There is one passage in the history of the Bastile, without which this branch of our article might be reckoned incomplete. We shall therefore give it in as few words as, possible. Louis XVI. at the com mencement of his reign, ordered the registers of the Bastile to be examined, and a number of prisoners to be set at liberty. The intelligence was received with surprise and unbounded joy. On one old man alone it produced these effects in a very inferior degree. He had been imprisoned for the space of 47 years ; age had diminished his sensibility, and habit had, in some measure, reconciled him to his situation. When a strange voice announced his liberty, and permission to depart, he appeared to be stupilied, at a loss what to say, or how to act. Recovering himself, however, he slowly quitted his dungeon, and repaired to the street where he had formerly lived : But no vestige of his house remained, other buildings occupying the place where it stood. His family and near relatives were all dead, or gone into foreign climates. No one, even the most aged of those whom he accosted, either knew him, or could be brought to recollect any of the occurrences which he detailed, in order to assist their memory. A whole generation bad passed away, and he found himself a stranger in the very city where Ile was born. An ancient domestic, to whom lie was accidentally directed, at length recognised the fea tures of the master whom he had served. From hint he learned, that his.wife had died thirty years before, in extreme grief, and that his children had disappear ed, without any visible cause. The old man groaned under the weigh, of such accumulated misery ; and presenting himself before the minister to whom he was indebted for his release, he bowed himself down and addressed him in the following words. .-1‘.- Restore me again. to that prison from which you have taken me : I cannot survive the loss of my nearest rela tions, of my friends, and, in one word, of a whole ge neration. Is it possible in the same moment to be informed of this universal destruction, and not to wish for death ? This general mortality, which to the rest of mankind comes slowly and by degrees, has to me been instantaneous, the operation of a moment. Whilst secluded from society, I lived with myself on ly; but here I can neither live with myself, nor with this new race to whom my anguish and despair appear only as a dream. There is nothing terrible in dying ; but it is dreadful indeed to be the last." This speech had an obvious effect upon the minister. He order ed the ancient domestic above alluded to still to at tend his master, as he alone was able to converse with him on the subjects of his lost children and friends. The old man would talk of nothing else ; for he avoided all intercourse with the world, and continued to live in the midst of Paris as much a stranger to so ciety as when he was confined in the dungeons of the Bastile, till death put an end to his existence.
We may now enquire what were those crimes for which the severe retribution of the Bastile was des tined ? Were the dungeons of that castle, which stood for ages the terror of France and the disgrace of Eu rope, filled with assassins and traitors, with wretches who had plotted against the welfare of their country men, and longedto riot in the plunder which they might obtain ? If this were the case, France must have been regarded as peopled with conspirators ; and that nation, which of all others most readily submitted to the yoke of despotism, must have been almost wholly composed of rebels and murderers.' But the case was far otherwise. The dungeons of the Bastile were often filled, especially in later times, with innocent and peaceful citizens, who had unjustly become the objects of punishment, or with humble individuals, who, from their inferior situation and limited means, could never been formidable to the state. * Did a man, , conscientious in the discharge of his duty, refuse to violate the principles of integrity and honour at the command of the minister ? he was instantly sent to the Bastile. Had any one the misfortune to incur• the displeasure of a favourite mistress ? he experienced _ a similar fate. If any purpose was to be served, or any passion to be gratified, even a word or a look . was reckoned a sufficient cause of imprisonment. And an individual once shut up, might be allowed to re main for years in his cell, not because he continued to be suspected or feared, but because he was forgotten.
The consequence of all this was, that men lived in constant apprehension : They " were denied that in estimable privilege, the free communication of their thoughts and sentiments : Dissimulation became ne cessary for their safety. The towers of the Bastilc seemed to stand aloft over the kingdom, for the purpose of scaring its inhabitants;" and on each of them might have been written the inscription sometimes to be found on grave-stones, hodie mihi, eras tibi.
It is remarkable, that the first prisoner confined is the Bastile was d'Aubriot, the architect who planned; it. During the prosecutions on accou:,t of religion. in the reign of Louis XIV., when the well-known edict of Nantz was revoked, and during the contests with the Jansenists under the administration of Cardi nal Fleury, the annual number received was very great. Many of these were tried and executed ; some pe rished in confinement, and others were set at liberty. Of all the prisoners, however, the most celebrated is the " man in the mask." He was brought from the island St Margaret on the 18th September, A. D. 1698, and immediately shut up in the Bastile.- The mask, which he wore, was made of black velvet, and fitted with springs of steel, so. that it. was unnecessa ry to take it oft when he ate. On his journey to Paris, those who conducted him had orders to put him to death if he made the smallest attempt to slim his face, or otherwise to discover himself. Historians have been so lost in probabilities while endeavouring to ascertain his name and quality, that to this hour it is doubtful who lie was. There is reason to believe that he •a3 a person of the first condition : He could read and write ; attainments not common at the pe riod in which he lived. He understood music, and could play on the guitar. When at St Margaret, the Marquis de Louvois, who went to visit him, spoke to him standing with every testimony of respect : And, in the Bastile, the governor very rarely sat down in his presence. His dress was sumptuous, and his table furnished with the utmost care. On one occasion he wrote something with his knife, upon a plate, and threw it out from the window of his apartment ; but the plate was found by a fisherman who could not read, and who carried it without delay to the gover nor. The ignorance of the fisherman was the cause of his safety; for after a few days confinement the governor dismissed him, saying, " You may rejoice that you cannot read." It is probable that the name and some account of the unknown person were writ ten on the plate. This happened at St Margaret. The illustrious and unfortunate prisoner with the mask,. died in the Bastile A. D. 1704.. Immediately after his death, his clothes, linen, and all his apparel, were burnt with the most anxious care : the very floor of his apartment was scraped and taken up, and . every vestige of his existence annihilated. The most plausible conjecture with respect to him is, that he' was the twin brother of Louis XIV.; but for the reasons oil which this conjecture is founded, as well . as for other information, we must refer to the History tif the Appendix No. vi.
In the heat of the French Revolution, the Bastile was taken by the mob of Paris, and afterwards level ' led with the ground. There were only seven prison ers found in it ; these were Tavernier,(deranged), Pujade, La Roche, Caurege, Bechade, (imprisoned on account of a forgery in which they were engaged), Le Comte de Solages, (arrested at the request of his father) and White an Englishman, (deranged.) Re flecting on the memorable atchievement, Mr Cowper breaks out into the following apostrophe, with which we shall conclude the article : Ye horrid towers, the cbode of broken hearts, Ye dungeons and ye cages of despair, That monarchs have supplied from age to age With music, such as suits their sovereign carsz The sighs and groans of miserable man : There's not an EngliSh heart that would not leap To hear that ye are fallen at last! See Histoire de l' Ancien Gouvernement par M. Le Comte de Boulainvilliers, torn. iii. filemoires de la Porte. La Bastile DevoiPe, passim. The History qf the Bastile. Essais Historigues, par M. de St Foix ; and Illemoires sur la Bastile, par M. Linguet. (It)