It was not until a mere handful of -the prisoners remained "that they had recourse again to their -small-arms" (_que l'on en revenait aux petites armes_). - -Doubtless the most accurate account of this merciless affair is -contained in the statement made to Barthélemi Maurice by Père Richard, -_doyen_ of the warders of Bicêtre, and an eyewitness. It may be -summarised from the pages of MM. Alhoy and Lurine: - - "Master Richard traced on paper the three numbers, 166, 55, and - 22,—What are those? I asked him.—166, that is the number of the - dead.—And 55 and 22, what are they?—55 was the number of children in - the prison, and only 22 were left us. The scoundrels killed 33 - children, besides the 166 adults.—Tell me how it began.—They came - bellowing up at ten that Monday morning, all in the prison so still - that you might have heard a fly buzzing, though we had three - thousand men in that morning.—But you had cannon they say; you - defended yourselves.—Where did you get that tale, sir? We had no - cannon, and we didn't attempt to defend ourselves.—What was the - strength of the attacking party?—A good three thousand, I should - say; but of those not more than about two hundred were active, so to - speak. —Did they bring cannon?—It was said they did, but I saw none, - though I looked out of the main gate more than once.—What were their - arms, then?—Well, a few of them had second-hand muskets (_de - méchants fusils_), others had swords, axes, bludgeons (_bûches_), - and bills (_crochets_), but there were more pikes than anything - else.—Were there any well-dressed people amongst them?—Oh, yes; the - 'judges' especially; though the bulk of them were not much to look - at.—How many 'judges' were there?—A dozen; but they relieved one - another.—If there were judges, there was some sort of formality, I - suppose. What was the procedure? How did they judge, acquit, and - execute?—They sat in the clerk's office, a room down below, near the - chapel. They made us fetch out the register; looked down the column - of 'cause of imprisonment,' and then sent for the prisoner. If you - were too frightened to feel your legs under you, or couldn't get a - word out quick, it was 'guilty' on the spot.—And then?—Then the - 'president' said: 'Let the citizen be taken to the Abbaye.' They - knew outside what that meant. Two men seized him by the arm and led - him out of the room. At the door he was face to face with a double - row of cut-throats, a prod in the rear with a pike tossed him - amongst them, and then ... well, there were some that took a good - deal of finishing off.—They did not shoot them then?—No, there was - no shooting.—And the acquittals?—Well, if it was simply, 'take the - citizen to the Abbaye,' they killed him. If it was 'take him to the - Abbaye,' with _Vive la nation_! he was acquitted. It wasn't over at - nightfall. We passed the night of the 3d with the butchers inside - the prison; they were just worn out. It began again on the morning - of the 4th, but not quite with the same spirit. It was mostly the - children who suffered on the Tuesday.—And the lunatics, and the - patients, and the old creatures—did they get their throats cut - too?—No, they were all herded in the dormitories, with the doors - locked on them, and sentinels inside to keep them from looking out - of window. All the killing was done in the prison.—And when did they - leave you? At about three on Tuesday afternoon; and then we called - the roll of the survivors.—And the dead?—We buried them in quicklime - in our own cemetery." - -The hideous _mise-en-scène_ of Père Richard is, at the worst, a degree -less reproachful than that of Prud'homme, Peltier, or M. Thiers. - - ------- - -There was one worthy man at Bicêtre, Dr. Pinel, whose devotion to -humanitarian science (a form of devotion not over-common in such places -at that day) very nearly cost him his life at the hands of the -revolutionary judges. Dr. Pinel, who had the notion that disease of the -mind was not best cured by whipping, was accused by the Committee of -Public Safety (under whose rule, it may be observed, no public ever went -in greater terror) of plotting with medical science for the restoration -of the monarchy! It was a charge quite worthy of the wisdom and the -tenderness for "public safety" of the _Comité de Salut Public_. Pinel, -disdaining oratory, vouchsafed the simplest explanation of his treatment -at Bicêtre,—and was permitted to continue it. - -Not so charitable were the gods to Théroigne de Mericourt, a woman -singular amongst the women of the Revolution. Readers of Carlyle will -remember his almost gallant salutations of her (a handsome young woman -of the streets, who took a passion for the popular cause, and rode on a -gun-carriage in the famous outing to Versailles) as often as she starts -upon the scene. When he misses her from the procession, in the fourth -book of the first volume, it is: - - "But where is the brown-locked, light-behaved, fire-hearted - Demoiselle Théroigne? Brown eloquent beauty, who, with thy winged - words and glances, shalt thrill rough bosoms—whole steel - battalions—and persuade an Austrian Kaiser, pike and helm lie - provided for thee in due season, and alas! also strait waistcoat and - long lodging in the Salpêtrière." - -Théroigne was some beautiful village girl when the echo first reached -her of the tocsin of the Revolution. She thought a woman was wanted -there, and trudged hot-foot to Paris, perhaps through the self-same -quiet lanes that saw the pilgrimage of Charlotte Corday. In Paris she -took (for reasons of her own, one must suppose) the calling of -"unfortunate female"—the euphemism will be remembered as Carlyle's—and -dubbed herself the people's Aspasia—"l'Aspasie du peuple." In "tunic -blue," over a "red petticoat," crossed with a tricolour scarf and -crowned with the Phrygian cap, she roamed the streets, "_criant_, -_jurant_, _blasphémant_," to the tune of the drum of rebellion. One day -the women of the town, in a rage of fear or jealousy, fell upon her, -stripped her, and beat her through the streets. She went mad, and in the -first years of this century she was still an inmate of Bicêtre. When the -"women's side" of Bicêtre was closed, in 1803, Théroigne was transferred -to the Salpêtrière, where she died. - - ------- - -During the hundred years (1748-1852) of the prisons of the Bagnes—those -convict establishments at Toulon, Brest, and Rochefort, which took the -place of the galleys, and which in their turn gave way to the modern -system of transportation,—it was from Bicêtre that the chained cohorts -of the _forçats_ were despatched on their weary march through France. -The ceremony of the _ferrement_, or putting in irons for the journey, -was one of the sights of Paris for those who could gain admission to the -great courtyard of the prison. At daybreak of the morning appointed for -the start, the long chains and collars of steel were laid out in the -yard, and the prison smiths attended with their mallets and portable -anvils; the convicts, for whom these preparations were afoot, keeping up -a terrific din behind their grated windows. When all was ready for them, -they were tumbled out by batches and placed in rows along the wall. -Every man had to strip to the skin, let the weather be what it might, -and a sort of smock of coarse calico was tossed to him from a pile in -the middle of the yard; he did not dress until the toilet of the collar -was finished. This, at the rough hands of the smith and his aids, was a -sufficiently painful process. The convicts were called up in -alphabetical order, and to the neck of each man a heavy collar was -adjusted, the triangular bolt of which was hammered to by blows of a -wooden mallet. To the padlock was attached a chain which, descending to -the prisoner's waistbelt, was taken up thence and riveted to the next -man's collar, and in this way some two hundred _forçats_ were tethered -like cattle in what was called the _chaine volante_. The satyr-like -humours of the gang, singing and capering on the cobbles, shouting to -the echo the name of some criminal hero as he stepped out to receive his -collar, and sometimes joining hands in a frenzied dance, which was -broken only by the savage use of the warder's bâtons—all this was the -sport of the well-dressed crowd of spectators. - -As far as the outskirts of Paris, the convicts were carried in -_chars-à-bancs_, an armed escort on either side; and when the prison -doors were thrown open to let them out, the whole canaille of the town -was waiting to receive them with yells of derision, to which the -_forçats_ responded with all the oaths they had. This was one of the -most popular spectacles of Paris until the middle of the present -century. - -An essential sordidness is the character most persistent in the history -of Bicêtre—a dull squalor, with perpetual crises of unromantic agony. -There is no glamour upon Bicêtre; no silken gown with a domino above it -rustles softly by lantern-light through those grimy wickets. It is not -here that any gallant prisoner of state comes, bribing the governor to -keep his table furnished with the best, receiving his love-letters in -baskets of fruit, giving his wine-parties of an evening. In the records -of Vincennes and the Bastille the novelist will always feel himself at -home, but Bicêtre has daunted him. It is poor Jean Valjean, of _Les -Misérables_, squatting "in the north corner of the courtyard," choked -with tears, "while the bolt of his iron collar was being riveted with -heavy hammer-blows." This is the solitary figure of interest which -Bicêtre has given to fiction. - -If a shadowy figure may be added, it is from the same phantasmagoric -gallery of Victor Hugo. Bicêtre was the prison of the nameless -faint-heart who weeps and moans through the incredible pages of _Le -Dernier Jour d'un Condamné_. Then, and until 1836, Bicêtre was the last -stage but one (_l'avant-dernière étape_) on the road to the guillotine. -The last was the Conciergerie, close to the Place de Grève. The -shadow-murderer of _Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamné_—for there is no real -stuff of murder in him, and he is the feeblest and least sympathetic -puppet of fiction—is useful only as bringing into relief the old, -disused, and forgotten _cachot du Condamné_, or condemned cell, of -Bicêtre. It was a den eight feet square; rough stone walls, moist and -sweating, like the flags which made the flooring; the only "window" a -grating in the iron door; a truss of straw on a stone couch in a recess; -and an arched and blackened ceiling, wreathed with cobwebs. - -Starting out of sleep one night, Hugo's condemned man lifts his lamp and -sees spectral writings, figures and arabesques in crayons, blood and -charcoal dancing over the walls of the cell—the "visitors' book" of -generations of _Condamnés à mort_ who have preceded him. Some had -blazoned their names in full, with grotesque embellishments of the -capital letter and a motto underneath breathing their last defiance to -the world; and in one corner, "traced in white outline, a frightful -image, the figure of the scaffold, which, at the moment that I write, -may be rearing its timbers for me! The lamp all but fell from my hands." - -[Illustration] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration] - - - - - CHAPTER VII. - - SAINTE-PÉLAGIE. - - -The prison of Sainte-Pélagie owed its name to a frail beauty whom -play-goers in Antioch knew in the fifth century of this era. Embracing -Christianity, she forsook the stage, and built herself a cell on the -Mount of Olives. The Church bestowed on her the honours of the Calendar. - -Twelve centuries later, in the reign of Louis XIV., a Madame de -Miramion, inspired by the memory, not of Pélagie the _comédienne_, but -of Sainte-Pélagie the recluse, built in Paris a substantial Refuge for -young women whose virtue seemed in need of protection. Letters-patent -were obtained from the King, and Madame de Miramion sought her recruits -here and there in the capital; gathering within the fold, it was said, a -considerable number "who had no longer anything to fear for their -virtue." But the rule of the house was strait, and one by one Madame's -young persons absconded, or were withdrawn from her keeping by their -parents. Nothing daunted, and sustained by her fixed idea of making -penitents at any price, Madame de Miramion descended boldly upon the -haunts of Aspasia herself, and there laid hands on all those votaries of -Venus who were either weary of their calling or whose calling was -wearying of them. The crown of the _joyeuse vie_ fits loosely, and the -lightest shock unfixes it. Madame's campaign in this quarter was -successful, and she was soon at the head of a battalion of more or less -repentant graces. New letters-patent were granted by a Majesty so -desirous of the moral well-being of his female subjects, the -establishment of Sainte-Pélagie was confirmed, and, thanks to the -invaluable assistance of the police, the complement of Magdalens was -maintained. Sainte-Pélagie continued its pious destiny until the days of -the Revolution, when the cloister of the Magdalens became a prison. - - ------- - -As a prison, Sainte-Pélagie (which is in existence to-day as a _maison -de correction_, or penitentiary) has known many and strange guests. From -1792 to 1795, it held a mixed population of both sexes, political -prisoners and others. Between the years 1797 and 1834, debtors of all -degrees were confined there, and at one period the debtors shared the -gaol with a motley crew of juvenile delinquents. Under the Restoration -and under the two Empires Sainte-Pélagie served the uses of a State -prison. The first Napoleon had the cells in constant occupation. The -Restoration sent there, within the space of a few days, one hundred and -thirty-five individuals, arrested by the police of Louis XVIII. for -their connection, as officers, with the old Imperial Guard. Innumerable -indeed, from 1790 onwards, were the victims who found a lodging, not of -their choosing, behind the ample walls which the widow Miramion had -consecrated a shelter for tottering virtue or gallantry in mourning for -its past. The men of the Revolution found Sainte-Pélagie excellently -suited to their needs; Madame de Miramion had housed her Magdalens -strongly. In form a vast quadrilateral, the buildings were easily -converted to the uses of a prison; and at a later date the prison was -arranged in three divisions. On the west side were confined petty -offenders under sentences ranging between six months and one year. The -debtors' was the second division; and here also were imprisoned young -rogues, thieves, and vagabonds, and (up to 1867) "certain men of letters -and journalists." The east side seems to have been reserved principally -for political offenders. But the divisions were never very strictly -observed; and a political prisoner relegated by mischance or for lack of -space to the west side of the prison was treated in all respects as a -common criminal. Ordinary prisoners were kept at work, and received a -small percentage on the profits of their industry. Political prisoners, -journalists, and "men of letters" were exempted from labour; and a third -class called _pistoliers_, purchased this exemption at a cost of from -six to seven francs a fortnight. - -It was by order of the Convention that Sainte-Pélagie was transformed -from a convent-refuge into a prison, and during the revolutionary period -a crowd of unknown or little-known suspects passed within its keeping -before being summoned to the bar. Not a few quitted it only for the -scaffold. - -Madame Roland was cast there on the 25th of June, 1793. Three years -earlier, Carlyle notes her at Lyons, "that queen-like burgher woman; -beautiful, Amazonian-graceful to the eye" with "that strong -Minerva-face." We shall return to Madame Roland, wife of the "King's -Inspector of Manufactures." - -In the same month, if not on the same day, were sent to Sainte-Pélagie -the Comte de Laval-Montmorency, and the Marquis de Pons. In August of -the same year went to join them (not now with popular acclamation, as -when, in 1765, Mademoiselle Clairon and her fellow players were haled to -the Châtelet) nine ladies of the Théâtre-Français. After the 9th -Thermidor (July 27, 1794), which saw the sudden downfall and death of -Robespierre, Sainte-Pélagie received most of the victims of the -reaction,—the _Tail_ of Robespierre,—including the Duplaix family. - - ------- - -Madame Roland had known the indignities of a revolutionary prison before -her sojourn at Sainte-Pélagie. Imprisoned first in the Abbaye, it was -from there that she wrote: - - "I find a certain pleasure in enforcing privations on myself, in - seeing how far the human will can be employed in reducing the - 'necessaries' of existence. I substituted bread and water for - chocolate, at breakfast; a plate of meat with vegetables was my - dinner; and I supped on vegetables, without desert." - -But having "as much aversion from as contempt for a merely useless -economy" (_autant d'aversion que de mépris pour une économie inutile_), -Madame Roland goes on to say that what she saved by the retrenchments of -her own cuisine she spent in procuring extra rations for the pauper -prisoners of the Abbaye; and adds: "If I stay here six months I mean to -go out plump and hearty [_je veux en sortir grasse et fraîche_] wanting -nothing more than soup and bread, and with the satisfaction of having -earned certain _bénédictions incognito_." - -Transferred to Sainte-Pélagie, this heroic woman of the people saw -herself confounded with women of the town (the descendants of the widow -Miramion's Magdalens), thieves, forgers, and assassins. She made the -best of the situation, cultivated flowers in a box in the window of her -cell, and wrote incessantly. When told that her name had been included -in the process against the Girondins, she said: "I am not afraid to go -to the scaffold in such good company; I am ashamed only to live among -scoundrels." Her friends had contrived a plan for her escape, but could -not induce her to profit by it: "Spare me!" she cried. "I love my -husband, I love my daughter; you know it; but I will not save myself by -flight." When the axe fell on the heads of the twenty-two Girondins, -October 31, 1793 (10th Brumaire of the Republican calendar), Madame -Roland was removed to the Conciergerie. Knowing well the fate that -awaited her, she lost neither her courage nor her beautiful -tranquillity; and used to go down to the men's wicket of the prison, -exhorting them to be brave and worthy of the cause. In the tumbril, on -her way to the guillotine, she was robed in white, her superb black hair -floating behind her; and at the place of execution, bending her head to -the statue of Liberty, she murmured: "O Liberty! what crimes are done in -thy name!"—_O Liberté! que de crimes on commet en ton nom!_ - -It was not Madame Dubarry's to show this sublime fortitude in death; but -after all one dies as one must. Sainte-Pélagie will tell us that poor -Dame Dubarry was the feeblest and most faint-hearted of its recluses of -the Revolution. She wept, and called on heaven to save her, and shuffled -and cut her cards, and consulted the lines in her hand; and when her -name was called at the wicket on the fatal morning, she swooned on the -flags of the prison, and was carried scarcely animate to the tumbril. - - ------- - -The story of governor Bouchotte, who had charge of Sainte-Pélagie at -this terrible epoch, is a noble one. The September massacres had begun, -and the red-bonnets in detachments were sharing the butchery at the -prisons. The Abbaye, the Carmes, the Force, and the Conciergerie had -given them prompt entrance; the turnkeys saluting the self-styled -judges, say MM. Alhoy and Lurine, as the grave-digger salutes the -hangman. Not so governor Bouchotte of Sainte-Pélagie. The mob swarmed at -the doors, but to their clattering on the panels no answer was -vouchsafed. Pikes, hammers, and axes resounded on the solid portals, but -silence the most complete reigned behind them. - -"Can citizen Bouchotte have been beforehand with us?—_Le citoyen -Bouchotte, nous aurait-il devancés?_" cried one. "Not an aristocrat -voice to be heard! Bouchotte has perhaps finished them off himself." - -The neighbouring houses were ransacked for tools proper to effect an -entrance, and the doors were burst open. The mob poured in; and there, -bound hand and foot on the flags in the courtyard of the prison, they -found the governor and his wife. - -"Citizens," cried Bouchotte, "you arrive too late! My prisoners are -gone. They got warning of your coming, and after binding my wife and -myself as you see us, they made their escape." - -Bouchotte was taken at his word, he and his wife were released from -their cords, and the red-bonnets went off to wreak a double vengeance at -Bicêtre. At the risk of his own and of his wife's life, the admirable -Bouchotte had tricked the cut-throats. He had uncaged his birds and -given them their liberty through a private postern, and had then ordered -his warders to tie up his wife and himself. Honour to the brave memory -of Bouchotte! The history of the French Revolution has few brighter -passages than this. - -Nougaret gives us a curious picture of the interior of Sainte-Pélagie -under the bloody rule of Robespierre.[18] The prison itself he describes -as "damp and unwholesome" (_humide et malsaine_). There were about three -hundred and fifty prisoners, detained they knew not why, for they were -not allowed to read the charges entered on the registers. - -Footnote 18: - - _Histoire des Prisons de Paris et des Départements._ - -To each prisoner was allotted a cell six feet square, "with a dirty bed -and a mattress as hard as marble." The turnkey's first question to a -new-comer was: "Have you any money?" If the answer was, Yes, he was -supplied with "a basin and a water-jug and a few cracked plates, for -which he paid triple their worth." If the prisoner entered with empty -pockets, it was: "So much the worse for you; for the rule here is that -nothing buys nothing" (_on n'a rien pour rien_). In this plight, says -Nougaret, the prisoner was obliged to sell some poor personal effect in -order to obtain the strictest necessaries of life. "A citizen who -occupied, in the month of Floréal, cell number 10 in the corridor of the -second story, sacrificed for twenty-five francs a gold ring worth about -£20, to procure for himself those same necessities." The rations at this -date consisted of "a pound and a half of bad bread and a plate of flinty -beans [_haricots très-durs_], larded with stale grease or tallow." -Prisoners who could afford it paid an exorbitant price for a few -supplementary dishes. Later, the diet was rather more generous. - -Although communication between the prisoners was forbidden, they had -invented a sort of club; perhaps the most singular in the annals of -clubdom. The "meetings" were at eight in the evening, but no member left -his cell. Despite the thickness of the doors, it was found that, by -raising his voice, a prisoner could be heard from one end of the -corridor to the other; and by this means the members of the club -exchanged such news as they had gleaned during the day from the warders -on duty. In order that no one might be betrayed or compromised (in the -event of the conversation being overheard by the gendarmes posted under -the windows), instead of saying "I heard such-and-such a thing to-day," -the formula was, "I dreamt last night." - -[Illustration: A TURNKEY.] - -When a candidate presented himself (that is to say, when a new prisoner -arrived), the president inquired, in behalf of the club, his name, -quality, residence, and the reason of his imprisonment; and if the -answers were satisfactory he was proclaimed a member of the society in -these terms: "Citizen, the patriots imprisoned in this corridor deem you -worthy to be their brother and friend. Permit me to send you the -_accolade fraternelle_!" - -Two circumstances excluded from membership of the club,—to have borne -false witness at Fouquier-Tinville's bar, and to have been concerned in -the fabrication of false _assignats_. The club held its "meetings" -regularly, until the date at which the prisoners were allowed to -exercise together in the corridors. - -We saw Madame Roland, "brave, fair Roland," at the men's wicket of -Sainte-Pélagie, passionately exhorting them; and Comtesse Dubarry -answering her summons to the guillotine by a swoon. - -Another woman, not famous yet, but destined to fame, was on the women's -side of Sainte-Pélagie in 1793: Joséphine de Beauharnais, who was to -stand one day with Napoleon on the throne. A tradition of the prison -affirmed that Joséphine left her initials carved or traced on a wall of -her cell. - - ------- - -The Terror seems almost to have emptied Sainte-Pélagie, and it is not -until the days of the Empire that we find its cells once more in the -occupation of political prisoners. Prisoners of that quality were not -lacking there in Buonaparte's despotic era; but (and this may have been -of design) the registers were not too well kept, and prisoners' names -and the motives of their imprisonment are hard to arrive at. Had we the -lists in full, however, they would excite small interest at this day. -Between 1811 and March, 1814, when the records were more precise, two -hundred and thirty-four persons were confined in this prison for causes -more or less political. In April, 1814, we have the Russian Emperor -giving their freedom to some seventy of the prisoners of Napoleon. The -Restoration sends the officers of the old Imperial Guard to -Sainte-Pélagie. The record of the Hundred Days, so far as this prison is -concerned, is a clean one; but Charles X. continues the use of -Sainte-Pélagie as a prison of State, and Béranger, Cauchois-Lemaire, -Colonel Duvergier, Bonnaire, Dubois, Achille Roche, and Barthélemy are -amongst the names on the gaoler's books. The Constitutional Monarchy -from 1830 to 1848, the Republic succeeding it, and the reign of Napoleon -III. (who swept into it five hundred citizens in the space of a few -days) kept alive the political tradition of Sainte-Pélagie. M. -Rochefort, who had his turn there from 1869-1870, was one of the last of -Napoleon III.'s prisoners, to whom the revolution of the 4th of -September gave back their liberty. From that date, the "political -boarders" of Sainte-Pélagie were few, the governments of MM. Thiers and -De Broglie preferring rather to suppress newspapers than to pursue their -editors. - -Under the Empire and the Restoration the organisation and administration -of Sainte-Pélagie evidently left much to be desired. It was not rare, -says one chronicler, for accused persons to remain six or seven months -without being interrogated. - -A certain M. Poulain d'Angers lay there a quarter of a year quite -ignorant as to the cause of his arrest. Another accused, a certain M. -Guillon, who had been attached to the Emperor's Council, weary of the -perpetual shufflings of the police of the succeeding reign, constituted -himself a prisoner _de facto_ without having received judgment; and -remained six months a captive, although there was no entry against his -name: one morning, they showed him the door, _malgré lui_. An adventure -which befell this gentleman attests sufficiently the disorder which -reigned in the prison service. - -Being to some extent indisposed, the doctor had given M. Guillon an -order for the baths. Not knowing in what part of the prison the -infirmary was situated, he presented his order to a tipsy turnkey, who -promptly opened the door which gave on the Rue du Puits-de-l'Ermite. M. -Guillon, a free man without being aware of it, took the narrow street to -be a sentry's walk, and went a few paces without finding any one to -direct him. Returning to the sentry at the door, he inquired where were -the baths. "What baths?" said the sentinel.—"The prison baths." "The -prison baths," said the sentinel, "are probably in the prison; but you -can't get in there."—"What? I can't get into the prison! Am I outside -it, then?"—"Why, yes; you're in the street; you ought to know that, I -should think." "I did not know it, I assure you," said M. Guillon; "and -this won't suit me at all." He rang the prison bell, and was readmitted; -and the recital of his adventure restored to sobriety the turnkey who -had given him his freedom. - -It was related that under the Directory a criminal condemned to -transportation managed to conceal himself in Sainte-Pélagie, persuaded -that there at all events he was safe, nor were his hopes deceived. - - ------- - -It appears to have been after the Revolution of 1830—that brief week of -July which "paragons description"—that some kind of method was attained -or attempted in the management of Sainte-Pélagie. A new wing had been -built, which was reserved for the politicals,—but the builder had -reckoned without his guests, and without the King's Attorney. It was -considered that thirty-six beds in ten chambers, to say nothing of a -small spare dormitory, would be accommodation enough for prisoners of -this class. At the same epoch, a droll idea took possession of the -administration. It was, that if the _gamins_ and 'prentice-thieves raked -into the police-courts were mixed pell-mell with the political -prisoners, the former might get a polish on their morals, and the latter -an agreeable distraction! As a scheme of reform for the artful dodger it -was perhaps elementary, but it shewed at least a kindly anxiety on the -part of the administration to prepare diversions for political -offenders. Alas! it was a dream; for there were presently so many -political delinquents to be accommodated, that the question was no -longer how to distract their captivity, but how to lodge the new-comers. -The artful dodger was exiled. - -More buildings were called for, and another court; and the -political wing of Sainte-Pélagie became a colony by itself. A -colonist of the early thirties bestowed on it the following -appreciation:—"Sainte-Pélagie is death by wasting (_le supplice par la -langueur_), torture by ennui, homicide by process of decline. It is a -sort of pneumatic machine applied to the brain, which saps and exhausts -it by inches. It is not an active irritation, and it is nothing -resembling repose. It is not Paris, and it is not a desert solitude. It -is a _mélange_ of everything: air, a modicum; elbow-room, rather less; -friends, one or two; bores, any number. It is a prison with a mirage of -the world; a world not made for a prison. It is not severe, and it is -infinitely wearisome. It is a kind of civilised police; it is a -prodigious and perpetual paradox.... Sainte-Pélagie is insupportable!" - -Here is another appreciation of about the same date:—"Sainte-Pélagie is -a hurly-burly (_pêle-mêle_) of all imaginable ideas and opinions; a -species of political Pandemonium. The _Caricature_ runs foul of the -_Quotidienne_, the _Courrier de l'Europe_ elbows the _Revolution_, the -_Gazette_ pirouettes between the _Tribune_ and the _Courrier -Français_.... All colours and all races, all ages and all tongues are -confounded. It is a Babel; it is a common camp in which friends and foes -are flung together after a general rout. As a huge anomaly it is curious -to see, but it has the depressing effect of a monster!" - -Let us turn to the debtors' side. Dulaure quotes in this connection a -description given by De la Borde in his _Memoirs_, which is worth -translating: - -"The debtors' wing of Sainte-Pélagie, which is intended to accommodate a -hundred, has one hundred and twenty and sometimes one hundred and fifty -tenants. The building is in three stories, each story consisting of one -narrow corridor, the rooms in which receive no light except from -loopholes beneath the roof. There are no fire-places in the rooms, some -of which are cruelly cold, whilst in others the heat is unbearable. With -proper space for three persons at the most, they are generally made to -hold from five to six; and the dirt everywhere is revolting. The -wretched occupants can only take exercise in a corridor four feet wide, -and a courtyard thirty feet square. For years they have asked in vain -for some contrivance which would give them a proper current of air; -there is not a decent ventilator in the place. In winter they are locked -in from eight P.M. until seven A.M.; and, whatever his necessities, not -one of the five or six cell-mates can possibly quit his cell between -those hours. The dirtiest and worst-kept part of the whole prison is the -infirmary. Two or three patients are put into one bed,—an excellent -means of spreading the itch, and other maladies." - -The reproach of this unseemly state M. de la Borde laid upon the chiefs -of the prison service for their indifference, and the subordinates for -their wholesale negligence. - - ------- - -To obtain leave to visit a friend on the debtors' side, you climbed the -dingy staircase of the Préfecture de Police, to the office marked -_Bureau des Prisons_, where orders were issued for the principal gaols; -and you took your place in the waiting-room amongst a very motley crowd -whose relatives or acquaintances had been "put away" for murder, arson, -forgery, house-breaking, or a simple difficulty with a creditor. - -Furnished with the necessary passport, a literary Frenchman made the -pilgrimage to Sainte-Pélagie seventy years ago, and wrote a most -interesting account of his visit. The authors of _Les Prisons de Paris_ -transferred it to their entertaining pages, and I cannot do better than -translate from them. It chanced to be pay-day in the prison, that is to -say, the day on which the debtors received the stingy pittance which -their creditors were compelled to pay them once a month,—an excellent -opportunity of observing the stranded victims of the most nonsensical -law in the universe. To clap into prison a man who could not satisfy his -creditors, and thereby to encourage the indolent debtor in his indolence -and to dry up for the industrious debtor all possible sources of -industry, was perhaps, in this country as in France, the summit of folly -ever attained by legal enactment. - - "I found myself in a world of which those who have described it only - from the other side of the wall have given us an entirely false - notion. Where were all the gaieties which the novelists and the - rhymesters have depicted for us? Where were the bevies of fair women - who, as we have been assured, flock here by day to scatter the cares - of the forlorn imprisoned debtor? I strained my ear in vain for any - note of those bacchic concert-parties and mad festivities (_ces - bruyants éclats de l'orgie_) which are to be met with in the novels. - I threw a glance into the courtyard, and calculated the amount of - space which each man could claim in the only spot in the whole - prison where there is any circulation of air; I came to the - conclusion that, when the prisoners were assembled here of an - evening, after their friends had left, each might possess for - himself a fraction of a fraction of a square yard of mother earth." - -The debtors trooped down to the office to finger their doles. - - "I watched a procession of artisans and labourers, whose speech and - costume contrasted oddly with the title of 'merchants' - (_négociants_), under which their creditors had filched them from - the workshops and yards to which they belonged; next, some - physiognomies of men of the world, some representatives of the - middle classes, and a crowd of young bloods (_étourneaux_). - - "One of the first comers was an officer, decorated and seamed with - wounds, who had been four times in Sainte-Pélagie to purge the same - debt. After five months' captivity he came to an arrangement with - his creditor, to whom he owed a couple of thousand francs, agreeing - to pay him in ninety days five hundred more. He was let out, failed - to redeem the debt, and returned to take up his old quarters in - Sainte-Pélagie. At the end of a year, he acknowledged a debt of - three thousand francs to the same creditor, and obtained six months' - grace. He paid a thousand on account, could not furnish a penny - more, and went back to prison for the third time. Thus, after nearly - three years in prison, the captain owes one-third more than he did - on first coming in, and has paid a thousand francs to boot,—to - encourage his creditor. - - "The old fellow who followed him was a monument of the speculative - spirit of a certain class of creditors. He was half-blind, and had - lost his left arm; his whole debt amounted to £20. Eight days before - the King's birthday his creditor cast him into Sainte-Pélagie, in - the hope that one of the civil-list bonuses would fall to the old - man. Unhappily, the hope was not realised, and the creditor is now - looking forward to next year's list. - - "Amongst the swarm of debtors, I recognised my old water-carrier, - who needed little coaxing to tell me the story of his imprisonment. - - "Léonard was a native of Auvergne. After hawking water in buckets - for several years, his ambition rose to a water-cart; and behold him - now with his sphere of operations extended from the Rue du - Faubourg-Poissonnière to the Marais. Unluckily for Léonard the - water-cart was not yet his own property, and he began to fall into - arrears with his monthly payments. When the arrears had become what - the bailiffs call an 'exploitable' sum, Léonard was haled to the - bar. Here he suddenly ceased to be a water-carrier; they promoted - him to the rank of 'merchant,' and under that style and dignity they - condemned poor Léonard for debt. In this strait Léonard thought, - "Why not become bankrupt at once?" but when he went to deposit his - balance-sheet they told him he was not a 'merchant' at all, but a - mere water-carrier. Fifteen days later, Léonard had joined the ranks - of the impecunious in Sainte-Pélagie. - - "His next idea was to lodge an appeal, and his brother was willing - to bear the costs; but Léonard's debt was a bagatelle of £12, and - the lawyer whom he consulted said that the blessings of appeal were - reserved for persons owing £20 and upwards. The code of the Osages, - if they have one, probably does not contain such exquisite burlesque - as this. - - "I asked Léonard what had become of his wife. 'Oh,' he said, 'poor - Jeanne has gone back to Auvergne; otherwise they'd have had her too, - for they made Jeanne a "merchant" also' (_elle était aussi - négociante_). - - "I gave Léonard a trifle, and he went off to drink it. It is the - commonest recreation, when it can be indulged; and the majority of - the debtors, when their day of liberation comes, return to their - homes with the two incurable habits of idleness and liquor." - -Another who came to touch his allowance was a tradesman whose clerk had -robbed him of one thousand crowns. "The tradesman being unable in -consequence to meet his engagements is condemned to spend five years in -Sainte-Pélagie, and from the grating of his cell he can see in the penal -wing the scoundrelly clerk, who gets off with six months' imprisonment!" - -Another comes - - "tripping cheerfully through the crowd; he is receiving his last - payment; in a few days he will be a free man. An anonymous letter - has loosed his bonds with the happy tidings that his creditor has - been dead a year, and that a speculative bailiff has been prolonging - his captivity on the chance of the debt being paid into his own - pocket." - -To this victim of a negligent law succeeded two who had made the law -their dupe. One was an officer who had had himself arrested for debt to -escape joining an expedition to Morea. The other was a tradesman "who -was nobody's prisoner but his own, and who had arranged with a friend to -deposit the monthly allowance for food. He was speculating on the -article of the code which gave a general exemption from arrest for debt -to all who had passed five consecutive years in the gaol." - -A new-comer, "with his face all slashed," was - - "recounting the details of the siege he had sustained in his house - against the bailiff's men. He had wanted to give himself up without - fuss, but was told when he presented himself at the office that a - person condemned for debt must be forcibly arrested (_doit être - appréhendé au corps avec brutalité_), and pitched into a cab under - the eyes of all the loungers on the foot-way,—who no doubt often - imagine that they are assisting at the capture of some eminent - criminal. This enterprise on the part of the bailiff and his men is - charged to the unfortunate debtor, and the field of battle is as - often as not some public thoroughfare." - -But by far the most interesting and sympathetic personality on the -debtor's side of Sainte-Pélagie at this date was the American Colonel -Swan. The nature and amount of the colonel's debt are not set out, but -the interest seems to have been the main cause of offence, and he had -made it a matter of conscience to refuse payment. - - "The French law had ordered his temporary arrest, and, twenty years - after his incarceration, he was still 'temporarily' in confinement. - Compatriot and friend of Washington, Colonel Swan had fought in the - War of Independence with Lafayette, and the grand old French - republican often bent his white head beneath the wicket of the gaol, - on a visit to his brother-in-arms." - -His own private means, the aid of wealthier friends, or even a -successful project of escape, might have restored him to the free world; -but so greatly had he used himself to his captivity, that no thought of -liberty seems ever to have crossed his mind. - - "It was not altogether without emotion that one saw this comely - veteran—whose features were almost a copy of Benjamin - Franklin's—pacing the narrow and sombre passages of the prison, - drawing a breath of air at the loop-hole above the little garden. - His long robe of swanskin or white dimity announced his coming, and - it was both curious and touching to see how the groups of prisoners - made way for him in the corridors, and how some hastened to carry - into their cells the little stoves on which they did their cooking, - lest the fumes of the charcoal should offend him." - -This respect and love of the whole prison the old colonel had justly -won; not a day of his long confinement there but he had marked by some -service of kindness, for the most part mysterious and anonymous. No -hungry debtor went in vain to the door of the colonel's little cell; and -often, seeking a supper, the petitioner went away with the full price of -his liberty. - -There were two classes in the debtors' wing; those with certain -resources of their own to supplement the miserable allowance of their -creditors, and those who were dependent for their daily rations on the -handful of centimes allowed them by law. - -These last used to hire their services to the others for a gratuity, and -were among the regular suitors of Colonel Swan's inexhaustible bounty. -They were known in the prison as "cotton-caps" (_bonnets de coton_). One -of these, hearing that the American had lost his "cotton-cap," went to -beg the place. The colonel knew all about the man, a poor devil with a -large family, stranded there for a few hundred francs. He asked a salary -of six francs a month. - -"That will suit me very well," said the colonel; and, opening a little -chest, "here is five years' pay in advance." It was the amount precisely -of the man's debt,—and a fair instance of the colonel's benefactions. - -Towards the year 1829, prisoners taking their airing in the garden saw -an old man strolling an hour or two in the day on the high terrace or -gallery at the top of the prison. It was Colonel Swan, for whom, in -failing health, the doctor had demanded that privilege. He had accepted -it gratefully, but—as if admonished from within—he said to the doctor: -"My proper air is the air of the prison; this breath of liberty will -kill me." - -A few months later, the cannon of the 27th of July was belching in the -streets of Paris. On the 28th, the doors of the "commercial Bastille" -were thrown open, and the prisoners went out. - -Colonel Swan, who went out with them, died on the 29th. - - ------- - -There were a few clever escapes, _evasions_ as the French call them, -from Sainte-Pélagie. What was known as the _procès d'Avril_, 1835, -resulted in the condemnation of Guinard, Imbert, Cavaignac, Marrast, and -others, who were lodged in the political wing. Forty of them joined in a -scheme of evasion, and a subterranean passage was dug from the -north-east angle of the prison into the garden of No. 9, Rue Copeau. The -tunnel, nearly twenty yards in length, was completed on the 12th of -July, and of the forty prisoners twenty-eight made good their escape -from Sainte-Pélagie the "insupportable." - -The excitement of a well-conducted escape is contagious, and in -September of the same year the Comte de Richmond, who gave himself out -as the son of Louis XVI., with his two friends in durance, Duclerc and -Rossignol, broke prison ingeniously enough. By bribery or some other -means, Richmond procured a pass-key which gave admission to the -sentry-walk; and, head erect and a file of papers under his arm, he -walked boldly out, followed by Rossignol and Duclerc. To the sentinel -who challenged them, the Count with perfect _sang-froid_ introduced -himself as the director of the prison; "and these gentlemen," he added, -"whom you ought to know, are my chief clerk, and my architect." The -sentry saluted and let them pass, and M. de Richmond and his friends -opened the door and walked out. - -In 1865, an Englishman named Jackson, condemned to five years' hard -labour, managed to get himself transferred to Sainte-Pélagie. On a wet -wild night in the last week of January, he squeezed out of his cell, -crawled over the roof to a convenient wall, and by the aid of a cord and -grappling iron let himself down into the street. The night was pitchy -black, rain was falling in torrents, the sentry was in his box, and -Jackson footed it leisurely home. - -Better than these, however, was the escape of Colonel Duvergier, one of -the State prisoners of Charles X. Colonel Duvergier had been condemned -to five years' "reclusion" for no apparent reason except that he was one -of the most distinguished soldiers of his day. The story of his escape -is one of the happiest in the romantic annals of prison-breaking, but -the credit of the affair rests principally with a young littérateur, a -certain Eugène de P——. - -Colonel Duvergier was on the political, and Eugène de P—— on the -debtors' side of Sainte-Pélagie, but they had succeeded in establishing -a correspondence by letter; and Eugène, not over-eager for his own -liberty, seems to have taken upon himself to procure the colonel's. With -Colonel Duvergier was one Captain Laverderie, and the colonel refused to -go out unless the captain could share his escape. Eugène de P—— said the -captain should go also, and the plot went forward. - -The first step was to get the colonel and his friend from the political -to the debtors' side of the prison, and this was contrived at the -exercise hour. When the political prisoners were being marched in, to -give place to the debtors—there being but one exercise yard for the two -classes—Duvergier and Laverderie escaped the warder's eye, and hid in -the garden, until the debtors came out for their constitutional. -Nowadays, the warder would have counted his flock, both on coming out -and on going in; but the colonel and the captain seem to have had no -difficulty, either in attaching themselves to the debtors or in taking -refuge, after the exercise hour, in the cell of a debtor who was a party -to the scheme. - -So far, however, the fugitives had succeeded only in changing their -quarters in the prison; and the next step was to procure for them two -visitors' passes. These passes, deposited with the gate-warder when -visitors entered, were returned to them as they left the prison. How to -place in the warder's hands passes bearing the names of two "visitors" -who had not entered the prison? The adroit Eugène thought it not too -difficult. - -He had a friendly warder at the gate who was much interested in some -sketches which Eugène was making in the prison, and went down to him one -day with his portfolio in his hand. "A few fresh sketches you might like -to look at." While the Argus of the gate was amusing himself with -Eugène's drawings, Eugène himself feigned astonishment at the number of -visitors to the prison, as evidenced by the quantity of passes lying -loose on the table. He expressed no less surprise that the warder should -have so little care of them; why not keep the passes in a handy case, -such, for example, as Eugène used for his drawings? - -The warder thought he would ask the governor for one. "You needn't -trouble the governor," said Eugène; "take mine. Look, what could be -better!" and in filling the portfolio with the visitors' passes, he -slipped in two others. - -At that psychological instant, Duvergier and Laverderie presented -themselves at the gate. - -"Your names, messieurs?" and they gave the names which were entered on -Eugène's passes. - -The passes were turned up, the warder handed them over, and—still -thanking Eugène for his present—bowed the fugitives out of the prison. - -[Illustration] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration] - - - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - THE ABBAYE. - - -It was the monks, as tradition wills it, who hollowed out the cruel -cells of the Abbaye de Saint-Germain-des-Près. The architect Gomard, -insisting that cells were not included in the bond, withdrew when he had -put his last touches to the cloisters. But in 1630, or thereabouts, no -monastery was complete without its _oubliettes_, and the prior commanded -his brethren to finish the work of the too-scrupulous Gomard. Thus was -the Abbaye equipped as an abbaye should be. - -What power indeed, spiritual or temporal, had not the privilege in those -days of setting up its pillory, its gallows, its pile of faggots built -around a stake! In Paris alone at this date some twenty separate -jurisdictions possessed the right to fatten victims for the scaffold, -and it might almost be said that the municipal divisions of the capital -had gibbets for their boundaries. - -In 1674, however, the situation changed somewhat. The authority of the -Châtelet was enlarged by royal edict, which gathered to it the rights -and privileges of all the lesser corporations, and confiscated the -halters and the faggots of private justice. This was a general blow, -which none took more to heart than the prior of the Abbaye of -Saint-Germain-of-the-Meadows. He had enjoyed the rights of "high," -"middle," and "low" justice; he had imprisoned, tortured, and despatched -at his holy pleasure. Forthwith, he composed and addressed to Louis XIV. -_un mémoire éloquent_, which touched that pious heart. The Royal will -consented to restore to the prior a considerable portion of his ancient -jurisdiction. Within the extensive bounds of the monastery and its -appanages, the holy father might still consider himself gaoler, -tormentor, and executioner. - -But his prison was now large beyond his pious needs, and little by -little the Abbaye took a more secular character. The cells which the -restricted powers of the prior could no longer charge to the full, were -set apart for young noblemen and others whose parents or guardians had -an interest in narrowing their borders. It was an age when parents and -guardians had an almost unlimited authority over sons, daughters, and -wards; and when fathers and uncles seldom thought twice about applying -for a _lettre de cachet_. Sometimes young rakes were put into temporary -seclusion for quite satisfactory reasons; but very often the legal -powers of parents and guardians were used with abominable cruelty; and -young men were imprisoned for years, suffering the treatment of -criminals, merely to gratify the rancour of a near relative; or were -even, where there was a fortune in question, confined expressly with the -design that they should be secretly got rid of. A father could or did -authorise a gaoler to treat his innocent son with a rigour that goes -almost beyond belief; to forbid him to petition anyone for release; to -keep him in solitary confinement; to feed him on the most meagre -rations. The nephew of a General Wurmser, who had designs upon the young -man's fortune, had him imprisoned in the Abbaye on some vague charge of -dissipation. The young man was only twenty years of age, but he entered -the Abbaye with the fixed conviction that his uncle did not intend ever -to release him, and this conviction was confirmed by the hint conveyed -to him by a turnkey, that he was to be sent to the fortress of -Pierre-Encise, or Ham. Within a week, he had committed suicide in his -cell. - -Occasionally, young bloods of the period did penance in the Abbaye for -practical jokes of a rather questionable morality. A certain D——, a -spend-thrift of the first rank (who, however, rose afterwards to great -honour in the army), was at the last pinch to settle his gaming debts. -An uncle from whom he expected a goodly legacy lay sick unto death in -his Hôtel, and D—— gave out that the patient desired the attendance of a -notary. The notary arrived, and the uncle dictated a will entirely in -his nephew's favour. This being published, loans were forthcoming. But -the sequel was less satisfactory; for D—— presently found himself a -prisoner in the Abbaye, and his friend, the Chevalier de C——, in a cell -of the Bastille; the former for having personated a moribund uncle, and -the latter for having aided and abetted him in the swindle. - -When Howard was making his memorable progress through the "Lazzarettos -of Europe," the Abbaye was amongst the prisons which he visited. He -notes that there were "five little cells in which as many as fifty men -were sometimes massed together." The Abbaye had undergone yet another -transformation, and was now the principal military prison of Paris. It -was reserved chiefly for the soldiers, both officers and privates, of -the _Gardes Françaises_; but delinquents of other regiments were sent -there also; and a turbulent place the Abbaye seems to have been in the -days before the Revolution. For, up to '89, the French army recruited -itself as best it could, and principally from amongst the masses of the -unemployed and the vagabond classes. They were bought by recruiting -sergeants, or swept into the ranks by the press-gangs, and it may be -supposed that the stuff out of which the rank-and-file was manufactured -was sometimes of the rottenest. Moreover, there was little spirit -amongst the officers to induce them to train up into good fighting-men -and self-respecting citizens the peasants, beggars, and outcasts of whom -they found themselves in command. The swaggering, aristocrat captain, -lording it over the colonel, who was perhaps a mere soldier of fortune, -scorned the men beneath him. His military rank, added to the colossal -difference in social rank between the nobility and the people, gave him -a double sense of superiority; there was no _esprit de corps_, no -feeling of comradeship in arms; but, on the one side, a perpetual and -galling assertion of authority, and, on the other, a continuous struggle -to secure some amount of recognition and freedom. - -Insubordinate soldiers were continually being thrust into the Abbaye, -and there were strange scenes within those walls. - -In the year 1784, say the authors of _Les Prisons de l'Europe_, two -military prisoners were finishing their scanty meal. - -"Our last day together, Desforges," said one. "You go to château -Trompette, I to Valenciennes. "We're in for twenty years of it!" - -"Yes, and for what, Dessaignes?" said the other. "For a quarrel with a -clod of an officer risen from the ranks. Twenty years!" - -"My dear Desforges," said the young aristocrat. "It is not a cheerful -prospect.—Warm here, isn't it? Trees in leaf, and flowers smelling -sweet—out there. Out there, where liberty lies, Desforges. Come, shall -we be free?" - -"Free! There are four bolts to the door, and another door at the end of -the corridor." - -"Who talks of forcing bolts?" said Dessaignes. "At what hour do they -exercise us?" - -"At six, as usual, I suppose." - -"Yes; and once in the courtyard there is but one door to open." - -"True; but the means of opening it?" - -Dessaignes whipped up his mattrass, and displayed a pair of cavalry -pistols (_pistolets d'arcon_) and a long dagger. - -"Where—" began his friend. - -"The barrister who came to see me yesterday conveyed the arsenal under -his robe. Now, are these the keys to open a cage like ours?" - -"None better! But I make one condition," said Desforges,—"that we are -not to kill anyone." - -"There will be no necessity. We shall go down armed to the courtyard; -one of us will entice the concierge near the door, and the other will -cover him with a pistol. A little determination is all we shall need." - -Six o'clock struck, and the gaoler came to conduct the prisoners to the -courtyard. They descended with their weapons in their pockets, and once -in the yard Dessaignes was for losing not a moment. Their guard was the -only attendant within sight, and as Desforges held him in talk, -Dessaignes suddenly stepped behind and seized him by his coat-collar. -The startled gaoler prepared to summon help, but before he could get out -a word Dessaignes clapped a pistol to his forehead. - -"Speak but one syllable," said he in a whisper, "and you will never -utter another. Come, your keys!" - -"Never!" replied the gaoler. - -"Your soul to God, then, for your hour has come!" - -The gaoler felt the muzzle at his forehead, and saw the glitter in the -eyes of his captor. He hesitated. - -"A second more, and I fire. Reflect!" said Dessaignes, quietly. - -The gaoler's hand was already moving towards his keys when, all at once, -his collar burst in the grip of Dessaignes, and he fell backwards. At -the same instant, and by accident, Dessaignes' pistol exploded. The -crack brought a dozen warders on the scene. - -"Quick!" cried Dessaignes to his fellow-prisoner; "up-stairs again!" - -They gained their cell, Dessaignes shut and bolted the door, and -together they barricaded it with all the furniture they could lay hands -on. - -"How much powder have we?" asked Desforges, under his breath. - -"About four charges, but we shall not need it," replied Dessaignes. -"Wait; I'll give them their answer." - -The warders hammered vainly at the door. - -"Gentlemen," called Dessaignes, "we may be induced to capitulate, but we -shall not yield to force. You had better desist. We have powder enough -here to blow the Abbaye to the gate of heaven." - -A murmur of alarm arose on the other side of the door, and silence -followed. - -"You see!" observed Dessaignes, "these pious chaps will not mount -unprepared into the presence of their Maker!" - -The posse of warders was, in fact, withdrawn. - -"But what shall we do next?" asked Desforges. - -"For the present," said Dessaignes, "we shall wait. They will be wanting -to make terms with us." - -But the night passed, and no offer of capitulation was received. Two -other things lacking were, supper in the evening and breakfast in the -morning. The enemy had apparently changed their tactics; the blockade of -the prisoners was complete, and so was the famine. The day wore on, and -night came again; but not the paltriest offer of terms, nor a bowl of -thin soup. The next day broke with a prospect as barren. - -Towards noon a deputation was heard approaching. - -"If you don't give us something to eat," cried Dessaignes, "sooner than -die of hunger we will blow up the prison." - -"To the gate of heaven. You have already said so," replied the voice of -the governor. - -"Then you mean to sacrifice all the innocent persons in the place?" - -"Not at all! We have made our dispositions. The other prisoners have -been removed. You two can ascend heavenwards as soon as you please." - -Dessaignes glanced at his friend, and the expressions on both faces must -have been interesting. - -"To be candid," said Desforges, "my stomach sounds a parley." - -"My own offers the same advice," said Dessaignes. - -"Let us follow it," said Desforges. - -"Gentlemen," called Dessaignes through the key-hole, "the war is over. -Some bread, if you please, a bottle of wine, and a plate of meat. Those -are our simple conditions of capitulation." - -Agreed to; and the door was opened. A legal gentleman came from the King -to hold an enquiry; but as Dessaignes' pistol had done no harm to -anyone, and as the two prisoners had conducted their little campaign in -a modest and inoffensive manner, no addition was made to their -sentence,—which indeed was the equivalent of a "life" sentence at the -present day. They were transferred to the Conciergerie, where their -bonds were not too tight; their families kept them in money, and they -received and dined their friends. - -Desforges, the younger of the pair, seemed willing to accept his fate; -but Dessaignes, whose blood was always tingling, ached for liberty. He -watched his visitors out of the prison with hungry eyes. After all, the -least cruel of prisons is a cage, and the wings will beat against the -bars. Who knows what freedom means but the man who hears his lock turned -nightly by some other man's hand? - -One night, the two young prisoners had been allowed (an affair of a -bribe) to give a dinner to some friends. The looseness of the rules -permitted the presence also of the principal warders, whom the hosts -took care to fill with wine. The table was surrounded by men in the -sleep of liquor, and Dessaignes and Desforges slipped out, and presented -themselves at the inner door of the prison. It was past midnight, and -the turnkey was asleep in his chair. Dessaignes took a key from his belt -at a venture, and tried the lock. It creaked, and the turnkey awoke. -Dessaignes turned and stabbed him, and he slept in death. The first door -was passed. - -At the second door the turnkey was awake. So much the worse for him. -Dessaignes' dagger was out and in again, and the turnkey dropped. -Another key, another lock; the second door was passed. - -At the third and outer door, the warder stood beyond the grille, safe, -and shouted the alarm. The prisoners turned to retreat, but the third -warder's cry had summoned another, who, quick to see the situation, -slammed the first door to; and between the first door and the third -Dessaignes and Desforges were trapped. - -One warder murdered outright, a second on the point of death,—the fate -of the assassin and his comrade could not be long in doubt. A prisoner -gave evidence that he had been bribed to drug the first gate-warder; and -both Dessaignes and Desforges were sentenced to be "broken alive." The -decree was passed on the 1st of October, 1784, signed by Louis XVI., at -the express request of two of his ministers, and carried out publicly in -every terrible detail. - -But darker scenes than this are preparing at the Abbaye. It was here -that the Revolution may be said to have begun, and here that some of its -worst crimes were perpetrated. - -[Illustration: A STREET SCENE DURING THE MASSACRES.] - -In June of 1789, there lay in the Abbaye certain soldiers of the _Gardes -Françaises_, charged with refusing to obey their orders, out of sympathy -with the National Assembly. Their situation in the prison became known, -and a clamour arose for their release. "À l'Abbaye! à l'Abbaye!" was the -cry; two hundred men set out from the Palais-Royal, and four thousand -arrived at the prison gates. Every door of defence was staved in, and in -less than an hour from the commencement of the attack, the democratic -_Gardes_ were released, and borne in triumph through Paris. This was one -of the first demonstrations of the popular will. How quickly that will -felt and appreciated its strength, and in what abandonment of cruel -passion it was to find expression, most readers have learned. There is -nothing in the annals of the world to be compared with the series of -events in the Paris prisons in '92, to which history has given the name -of the September Massacres. In that deliberate slaughter, over one -thousand men and women perished, hewn in pieces in the prisons or at the -prison doors. The revolutionary committees had packed the gaols with -"suspected" persons, mostly innocent of anything that could be laid to -their charge; and there they awaited such death as might be decreed for -them: salvation was all but hopeless. There was talk at first of burning -them _en masse_ in the prisons; then of thrusting all the prisoners into -the subterranean cells, and drowning them slowly by pouring or pumping -water on them. Assassination pure and simple seems to have been resolved -upon "as a measure of indulgence." A mock form of trial was held at all -the prisons, that the butcheries might be given an appearance of -legality. - -On Sunday, the 2d of September, '92, the barriers of the city were -closed, and early in the afternoon the tocsin clanging from every -steeple in Paris called up the butchers to their work. Some thirty -priests were faring in five hackney carriages to the Abbaye prison, and -with them the slaughter was begun. One coach reached the prison with a -load of corpses; the occupants of the other four—Abbé Sicard -excepted—were killed as they alighted. Prisoners in the Abbaye watched -the carnage from behind their bars, and said: "It will be our turn -next." - -To one of these prisoners, Journiac Saint-Méard, one time captain in the -King's light infantry, we shall for the present attach ourselves. His -_Agony of Thirty-eight Hours_ (_Mon agonie de trente-huit heures_), much -read at the beginning of the century, is amongst the best of the -contemporary records, and from that I shall translate at some length. - -This slow deliberate killing of the priests was done, he says, amid a -silence inexpressibly horrible; and as each fell, a savage murmur went -up, and a single shout of _Vive la nation_! Women were there encouraging -the men, and fetching jugs of wine for them. Someone in the crowd -pointed to the windows of the prison and said: "There are plenty of -conspirators behind there; and not a single one must escape!" - -Towards seven in the evening, two men with sabres, their hands steeped -in blood, entered the prison, and began to carry out the prisoners for -slaughter. - - "The unfortunate Reding lay sick on his bed, and begged to be killed - there. One of the men hesitated, but his companion said, '_Allons - donc!_' and he slung him across his shoulder to carry him out, and - he was killed in the street." - - "We looked at one another in silence, but presently the cries of - fresh victims renewed our agitation, and we recalled the words of M. - Chantereine as he plunged a knife into his heart: 'We are all - destined to be massacred.'" - - "At midnight, ten men armed with sabres, and preceded by two - turnkeys with torches, came into our dungeon, and ordered us to - range ourselves along the foot of our beds. They counted us, and - told us that we were responsible for one another, swearing that if - one of us escaped, the rest should be massacred, without being heard - by the President. The last words gave us a little hope, for until - then we had had no idea that we might be heard before being killed." - - "At two o'clock on Monday morning, we heard them breaking in one of - the prison doors, and thought at first that we were about to be - slaughtered in our beds, but were a little reassured when we heard - someone outside say that it was the door of a cell which some - prisoners had tried to barricade. We learned afterwards that all who - were found there had their throats cut." - - "At ten, Abbé Lenfant, confessor of the King, and the Abbé de - Chapt-Rastignac appeared in the pulpit of the chapel which served - for our prison, and informing us that our last hour was approaching, - invited us all to receive their blessing. An indefinable electric - movement sent us all to our knees, and, with clasped hands, we - received it. Those two white-haired old men with hands outstretched - in prayer, death hovering above us, and on every side environing us: - what a situation, what a moment, never to be forgotten!" - -Saint-Méard goes on to say how, during that morning, they discussed -among themselves what was the easiest way in which to receive death. The -slaughter in the streets never stopped, and some of them went from time -to time to the window to observe and make reports. - - "They reported that those certainly suffered the most and were the - longest in dying who tried in any way to protect their heads, - inasmuch as by so doing they warded off the sabre-cuts for a time, - and sometimes lost both hands and arms before their heads were - struck. Those who stood up with their hands behind their backs - seemed to suffer least, and certainly died soonest.... On such - horrible details did we deliberate." - -Towards afternoon, overwhelmed by fatigue and anxiety, Saint-Méard threw -himself on his bed and slept. He awoke after a comforting dream, which -he felt certain was an omen of good fortune. But he and the others were -now consumed by thirst; it was twenty-six hours since they had had -anything to drink. A gaoler fetched them a jug of water, but could tell -them nothing as to their fate. - -The long agony of waiting drew to an end. - - "At eleven at night, several persons armed with swords and pistols - ordered us to place ourselves in single file, and led us out to the - second wicket, next to the place where the trials were being held. I - got as near as I could to one of our guards, and managed little by - little to engage him in conversation." - -This man was an old soldier and a Provençal, and when he found that -Saint-Méard could talk the rude patois of that district—scarcely -intelligible in Paris—he grew quite friendly, fetched him a tumbler of -wine to hearten him, and counselled him as to what he should tell the -judges. The Provençal let him stand where he had a glimpse of the court, -and he saw two prisoners thrust to the bar and condemned almost unheard; -a moment later, their death-cries reached his ears. - -Two hours passed thus; it was one o'clock in the morning, but still the -judges heard, condemned, and sent their victims out to die by sword and -hatchet in the street, where in places the blood was ankle deep, and the -dead lay in piles. - -All at once Saint-Méard heard his name called. "After having suffered an -agony of thirty-seven hours, an agony as of death itself, the door -opened and I was called. Three men laid hold of me, and haled me in." - -By the glare of torches, - - "I saw that dreadful judgment bar, where liberty or death lay for - me. The President, in grey coat, sword at his side, stood leaning - against a table, on which were papers, an ink-stand, pipes, and - bottles. Around the table were ten persons, sitting or standing, two - of whom were in sleeveless jackets and aprons; others were asleep, - stretched on benches. Two men in shirts all smeared with blood kept - the door; an old turnkey had his hand on the bolt.... - - "Here then stood I at this swift and bloody bar, where the best help - was to be without all help, and where no resources of the mind were - of avail that had not truth to rest upon. - - "'Your name, your calling?' said the President, and one of the - judges added: 'The smallest lie undoes you.' - - "'My name,' I answered, 'is Journiac Saint-Méard; I served - twenty-five years as an officer in the army. I stand before you with - the confidence of a man who has nothing to reproach himself with, - and who is therefore not likely to utter falsehoods.' - - "'It will be for us to judge of that,' responded the man in grey." - -The trial proceeded. Saint-Méard was accused of having edited the -anti-revolutionary journal, _De la cour et de la ville_, but showed -satisfactorily that he had not done so. Accused next of recruiting for -the emigrants, at which there was an ominous murmur, "Gentlemen, -gentlemen," pleaded the prisoner, "the word is with me at present, and I -beg the President to maintain it for me,—I never needed it so sorely!" -"That's true enough!" laughed the judges, and the court began to shew -itself more sympathetic. Saint-Méard, though, was not yet off the -gridiron. "You tell us continually," said one impatient judge, "that you -are not this and you are not that! Be good enough then to tell us what -you are."—"I was once frankly a Royalist." Another and louder murmur; -but the President put in: "We are not here to sit in judgment on -opinions, but on their results"; words of precious augury for the -prisoner, who went on to say that he was well aware the old régime was -done with, that there was no longer a Royalist cause, and that never had -he been concerned in plots or Royalist conspiracies, for he had never in -his life been concerned in public affairs of any kind. He was a -Frenchman who loved his country above all things. - -The questioning and cross-questioning came to an end, and the President -removed his hat. "I can find nothing to suspect in Monsieur. What do you -say; shall I release him?" and the voice of the judges was for liberty. -Thus finished, at two o'clock in the morning, the "thirty-eight hours' -agony" of Journiac Saint-Méard. He survived it some twenty years. - -Alas for the hundreds upon hundreds whose agony of yet longer duration -finished under the arch of pikes! - -The escapes were not many. Abbé Sicard, the benevolent founder of the -Deaf-and-Dumb Institute, was set free on the earnest petition in writing -of one of his pupils. Beaumarchais, author of the _Mariage de Figaro_, -evaded the clutches of the judges after a terrible period of suspense in -the Abbaye. The old Marquis de Sombreuil was saved by his daughter. She -clung to his neck, imploring the cut-throats to spare him to her. "Say, -then," said one of them, dipping a cup into the blood at his feet: "Wilt -thou drink _this_?" The brave girl gulped it down; the mob threw up -their weapons with a roar of applause, and opened out a way for both -through their dripping ranks. - -But few fared as these did. President Maillard, of the grey coat, who -was so well satisfied with Saint-Méard, did not release, perhaps, one in -fifty amongst the accused at the Abbaye. He is accused of "carrying -about heads, and cutting up dead bodies." Billaud-Varennes went about -from group to group of the assassins who were massed in parties, -encouraged them in the name of the tribunal, and promised that each man -should be paid a louis for his "labour." - -A contemporary sketch depicts him delivering a speech on "a table of -corpses" against the door of the Abbaye: "Citizens, you are slaughtering -the enemies of France. You are doing your duty." Indiscriminate killing -had been the legal order of the day. There was no question of the -guillotine during the September massacres. Every citizen who could arm -himself was a Samson by privilege of the prison judges; and popular -justice, called "severe justice of the people," made the butcheries of -September a people's fête. It was not so much an act of patriotism to -assist in them as a dereliction of duty to hold aloof. The -"Septemberers" have been condemned as cannibals; but they were common -ratepayers of Paris to whom the government of the day offered money to -kill as many "enemies of the republic" as should be delivered to them. -Most of these "enemies of the republic" were persons to whom the -republic was scarcely known by name, and who asked only to be ignored by -it. They were killed in batches during the September of '92, merely -because they happened to be thrust out at one particular door of their -prison. You came out at this door, and were received with cheers; you -came out at the next door, and were hacked in pieces. Which door it was, -depended upon the vote of the judges; and this, as a rule, was the -determination of a moment. Saint-Méard's trial of an hour was one of the -longest. - -The mere business of killing went forward until numbers had lost their -significance, and the lists of the dead were but approximately reckoned. -They are all set down in black and white, and may still be read—so many -killed "in the heap" (_en masse_), so many "after judgment" (_après -jugement_)—but the figures have never been proved; and one seeks in vain -to reckon the total, after the "three hundred families belonging to the -Faubourg St. Germain," who were "thrown into the Abbaye in a night"; and -the "cartload of young girls, of whom the oldest was not eighteen," and -who, "dressed all in white in the tumbril, looked like a basket of -lilies." After this batch, were guillotined all the nuns of the convent -of Montmartre. - -Then there were the Swiss Guards, "remnants of the 10th of August," to -whom Maillard said; "Gentlemen, you may find mercy outside, but I am -afraid we cannot grant it to you here." The youngest of them, "in a blue -frock-coat," elected to go first. "Since we must die," he said, "let me -show the way"; then, dashing on his hat, he presented himself at the -door where the butchers stood ready to receive him; a double row of -them,—sabre, bayonet, hatchet, or pike in hand. For a moment he looked -at them, quite coolly; then, seeing that all was prepared, he threw -himself between their ranks, and "fell beneath a thousand blows." - -[Illustration: THE GALLANT SWISS.] - -When the killers began to flag, brandy mixed with gunpowder was served -to them. A woman passes, carrying a basket of hot rolls; they beg them -of her, and the bread, before being eaten, is "soaked in the wounds of -the still breathing victims."[19] The brigands of the Abbaye were not -more than from thirty to forty in number. Amongst them, says Nougaret, -"one youth, mounted on a post, distinguished himself by his ferocity in -killing. He said that he had lost his two brothers on the 10th of -August, and meant to avenge them. He boasted of having cut down fifty to -his own weapon. Another brigand prided himself on a total of two -hundred!" - -Footnote 19: - - Nougaret. - -Women looked on, adds the same authority, "sitting in carts on piles of -dead bodies, like washerwomen on dirty linen. Others flung themselves -upon the corpses, and tore them with their teeth, danced round them, and -kicked them. Some of these Furies cut off the ears of the dead, and -pinned them on their bosoms." - -Some ten months after this carnage, tranquil amid the din of the Terror, -lies beautiful Charlotte Corday, in her cell within the Abbaye walls. -Her hour has not yet come; she bides it in perfect peace. By-and-bye she -will go to the Conciergerie, and thence the next morning to the -guillotine. Samson will lift the fair head when he has struck it off, -and smite the cheek with his crimson paw, amid universal plaudits. "I -have found the sweetest rest here these two days," she writes from -prison; "I could not be better off, and my gaolers are the best people -in the world." A memory of her lives as she tripped smiling up the steps -of the scaffold, her hair cropped under a little close-fitting cap, and -wearing, by order of her judges, a hideous red shirt, which descended to -her feet. "She blushed and frowned on the executioner when he plucked -the tippet from her bosom. Two moments after, the knife fell on her." - -After the Revolution, the Abbaye was again a military prison, and its -subterranean dungeons were in existence in 1814. "The principal of -these," wrote one who had inspected it, "is as horrible as any in -Bicêtre; sunk thirty feet below the level of the ground, and so -fashioned that a man of average height could not stand up in it. One -could scarcely remain here, says the doctor himself, more than four and -twenty hours without being in danger of one's life." - -The Abbaye was demolished in 1854. - -[Illustration] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration] - - - - - CHAPTER IX. - - THE LUXEMBOURG IN '93. - - -This was, above all others, the aristocratic prison of the Revolution. -It was fitly chosen for the reception of that brilliant contingent of -nobles, just ready to fly the country, whom the famous Law of the -Suspects had routed from their hôtels in Paris. To confine them in the -Luxembourg, converting that ancient and renowned palace into a dungeon -of aristocrats, was in itself an apt stroke of vengeance on the part of -the people. Few indeed of the historic dwellings of Paris could have put -them more forcibly in mind of the tyrannies of kings and regents, of the -splendid and licentious fêtes and orgies of princes and princesses of -the blood, the cost of which was wrung from the lean pockets of those -who were told to eat cake when there was no bread in the cupboard! Had -not Marie de Médicis passed here, and Gaston de France, and Duchesse de -Montpensier, and Elizabeth d'Orléans, who gave it to Louis XIV., and -Louis XVI., who gave it, in 1779, to Monsieur his brother, who after the -days of storm and terror was to reign, not too satisfactorily, as Louis -XVIII.? Was it not here that Duchesse de Berri, in the early years of -the eighteenth century, held those surprising revels the details of -which may be read only in secret and unpublished memoirs? Sedate -historians merely hint at them.[20] And, palace though it was, the -revolutionary judges might have found ready to their hands at the -Luxembourg, bars, bolts, fetters and dungeons enow. For that "symbolic -hierarchy" of palace, cloister, and prison, proper to all princely and -noble dwellings of the old régime, had existed at the Luxembourg; and -during long years the penal justice of priest and monk had passed that -way. - -Footnote 20: - - "Dans son Palais-Royal, au Palais de Luxembourg où demeurait la - duchesse de B——, se célébraient le plus ordinairement ces parties de - débauche. L'on y voyait les acteurs figurer quelquefois avec un - costume qui consistait à n'en point avoir; et les princes, les - princesses, se livrer sans pudeur aux désordres les plus - dégoûtans."—Dulaure, vol. viii., p. 187. - -This was the place to which the noble and courtly suspects were conveyed -by hundreds in August, 1793. One can imagine, though but very faintly, -with what feelings they resigned themselves into the hands of concierge -Benoît. Their King had been decapitated; their Queen, a prisoner -elsewhere, was expecting her husband's fate. They knew how little their -sovereign's life had weighed in the people's balance; was it likely that -theirs would be of greater weight? Judgment and death disquieted them. - -"A diverting spectacle in its way," wrote one sarcastic prisoner, "to -see arriving in a miserable hackney-coach two marquises, a duchess, a -marchioness, and a count; all ready to faint on alighting, and all -seized with the megrims on entering." Dames of great rank came with -their brisk femmes de chambre, old noblemen with their valets, youths -separated from their governors and tutors,—children even; whole -battalions of the most distinguished suspects, the very flower of the -aristocracy of France. The dungeons were not requisitioned, but hasty -preparations had been made for them. Under concierge Benoît's polite and -sympathetic conduct, they mounted the splendid staircase—up which had -flitted in a costume of no weight at all the unblushing guests of De -Berri—to the splendid chambers, picture-gallery, ball-room, salon, -dining-room, and the whole sumptuous suite, which rude partitions of -naked lath and timber had converted into some semblance of prison -lodgings. The wide windows had been armed with iron bars, and guards -were posted at every story. - -The gallant company of French suspects found some of the chambers in the -occupation of a party of English suspects, who had been placed under -arrest some weeks earlier, "as a response to the insults offered by the -English government to the Republic" (_pour répondre aux insultes -dirigées par le gouvernement anglais contre la République_). Amongst -them were Miss Maria Williams, who had gone to France, pen in hand, to -see what liberty, equality, and fraternity were like in practice (and -who returned to write one of the dullest books on record); and Thomas -Paine, who was studying "The Rights of Man" under alarming aspects. - -This was the first Battue; the royalist suspects of Republican France -were the second. - -The salons of the palace, made into prison chambers, were named afresh. -Miss Williams and her sister occupied the chamber of _Cincinnatus_; hard -by were the chambers of _Brutus_, _Socrates_, and _Solon_; and the -derisive name of _Liberty_ was given to the room in which nobles under -special guard were confined in the strictest privacy. High personages, -whose titles but a little while before might have made their gaolers -tremble, were lodged in every quarter of the palace. In this cabinet -were Marshal de Mouchy and his wife, "rigorous observers of courtly -etiquette"; a little way off, in chambers no bigger than prison cells, -the Comte de Mirepoix, the Marquis de Fleury, President Nicolai, M. de -Noailles, and the Duc de Lévi. - -Parlous in a high degree as the situation was for all of them, they did -not at this date suffer any special discomfort, the deprivation of -liberty excepted. Their captors were satisfied at having them under lock -and key, and did not insult their captivity. A gossiping history, which -may be history or fable, describes a visit of Latude to one of the -political prisoners, a certain M. Roger. The great prison-breaker -laughed the Luxembourg to scorn: "A prison? You call this a prison, _mon -cher_? I call it a _bonbonnière_, a _boudoir_!" - -Indeed, to be precise, the Luxembourg was not exactly a Bastille. There -were sad and evil days in store for these suspects, but they were days -as yet distant. For the present, heart-questionings apart, it was not -too dismal a confinement; and rumour went so far as to hint that there -were relaxations of an evening which would not have discredited the -character of the Luxembourg of history. - -The palace-prison might be compared to an unseaworthy vessel in which -one shipped for a compulsory voyage, in dangerous waters, with a -doubtful chart. One might reach port, or founder in mid-ocean. -Meanwhile, there was no choice but to sail; and the rotten ship had good -berths and was well-provisioned. - -The Luxembourg was not as yet governed as a prison, the suspects of the -Revolution were under no extraordinary restraint, there was no -surveillance, and the sentries allowed the prisoners to come and go as -they pleased within the wide walls of the palace and its gardens. Their -friends called upon them, and they wrote and received letters. One of -them had a dog in his chamber which used to fetch and carry messages and -packets between the "prison" and free Paris. A confectioner outside was -allowed to furnish whatever was ordered for the tables, and the rich -paid ungrudgingly for the poor. Plain _sans-culottes_ came in as -suspects with the nobles, and were regularly fed by them. - -"How many are you feeding?" asked one marquis of another. - -"Twelve; and pretty hungry ones." - -"Well, what do you give them?" - -"Meat at dinner always, and dessert." - -"That's not so bad. My fellows want meat twice a day, and coffee once a -week." - -A strained position made matters easier. The nobles kept apart from the -plebs, and took their share of snubs from the "common patriots" whom -their purses kept in food; but a sense of general danger minimised the -hostilities of class. Succour, whenever needed, was never lacking. The -regulation mattress for the beds is described as "of about the thickness -of an omelette" and the bolster "of the leanest"; but bolsters and -mattresses ran short in a month or two, and the men stripped themselves -of coats and waistcoats to make beds for the women. It was a camp or -caravanserai, with the style of a court. - -The aristocrats assembled of an evening in a common room which was -always called the salon, powdered and dressed in the fashion, saluted -one another by the titles which they had ceased to own, and disputed -precedence as at Versailles. Visits were paid and returned, and never -was a fool's paradise so scrupulously ordered. It was admirable in its -way; the old order would die by rule. - -The prisoners were fortunate in their concierge, Benoît. A veteran of -seventy, gentle and genial, with a heart as fine as the manners of his -royalist prisoners, he smoothed all paths, and ushered in a new-comer to -a lodging of four bare walls and a naked floor with an apology that -transformed it into a royal boudoir. He seemed to know all his guests as -they arrived, and placed them where he thought they would find the -easiest entertainment and the most congenial company. He played the part -of master of ceremonies, and put each guest into his proper niche. In -Benoît's hands, the marquis who had arrived without his valet found -himself handling the broom, fetching water, and taking his turn at the -spit, as if the custom of a lifetime had used him to those offices. It -was Benoît who learned at once what money a prisoner had brought in with -him, and who saved the needy suspect the humiliation of begging his -meals, by a whisper in the ear of a good-natured noble. - -By-and-bye, the suspects had the gratification of knowing that their -perils, present and to come, were shared by the enemy himself. There -arrived as a prisoner one evening a president of the revolutionary -tribunal. It was one Kalmer, a German Jew, and reputed millionaire (he -had an income of about £8000), who had been active in filling the -chamber-cells of the Luxembourg. He presented himself in sabots and a -costume of the shabbiest simplicity, and his reception was of the -coolest. He displayed from the first a voracious appetite, and every day -an ass laden with provisions was brought for him to the palace door. The -ex-president seemed well disposed to end his days eating and drinking in -the Luxembourg, and was not a little shocked on receiving the news that -he had been sentenced to death, "for conspiring secretly with the enemy -abroad." He went to the guillotine without a benediction. - -Came next the much more notable Chaumette, ex-sailor, ex-priest, and -recently Procureur of the Commune, in which capacity he had been -foremost in demanding and promoting the Law of the Suspects. He was as -chapfallen as a wolf in a snare, but he did not escape the mordant jests -of the company. It was Chaumette who had declared in the Chamber that -"you might almost recognise a suspect by the look of him." He himself -was recognised on the instant. - -"Sublime Procureur!" exclaimed one, "thanks to that famous requisition -of yours, I am suspect, thou art suspect, he is suspect; we are suspect, -you are suspect, they are all suspect"—which indeed was the case, for at -that date, as Carlyle says, "if suspect of nothing else, you may grow," -as came to be a saying, "Suspect of being Suspect." - -One night, the wildest rumour circulated in the prison. It was said that -Danton, Camille Desmoulins, Hérault de Séchelle, Lacroix, Philippeaux, -and others, the head and front of the party of the Moderates, had been -arrested by Robespierre's order, and were to be sent forthwith to the -Luxembourg. It was even so; and the next night the news sped through -every corridor of the palace that Danton and his fellows had arrived, -and were with the concierge. The prisoners swarmed to the reception -room, and gratified their eyes with that unlooked-for spectacle. The -brilliant Camille, whose young wife was a prisoner with him, was -denouncing the tribunal in a storm of passion; Danton bade him be calm: -"When men act with folly," he said, "one should know how to laugh at -them." Then, recognising Thomas Paine, he said: "What you have done for -the liberty of your country, I have tried to do for mine. I have been -less fortunate than you! They will send me to the scaffold; well, I -shall go there cheerfully enough!" Camille Desmoulins had brought with -him some rather melancholy reading—Hervey's _Meditations_ and Young's -_Night Thoughts_. The merry Réal, who had arrived a day or two earlier, -exclaimed against these works: "Do you want to die before your time? -Here, take my book, _La Pucelle d'Orléans_; that will keep your spirits -up!" - -General Dillon, who was of the earliest batch of suspects, was amongst -the first to visit the imprisoned Moderates in the chamber which had -been set apart for them.[21] Camille was still fuming, and Danton -playing the part of moderator. Lacroix was debating with himself whether -he should cut his hair, or wait till Samson dressed it for him. Another -of the party, Fabre d'Eglantine, lay sick in bed, tenderly nursed by his -comrades. He was saved for the scaffold, for the turn of the Moderates -was not long delayed. At the brief trial of the party, Danton and -Camille showed a characteristic front to their judges. "You ask my -name!" thundered the Titan of the Revolution. "You should know it! It is -Danton, a name tolerably familiar in the Revolution. As for my abode, it -will soon be the Unknown, but I shall live in the Pantheon of history!" -"My age," answered Camille, "is the age of the good _sans-culotte_ Jesus -Christ; an age fatal to Revolutionists!" Returning to the Luxembourg -after condemnation, he said to Benoît: "I am condemned for having shed a -tear or two over the fate of other unfortunates. My only regret is that -I was not able to be of better service to them." Camille wrote with one -of the wittiest pens of his day, and busied himself in the Luxembourg -with a comedy called _The Orange_, the model of which was Sheridan's -_School for Scandal_. He had evoked in a greater degree than any other -of the Moderates the sympathies of the suspects in the Luxembourg, and -up to the last there was a general belief in the prison that both he and -Danton would be saved by the intervention of Robespierre. But -Robespierre could not, if he would. Executioner Samson received in due -course his order to proceed with them—a document drawn up in the style -and almost in the terms of a commercial invoice—and made his own note in -pencil at the foot: "One cart will be enough." Even at the steps of the -guillotine, Camille turned to denounce the crowd. "Leave that canaille!" -said Danton, quietly; "we are done with it." To the headsman Danton -said, as he stood on the scaffold: "You must show my head to the people. -It is a head worth looking at." - -Footnote 21: - - "This general," says Nougaret, in his dry way, "drank a great deal. In - his sober moments, he played at trictrac."—Vol. ii., p. 61. - -This hecatomb of the Moderates sent a thrill of fear through the -Luxembourg. Whose turn next? - -Up to this date, the principal political prisoners had enjoyed -unrestrained communication with their friends outside, and General -Dillon had private news twice a day from the tribunal. Two days after -the bloody despatch of the Moderates, the prisoners of the Luxembourg -were confined to their chambers. Evening receptions and parties of -trictrac (in one's sober intervals) were suppressed; communication of -every kind was forbidden; and the journals of the day, which had been -freely circulated in the prison, were no longer admitted. The prisoners -awaited "in silence and fear" the explanation of this rigorous -_consigne_. - -It was the outcome of the first of those rumours of a "plot in the -prison." A certain Lafflotte, a suspect of low origin, denounced General -Dillon and one Simon (nicknamed in the prison Simon-Limon) as the author -of a secret conspiracy. The revolutionary journals were full of the -affair, but it was never very clearly explained, nor, for that matter, -was any precise explanation ever offered of other prison plots -so-called. There were pretended discoveries and expositions of plots in -the Luxembourg, Saint-Lazare, Bicêtre, and the Carmes. That the -prisoners of the Revolution in all these goals were eager to recover -their liberty, is a statement which may pass without dispute; and it is -no less natural to suppose that they would have seized upon any means -that offered a reasonable hope of escape. But the truth seems to have -been, and it is rather curious in the circumstances (though the presence -of so many women and children would have multiplied the difficulties) -that no concerted efforts to break prison were ever made by the -suspects. Statements or rumours to the effect that they were planning a -forcible release for themselves, and that, once out of prison, they -intended to put Paris to the sword, should have been regarded as quite -too silly for credence. Surely those poor aristocrats had given proof -enough of their weakness! Of all the enemies of the Republic, they were -the least capable of harming it. - -Dillon and Simon, nevertheless, were delivered over to Samson. The -terror had begun for the prisoners of the Luxembourg. - -An unexpected calamity succeeded. Benoît, most humane and benevolent of -concierges, was arrested. It was as if the father had been snatched from -his family, and the suspects were inconsolable; they had lost their best -friend within the prison. The tribunal acquitted him, but he did not -return to his post. Benoît had two successors at the Luxembourg within a -space of weeks, the second of whom was a man who would have been -regarded with terror in any French prison at that epoch. This was -Guiard, who had been fetched expressly from Lyons, where he had acquired -a hideous celebrity as gaoler of the "Cellar of the Dead," the name -bestowed upon the dungeon or black hole in which the victims of the -_commission populaire_ passed their last hours between condemnation and -execution. - -A few days after the removal of Benoît, the prisoners awoke one morning -to find that sentinels had been posted at every door. A stolid police -officer named Wilcheritz, a Pole by birth, who had been nominated to a -principal post in the prison, came round with the order that there was -to be no communication between the suspects. They, believing that they -were on the eve of another September massacre, prepared to bid each -other farewell. On this occasion, however, it was merely a question of -stripping them of their belongings. Money, paper notes, rings, studs, -pins, shoebuckles, penknives, razors, scissors, keys, were gathered in -cell after cell, and deposited in a heap in one of the larger rooms; no -notes or inventory being taken. Wilcheritz and his inquisitors were the -objects of some pleasantries which, it is said, "annoyed them greatly." -One prisoner, after handing over his writing-case was asked for his -ring. "What!" said he, "isn't the stationery enough? Are you setting up -in the jewellery line too?" Another, when it was pointed out to him that -he had retained the gold buckles of his garters, replied: "I think, -citizens, you had better undress me at once." They entered the cell of -the playwright Parisau. "Citizens," said the author, "I am really -distressed; you have come too late. I had three hundred livres here, but -another citizen has just relieved me of them. I hope that you will have -better luck elsewhere. They tell me, however, that you are leaving us -fifty livres apiece, and as I have only just five and twenty, no doubt -you will make up the sum to me." "Oh no, citizen," returned the stolid -Pole.—"Ah! I see. You are merely 'on the make,' citizen. It is -unfortunate in that case that there are gentry in the prison more active -than you. However, if you follow the other citizen, I dare say you will -catch him up, and then you can settle accounts with him. You are the -ocean, citizen, and all the little tributaries will join themselves to -you." - -In another apartment it was proposed to carry off his silver coffee-pot -from a prisoner, who, to preserve it, explained that it was "not exactly -silver," but "some sort of English metal." That was possible, observed -Wilcheritz, for he had one just like it himself. "Ah!" returned the -prisoner, "now that you mention it, I remember there was another like -mine in the prison!" - -Suspects belonging to the working-classes,—tailors shoemakers, -engravers, and the like—were allowed to retain the tools of their -crafts; and the barbers received their razors in the morning, returning -them to the gaolers at night. - -To all requests addressed to him by the prisoners, imploring information -as to their fate, the phlegmatic Pole made answer: "Patience! Justice is -just. This durance will not endure for ever. Patience!" - -Patriots and nobles were now massed in hundreds within the same walls, -shared the same chambers, and were fed from the same kitchen; and all -alike were now in the same state of siege. What news penetrated within -the palace-prison was not the most inspiriting; the tumbrils were moving -steadily to the guillotine, and in the copies of the _Courrier -Republicain_ which were smuggled into the Luxembourg, the principal -intelligence was the "Judgment of the Revolutionary Tribunal, which has -condemned to death" thirty, forty, fifty, or sixty "conspirators." - -Word was passed that the _commissions populaires_ were to take in hand -the cases of the suspects, which was more comforting to the patriots -than to the nobles; but the days crept on, and nothing happened. - -The prisoners amused themselves by teasing Wilcheritz, a fair butt for -raillery, who carried out his orders imperturbably, but was never a -bully. The day came of the "Feast of the Supreme Being," and citizen -Wilcheritz honoured it with a radiant suit. His big feet were cramped in -a pair of new shoes with the finest of silver buckles. One of the -despoiled suspects fancied or pretended that he recognised the buckles, -and a whisper went round. The prisoner whose coffee-pot had been -appropriated came to the rescue. "Citizens," he said, "those buckles -don't look to me like silver. They are _a sort of English metal_." "They -have been in my family for three generations, citizens, I assure you. I -had them long before the visitation," stammered Wilcheritz. "The -visitation" had grown to be the polite mode of reference to the act of -spoliation. "Citizen," said the defender of Wilcheritz, "your answer is -complete. You told us the other day that no good Republican should stoop -to wear jewellery, but no citizen here would have the heart to claim -your shoebuckles." - -The coming of Guiard as concierge (_cet homme féroce_ is Nougaret's -dismissal of him) quenched all pleasantries, and made the palace-prison -a prison complete. Two suspects hopeless of being brought to the bar, -had committed suicide by throwing themselves from their windows; Guiard -ordered that no prisoner should approach within a yard of his window. -The sentries had orders to enter every cell and chamber, with drawn -sabres, at midnight, rouse the occupants from their beds, and count -them. At intervals, all through the night, they were to hail one another -loudly in every corridor: "_Sentinelles, prenez-garde à nous!_" so that -there should be no sleep for the prisoners. No letters were allowed to -pass out from or into the prison; and no visitors were admitted. - -Meals could no longer be sent in from the confectioner's, and a common -table was established. At noon precisely, the bell was struck for -dinner, and the nine hundred prisoners were ranged in the corridors, -each with his _couvert_ under his arm, a wooden fork, knife, and spoon. -They descended by batches to the dining-room, marching two and two, and -this singular procession was half an hour on its journey. Arriving at -the dining-room, three hundred took their places at the table, three -hundred waited with their backs to the wall, and three hundred cooled -their heels in the passage. - -At this time, all money and paper notes, having been taken from them, -the suspects were receiving an allowance of about two shillings a day, -though it is not quite clear what they were to spend it on. - -At the distribution one morning, Guiard said significantly: "There won't -be quite so many to receive it to-morrow!" That same night, a long row -of tumbrils stopped under the walls of the Luxembourg, and one hundred -and sixty-nine prisoners were dragged from bed to fill them. - -It was the first seizure on the grand scale, and in a few minutes the -whole prison was in confusion and panic terror. The warders were heard -going from door to door, and calling the names of the victims; one from -one chamber, two, three, or four from another. Here were sobbings and -loud wails, and clinging embraces; husbands and fathers trying to -animate the weeping women whom they were leaving; priests called for in -the dark to bless together for the last time two who were to be -separated. No one dared descend to the great gallery, but elsewhere -there were frightened rushings to and fro; meetings and partings in -darkened doorways and half-illumined corridors; friend seeking friend, -and women and girls imploring with streaming eyes for leave to say -good-bye again to the lost ones who were already seated in the tumbrils. -Happy were the friends and whole families who were despatched together. -In one moving instance, weeping was turned into joy. A family of father, -mother, and two daughters were divided; the younger daughter was left -behind, almost distracted; her name was not upon the list. Presently -came another warder with another list. The girl started from the empty -bed on which she had thrown herself, snatched the list from the gaoler, -and read her own name there. Carrying the sheet, and with a face beaming -as if a free pardon had been handed to her, she ran down the corridor, -crying: "Mamma, I have found my name! See, it is here! Now we shall die -together!" So by minutes, of which each minute was an æon, that night of -horror was exhausted, and at daybreak the long file of tumbrils dragged -scaffold-wards. - -Not less wretched was the situation of the hundreds who remained. -Racking fears were their portion day and night; death was in their -hearts. Every evening a new list came in. The "ferocious" Guiard had a -very suitable assistant in a turnkey called Verney, whose duty is was to -read out the roll of the proscribed, and who did it with a terrible art, -dallying with the syllables of a name, and pausing to watch the strained -faces around him. Sometimes instead of reading the list, he would pass -it round, when the struggle to reach it prolonged the agony. An -eyewitness of the scene has left a description: - - "In the evening, those prisoners who were allowed to do so assembled - in one of the large rooms and played, or made a pretence at playing, - vingt-et-un, chess, and other games. While these were in progress, - the terrible Verney, head turnkey, appeared, bringing what was - called the lottery list. This little paper contained the names of - those who were to go the same night to the Conciergerie, and the - next morning to the guillotine. The fatal list went round amid the - most pitiful silence. Those who found their names on it rose pale - and trembling from the table, embraced and bade farewell to their - friends, and left us. Verney would then produce the evening paper, - where we read the list of the day's dead,—the dead who had been at - the table with us the night before! I was playing chess one evening - with General Appremont, General Flers looking on. I had just put him - in check when the summons came for him, and Verney carried him off. - Flers took the vacant seat, with a pretence of finishing the game, - when he too was called. This officer had proved his courage in - battle a score of times, but I have never seen terror so horribly - painted on any human countenance. His whole visage seemed undone, - and when he struggled to his feet, he could scarcely support - himself. He gave me his hand, speechless, and staggered from the - room."[22] - -Footnote 22: - - _Les Prisons de l'Europe._ - -In the Luxembourg as in the other prisons at this epoch there were -miserable creatures, also under lock and key, who made a kind of trade -of denouncing their fellows. The Luxembourg had seven of these spies, -who assisted in preparing the lists, "embellishing" them, as they said, -with details which they had scraped together or invented in the prison. -These wretches enjoyed and boasted of the terror which they inspired; -and the chief of them, Boyaval (a tailor by trade, who had served in and -deserted from the Austrian army), used to say that anyone who looked -askance at him in the Luxembourg might count on spending the next night -in the Conciergerie! Scarcely a suspect whom Boyaval denounced escaped -the guillotine, and one night he scandalised the prison by offering love -to a young widow of a day, whose husband he had sacrificed. The husband -was an artist, who had painted portraits in the Luxembourg of nobles who -had reason to suppose that they would leave their families no other -legacy. He was accused of assembling the nobles in his room, and -plotting with them against the Republic. As lightly as this, during the -Terror, were lives devoted to Samson, in every prison in Paris. The -"plots" were not credible, and it is impossible at this date to suppose -that they were ever credited; but Paris was still obedient to the word -of the Danton whom it had guillotined, that "one must strike terror into -the aristocrats"; and these "prison plots" served to fill the tumbrils -to the last. - -An epidemic of sickness came to crown the sufferings of the dwindling -population of the Luxembourg. They were reduced almost to the last -extremity of despair. They had no news from without, except the nightly -list of the proscribed, and the nightly journal, with its monotonous -tale of executions. Between morning and evening, there was no other -event, except the swift good-bye at night to the friends or relatives -whose names were mumbled out by Verney. A silence almost unbroken had -settled on the prison; parties of ghosts assembled at dinner, and -whispered together in the common-room until bedtime. Their misery -culminated in the epidemic of sickness. The rations had been cut down to -one meal a day, and Guiard was the caterer. The wasted prisoners sent -back their rotten meat to the kitchen, and lived on bread and thin soup. -Half the prison fell ill; poisoned or underfed. Doctor's aid could be -had only on a warrant from the police, and applications remained a week -or a fortnight at the bureau. Samson had a rival in diseased or -exhausted nature; and Guiard's requiem for the dead was an unvarying -formula: "Peste! there's another lost to the guillotine!" - -This agony of a season was dissolved in an hour. The "walking corpses" -(_les cadavres ambulans_) of the Luxembourg were recalled to life by the -revolution of the 9th of Thermidor. It came with the din of the tocsin, -and the beat to arms which, until that day had gathered the rabble to -follow the tumbrils to the guillotine. The tocsin continued, and the -rattle of the drums increased, and the trampling of feet towards the -Luxembourg grew louder. The remnant of the suspects gathered in the -gallery: the last massacre was to come. No! The doors were burst open; a -shout went up. Robespierre had fallen. The Reign of Terror was finished. - -[Illustration] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration] - - - - - CHAPTER X. - - THE BASTILLE. - - "... if once it were left in the power of any, the highest, - magistrate to imprison arbitrarily whomever he or his officers - thought proper (as in France is daily practised by the - Crown), there would soon be an end of all other rights and - immunities."—BLACKSTONE. - - -After enduring for centuries an oppression as rigorous and as cruel as -any nation had ever been subjected to, this idea dawned, almost in an -hour, upon the mind of France. It did not matter that the King who -occupied the throne at this time was, if not at all a wise one, at least -one of the most humane, and distinctly the best intentioned, and the -only French sovereign who had ever really cared to soften the lot of his -prisoners. He did not soften their lot in the least, because he was weak -and indolent, and in the hands of the least honest of his ministers; but -his predecessors, almost without exception, had lent their efforts or -their sanction to the support of that old malignant policy, descended -from the feudal times, that prison was properly a place of torment. The -quick aspiration of liberty, born at last of a wretchedness that was -past enduring, inflamed the heart of the whole nation. It took Paris, as -it were, by the throat. What thing in Paris opposed itself most visibly -to the "natural rights" and liberty of man? Paris said: The Bastille! Up -then, and let the Bastille go down. They went there, a very ordinary -crowd of rioters, and overturned it. The Bastille, which the -superstitious fears of ages had thought impregnable, fell like an old -ruined house (which it was) in a midsummer gust. But the fall of it -shook Europe to its foundations, and before the dust had vanished, it -was seen that the Bastille had carried with it the throne of France, and -every shred and vestige of the system which that throne represented. - -This then must have been the most terrible prison in Europe? Not at all. -It was the most renowned; and, as a prison, no other name is ever likely -to be greater than, or as great as, the Bastille; but at the time of its -destruction it was no more than the shadow of its ancient self, and at -no period of its existence was it a worse place than any other of the -old State prisons of France. Vincennes was quite as cruel a hold as the -Bastille had ever been; there were, I think, uglier dens in the Châtelet -and in Bicêtre; and the torture chamber of the Conciergerie had perhaps -witnessed more inhuman spectacles than any other prison in Paris. - -[Illustration: THE BASTILLE.] - -But when, in July, 1789, a prison was to be destroyed, as the chief -symbol of the tyranny of kings, it was upon the Bastille that Paris -marched, as by instinct. Why was this prison abhorred above all the -rest? Mainly because what had once been a fact had survived as a -tradition,—that the master of the Bastille was the master of France; and -the master of the Bastille was, of course, the King. In its beginnings, -the Bastille was merely a gate of Paris, as Newgate was originally -nothing more than the New Gate of London. It came next to be a very -common little fort, for the defence of the Seine against the English and -other pirates. But it grew by-and-bye to be a stout castle and prison, -over against the royal residence of Vincennes; and when, on the approach -of an insurgent force, the King could signal from his window at -Vincennes to his commandant in the Bastille, just opposite, and the guns -of both places could be primed in time, the plain between them was -secure. The Bastille came thus to hold a place quite distinct from that -of any other prison in Paris, and one which threatened in a much higher -degree the liberties of the citizens. It was considered impossible of -capture; and while the King's standard shook over the great towers of -the Bastille, Paris and France were secure to him; and, in the popular -imagination, his principal stronghold was also his principal prison. In -this point of view, and it was the popular point of view, the Bastille -was a double menace to Paris. It was the King's best means of keeping -importunate subjects at arm's length, and it was also the most -redoubtable of the prisons he could shut them in. Both ideas were to -some extent erroneous. The Bastille, considered as a fort, was never as -formidable as its name; and, as a prison, the Kings of France seldom -favoured it above the Dungeon of Vincennes. - -But let us seek now to put the Bastille in its proper and exact place -amongst the historic gaols of France. In recent years, one or two French -writers of distinction, and others of no distinction whatever, have come -forward as the apologists of this too famous keep, who would persuade us -that it was not only a very tolerable sort of prison, but even, in -cases, a rather desirable place of retirement, for meditation, and -philosophical pursuits. M. Viollet-le-Duc has assured us, quite gravely, -that the famed _oubliettes_ (the bottoms of which were shaped like sugar -loaves, so that prisoners might have no resting-place for their feet) -were merely ice-houses! It is not denied that these cells existed, and -those who care to believe that a Mediæval architect built them under the -towers of the Bastille as store-chambers for ice to cool the governor's -or the prisoners' wine, are entirely welcome to do so. These were -amongst the places of torment in which Louis XI. kept the Armagnac -princes, who were taken out twice a week to be scourged in the presence -of Governor l'Huillier, and "every three months to have a tooth pulled -out." The author of _The Bastille Unveiled_ has attempted to explain -away the iron cage in which the same King confined Cardinal Balue for -eleven years, and which, I believe, is still in existence. An English -apologist (whose work extends to two bulky volumes) says that "prisoners -were less harshly treated in the Bastille than in other French and -English prisons"; that "the accusations of prisoners having been -tortured in the Bastille have no serious foundation"; that the majority -of the chambers "were comfortable enough"; that one of the courtyards -"resembled a college playground, in which prisoners received their -friends, and indulged in all kinds of games." We hear of tables which -were so sumptuously furnished (three bottles of wine a day, amongst -other comforts) that the prisoners complained to the governor that he -was feeding them too well. We are presented with printed rules to show -how carefully the sick were to be attended to, and what were to be their -ghostly ministrations in their final hours. We are told, without a -smile, that it was really not so easy for people to get into the -Bastille as the world in general has supposed; and that, once there, -their situation was not too helpless, inasmuch as the governor must -present to the minister every day a written report upon the conditions -of the prison. Under the pen of this or the other indulgent writer, the -horrors of the Bastille have vanished as by process of magic. -Unfortunately, the horrors are, with quite unimportant exceptions, facts -of history. - -The government of the Bastille was precisely similar to the government -of the other State prisons of France. Edicts notwithstanding, these -prisons were practically the _property_ of their successive governors. -To this unwritten rule the Bastille was not an exception. The governor -in possession at this or that epoch might or might not be the creature -of the minister through whose interest he had bought his office at a -sometimes exorbitant price; it was, at all events, understood that, -whatever limits were set to his authority, he was fully entitled to get -back his purchase money; and this, as had been shown, he could seldom do -except by villainously ill-using his prisoners. There were governors who -did not do this, and then indeed came a blessed period for the -prisoners. Then food was good and plentiful, the faggots were not -stinted in the fire-place, the beds were not rotten and lousy, the foul -linen went to the wash, and the threadbare clothes were replaced, the -cells were made proof against wind and rain, the governor was prompt in -looking into grievances, and all went as well for the prisoner as it was -possible that it should go in a gaol of old Paris. But when a new -Pharaoh arose, who was avaricious, and a tyrant, and a bully, and who -had bought his prison as a speculative investment, then the clouds -gathered again, and the wind blew again from the east, and the old -tribulations began afresh. Now, as the records of all the French prisons -of history leave no doubt as to the fact the bad governors were many, -and the good governors were few, and that within his prison walls the -governor was only less than omnipotent, readers of these pages will not -expect often to find prisoners of the Bastille regaling themselves with -three bottles of wine a day, or asking to have their tables ordered more -plainly, or receiving the free visits of their friends, or playing at -"all kinds of games" in courtyards resembling college playgrounds. -Sprigs of the nobility and young men of family, shut up for a time for -making too free with their money, or for running away with a -ballet-dancer, had perhaps not too much to complain of in the Bastille; -there were certain prisoners of rank, too, who came off lightly; and now -and again there were other prisoners who enjoyed what were called the -"liberties of the Bastille," and who were allowed a restricted -intercourse. But the general rules for the keeping and conduct of -prisoners in the Bastille were of the severest description, and they -were carried out for the most part with inflexible rigour. Privations -and humiliations of all kinds were inflicted on them; and redress for -injuries, or for insults, or for mean and illegal annoyances, the -outcome of the governor's spleen, was not more easy to obtain in the -Bastille than in the Dungeon of Vincennes. - -The statement that "it was not so easy to enter into the Bastille" is -from Ravaisson, the compiler of the _Archives de la Bastille_. He gives -his reasons, which are sufficiently curious. Incarcerations, says -Ravaisson, were accomplished with the utmost care, and the Government -insisted upon the most stringent precautions, inasmuch as, "acting with -absolute authority, it felt the danger of an uncontrolled -responsibility." Sore indeed would be the task of proving by example -that the absolute monarchy had many compunctions on this score, when -tampering with the liberties of its subjects. "Extreme care was taken to -avoid errors and abuses" in effecting incarcerations in the Bastille; -and the great safeguard was that "each _lettre de cachet_ was signed by -the King himself, and countersigned by one of his ministers!" One need -go no further than this. M. Ravaisson spent from fifteen to twenty years -in studying and arranging the archives of the Bastille, and his -knowledge of his subject must have been immense. Was this the writer -from whom one would have expected the suggestion that the King and his -minister, in signing a _lettre de cachet_, took care to assure -themselves that no injustice was being done, and made themselves -immediately and personally responsible for the guilt of the victim whom -it was to consign to captivity in the Bastille? Leave aside the cases in -which the document was used to imprison a person in order that charges -or suspicions might afterwards be inquired into,—though there are -countless instances to show, (1) that no proper investigation was held, -and (2), that the clearest proofs of innocence were not always -sufficient to procure the prisoner's liberation. But what shall be said -of the cases, infinitely more numerous than these, in which no charge -was ever formulated, and in which none could have been formulated, save -some fictitious one inspired by private greed, hatred, or vengeance? -Where in these cases was that "greatest care" which "was taken to -prevent errors and abuses"? Kings and their ministers sent to the -Bastille and other prisons many thousands of prisoners who had no -justice, and who never expected justice. But these same "closed -letters," duly signed and sealed, were the instruments of imprisoning -hundreds of thousands of other persons—to whom life was sweet and -liberty was dear—in whose affairs neither King nor minister had the most -shadowy interest, and whose very names most probably they had never -heard of. During the reign of one King, Louis XV., one hundred and fifty -thousand _lettres de cachet_ were issued. For how many of those was -Louis himself responsible? They carried his signature, but is it -necessary at this day to say that the King wrote his name upon the blank -forms, which the minister distributed amongst his friends? The -lieutenant-general of police also had his blank forms at hand, in which -it was necessary only to insert the names of the victims. Wives obtained -these forms against their husbands, husbands against their wives, -fathers against their children, men-about-town against their rivals in -love, debtors against their creditors, opera-dancers against the lovers -who had slighted them. If one but had the ear of the King, or the King's -mistress, or the King's minister, or the King's chief of police, or of a -friend or a friend's friend of any of these potentates, there was no -grudge, jealousy, or enmity which one might not satisfy by means of a -_lettre de cachet_,—that instrument which was so sure a safegard against -the "errors and abuses" of imprisonment, because it carried the -signature of the King and his minister! And the cases in which these -scraps of paper were used merely for the ruin, the torment, or the -temporary defeat of a private enemy, often had the cruelest results. The -enemy and the enmity were forgotten, but the _lettre de cachet_ had not -been cancelled, and the prisoner still bided his day. Persons who had -never been convicted of crimes, and other persons who had never been -guilty of crimes, lay for years in the Bastille, forgotten and uncared -for. "There are prisoners who remain in the Bastille," said Linguet (who -spent two years there), "not because anybody is particularly anxious -that they should remain, but because they happen to be there and have -been forgotten, and there is nobody to ask for their release." Captain -Bingham, the English apologist of the Bastille, discussing the cases of -certain criminals who were arbitrarily dealt with by _lettres de -cachet_, says that in England at the present day they "would be -prosecuted according to law, and most probably committed to prison." -Very good! But is there no difference between the situation of the -criminal who, after conviction in open court, is sent to prison for a -fixed term of weeks, months, or years, and that of the "criminal" who -goes to prison uncondemned and untried, and who cannot gauge the length -of his imprisonment? Far enough from being "not so easy" to get into the -Bastille, the passage across those two drawbridges and through those -five massy gates was only too dreadfully simple for all who were -furnished against their wills with the "open sesame" of the _lettre de -cachet_. - -The interior of the Bastille had nothing worse to show than has been -discovered in the chapters on Vincennes, the Châtelet, and Bicêtre. -There were, perhaps, uglier corners in the two last-named prisons than -in either of the two more famous ones. The Bastille, however, has stood -as the type, and the almost plutonic fame which it owes to romance seems -likely to endure. Romance has not been guilty of much exaggeration, but -this saving clause may be put in, that what has been written of the -Bastille might have been written with equal truth of most other -contemporary prisons. Its eight dark towers, its walls of a hundred -feet, its drawbridges, its outer and its four great inner gates, its -ditches, its high wooden gallery for the watch, and its ramparts -bristling with cannon,—these external features have been of infinite -service to romance, and romantic history. But within the walls of the -Bastille there was nothing extraordinary. Lodging was provided for about -fifty prisoners, and it was possible to accommodate twice that number. - -The fifth and last gate opened into the Great Court, some hundred feet -in length and seventy in breadth, with three towers on either side. The -Well Court, about eighty feet by five and forty, lay beyond, with a -tower in the right and a tower in the left angle. Each tower had its -name; those in the Great Court were _de la Comté_, _du Trésor_, _de la -Chapelle_, _de la Bazanière_, _de la Bertaudière_, and _de la Liberté_; -those in the Well Court were the _du Coin_ and the _du Puits_. The -comely garden on the suburban side of the château was closed to all -prisoners by order of De Launay, the last governor of the Bastille, who -also forbade them the use of the fine airy platforms on the summit of -the towers. The main court was then the only exercise ground, a dreary -enclosure which Linguet describes as insufferably cold in winter ("the -north-east wind rushes through it") and a veritable oven in summer. - -The _oubliettes_ have been mentioned. Besides these there were the -dungeons, below the level of the soil; dens in which there was no -protection from wind or rain, and where rats and toads abounded. The -ordinary chambers of the prisoners were situated in the towers. The -upper stories were the _calottes_ (skull-caps), residence in which seems -to have been regarded as only better than that belowground. "One can -only walk upright in the middle." The windows, barred within and -without, gave little light; there was a wretched stove in one corner -(which had six pieces of wood for its daily allowance during the winter -months), and one has no reason to doubt the statements of prisoners, -that only an iron constitution could support the extremities of heat and -cold in the _calottes_. In contrast to these, there were rooms which had -fair views of Paris and the open country. The lower chambers looked only -on the ditches; all the chambers (and the stairs) were shut in by double -doors with double bolts; and all, with the exceptions of those which a -few privileged persons were allowed to upholster at their own cost, were -furnished in the most beggarly style. But in all of these respects, -nothing was worse in the Bastille than elsewhere. - -In principle, the dietary system here was the same as in other State -prisons. The King paid a liberal sum for the board of every prisoner, -but the governor contracted for the supplies, and might put into his -pocket half or three-fourths of the amount which he drew from the royal -treasury. In the Bastille, as in other prisons, there were periods when -the prisoners were fed extremely well; and in all these prisons there -were persons who, by favour of the Government or the governor, kept a -much more luxurious table than was allowed to the rest. But one must -take the scale of diet which was customary. Two meals a day were the -rule. On flesh days, the dinner consisted of soup and the meat of which -it had been made; and for supper there were "a slice of roast meat, a -ragout, and a salad." Sunday's dinner was "some bad soup, a slice of a -cow which they call beef, and four little pâtés"; supper, "a slice of -roast veal or mutton, or a little plate of haricot, in which bones and -turnips are most conspicuous, and a salad with rancid oil." On three -holidays in the year, "every prisoner had an addition made to his -rations of half a roast chicken, or a pigeon." Holy Monday was -celebrated by "a tart extraordinary." There was always or usually -dessert at dinner, which "consists of an apple, a biscuit, a few almonds -and raisins, cherries, gooseberries, or plums." Each prisoner received a -pound of bread a day, and a bottle of wine. De Launay's method of -supplying his prisoners with wine was no doubt the usual one. He had the -right of taking into his cellars about a hundred hogsheads, free of -duty. "Well," says Linguet, "what does he do? He sells his privilege to -one Joli, a Paris publican, who pays him £250 for it; and from Joli he -receives in exchange, for the prisoners' use, the commonest wine that is -sold,—mere vinegar, in fact."[23] A prisoner of the same period sums up -the matter thus: "There is no eating-house in all France where they -would not give you for a shilling a better dinner than is served in the -Bastille." - -Footnote 23: - - _Mémoires sur la Bastille._ - -Apart from all exceptional hardships and privations, the oppression of -the first months of captivity in the Bastille must have been very -terrible. The prisoner who was not certain of his fate, and who did not -know to whom he owed his imprisonment, lay under a suspense which words -are inadequate to describe. Mystery and doubt environed him; his -day-long silence and utter isolation were relieved only by the regular -visits of his gaoler. He was not allowed to see anyone from without, and -could not get leave to write or receive a letter. Nothing could be done -for him, he was told, until his examination had been concluded; and this -was sometimes delayed for weeks or months. If he were a person of some -consequence in the State, powerful enough to have enemies at Court, his -examination in the council-chamber of the Bastille was conducted in a -manner quite similar to (and probably borrowed from) that adopted by the -Inquisition. He was asked his connection with plots or intrigues which -he had never heard of; he was coaxed or menaced to denounce or betray -persons with whom perhaps he had never associated; papers were held up -before him which he was assured contained clear proofs of his guilt; and -he might be told that the King had unfortunately been inflamed against -him, and would not hear his name. If, mystified by threats, hints, and -arguments which had no meaning for him, he asked to be confronted by an -accuser or witnesses, his request was not allowed. These were the exact -methods of the Inquisition. The lieutenant of police, or the -commissioner from the Châtelet, who presided over the interrogation, -would not hesitate to tell the accused that his life was at stake, and -that if his answers were not complete and satisfactory he would be -handed over forthwith to a _commission extraordinaire_. Every device was -resorted to (says the author of the _Remarques politiques sur le château -de la Bastille_) in order to draw from the prisoner some sort of -admission or avowal which might compromise either himself or some other -person or persons in whom the Government had a hostile interest. The -examiner might say that he was authorised to promise the prisoner his -freedom, but if he allowed himself to be taken by this ruse it was -generally the worse for him; for, on the strength of the confession thus -obtained, he was told that it would be impossible to release him at -present, but every effort would be made, etc. If the ministry had reason -to suspect that the prisoner was really a dangerous character, and -involved in political intrigue, there was little hesitation in resorting -to torture. - -Ravaisson says that only two kinds of torture were applied in the -Bastille; the "boot," and the torture by water. Well, these were -sufficient; but it is to be remembered that the archives of the Bastille -date only from about the middle of the seventeenth century, and it is -improbable that the _Salle de la Question_ of this prison was less -horribly equipped than that of any other. The ordeal of the "boot" needs -no description; for the torture by water, the victim was bound on a -trestle, and water was poured down his throat by the gallon, until his -sufferings became unendurable. Torture was practised in the Bastille as -long as it was practised in any other French prison; a man named Alexis -Danouilh underwent the Question there ("ordinary" and "extraordinary") -in 1783—after the date at which Louis XVI. had forbidden and abolished -it by royal edict. To so small an extent had the absolute sovereigns of -France control over the administration of their own prisons of State! - -At no point in the existence of an ordinary captive of the Bastille is -there any occasion to exaggerate his pains. Such as they were, they were -very real; and scant reason is there to wonder at the bitterness, the -vehemence, and even the violence of tone which characterises the memoirs -or narratives of those who had endured them. The apologists of the -Bastille will beg us to believe that the histories of Linguet and -certain others are mendacious, have been refuted, and so forth. The -gifted, caustic Linguet, who is one of their particular bugbears, was -not the most upright man, nor the most scrupulous writer, in the France -of his day; but the essential parts of his narrative are confirmed by -the statements of a host of others. It is not because Linguet has said -that the Bastille walls, which were from seven to twelve feet thick, -were from thirty to forty feet thick (which he might quite possibly have -supposed) that we are to discredit his account, highly wrought as it is, -of the general conditions of life within the prison. It is not more -highly wrought than the accounts of other prisoners of the Bastille, the -accuracy of which has not been questioned. These other histories are -plentiful, and we are under no necessity of resting upon the -better-known narratives which, for their qualities of style or their -greater picturesqueness, have been so often reproduced. Far on into the -eighteenth century—indeed until within a few years of our own—there lay -in the Bastille victims of public or private injustice, whose -complainings, stifled in its vaulted ceilings, have sent us down a faint -but faithful echo. What of Bertin de Frateaux, who was walled in there -from 1752 until his death in 1782? What of Tavernier, who, imprisoned in -1759 (after a previous ten years' sojourn in another gaol), was -liberated only by the wreckers of the Bastille, on the 14th of July, -1789? Here, too, in 1784, lies the Genoese, Pellissery, imprisoned, in -1777, for publishing a pamphlet on the finances of Necker. Dishonourable -terms of release are offered him which he will not accept, although -"rheumatic in every joint, scorbutic, and spitting blood for fifteen -months, owing to the atrocious treatment I have had here during seven -years." Here, two years later, is Brun de la Condamine, the inventor of -an explosive bomb, which he has importuned the ministry to make test of. -After a captivity of four years and a half, enraged at the indignities -he receives, he makes a wild attempt to escape. Here, at the same -period, is Guillaume Debure, the oldest and most respected bookseller in -France, lodged in the Bastille for refusing to stamp the pirated copies -of works issued by his brethren in the trade; treated apparently like a -common malefactor, and released only on the indignant representations of -the whole bookselling fraternity of Paris. Thus lightly was the liberty -of the subject held, even while the Revolution was fermenting. - -The prisoner who was released never knew until then the full bitterness -of the treatment he had endured. It was perhaps the acutest part of his -sufferings, that the letters he had written to family and friends, the -entreaties he had addressed to ministers, magistrates, and chiefs of -police, brought him never a word in answer. It was thus that was -produced in so many cases that sense of utter desolation and abandonment -by the whole world which resulted in the madness of very many prisoners. -Those who were restored to liberty with their reason unimpaired learned -that their letters and petitions had never been received. They had -never, in fact, passed out of the Bastille. It was well to have the -truth of this at any time; but we are to remember the prisoners who died -in the belief that their dearest ones had denied them one kind or -sympathetic word. When the Bastille was sacked, piles of letters were -found which had never passed beyond the governor's hands. Amongst them -was one which (considering the circumstances of the writer, and the fact -that no line was ever vouchsafed him in response) may be regarded as -perhaps the very saddest ever penned: "If for my consolation," wrote the -prisoner to the lieutenant of police, "Monseigneur would have the -goodness, in the name of the God above us both, to give me but one word -of my dear wife, her name only on a card, that I might know she still -lives, I would pray for Monseigneur to the last day of my life." This -letter was signed "Queret Démery," a name known to nobody, but which -will be remembered while the Bastille is remembered. One does not choose -to ask, were there even a chance of an answer, how many other letters -not less piteous than this were read and drily docketed by governors of -the Bastille. - -This inveterate and almost inviolable secrecy in which the government of -the Bastille enwrapped the majority of its prisoners seems on the whole -to have been the most cruel feature of its policy. After reading some -fifty volumes of cells with rats in them, and dungeons frozen or fiery, -and torture rooms, and filthy beds, and food not enough to keep life on, -one is shocked to find that the due and natural poignancy of sympathy -with human suffering begins insensibly to weaken. But this refinement of -pain, inflicted as a part of the routine, upon the common prisoners of -the Bastille, revives the sense of pity. It was the habit to pretend -that prisoners who were dungeoned there were not in there at all. Asked -as to the fate of this prisoner or the other, ministers would respond -with a blank look, assure the questioner that they had never heard the -prisoner's name, and that, wherever he might be, he was certainly not in -the Bastille. The governor and chief officers of the prison, who saw the -prisoner every day, would say that he was not in their keeping, and that -no such person was known to them. The common practice of imprisoning men -in the Bastille under names other than their own made these denials -easy. At other times, when it was desired to prejudice his friends or -society against a prisoner, the answer would be, that the less said -about him the better. The nominal cause of his imprisonment, his friends -were told, was not the real one; the Government had their information, -and if it could possibly be published the prisoner would be known in his -true character. The prisoner himself was often told that his friends had -ceased to believe in his innocence, or that they thought him dead, or -that they had given up all hope of procuring his release. The Bastille -and the Inquisition were singularly alike in their methods. - -Dreary beyond expression must have been the daily round for all but the -privileged few. "Every hour was struck on a bell which was heard all -through the Faubourg St. Antoine." The sentries on the rampart -challenged one another ceaselessly throughout the night. There were -prisoners in solitary confinement to whom no other sounds than these -ever penetrated, except the grating of the key in the lock which -announced the daily visits of the gaoler. This was the life of such -prisoners as the Iron Mask, and of Tavernier, who told his liberators -that, during the thirty years of his captivity, he had passed nineteen -consecutive ones without crossing the threshold of his cell. Exercise in -the yard, for those who enjoyed this favour, was limited to an hour a -day, and this period might be reduced to a few minutes if there were -many prisoners to be exercised in turn,—for, in general, the utmost care -was taken to prevent them from meeting one another. If a stranger were -shewn into the yard, the prisoner who was taking his mouthful of air had -to retreat to a cabinet in the wall. These walks were solitary, except -for the presence of a dumb sentinel; and, unless the prisoner were now -and then permitted or compelled to share his chamber with a -fellow-captive, not less solitary was his whole existence. The most -stringent rules were in force respecting the admission of friends or -relatives. "Strangers cannot enter the Bastille," ran the official -injunction, "without very precise orders from the governor"; and such -rare interviews as were permitted took place in the council-chamber, in -the presence of this officer or his deputy. The length of the interview -was always fixed in the letter which the visitor bore from the -lieutenant of police, and nothing might be said relative to the cause of -the prisoner's detention. - -A certain Mme. de Montazau, visiting her husband in the Bastille, took -with her a little dog, and, while pretending to caress it in her own -Portuguese tongue, was trying to tell Montazau what efforts she was -making for his release. "Madame," interrupted De Launay, his gaoler's -instinct aroused, "if your dog does not understand French you cannot -bring him here." Even such poor barren visits as these were of the -rarest possible occurrence. - -But, M. Ravaisson will tell us, prisoners were frequently visited by the -lieutenant of the King or some other high personage. It would be more to -the point to say that such visits were occasionally inflicted, for the -comfort that prisoners derived from them was slender. Abbé Duvernet -receives the visit of the minister Amelot, who tells him that he can -have nothing to complain of, since he has had access to the prison -library. The Bastille library, by the way, seems to have been founded -not by the Government, but by a prisoner who was confined there early in -the eighteenth century. Abbé Duvernet had made a catalogue of the -collection. "I have catalogued your library," he replied to the -minister, "and there are not ten volumes in it which a man of ordinary -education would trouble himself to read. Library, indeed! Listen, -monsieur: when a man has had the hardihood to expose one of the blunders -of you ministers, you will spend any quantity of money to be avenged on -him. You will hunt him to Holland, England, or the heart of Germany, if -it costs the State two thousand pounds. But to afford a little solace to -the poor devils in your Bastille, by buying a few books for them to -read—no! I dare be sworn that Government has not spent ten pounds on -books for this place since the Bastille was built!" - -"Well, monsieur l'Abbé," said Amelot, "may I ask why you are here?" - -"Why am I here! Because you yourself gave some one a _lettre de cachet_, -which had your own name and the King's attached to it. I am very sure -that his Majesty knows nothing of my detention, or the motive of it; but -_you_ can scarcely pretend to the same ignorance. Or, will you have me -believe that you set your signature to these _lettres_ without knowing -what it is that you are signing?" Then, turning to Lenoir, the -Lieutenant of Police, the Abbé asked: "Do _you_, sir, demand _lettres de -cachet_ of M. Amelot without giving him a reason? Come, as you are both -here together, perhaps one of you will be good enough to tell me what is -the excuse for my imprisonment." I have condensed this interview from -_Les Prisons de Paris_. It is not likely that ministers and chiefs of -police were often faced in this style by prisoners of the Bastille, but -it is probable enough that most interviews of the kind ended with the -same fruitless inquiry on the part of the prisoner. - -It may be inferred from this how much protection was afforded to -prisoners by the daily reports of the governor or the major to the -minister, who was nominally responsible for the Bastille. These reports, -in fact, seem to have been merely a part of the system of espionage -which was regularly practised there. The governor writes: - - "I have the honour to inform you that the sieur Billard was engaged - with the sieur Perrin yesterday, from six to nine in the evening. - - "This morning M. de la Monnoye saw and spoke with Abbé Grisel a good - half-hour. - - "M. Moncarré had an interview with his wife in the afternoon, in - accordance with your instructions. - - "In obedience to your instructions of the 28th of this month, I have - handed letters to Abbé Grisel and M. Ponce de Lèon.—I am, etc." - -[Illustration: - - 1. Tour du Puit. - 2. Tour de la Liberté. - 3. Tour de la Bertaudière. - 4. Tour de la Basinière. - 5. Tour de la Comté. - 6. Tour du Trésor. - 7. Tour de la Chapelle. - 8. Tour du Coin. - A. Entry from Street St. Antony. - B. First Enclosure, Called Passage Court. - C. Governor's House. - D. Court before Governor's House. - E. F. Drawbridge and Gate of Castle. - G. Guard Room. - H. Great Court of Castle. - K. Council-Chamber. - L. Well Court. - O. Bastion. - P. Woods and Grounds. - Q. Gate of the Cour de l'Orme. - - PLAN OF THE BASTILLE.] - - The library which Abbé Duvernet dismissed with contempt was not at the - disposal of every prisoner. Both books and writing materials were in - the nature of indulgences, and doled out sparingly. The rule was - terribly precise on the subject of relaxations of any kind. It stated, - in so many words, that: "As regards a prisoner, the governor and the - officers of the château cannot be too severe and firm in preventing - the least relaxation in the discipline of the Bastille; they cannot - pay too much attention to this, nor punish too severely any act of - insubordination." How often was that rule interpreted in favour of a - sojourn in the dungeon or the "ice-chamber"? - - Not only the governor and his immediate subordinates, but every - turnkey, sentinel, guard of the watch, and invalid soldier on the - staff was a gaoler and spy in himself. The inferior attendants of the - Bastille were encouraged and sometimes directly charged to feign - sympathy with a political prisoner, in order to lure him into some - indiscreet avowal; but in the discharge of their ordinary duties they - were enjoined to be watchful and mute. Amongst their orders were the - following: - - "The sentinels will arrest immediately anyone of whom they have the - slightest suspicion, and will send for a staff-officer to settle the - matter. - - "The sentinel will not let out of his sight, on any pretext, - prisoners who are exercising in the court. He will watch carefully - to see whether a prisoner drops any paper, note, or packet. He will - be careful to prevent prisoners from writing on the walls, and will - report upon everything he may have remarked whilst on duty. - - "When the corporal of the guard or any inferior officer is ordered - to accompany a prisoner who may have leave to walk in the garden or - on the towers, it is expressly forbidden him to hold any - conversation with the prisoner. The officer is there solely to guard - the prisoner, and to prevent him from signalling to anyone outside - the walls." - -Prisoners of a devout character must have been shocked by the studiously -cynical mode of worship in the Bastille. The chapel was a dingy den on -the ground floor of the prison, which Howard describes as containing - - "five niches or closets; three are hollowed out of the wall, the - others are only in the wainscot. In these, prisoners are put one by - one to hear mass. They can neither see nor be seen. The doors of - these niches are secured on the outside by a lock and two bolts; - within, they are iron-grated, and have glass windows towards the - chapel, with curtains, which are drawn at the _Sanctus_, and closed - again at the concluding prayer." - -As not more than five prisoners were present at each mass, only ten -could hear it each day. "If there is a greater number in the castle, -either they do not go to mass at all (which is generally the case with -the ecclesiastics, prisoners for life, and those who do not desire to -go) or they attend alternately: because there are almost always some who -have permission to go constantly." - -If a prisoner, sick and at the point of death, asked that masses might -be said for his soul, he was told that it was not customary for masses -to be said in the Bastille, either for the living or for the dead. "No -prayers are offered up in the Castle," ran the word, "except for the -King and the Royal Family." If it were promised him that he should be -prayed for in a church outside the prison, he was sent out of captivity -with a lie in his ear; for information of his death was withheld from -his family. He was buried by night and in secrecy in the graveyard of -St. Paul's, and the record of his name and rank in the parish register -"were fictitious, that all trace of him might be obliterated." The -register of the Bastille, in which his real name and station were -recorded, was a volume closed to the world. That false book of the dead, -which a turnkey edits by his lantern's glimmer in the sacristy of St. -Paul's, adds a mountain's weight to the sins of the keepers of the -Bastille. There is no reason why its memory should not increase in -detestation. - -[Illustration] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration] - - - - - CHAPTER XI. - - THE PRISONS OF ASPASIA. - - -It is not easy, in telling the story of the prisons of old Paris, to -avoid mention of the subject with which this chapter is concerned. That -subject is not, however, an attractive one, and readers whom it repels -are invited to let the chapter go. - -According to the authors of _Les Prisons de l'Europe_, Charlemagne was -the first monarch of France who "formally punished" the calling of the -_femme publique_. His edict swept the field, so to speak; the _femme -publique_ (known then, however, as the _femme du monde_) and all who -gave asylum to her were absolutely banned. The prison, the whip, and the -pillory were their portion; the keepers of houses of ill-fame had to -carry the pillory on their backs to the market-place, and the women whom -they lodged had to stand in it. This edict, completely prohibitive, was -in force during four centuries, and its principal result seems to have -been to augment the custom of Aspasia. She and her industry increased a -thousand-fold. - -The state of France in this respect struck Saint Louis with horror on -his return from the Holy Land. His _ordonnance_ of 1254 bade the women -of the town renounce their calling, on pain of being deprived of house -and clothing, "even of the clothes in which they stood up." If, after -being warned, these women continued as before, they were to be banished -the country. But, wiser and more humane than Charlemagne, Saint Louis -set apart for repentant Magdalens a shelter in the convent of the -Filles-Dieu, and drew from his private purse the moneys to lodge and -maintain two hundred of them. - -The new law, enforced with as much rigour as the old one, proved every -whit as impotent. Aspasia went her ways in secret, and devised many -arts. She borrowed the manners and the costume of her more respectable -sisters (_Les prostituées singèrent les manières et le costume des -femmes honnêtes_), glided into the churches, and went with sidelong -glances through the most frequented places of the town. This clandestine -pursuit of the calling, and the hypocrisy which of necessity it bred on -every side, were beyond measure distressing to Saint Louis. A good king, -and a pious one, he considered the matter deeply, and then, in the -interests, as he believed, of public and private morals, he resolved -upon a novel and hazardous measure. It was, to allow the _femmes -publiques_ a degree of liberty, and the exercise of their calling, under -certain strict conditions. Amongst other regulations, they were to live -in houses specially appointed to them, and these houses were to be -closed at six o'clock in the evening, no person being allowed to enter -them after that hour. - -Thus, strangely enough in one point of view, the King who won the name -of "Saint," and whose memory has been justly cherished, was the first to -give legality in France to the calling of Aspasia. Yet this was also the -King who, above all others on that throne, had sought to keep in check -the moral disorders of his kingdom. It was only when he had seen that -measures of repression were of worse than no avail, inasmuch as the -immorality of the town appeared always to increase in proportion to the -stringency of laws, whilst the secrecy of the traffic confounded the -_femme du monde_ with the "respectable" woman, that he resolved upon -giving to the former a domain and status of her own. In this manner, the -unrecognised _femme du monde_ was transformed into the _femme publique_, -a woman with a standing of her own, and with the King's authority to -prosecute her mournful industry. - -She entered under the special jurisdiction of the Provosts of Paris, who -from time to time made various enactments on her account. Thus, in 1360, -the chief magistrate forbade the _femmes publiques_ to wear certain -specified apparel in the streets; and, in 1367, a police order confined -them to particular streets in Paris, "a measure rendered necessary by -their unseemly behaviour in all places, to the great scandal of -everyone."[24] During the next two hundred years they were occasionally -transferred from one quarter of Paris to another, and Parliament more -than once took upon itself to "regulate their costume." - -In 1560, an edict given at Orleans formulated afresh the stern -prohibitions of Charlemagne. Once more, the calling of Aspasia was -forbidden throughout the whole of France. The difficulties of enforcing -this new-old _ordonnance_ were great everywhere, but nowhere so great as -in the capital; and the Provost, it is said, was five years in -concerting his measures. The statement is easily credited. Paris herself -was little in sympathy at that date with laws to restrict the liberty of -Aspasia; and it cannot be said that the average citizen had received -much encouragement to virtue from the examples of the Court, the -nobility, the clergy, or the magistracy itself. Dulaure asserts in his -_Histoire de Paris_ that "_La prostitution était considérée à l'égal des -autres professions de la société_." The _femmes publiques_, he adds, -formed a corporation by themselves, received their patents, as it were, -from the hands of Royalty, "_et même étaient protégées par les rois. -Charles VI. et Charles VII. ont laissé des témoignages authentiques de -cette protection._" The commerce to which was extended the august -protection of the throne "_était encore favorisé par le grand nombre de -célibataires, prêtres et moines, par le libertinage des magistrats, des -gens de guerre, etc. Les femmes publiques, richement vêtues, se -répandaient dans tous les quartiers de cette ville, et se trouvaient -confondues avec les bourgeoises, qui, elles-mêmes, menaient une vie fort -dissolue_." Provosts of Paris sometimes refused to put in force laws -which themselves had framed against the "daughters of joy"; and in so -refusing they seem usually to have had with them the sympathies of the -town. - -Footnote 24: - - _Les Prisons de l'Europe._ - -This being in general the attitude of society in Paris, it might be -thought that the attempt to revive the code of Charlemagne would be -received with small popular favour. It appears to have been received -with no favour whatever. Seven years, from 1560 to 1567, did the Provost -prepare his way, and then the edict was launched. It was read aloud at -either end of every street in which Aspasia had her dwelling, and in -several of these streets a violent resistance was offered, by the women -as well as by their friends and protectors, to the not too-willing -agents of the law. By main force at length the women were taken as by -press-gang, their streets were closed, the temple of Venus was -demolished, and there were once more no _femmes publiques_ in Paris. - -So, at least, did the Law assure itself; what then had become of them? -As may be supposed, the great majority were still in Paris. Not a few -were in prison (but for short periods only); the rest were scattered -throughout the town, or in the villages surrounding Paris. As in the -days of Charlemagne, and before the second decree of Saint Louis, -Aspasia had merely disguised herself. No Magdalen repented on the order -of the State. She sought a retreat until the passing of the storm, and -in a little while the history of the affair repeated itself: _la -prostitution clandestine inonda Paris_. - -Matters continued apparently without the slightest improvement until -1619, when the authorities could devise no better plan than a renewal of -the prohibitions of 1565. The _femmes publiques_ were commanded by -proclamation to betake themselves to some domestic or other occupation, -or to quit the town and suburbs within four and twenty hours. The utter -infeasibility of the injunction is not more striking than its stupendous -absurdity. Imagine the whole corporation of Aspasias, _richement -vêtues_, converting themselves at a day's notice into seamstresses, -cooks, or chambermaids. It would have been so easy for them to find -employers! Saint Louis had shewn himself more generous, more thoughtful, -and more sensible in opening his private purse to lodge and maintain the -would-be penitents of the order amongst the recluses of the Filles-Dieu. -Needless to say, the foolish and impossible decree was quite barren of -result. During the next sixty-five years, that is to say until 1684, no -definite legal action was taken with respect to the position of the -_femme publique_. Unlicenced and unacknowledged, she fared well or ill -according to the laxity or the vigilance of the bench and police, who -sometimes harried and sometimes tacitly or openly abetted her. The -secret or semi-open practice of her calling was often as profitable as -the pursuit of it by sanction of the Crown, but it was attended by the -risks of an illegal industry, and in seasons when provosts or -lieutenants of police shewed an unwonted activity, Aspasia went to -prison. Thus she fared, now sparkling in the finest company, now pinched -for a meal, and now doing penance on the prison flags, or perhaps sick -(eight to a bed) in Bicêtre hospital, until 1684. At that date, another -move was resolved upon, and for the second time Aspasia had the gracious -permission of the State to style herself _femme publique_, and to sell -her liberty to the police, to buy _une licence de débauche_,—for this -was what it came to. - -At the period arrived at, it was no longer merely a question of -irregularities to be repressed, but of the public health to be -preserved; and in the new regulations the hospital was named along with -the prison. From this time forward, a brief interval under the Consulate -excepted, it does not seem to have been questioned in France that women -who chose to do so, or who might be driven to do so, were entitled under -specified conditions to enter on the calling of _femme publique_. What -steps must be taken to secure the dubious privileges of the order, and -what dissuasions were employed by the magistrate who dispensed them, -will presently be shewn. - -Up to the reign of Louis XIV., the monarch responsible for the -provisions of 1684, there was no special prison for the women of this -class, who, when under lock and key, were herded with female offenders -of all degrees. The first special prison for the _femmes publiques_ was -the Salpêtrière, built by Louis XIV., under the designation of "Hospital -General." At this era, the women arrested were not put upon their trial, -nor was any formal judgment pronounced against them. They were under the -sole jurisdiction of the newly appointed lieutenant of police, who -dispatched them to prison on the King's warrant, which took the form of -a _lettre de cachet_. Curious, that the _fille de joie_ should be placed -in this respect on a footing of equality with the prince of the blood, -the nobleman, and the prelate! - -At about the end of the eighteenth century (say, towards 1770), the -police authorities distinguished two classes of women of the town, the -_femmes publiques_, or authorised women, and a numerous and unlicenced -class, of more dissolute habits, officially stigmatised as _débauchées_. -To strengthen the line of demarcation between the two classes, the -_femmes publiques_, or the majority of them, were inscribed on the -police registers (paying a fee of twenty sous), and being to a certain -extent _protégées_ of the State, the treatment accorded to them was -generally of a more lenient character. The terms of their imprisonment -(for soliciting in the streets or public places, for brawling and -rioting, for signalling from their windows, etc.,) were entirely at the -discretion of the lieutenant of police; but it would appear that they -were frequently released, at the request or on the bond of a parent, -sister, or other relative, after a brief confinement. The houses in -which the members of the unlicenced class lived together were -continually raided by the police, who descended upon them after dark, -"_parce que les femmes en étaient arrivées à ce degré de scandale, qu'on -ne pouvait plus les arrêter pendant le jour, à cause du désordre -qu'elles causaient, et des collisions qu'excitaient leurs amants et -autres adhérents_." - -Eighteenth-century documents concerning these houses are still to be -read, and some of them have a curiously modern flavour. There are -complaints of householders, and the reports of the police agents whom -these complaints set in motion. A certain, M. Ledure, writing under date -of the 23d of July, 1785, asks the attention of the police to an -unlicensed house of ill-fame adjoining his own, and details his -annoyances with a freedom of expression which debars translation. The -burden of his protest is, that being a gentleman with a family of -daughters, and the holder of a position which obliges him to entertain -"des personnes de distinction," his existence is rendered intolerable by -the worse than light behaviour of the "females over the way." He can -scarcely even get into his own house of an evening. - -"To satisfy M. Ledure," runs the police report, "we began by visiting, -in Beaubourg Street, the house in which the women complained of were -lodging. We arrested there, Marguerite Lefèbvre, the other women having -taken themselves off.... In response to the complaints of the residents -in Rohan Street, against the women living at No. 63, we forced an entry -there, and arrested the woman Rochelet, and the two _filles d'amour_ -kept by her. We fetched them out, to take them to Saint-Martin"—a house -of detention, from which the women were transferred to the -Salpêtrière,—"but, although our guard was composed of five men with -fixed bayonets, we were so set upon by the man Rochelet, a hairdresser, -and twenty blackguards with him, that we had to let the women go." - -The origin of the prison of Saint-Martin, abolished by Louis XVI., is -quite unknown. It was a small confined place with a villainous -reputation. Regarded by the authorities as a temporary lodging for both -classes of public women, a sort of fore-chamber of the Salpêtrière, no -attempt was ever made to render it decently habitable. The dark and -dirty cells were absolutely destitute of furniture; a truss of straw, -thrown from time to time on the stone floor, was both bed and bedding. -The food was strictly in keeping; all that the prison gave was a loaf of -black bread a day, and whilst prisoners who could afford it were allowed -to do a little catering for themselves, the rest soaked their black -bread in the soup provided by charitable societies. - -Every petition to improve Saint-Martin was answered by the formula that -no one stayed there above a few days, which was a callous misstatement -of the facts. It is true that the women arrested "by order of the King" -were not detained after their _lettres de cachet_ had been obtained; but -the women of the other class, who were arrested by simple act of police, -and tried at the bar as ordinary offenders, lay for weeks or months at -Saint-Martin, awaiting the pleasure of a judge of the Châtelet. When the -cases to be disposed of were numerous, a part only were heard, and the -women whose fate was still to be pronounced were remanded for a further -period of weeks or months to Saint-Martin. It was thus not less a prison -in the ordinary meaning of the word than what the French call a _dépôt_; -and when its inconveniences were no longer to be endured, Louis XVI. -abolished and demolished it, and constituted by letters-patent the Hôtel -de Brienne as a _prison des femmes publiques_, under the name of _La -Petite Force_. This continued to be the temporary prison until the -revolutionary era, and here at least the women had air to breathe and -beds to lie on. - -The first rules for the conduct of the Salpêtrière were issued from -Versailles in April, 1684, over the signatures of Louis XIV. and his -minister Colbert. - -The women were to hear mass on Sundays and Saints' days; to pray -together a quarter of an hour morning and evening, and to submit to -readings from "the catechism and pious books" whilst they were at work. - -They were to be soberly attired in dark stuff gowns, and shod with -sabots; bread and water with soup were to be their portion; and they -were to sleep on mattresses with sufficient bed-gear. - -The nature of their tasks was left to the discretion of the directors, -but the labour was to be "both long and severe." After a period of -probation, prisoners of approved behaviour might be employed at lighter -occupations, and receive a small percentage of the profits, which they -were to be at liberty to spend on the purchase of meat, fruit, "_et -autres rafraîchissements_." - -Swearing, idleness, and quarrelling with one another were to be punished -by a diminution of rations, the pillory, the dark cell, or such other -pains as the directors might think proper to inflict. - -These continued to be the rules for the prisons of the _femmes -publiques_; their spirit is modern, but we shall see later on to what -extent they were enforced. - -In no long time, indeed, after the decrees of 1684, the conditions of -life in the Salpêtrière seem to have been little if at all better than -those in Saint-Martin. Six women shared a cell by night; the one bed -which was supposed to hold them all accommodated four; two of whom slept -at the head and two at the foot, while the two latest comers made shift -on the bare floor. When one of the bed-fellows got her discharge, or -went sick to Bicêtre, the elder of the floor-companions took the vacant -place in the bed, resigning her share of the boards to a new _fille -d'amour_. Complaints evoked the cut-and-dried response that the bed was -intended to hold six. The cells were always damp, and "_il y régnait -absolument, et surtout le matin, une odeur infecte, capable de faire -reculer_." Despite the lack of sanitation, and the fact that the food -was always of an inferior quality, the death-rate was not abnormal in -the Salpêtrière. - -Such was the first regular prison of the _femmes publiques_, and its -régime. The sensible intentions of Louis XIV. were never realised, nor -does the character of the monarch himself permit it to be inferred that -he was very seriously concerned on the subject. The Salpêtrière -continued to receive, if not to chasten, the "daughters of joy" until -two days before the September massacres, when, as the beds for six were -wanted for political prisoners, they were restored to liberty. - -The year '91 saw the overthrow of everything, and the women of pleasure, -so-called, entered upon halcyon days. Aspasia, left to her own devices, -was "regarded as exercising an ordinary trade." Scandals and disorders -followed, and when the public health was again in danger, there being -neither control nor supervision of this traffic, a new census of the -women was ordered. This was in 1796, but the work was so badly done that -the opening days of the Directory found the situation more deplorable, -if possible, than ever. Strange to say, the dissolute Directory (which -admitted to its salons "gallant dames" who lacked nothing of the status -of _filles d'amour_ save inscription on the police registers) turned a -severe eye upon the morals of the public. The police were bidden to be -active in the haunts of Aspasia, but Aspasia had not forgotten the -Republican doctrine of liberty, and when haled before the bench she -gathered her lovers and friends about her in such numbers, that the -cloud of witnesses in her favour quite overawed the magistrates, who -were fain to let her go free. - -The Consulate renewed the attack. It was at this era that the Central -Bureau, which displaced the old office of Lieutenant of Police, was -created, with a special sub-department called the _Bureau des Mœurs_. -This department gave its attention principally to the sanitary aspects -of the matter. Then was established the _Préfecture de Police_; and the -new prefect, M. Dubois, ordered a fresh numbering of the women, which -was made in 1801. The police, however, continued to ask for larger -powers, which, to be brief, were conferred on them by article 484 of the -_Code Pénal_. There were here revived at a stroke the _ordonnances_ of -1713, 1778, and 1780, which gave to the heads of police, "_une autorité -absolue sur les femmes publiques_." - -During the period which has been thus hastily reviewed and which -commenced soon after the close of the Reign of Terror, three prisons in -succession served for the women of the town: La Force, Les -Madelonnettes, and Saint-Lazare. - -For many years—indeed, until the year after the battle of Waterloo—they -were taken to prison in the keeping of soldiers, who led them through -the streets in broad day; a crowd following, the women in tears or -swearing, the crowd jeering or applauding. If a woman were well known in -the town, there was an attempt to rescue her, and she was often snatched -from the soldiers before the prison was reached. This public scandal, -and bitter humiliation to all women above the most degraded class, was -allowed until the year 1816, when the _femmes publiques_ were conveyed -to prison in a closed car. - -They went to the Force, which has not left a kinder memory than the -Salpêtrière. Prison rule was, an art as yet in its infancy, and there -was scarcely an idea of cleanliness, moral control, or discipline. The -Force, it is said, was "as inconvenient a place as could be found for -its purpose." The infirmary, always an important department of prisons -of this class, was "unwholesome and wretchedly ventilated." The women -were altogether undisciplined, and as workrooms had not been opened they -passed their days in idleness and gaming. In the summer months they -swarmed in the yard; in winter, they slept, played cards, quarrelled, -and fought in dusky and ill-smelling common-rooms. They had no keepers -but men, before whom they displayed the most cynical effrontery. It is -asserted that, on the days on which clean linen was distributed, the -women were accustomed to present themselves before the warders in the -precise state in which Phryne astonished her judges.[25] These things -were noised, and the prefect of police had to devise afresh. In 1828, -the _filles d'amour_ were transferred from the Force to the -Madelonnettes. The record of the Madelonnettes in this connection is not -important, except that here it was attempted to employ the women at some -strictly penal tasks. This project was more fully developed at -Saint-Lazare, to which prison all classes of women of the town were -relegated in 1831. At this date, the number of registered public women -in Paris was 3517. - -Footnote 25: - - Un ancien gardien de la Force nous a dit que le samedi, jour où on - leur donnait des chemises, pendant l'été, elles se mettaient - entirement nues dans le préau pour les recevoir des mains des - gardiens.—_Les Prisons de l'Europe._ - -Before penetrating within the prison of Saint-Lazare, the reader will be -curious to know by what means a woman desirous of doing so enrolled -herself in this singular militia. She must seek the countenance and aid -of a magistrate of Paris, whose task was in equal measure a delicate and -a painful one. Without doubt, it was a strange spectacle; a woman -presents herself before a magistrate and says that, renouncing her -woman's modesty, her hope or desire of an honourable future, she wishes -to be cut off from the world, that she may cast herself _dans la -prostitution publique_. At first sight, she seems to make the magistrate -her accomplice, but that this was not the case the sequel will shew. - -The applicant underwent a most minute interrogation. She was asked if -she were a married woman, a widow, or a spinster; if her parents were -living and whether she lived with them, or why she had separated from -them. She was asked how long she had inhabited Paris, and whether she -had no friends there whose interest the magistrate might evoke for her. -She was asked whether she had ever been arrested, how often, and for -what causes. She was asked whether she had ever followed the calling of -_femme publique_ in any other place, and finally, what were the true -motives of her application. Procès-verbal of the examination was drawn -up, and the applicant had then to be seen by a medical man attached to -the police service. Next, her certificate of birth was asked for, and if -she could not produce it, and had been born out of Paris, she must give -the name of the mayor of her department. The magistrate wrote forthwith -to the mayor, and after setting forth the facts which the applicant had -submitted in her examination, requested him to report upon them, asking -particularly whether the relatives of the woman could not be moved to -induce her to return to them. All this was done in the case where the -girl or woman went alone to solicit her enrollment, but it has to be -said that not infrequently one or both of the parents of the applicant -attended with her at the bureau, to support her request! - -When every effort of the magistrate had proved unavailing, a final -Procès-verbal was prepared, to the effect that such-and-such a female -had requested to be inscribed "_comme fille publique_," and had been -enrolled on the decision of the examining magistrate, "after undertaking -to submit to the sanitary and other regulations established by the -Prefecture for women of that class." Thus, and in all cases by her own -act, was she launched upon those turbid waters. - -Of the 3517 women on the Paris police registers in 1831, 931 were from -Paris and the department of the Seine, 2170 from the provincial -departments, 134 from foreign countries, and the remaining 282 had been -unable or unwilling to satisfy the authorities as to their place of -birth. There were amongst them seamstresses, modistes, dressmakers, -florists, lacemakers, embroiderers, glove-makers, domestic servants, -hawkers, milliners, hairdressers, laundresses, silk-workers, jewellers, -actresses or figurantes, acrobats, and representatives of many other -trades and callings, together with six teachers of music, and one -"landscape painter." As regards the education of this army of outcasts, -rather more than one-half were unable to sign their names on the cards -or badges which they received from the bureau; a somewhat smaller number -appended "an almost illegible signature" (_fort mal, et d'une manière à -peine lisible_); whilst a hundred, or thereabouts, wrote "a neat and -correct hand." - -As for the causes which induced them to cast in their lot with their -sister pariahs, they were traceable for the most part to the weaknesses -or defects of the social organisation. Thus, a majority of the women -pleaded "excess of misery," and the class next in point of numbers were -"_simples concubines ayant perdu leurs amants, et ne sachant plus que -faire_." A large proportion had lost both parents, or had been driven -from home; many had left the provinces to seek work in Paris; some were -widows who could find no other means of supporting their children; and -others were daughters looking for bread for aged parents, or for younger -sisters and brothers. - - ------- - -And now, standing on the threshold of their prison, we may ask what were -the commoner causes which sent these unfortunates to Saint-Lazare. It -has been made sufficiently clear that by the act of procuring their -licences they sold their liberty to the police. This indeed was the sole -condition on which enrolment could be obtained. The _femme publique_, in -becoming such, bought herself an army of masters; the whole force of -police were in authority over her, and almost equally so were their -agents and spies, and the medical men in their employ. She had -subscribed obedience to all the regulations invented by the Préfecture, -and she was under perpetual surveillance. The great power of the police -over her rested on her submission in writing to the prefect's -"_règlements sanitaires_" and his "_mesures exceptionelles de -surveillance_," and infringement of the most arbitrary enactment brought -her within the danger of prison. Failing to render her prescribed visit -to the police doctor, she was almost certain to find herself a day or -two later in Saint-Lazare. Special rules and regulations apart, the -irregularities of life and infractions of common law which at times were -almost inevitable in the calling she had entered on, were amongst the -causes contributive to her troubles with the powers at whose mercy she -had placed herself. On the whole, one gathers that the _fille de joie_ -paid at siege rates for that none too felicitous title. - -She seems to have found herself often on the less desirable side of the -prison door; and as the class of _filles publiques_ in Paris has always -included some of the handsomest and some of the most ill-favoured, some -of the most elegant and some of the least refined, some of the brightest -and some of the most villainous women in the town, it may be supposed -that the floating population of Saint-Lazare (which amounted sometimes -to fourteen hundred) offered a marvellous variety of types. - -It was the place of waiting for women and girls whose applications to be -registered had not been disposed of, and for the women who were to be -tried on police charges; and it was also the place of punishment for -those who had received sentence. - -The position of the untried was in many respects worse than that of the -convicted prisoners. The former had the privilege, to be sure, of hiring -what was called a private room, but if they went in penniless they were -in a bad case indeed. They had no right to the full prison rations, and -were fed strictly on bread and water. The convicted prisoners were -warmly clad in winter, but the untried were not allowed to add to the -clothing they took in with them a wrap or comforter from the prison -wardrobe. In hard weather the public women of the poorer class seem to -have suffered keenly both from hunger and from cold. Untried, and -presumably innocent (and many honest women were sent to Saint-Lazare on -the vaguest accusations or suspicions of the police), they were -compelled to receive the visits of the doctors, which were not always of -the most delicate character. Women awaiting trial sometimes offered -money to escape this humiliation, and the case is recorded of a girl who -preferred suicide to submission. - -It was better, in respect of physical comfort, on the penal side of the -prison. There the women were clad to the season, fed not meanly, and -lodged with a certain decency. The untaught and feckless had opportunity -to learn a trade, for the workrooms were now conducted on a much more -practical principle, and the small bonuses bestowed on the industrious -were to some extent a corrective of the _femme publique's_ inveterate -indolence. There was, for the first time in the history of French penal -discipline, a clean, more or less wholesome, and well ordered infirmary -for the treatment of maladies peculiar to that class. - -In the material point of view, in a word, the prison of Saint-Lazare -was, for convicted prisoners, an infinitely better place than any of its -predecessors. But the régime from the standpoint of morals left more -than a little to desire. - -Certainly, it offered none of the grosser features of the old system. -The male attendants had disappeared. The principle of work had been -established, and discipline was pretty well maintained in the wards, -cells, and refectories. When the women had lived together in all but -absolute idleness, their prison was always in a state of disorder, and -often in a state of uproar. Quarrels were of daily occurrence, and a -quarrel usually issued in a fight. Two women, armed with combs or -holding copper coins between their fingers, stood up to do battle for an -absent lover, whom each claimed for her own; and the other prisoners -made a ring around them, not so much in the interests of fair play, as -to see that each combatant got her due share of "punishment." If the -warders attempted to interfere, they probably retired with broken heads. - -There was almost no restraint upon the women, and the lack of -discipline, which permitted sanguinary fights at any hour of the day, -pervaded the entire system. The _femme publique_ could receive what -visitors she pleased, and her lovers and friends crowded the "parlour," -and laughed, sang, and swore at their ease. They brought her money, -food, clothing, and whatever else she desired. As long as her purse was -filled, she was never without luxuries, and she selected from amongst -her fellow-prisoners some table companion, called a _mangeuse_, with -whom she shared her meals. This companionship was usually a _liaison_, -the character of which permits no more than a reference; the cult of -Sappho was universal in the women's prisons. - -At a pinch for money, or for food more dainty than the prison kitchen -furnished, the women had recourse to the prison usurers. These were old -crones, very familiar with prison, who committed some petty offence -which would entail about a month's confinement; a strictly commercial -speculation on their part. They took in with them a certain sum of -money, with which they bought clothes from, and made loans to, -necessitous prisoners. To procure money a woman would sell the clothes -on her back, until "_elle restait presque nue, et dans un état -indécent_." Others borrowed from the old women at a fixed rate of -interest, which was never less than fifty per cent. These were regarded -as debts of honour, and the payments were punctually made. - -Letters might be written and received without the scrutiny of the -director; and the _écrivains publics_, or scriveners of the prison, were -continuously employed in composing for their illiterate bond-sisters -(always, of course, at a price) epistles to lovers outside, which are -described as _brûlantes d'amour_. All unknown to the authorities, -betrothals of a very curious kind were made through the prison post. - -Five male prisoners at La Roquette, let us suppose, were on the point of -completing their sentences; but the prospect of liberty without a -companion of the other sex held no attractions. Where were the fiancées -to be found? At Saint-Lazare, where five engaging hearts might be -expecting their release at about the same date. - -In the men's prison there was always an artist whose services could be -hired for an affair of this kind, and to him the five gallants would -present themselves, with a request for "a bouquet." - -"Of how many flowers?" asked the artist. - -"Five." - -The artist then traced on paper five separate flowers, to each of which -a number was attached; and the five prisoners made their choice of a -blossom. From La Roquette the "bouquet" was magically wafted to -Saint-Lazare, and once there it seldom failed to reach the hands it was -destined for. The recipient summoned to her four other single hearts, -and each of the five chose her flower. The same mysterious agency which -had introduced the bouquet to Saint-Lazare conveyed a fitting answer to -La Roquette, and the affair was arranged. - -But the new brooms of the Préfecture swept out of the system all these -injurious relaxations. At Saint-Lazare, the director took note of every -letter that passed into or out of the prison, and the _écrivains -publics_ had need to chasten their epistolary style. At Saint-Lazare, -Aspasia had no clothes to sell for pocket-money, for the black gown -striped with blue, which was her daily wear, was the property of the -State. At Saint-Lazare, she could hold no receptions of her lovers; and -the presents of money and jewels with which they sought to solace her -through the post could not be converted into spiced meats; for all -Aspasia's moneys and other valuables were taken care of by the director, -who rewarded her good behaviour with a few sous at a time. At -Saint-Lazare, she could seldom use her comb as a weapon of offence, and -the hours which had been devoted to the duel were absorbed by some -industrial or penal task. - -All this implied a moral reform of no inconsiderable kind; but, as has -been stated, the morals of the new régime were not perfection. The great -shortcoming in this respect was that no attempt was made to classify the -prisoners. - -This, however, in such a prison as Saint-Lazare should have been -regarded by the authorities as a paramount duty and necessity. It has -been suggested, though not yet expressly stated, how great a variety of -types this population embraced. Not all of these were _femmes -publiques_, and of those who belonged to that class by no means all were -of a really abandoned or degraded character. There were prisoners -scarcely out of their teens, who had not yet quite crossed the Rubicon, -and who were importuned day and night by the old and vicious hags to be -rid once for all of their virtue, and betake themselves to the "life of -pleasure." The crones who had traded as clothes-dealers and -money-lenders in the older prisons were not less active in Saint-Lazare, -albeit in another and baser capacity. They acted here as the agents and -procuresses of the women who kept houses of ill-fame in Paris and the -provincial towns. A large proportion of the population of Saint-Lazare -were essentially women of the people, girls fresh from the restraints -and hard monotony of shop and warehouse. They were in prison perhaps for -the first time, paying the penalty of some not very serious offence -against the law. But they would leave the gaol with its taint upon them, -and whither should they go? The young and pretty ones amongst them were -flattered by the addresses and importunities of the harridans who were -there to recruit for the _maisons de tolérance_, and who promised them -silk gowns, fine company, and gold pieces. There were here also wives of -the middle class, whose first false step in life had changed its whole -aspect for them, and who knew that home was closed to them forever. -There were young _filles d'amour_ who had sickened of their calling -almost before the ink had dried on the page of the register which they -had signed, and who longed for a means of escape. - -This was good soil to work in, and it would be unjust to say that it was -quite neglected. The prison was visited by sisters of mercy and other -charitable women, and there were even at that date homes and refuges for -the penitent, whose agents sought in the prison and at the prison door -to rescue the young offenders, and those whose feet were still -half-willing to lead them back to virtue. But for inexperience which -lacked strength of character, and for indecision which had no moral or -religious sign-post, the influence of the prison was omnipotent. Without -separation of the classes there was no hope for the weak, and the -classes were not separated. At the moment of her release, at the door of -the prison itself, the woman who had made no plan for her future found -three to pick from. Philanthropy was ready to receive her into one of -the houses of refuge. But she was hungry and ill-clad, and a toothless -procuress came forward with an offer of clothes, a dinner, and a soft -bed. If she still wavered, there was a skulking limb of the law on the -watch—probably the creature by whom she had been arrested—whose -"protection" was hers if she would accept it; and in this case, at -least, refusal was indeed dangerous. For the police spy knew the -"history of the case" and would dog the steps of his victim. - -It resulted that, up to close upon the middle of the century, the prison -of Saint-Lazare, its intelligent aims notwithstanding, was largely a -recruiting ground for the _maisons de tolérance_ of Paris and the -departments, and a place in which uncertain virtue had every opportunity -to decline into finished vice. The _maisons de tolérance_ have been -mentioned once or twice in this connection, and a word in explanation -will dispose of them. The _femme publique_ had her own house or lodging, -or she lived with others of her calling, under a common roof, a _maison -de tolérance_. Licences for these houses were obtained from the _Bureau -des Mœurs_ by a process similar to, though less tedious than, that which -has been described. The applicant was almost always a retired _femme -publique_, and her request to the prefect was usually composed for her -by an _écrivain public_, who kept an office for the purpose, under the -discreet sign, "_Au tombeau des secrets_." He had two styles of -composition, the plain and the ornate. Adopting the first, he would -write: - - "Monsieur le Préfet: M——, a native of Paris, and inscribed on your - registers during the past eighteen years, has the honour to request - your permission to open a licenced house. Her excellent conduct - during the lengthened period of her connection with a class which is - not remarkable for sober living, will, I trust, be a sufficient - guarantee for you that she will not abuse her new position, etc." - -For a sample of his finer style, the following petition will serve: - - "To his Excellency, the Prefect of Police, whose signally successful - administration has changed the face of Paris. - - "You will be gracious enough, Monsieur le Préfet, to pardon the - importunity of my client, Mme. D——, who solicits your authority to - open forthwith a _maison de tolérance_. She knows and appreciates - the responsibility which this undertaking involves, but the - austerity and circumspection of her conduct, her calm and peaceful - life in the past, proclaim her fitness; and the inquiries which you - may deign to make on my client's account can only result to her - advantage." - -This was the tenor, and these the terms, of the official requests to the -prefect; and if the applicant could show that she was in a position to -support an establishment, she generally received her licence. Amongst -the women whom she lodged, and the frequenters of her house, she was -styled at different periods _maman_, _abbesse_, _supérieure_, _dame de -maison_, and _maîtresse de maison_. During the Consulate and the Empire, -she might be sent to prison as a _femme publique_; but after the -Restoration it became the custom to punish her—on any conviction -involving the conduct of her house—by suppression of her licence. - -If, however, no attempt at classification was made by the prison -director, certain distinctions of rank existed which were generally -acknowledged by the prisoners themselves. The authors of _Les Prisons de -Paris_ mention a class of elegant adventuresses who were always apart in -Saint-Lazare, and who stood as the shining examples of the aristocracy -of vice. The passage is interesting and worth translation: - - "Amongst the class of swindlers, so numerous in Saint-Lazare, who - boast their skill in exploiting the ambitious fools of Paris, you - might recognise beneath the prison cap, so coquettishly worn, dames - whom you had met perchance in the most elegant houses in town, and - whose protection you might have sought. This one was a countess, - that one a baroness, and, rightly or wrongly, the badge of nobility - was painted on the panels of their carriages. Did you need the - friendly word of a minister or the countenance of a capitalist, it - was enough that you were known to have one of these angels for your - friend. There were four of them in the sewing-room of - Saint-Lazare,—rogues and swindlers of the first water! For years - these corsairs have laid violent hands on all fortunes they could - come at, but they continue to hold a position in society which is in - itself a more scathing satire on the morals of the age than any - which I am able to imagine. At intervals, these dames are lodged for - a time at the country's cost in one or other of the houses of - detention, without, however, losing one jot or tittle of their - prestige in the world of fashion! When they reappear, society - receives them open-armed, as poor banished exiles who have returned - to the fatherland, or prodigal children whose wanderings are ended." - -Nothing delighted plebeian Saint-Lazare so much as to hear the -countesses and baronesses discussing the merits, as a gallant, of this -or the other minister, nobleman, poet, or banker of renown; and the -interest culminated when the question arose as to which of the two could -produce the greater number of letters signed by names with which all -Paris was familiar. - -Roving like satellites around these gaudy planets were a small class of -habitual criminals who, out of prison, served the noble adventuresses in -several offices, as spies, go-betweens, receivers, etc. These also -enjoyed a certain celebrity in the prison. One of them used to open -chestnuts with a knife with which, in a passion of jealousy, she had all -but murdered her lover, and which had become an object of the devoutest -worship since the lover had gone to hide his scars under the red jacket -of the galley-slave. Another woman arrived at the prison in a flutter of -pride, eager to display a novel charm which decorated her ears. She also -had lost her latest lover, but _Monsieur de Paris_ had been kind enough -to extract for her two teeth from the head which he had just severed. -The disconsolate mistress had had them set in gold as earrings! Nearly -all these women carried on the neck, arms, and upper portion of the body -specimens of the work of the professional tattooer; they preserved in -this way the names of their successive lovers, and the figured emblems -sometimes included the most ignoble devices. - -Of the licenced women who restricted themselves mainly if not entirely -to the calling of _femme_ _publique_, Saint-Lazare recognised two -separate orders. They were the _Panades_ and the _Pierreuses_. The -_Panades_ carried a high chin in the society of their humbler -associates; they were generally members of some _maison de tolérance_, -where, so long as the mistress found it profitable to maintain them, -they lived in luxurious indolence; fed, and pampered, and extravagantly -dressed; captives, but in gilded fetters. In prison they separated -themselves, as far as it was possible, from the rest, to whom they never -addressed a word. They would be known only by some delicate or romantic -name: Irma, Zélie, Amanda, Nathalie, Arthemise, Balsamine, Léocadie, -Isménie, Malvina, Lodoïska, Aspasie, Delphine, Reine, and Fleur de -Marie. - -The _Pierreuses_ regarded them with the bitterest jealousy, and spited -and abused them at every opportunity. Memories of a gayer past -intensified the feelings of the _Pierreuses_; they too had been -_Panades_ until the _abbesse_ had cast them out, faded and worn, to join -the foot-sore legion of street-walkers. They used to whisper mockingly: -"You may sneer, you _Panades_; but we were like you once, and you'll be -like us;" and as for the prophetic part of the reproof, it was more than -likely to be realised. Like the _Panades_, the _Pierreuses_ had a -peculiar set of names: Boulotte, Rousselette, Parfaite, la Ruelle, la -Roche, le Bœuf, Bouquet, Louchon, la Bancale, la Coutille, Colette, -Peleton, Crucifix, etc. To the _Panade_, prison was a place of horror -and disgrace; to the _Pierreuse_ it was often the kindest home she had; -and as years advanced on her, and the gains of her trade grew ever -miserably smaller, the poor creature felt never so happy as in the hands -of the police, on the once dreaded journey to Saint-Lazare. - -There was a strangely sympathetic side to this saddest of the prisons of -Paris. The sick and worn-out were always tenderly regarded by their -fellow-prisoners, and a woman who brought in with her a child in arms -was an object of intense and almost affectionate interest. If a woman -died in the prison, it was not unusual for the rest to club together to -provide a substantial and costly funeral, and masses for the repose of -her soul. Sometimes the affections of the whole prison, directed upon -one weak girl, had the result of saving her from ruin and insanity. - -In the early years of the Restoration, Marie M——, a pretty peasant girl, -was sent to Saint-Lazare for stealing roses. She had a passion for the -flower, and a thousand mystical notions had woven themselves about it in -her mind. She said that rose-trees would detach themselves from their -roots, glide after her wherever she went, and tempt her to pluck their -blossoms. One in a garden, taller than the rest, had compelled her to -climb the wall, and gather as many as she could,—and there the -_gendarmes_ found her. She was terrified in prison, believing that when -she went out the roses would lure her amongst them again, and that she -would be sent back to Saint-Lazare. - -This poor girl excited the vividest interest amongst the _femmes -publiques_ in that sordid place. They plotted to restore her to her -reason, christened her Rose, which delighted her, and set themselves to -make artificial roses for her of silk and paper. Those fingers, so -rebellious at allotted tasks, created roses without number, till the -cell of Marie M—— was transformed into a bower. An intelligent director -of prison labour seconded these efforts, and opened in Saint-Lazare a -workroom for the manufacture of artificial flowers, to which Marie M—— -was introduced as an apprentice. Here, making roses from morning till -night, and her dread of the future dispelled, the malady of her mind -reached its term with the term of her sentence, and she left the prison -cured and happy. The authors of _Les Prisons de Paris_, from whose pages -her story is borrowed, declare that Marie M—— became one of the most -successful florists in Paris. - -[Illustration] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration] - - - - - CHAPTER XII. - - LA ROQUETTE. - - -There is to be a flitting of the guillotine. For nearly fifty years -executions in Paris, which are not private as with us, have taken place -immediately outside the prison of La Roquette, known officially as the -_dépôt des Condamnés_. - -Four slabs of stone sunk in the soil, a few yards beyond the gaol door, -mark the spot where, on the fatal morning, at five in summer, and about -half-past seven in winter, the red "timbers of justice" are set up by -the headsman's assistants. - -But La Roquette is to be demolished, and the dismal honour of furnishing -a last lodging to the condemned will be conferred on La Santé. This -change effected, the guillotine will flit to the Place Saint-Jacques. -Criminals of a modest habit will not approve the change, but the -murderer with a touch of vanity (and vanity is notoriously a weakness of -murderers) will doubtless welcome it; for the progress from the prison -to the scaffold will be somewhat longer. - -When the doors of La Roquette are thrown open, the victim, bareheaded -and manacled, has but a few paces to shuffle to the spot where old M. -Deibler awaits him, with his finger on the button of the knife. Between -La Santé and the Place Saint-Jacques there is rather more than the -length of a thoroughfare to be traversed, and, as in the old days, some -form of tumbril will probably be called for. - -It is a pity, of course, for it has been proved abundantly that this -kind of spectacle is anything but good for the public health. Humane and -enlightened opinion on the subject has ceased to be that which Dr. -Johnson gave utterance to. "Sir," said the Doctor to Boswell, -"executions are intended to draw spectators. If they do not draw -spectators, they do not answer their purpose. The old method [Tyburn had -been abolished] was most satisfactory to all parties: the public was -gratified by a procession, the criminal is supported by it; why is all -this to be swept away?" - -The sheriffs of the year 1784 gave the answer in a pamphlet which -exposed all the horrors and indecencies of the public progress to the -gallows. As for the "support" accorded to the criminal, he might, if he -were unpopular, be nearly stoned to death before the hangman could -despatch him. - -Public executions in Paris are not, and have never been, the scandalous -exhibitions that they were in London during the whole of the last -century, but the scene in the neighbourhood of La Roquette for four or -five hours before a guillotining is something less than edifying. - -In leaving its present site for the Place Saint-Jacques the guillotine -will only be returning home. The Place Saint-Jacques was the scene of -punishment for nineteen years and a half; it was dispossessed in favour -of La Roquette in 1851. The first person to suffer death at the Place -Saint-Jacques (the Place de Grève having been abandoned) was an old man -named Désandrieux, sixty-eight years of age, condemned for the murder of -a man whose age was eighty-four. Owing to the disgraceful neglect of the -authorities, Désandrieux lay in prison one hundred and twenty-eight days -before he was led to execution. After him came the parricide, Benoît, -the atrocious Lecenaire, David, the regicides Fieschi, Morey, and Pepin, -and other murderers of greater or less notoriety. The Place -Saint-Jacques saw the guillotine erected thirty-five times, and beheld -the fall of thirty-nine heads. - -At this date the _dépôt des Condamnés_ was remote Bicêtre, which, as we -have seen, was also the gaol from which the criminals convicted in Paris -were despatched on their journey to the _bagne_. - -A vivid picture of the condemned cell, or _cachot du Condamné_, very -painful in its blending of the imaginative with the realistic, is given -in Victor Hugo's _Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamné_. It was a day when that -veil of decent mystery which our age casts over the last torturing hours -of the condemned had not been woven; and callous curiosity could, for a -trifling bribe to the turnkey, uncover the grating behind which the -criminal in his strait waistcoat was couched on mouldy straw. - -It was a veritable journey from Bicêtre to the Place Saint-Jacques, by -way of the Avenue d'Italie and the outer boulevards; midway along the -Boulevard d'Italie the guillotine came in sight, and for five and twenty -minutes before he reached it, the miserable victim had the death-machine -for his horizon, the huge blade gripped between the blood-red arms -gleaming deadlier moment by moment. - -The progress was even longer and more wretched when La Grande Roquette -was substituted for Bicêtre as the prison of the _Condamné à mort_. On a -day in mid-December, 1838, a certain Perrin was carried to death from La -Roquette to the barrière Saint-Jacques. An icy rain was falling, and the -streets beyond the Seine were so choked with mud that at certain points -the vehicle became almost embedded in it, and had to be hauled along by -the crowd. Think of riding to one's death in that fashion! The Abbé -Montès, riding beside the young assassin, saw him shivering, and -insisted on covering him with his own hat. At the scaffold, Perrin was -lifted from the cart almost dead from cold and exhaustion. - -From that date there began to be a talk of changing the place of -execution, but the proposals had no result, and during the next thirteen -years five and twenty murderers traversed the whole length of Paris in -their passage to the guillotine. Amongst them may be named the regicide -Darmés, the terrible and dreaded Poulmann, Fourier, chief of the famous -band of the _Escarpes_, the _garde Général_ Lecompte, who fired on -Louis-Philippe at Fontainebleau, and Daix and Lahr, the assassins of -General Bréar. At length, in 1851, the Place Saint-Jacques ceded its -dubious honours to the Place de la Roquette,—which is now about to -restore them. - -As La Roquette (or properly La Grande Roquette, to distinguish it from -La Petite Roquette, the prison for juvenile offenders, which stands -opposite) is to be abolished, it will be interesting to make a brief -survey of the place in which some of the most celebrated French -criminals of modern times have awaited the visit of M. Deibler, with his -scissors and pinioning straps. - -Here the "toilet of the guillotine" has been performed on Orsini, Piéri, -Verger, La Pommerais, Troppmann, Moreau, Billoir, Prévost, Barré and -Lebiez, Campi, Pranzini, and so many others, down to Vaillant and Emile -Henry. - -It would be impossible even to summarise all that has been said and -written in France in favour of abolishing the guillotine. It was -vigorously advocated during the Revolution itself, while the scaffold -was flowing with blood. - -Under the Convention, Taillefer rose one day with the demand: "Let our -guillotines be broken and burned!" At the sitting of the of "9th -Vendémiaire, year iv," Languinais exclaimed: "Should we not be happy if, -having begun our session by establishing the Republic, we were able to -end it by pronouncing once for all against capital punishment!" - -At the last siting of the Convention, Chénier in energetic terms -denounced the guillotine. A voice called out: "What o'clock is it?" A -voice responded: "The hour of justice." A moment later this vote was -proclaimed: "Dating from the publication of the general peace, the -punishment of death shall be abolished throughout the French Republic." - -That vote has not yet become effective! - -After a long sleep the question re-awoke on the lips of M. de Tracy, son -of the orator who had been amongst the first to entreat that the code of -France might be cleansed of blood. In the same historic mention we must -gather in the names of the Duc de Broglie, the Marquis de -Lally-Tallendal, the Marquis de Pastoret ("A man attacks me; I can -defend myself only by killing him: I kill him. For society to do the -same thing, it must find itself in precisely the same situation.") de -Bérenger, Lafayette, Glais-Bizoin, Taschereau, Appert, Lèon Fancher, and -Guizot the historian. - -"If," added the authors of _Les Prisons de Paris_, "all these -enlightened publicists and statesmen, with M. Guizot amongst them, did -not succeed in pulling down the scaffold, at an epoch when, to quote M. -de Bérenger, the very executioners were weary, it must be concluded, we -suppose, that it is necessary to proceed with prudent hesitation, and, -by a gradual abolition, to convince the most timid and incredulous that -society has nothing to dread from this reform." - -This was written fifty years ago, and as "prudent hesitation" has not -yet attained its goal it is still possible to penetrate within the -condemned hold of La Roquette. - -The prison is chiefly interesting in this day as the fore-scene of the -scaffold. It is built with a wealth of precautions; and escape, if not -impossible by ordinary means, is exceptionally difficult to compass. No -successful flight from La Roquette has been recorded in modern times. - -Three iron _grilles_ and four doors of massive oak conduct to the great -courtyard. The foundations of the prison are in layers of freestone; the -two walls which enclose the buildings are of a thickness proportionate -to their elevation, and the builder took care to efface the angles by -rounded stonework. Buildings surround the courtyard on the north, east, -and west, and the prison chapel occupies the south. - -For the ordinary prisoner (convicts awaiting shipment to the penal -colonies, or undergoing short sentences of hard labour), the day at La -Roquette begins early. The warders are at their posts soon after light, -and the second bell summons the prisoners half an hour later. Thirty -minutes are allowed for dressing, bed-making, and cell-cleaning, and at -the third bell there is a general descent to the yard, each prisoner -receiving his first allowance of bread as he goes down. After half an -hour's exercise the regular labour of the day begins, and at nine -o'clock there is a distribution of soup. Between nine-thirty and ten the -prisoners take another turn in the yard, and the second period of work -lasts till three in the afternoon. At three is served another allowance -of bread, with vegetables or meat according to the day; and from -half-past three to four the courtyard echoes again the monotonous tramp -of hundreds of pairs of sabots. The last sortie—there are four in -all—varies with the seasons; and after supper the prisoners are locked -in for the night. - -Fifty years ago, there was here and there in the _bagnes_, and the -general prisons of France, a priest of exalted ideals, and such -unwearied patience as the task demands, toiling to reclaim the -_Condamnés_ who were his spiritual charge. One such was the Abbé Touzè, -chaplain of La Roquette at about the middle period of our century. The -Abbé set himself to inquire what causes sent men to prison at that day, -what might be done or attempted to prevent them from returning there; -and knowing that the part which thinks may be reached through the part -which feels, it was in the sanctuary of the heart that he began his -experiments on a population whose emotions are none too easily turned to -moral or religious profit. To a Touzè in France, a Horsley in England, -prison is not all the barren vineyard which a lazy chaplain finds it; -and the _aumônier_ of La Roquette did not labour in vain. He has been -mentioned here as a herald of the philanthropic scientist of later days, -who has occasionally done for the prison world what genius alone—with -religious fervour for its basis—can accomplish there. - -When the secret history of the condemned cell comes to be written, the -material will be furnished for a new and important chapter in the -history of criminal psychology; but it must not be a patchwork of lurid -gossip on a background of stale religious sophisms, such as Newgate -chaplains of the last century were not above compiling and selling for -their profit in the crowd on a hanging Monday; nor a mere spicy morsel -for the sensation-hunter, such as, for example, the copious gutter-stuff -printed and circulated about Lacenaire, who drew the gaze of Paris to -the condemned cell of La Roquette some half-century ago. - -Thief, blackmailer, and assassin, this was a wretch whose blood defiled -the scaffold itself, yet his position in the condemned cell was made -little less than heroic. A loathsome murderer, he was for weeks the -fashion in Paris. His portrait was hawked about the quays and -boulevards; - - "from all sides exquisite meats and delicate wines reached his cell; - every day some man of letters visited him, carefully noting his - sarcasms, his phrases composed in drunkenness or studiously - calculated for effect; women, young, beautiful, and elegantly - attired, solicited the honour of being presented to him, and were in - despair at his refusal." - -Criminals as indifferent as, but less notorious or less popular than -Lacenaire, idling the weeks while their appeal was under consideration, -were chiefly anxious as to whether the charity of the curious would keep -them in tobacco until their fate was decided. - -If the tobacco ran out, and the supply seemed not likely to be renewed, -the prisoner sometimes met that and all other unpleasantnesses, -immediate and prospective, by taking his own life—not because he feared -the guillotine, but because suicide (which, with the limited means at -his disposal, was probably far the worse death of the two) offered the -shortest cut to nothingness. - -Lesage, calculating that his _pourvoi_ or appeal would run just forty -days, summed up without a tremor the days that remained to him. -"Thirty-two days I've been here; eight to follow. If I don't get a sou -or two, _je manquerai de tabac_. Five sous a day to smoke, and ten to -drink,—that's not much for a poor chap to ask, the last eight days of -his life!" Seemingly, this modest address to charitable Paris was coldly -answered, for a day or two later Lesage was found dead in his bed. The -companion of his guilt, Soufflard, in the adjoining cell, had already -taken poison. - -In all condemned cells there is a considerable proportion of criminals -for whom the prospect of a violent and shameful death seems to hold no -terrors whatever. The chief warder of Wandsworth prison, an experienced -observer of death on the gallows, assured me that he remembered no -instance in which the victim had needed support under the beam, and he -cited the case of Kate Webster, who, with the halter about her neck, put -up her pinioned hands to adjust it more comfortably. Dr. Corre[26] found -that out of 88 criminals condemned to death, of whom 64 were men and 24 -women, about two-fifths of the men "died in a cowardly manner," whilst -only about one-fifth of the women showed a lack of self-possession. - -Footnote 26: - - _Les Criminels._ - -Let us pass into the _cachot du Condamné à mort_, the condemned cell of -La Roquette. - -Three types are found in the condemned cell: the indifferent, the -penitent, and the impenitent. The indifferent is a lymphatic creature -(there have been several female prisoners of this type), scarcely -susceptible of any normal emotion, and—of whichever sex—as cold in -repentance as in crime. - -The second category includes offenders quite removed from the ordinary -criminal classes. Several of these, impulsive murderers, reprieved from -the gallows, were pointed out to me at Portland last summer, and one I -remembered in particular—a handsome, well-set man, not yet middle-aged, -trudging along under a warder's eye round and round the infirmary yard, -who had been seventeen years in confinement. The impenitent of this -order is such an egoistic maniac as Wainwright, who, the night before -his death, paced the yard of Newgate with the governor, smoking a cigar, -and recounting his successes with women; or he is a criminal of the -great sort, strong in mind as in body, the fearless disciple of a -dreadful philosophy of his own, which lets him face death as boldly as -he inflicts it, and which, at the last, inspires him only with a hatred -of the law that has vanquished him. - -Poulmann was a criminal of this type; an ultra-sanguine temperament, an -athletic form, a constitution physically and morally energetic, an -Herculean force of body, and a pride which the _cachot du Condamné_ -could not reduce. "It shall never be said that Poulmann changed!" was -his first and last confession. A "monstrous atheist," he admitted that -he had prayed for the woman who was condemned with him: "But there can -be no God, since Louise also is to die." Abbé Touzè suggested that the -last days of Louise might be embittered by his impenitence. This shook -him for a moment, but he returned to himself: "No! Poulmann will never -change." - -But, alike for the weak-hearted, the indifferent, and the valiant, the -way to the scaffold is rendered in these days as easy as may be. -Victor Hugo's condemned man in the old, abhorred Bicêtre was turned -out by day among the _forçats_ awaiting their despatch to the _bagne_; -they made sport of him, and ghastly jokes about the "widow" or -guillotine—time-honoured amongst the criminal classes—were pointed -afresh for his benefit. - -His treatment at the hands of the prison officers was scarcely less -callous; no one had a thought or cared that this poor wight was biding -the morning when he should be rudely severed from all the living. - -The position of convicts cast for death in the Newgate of the early -years of this century was every jot as cruel. - -It was thus under the old order; it is more commendable to-day. The -tenant of the condemned cell, withdrawn from the stare of the world, is -surrounded by people who have no desire but to soften the few days or -weeks that remain to him. He is no longer on view at a price. He has -not, like Lacenaire, the privilege of refusing the visits of duchesses, -nor the indignity to endure of being exposed at a few francs per head to -the indecent gaze of sensation-mongers. - -In La Roquette nowadays no one can admire or contemn him until he -shuffles out to meet his fate just beyond the prison door. - -The condemned cell is, as in most modern prisons, both in France and -England, the most comfortable quarters in the building. There are -actually three _cachots des Condamnés_, as there are two in Newgate, and -those in the Paris gaol are better lighted and rather more spacious. - -The last scene of all, though it is a public execution, is no longer a -feast for the ghouls. Justice is done swiftly, and the crowd sees little -more than the preparation in the grey morning hours. The preparations, -however, are sufficiently enticing to draw to the Place de la Roquette -the riff-raff of Paris, the frequenters of the night-houses, of the -boulevards, the women of the town, and some foreign amateurs of the -scaffold who, like George Selwyn, would "go anywhere to see an -execution." - -Selwyn, by the way, would find the spectacle in the Place de la Roquette -tame enough after some that he had witnessed. He went to Paris on -purpose to be present at the torture of the wretched Damiens, who, after -suffering unheard-of pains, was torn asunder by four horses. A French -nobleman, observing the Englishman's interest in the savage scene, -concluded that he must be a hangman taking a lesson abroad, and said: -"_Eh bien, monsieur, êtes vous arrivé pour voir ce spectacle?_"—"_Oui, -monsieur._"—"_Vous êtes bourreau?_" "_Non, monsieur_," replied Selwyn, -"_je n'ai pas l'honneur; je ne suis qu'un amateur_." - -It is after midnight that the rush begins to the spot where the scaffold -is raised, and for hours the throng continues to increase in numbers and -variety. All night there is feeding and drinking in the public-houses -around, and, as it used to be in the Old Bailey, windows commanding a -view of the scene are hired at any price. - -A swarm of pressmen wait through the night just outside the prison gate. -At this time the victim himself is probably unaware that his last hour -is at hand. - -When day has dawned, two carts come out from a street adjoining the -prison, bearing the disjointed pieces of the guillotine. The headsman's -five brawny assistants (one of whom is his son and probable successor) -set up the machine, and the knife falls three or four times to test the -spring. - -Then the guard arrives; and when the city police, the _Gardes de la -République_, and the mounted _gendarmes_ are marshalled, the crowd -behind can see only the top of the guillotine. A place within the cordon -is reserved for the press. - -The genius-in-chief of the ceremony does not appear until the doors of -the prison are thrown open. He is within, preparing the victim, and -coaxing him, when the toilet is finished, to take a cigarette and a -little glass of rum. - -Louis Stanislas Deibler, the _Monsieur de Paris_, came to Paris in 1871, -as assistant headsman to Roch. He had been a provincial executioner, -but, in 1871, a new law ordered that all criminals condemned in France -should be despatched by _Monsieur de Paris_. - -Deibler, who was born in Dijon in 1823, is a joiner by trade. His first -head (as chief executioner) was Laprade's, in 1879, and the case was one -of his worst. Laprade, who had murdered his father, mother, and -grandmother, felt a natural disinclination to join them on the other -side, and struggled so desperately on the scaffold that Deibler had to -thrust his head by main force into the lunette. - -M. Deibler is lame, and usually carries a very old umbrella. "Scenes" on -the scaffold are rare. The victim may struggle for a moment, but it is -only for a moment that, in the practised hands of the assistants, he can -postpone the inevitable. In general, the whole affair lasts but a few -seconds. - -There is no such thing as a "last dying speech" from the guillotine. -Even if the man were not too dazed to speak, time would not be allowed -him. There is time only for the last ministrations of the Church, which -are almost always rejected. - -The instant the criminal is secured on the bascule, M. Deibler touches -the spring, the knife shears through the uncovered neck, there is a -spurt of blood in the air, and all is over. - -The head and body are enclosed at once in a rough coffin, and trundled -off with a guard of mounted _gendarmes_ (officials and priest following -in a cab) to the Champ des Navets, or Turnip Field, at Ivry Cemetery, -where a burial service is read. The remains are then handed over to one -of the medical schools for dissection, and what is left is interred. - - - - - THE END. - - - - -[Illustration] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - Novels by Tighe Hopkins. - - ---------- - - ="Lady Bonnie's Experiment."= - - (Vol. V. of "Cassell's Pocket Library.") - -"Its sparkle keeps it alive from cover to cover. The whole thing is a -charming bit of _étourderie_, without a dull line in it."—_Athenæum._ - -"A delightful fantasy. Woven with a graceful dexterity which ought to be -pondered by 'prentice story-tellers."—_Daily Chronicle._ - - - Nell Haffenden: - - A Strictly Conventional Story. - - In two volumes. - -"The author sculpts at least half-a-dozen strong individualities, and -introduces us to a variety of shifting scenes, from the studios of -artistic Bohemia to mission work in Eastern London. Wherever we are -taken we are impressed with the conviction that the author knows what he -is writing about, and in the description of the Bloomsbury -boarding-house he is humorous enough to remind us of Martin Chuzzlewit's -first experiences in New York."—_Times._ - - - The Nugents of Carriconna: - - A Story More or Less Irish. - - Fourth edition in one volume. - -"For sheer relaxation there is nothing to beat a really good Irish -story, and the reader who fails to enjoy 'The Nugents of Carriconna' -must be a person of very peculiar sensibilities. A promising opening is -a capital thing in a novel, and Mr. Tighe Hopkins opens admirably. The -situation is one which in capable hands might be turned to very good -account, and the reader is not long in discovering that the author's -hands are very capable indeed. The story of the ill-fated telescope, -which is really the pivot upon which the action of the novel revolves, -is not only most delightful and original in itself, but is told with so -much force, freshness, and prevailing humour, not without a few touches -of powerful pathos, that its success may be regarded as -certain."—_Spectator._ - - - "The Incomplete Adventurer." - - In one volume. - -"Most humorous and delightful."—_Athenæum._ - -"A very clever tale, brilliantly told."—_Academy._ - -"A decidedly amusing variation on the old theme of the elixir of -life."—_Saturday Review._ - -"The hero is a delightful creation."—_Literary World._ - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - FRENCH HISTORY. - - 8° - -By FRANCES ELLIOT. Illustrated with portraits and with views of the old -châteaux. 2 vols., 8°, $4.00. Half-calf extra, gilt tops, $8 00 - -"Mrs. Elliot's is an anecdotal history of the French Court from Francis -I. to Louis XIV. She has conveyed a vivid idea of the personalities -touched upon, and her book contains a great deal of genuine -vitality."—_Detroit Free Press._ - -"Entitled to rank as one of the notable publications. The author has -been an earnest student of the history of France from her childhood, and -she here embodies the result of researches, for which she seems to have -been peculiarly fitted. The familiarity of this work is one of its chief -charms. The present work is charming in manner and carries with it the -impress of accuracy and careful investigation."—_Chicago Times._ - - - WOMAN IN FRANCE DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. - -By JULIA KAVANAGH, author of "Madeline," etc. Illustrated with portraits -on steel. 2 vols., 8°, $4.00. Half-calf extra, gilt tops, $8 00 - -"Miss Kavanagh has studied her material so carefully, and has digested -it so well, that she has been able to tell the story of Court Life in -France, from the beginning of the Regency to the end of the -revolutionary period, with an understanding and a sobriety that make it -practically new to English readers."—_Detroit Free Press._ - - - FRANCE UNDER MAZARIN. - -By JAMES BRECK PERKINS. With a Sketch of the Administration of -Richelieu. Portraits of Mazarin, Richelieu, Louis XIII., Anne of -Austria, and Condé. 2 vols., 8° $4 00 - -"... 'France under Richelieu and Mazarin' will introduce its author into -the ranks of the first living historians of our land. He is never dry, -he never lags, he is never prolix: but from the first to the last, his -narrative is recorded _currente calamo_, as of a man who has a firm -grasp upon his materials."—_N. Y. Christian Union._ - -"A brilliant and fascinating period that has been skipped, slighted, or -abused by the ignorance, favoritism, or prejudice of other writers is -here subjected to the closest scrutiny of an apparently judicial and -candid student...."—_Boston Literary World._ - - - A FRENCH AMBASSADOR AT THE COURT OF CHARLES II.; LE COMTE DE COMINGES. - -From his unpublished correspondence. Edited by J. J. JUSSERAND. With 10 -illustrations, 5 being photogravures. 8° $3 50 - -"M. Jusserand has chosen a topic peculiarly fitted to his genius, and -treated it with all the advantage to be derived, on the one hand, from -his wide knowledge of English literature and English social life, and on -the other, from his diplomatic experience and his freedom of access to -the archives of the French Foreign Office.... We get a new and vivid -picture of his (Cominges') life at the Court of Charles II.... There is -not a dull page in the book."—_London Times._ - - - UNDERCURRENTS OF THE SECOND EMPIRE. - -By ALBERT D. VANDAM, author of "An Englishman in Paris," etc. 8° $2 00 - -"Mr. Vandam is an Englishman, long resident in Paris, and thereby -thoroughly Gallicized in his intellectual atmosphere and style of -thought ... his style is flowing and pleasing, and the work is a -valuable contribution to the history of that time."—_The Churchman._ - - ---------- - - G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, NEW YORK AND LONDON. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - ● Transcriber's Notes: - ○ Missing or obscured punctuation was corrected. - ○ Unbalanced quotation marks were left as the author intended. - ○ Typographical errors were silently corrected. - ○ Names were corrected according to historial records. - ▪ Bérenger should be Béranger - - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Jean_de_Béranger - - ▪ Bertandière should be Bertaudière - - http://www.emersonkent.com/history_dictionary/bastille.htm - - ○ Spelling was made consistent when a predominant form was found in - this book; otherwise it was not changed. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Dungeons of Old Paris, by Tighe Hopkins - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUNGEONS OF OLD PARIS *** - -***** This file should be named 54493-0.txt or 54493-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/4/9/54493/ - -Produced by deaurider, Barry Abrahamsen and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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