BASTILLE was, in France, a general term for a strong fortress, defended by towers or bastions (q.v.), and in this sense it was used in England also after the Norman con quest. The famous prison to which the name latterly was appropriated, was originally the castle of Paris, and was built by order of Charles V., between 1370 and 1383, by lingo Aubriot, proveit or provost of Paris, at the porte St. Antoine, as a defense against the English. Afterwards, when it came to be used as a state-prison, it was provided, during the 16th and 17th e., with vast bulwarks and ditches. On each of its longer sides the B. had four towers, of five stories each, over which there ran a gallery, which was armed with cannon, It was partly in these towers, and partly in cellars under the level of the ground, that the prisons were situated. The unfortunate inmates of these abodes were so effectually removed from the world without as often to be entirely forgotten, and in some eases it was found impossible to discover either their origin or the cause of their incarceration. The B. was capable of containing 70 to 80 prisoners, a anal ber frequently reached during the reigns of Louis XIV. and Louis XV. Though small cempared to the number which an ordinary prison contains, these numbers were con siderable, when we reflect that they rarely consisted of persons of the lower ranks, or such as were guilty of actual crimes, but of those who were sacrificed to political despot ism, court intrigue, ecclesiastical tyranny, or had fallen victims to family quarrels—and were lodged here in virtue of lettres de cachet (q.v.)—noblemen, authors, savans, priests, and publishers. On the 14th of .July, 1789, the fortress was surrounded by an armed
mob, which the reactionary policy of the court had driven into fury, and to the number of which every moment added. The garrison consisted of 82 old soldiers and 32 Swiss. The negotiations which were entered into with the governor led to no other result than the removal of the cannon pointed on the faubourg St. Antoine, which by no means contented the exasperated multitude. Some cut the chains of the first drawbridge, and a contest took place, in which one of the besieged and 150 of the people were killed, or severely wounded; but the arrival of a portion of the troops which had already joined the people with four field-pieces, turned the fortune of the conflict in favor of the besieg ers. Delaunay, the governor—who had been prevented by one of his officers, when on the point of blowing the fortress into the air—permitted time second drawbridge to be lowered, and the people rushed in, killing Delaunay himself and several of his officers. The destruction of the B. commenced on the following day, amid the thunder of cannon, and the pealing of the Te Deum. This event, in itself apparently of no great moment, leading only to the release of three unknown prisoners—one of whom had been Its tenant for thirty years—and four forgers, and in which it is said only the 654 per sons who names now appear on the column in the Place de la Bastille, took part, nevertheldss finally broke the spirit of thecourt-party, and changed the current of events in France.