The officers who had the direction and charge of the Bastile were the following : The governor ; the lieutenant du roi; a major with two adjutants; a sur geon and his assistant ; a chaplain ; •our turnkeys ; together with a company of invalids under their usual officers forming the garrison. . All these had their apartments within the walls of the castle. Besides there were the physician ; two priests assistants of the chaplain, enjoying each a salary of 400 litres; a keeper of the registers ; a clerk ; a superintendant of the works, and an engineer. The attendance of these was occasional, and they usually lived in the city. To the governor was entrusted the whole in ternal management of the Bastile he administered the oath of allegiance to the inferior officers : he rc- ceived from the king a certain allowance for the sup port of each prisoner, according to his rank ; and the cooks and other persons belonging to the kitchen were all engaged and paid in his name. The main tenance of a prince of the blood Was estimated at fifty livrcs daily ; that of a marechal de France at thirty six ; that of a lieutenant-general at twenty-four; that of a member of the French parliament at fifteen ; that of a judge, priest, or person holding any situation of importance under the crown, at ten ; and that of a respectable citizen at five. In each of these in stances, however, the estimate is to be considered ex clusively of the charges for fire and candles, as well as the expense of washing. It belonged to the ma jor to examine the prisoners immediately after their arrival, or, according to the orders received, in pre sence of the lieutenant du roi. The officer last men
tioned had also the charge of the keys, which were delivered to him every night as soon as the bridge was drawn up. Certain individuals of the staff made their rounds daily, and gave an account of what they had seen and heard at their visits, either to the go vernor-in person, or in his absence to some one ap pointed by him. But the governor and all the of ficers mentioned above, were wholly passive ; they did nothing without orders from the lieutenant of po lice, and he himself indeed acted only as deputy to the minister of Paris, in whose department the Bas tile was situated. It was by that minister, or by one of the secretaries of state, that the lefties (lc cachet were countersigned ; those awful intimations of des potism, by which thousands were deprived of their liberty and their reason, and not unfrequently of their lives. These letters were sometimes addressed to the individual, whom the caprice of the monarch or of his favourite had doomed to confinement, sometimes to the governor of the Bastile exclusively, but com monly to both. The following is an instance of a kttre de cachet, inscribed " A mon cousin he Prince de Monaco, brigadier cn mon enfantcrie," by Louis, XV.
Mon Cousin,' " Etant pen satisfait de votre conduite; je vous Pais cette lettre, pour vous dire ; que mon intention est aussitot qu'elle vous aura etc remise, vans ayez a vous rendre en mon chateau do la Bastile, pour y rester, jusqu' a nouvel ordre de moi. Sur ce je prie Dieu qu'il vans ait mon cousin, en sa sainte garde. Ecrit a Versailles, le 25 June 174.8.
Signe LOUTS.