Under Louis XVI., committals were less numerous, and when the Marquis de Launay surrendered the Bastille to the Parisian revolutionaries in July, 1789, only seven prisoners were found in it, although it must be remembered that the governor, recognizing the possibility of an attack, had sent away some of the most important prisoners to Vincennes. If he had had the forethought at the same time to have caused the Bastille to be well supplied with provisions he, with his small garrison of 114 men, might have held out for an almost indefinite period against the attacks of the half-armed, undisciplined Parisian mob. [Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF CLAUDE MARTIN.] [Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF THE COLONEL DE CUZIEU.] As it was, the Marquis behaved during a trying time as a brave soldier and a humane gentleman. At length, but only when his scanty provisions were exhausted, he yielded up the castle on condition that the lives of the garrison should be spared. But the inrushing crowd cared nothing for conditions, nor for the rules of civilized warfare, and in a few minutes nearly every man was killed. De Launay himself was aimlessly dragged about for some time, then killed, and his head paraded on a pike round the streets of Paris. [Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF THE CHÂTEAU ROYAL DE LA BASTILLE.] The Bastille itself was demolished by the people, the place where it stood alone preserves its name, and the stones which once formed its melancholy walls are now trodden under foot by the countless myriads who pass over the Pont de la Concorde. Most of the books found in the prison were destroyed, but a few escaped, and these contained the ex-libris of the Château Royal de la Bastille, certainly one of the scarcest and most interesting in the world. The accession of Louis XVI. gave rise to great hopes for the regeneration of France, retrenchment in her finances, and reformation in the morals of her court. The king was young, married to a beautiful and virtuous princess, and was himself credited with the domestic virtues of chastity and sobriety. Indeed, as a master locksmith he might no doubt have earned a comfortable livelihood, for in that occupation, if in no other, he displayed considerable skill and dexterity. The French have always had a knack of affixing very humorous and catching nicknames to their kings and public men; they might appropriately have christened their new king Louis Trop-tard. He was always Lewis the Too-Late; he was born too late, he resisted the wishes of his people till it was too late; he made concessions when they were too late to conciliate anyone; he practised economy when it only brought him into ridicule; too late he fled from Paris; drank Burgundy, and ate bread and cheese at Varennes until it was too late to escape across the frontier, and finally he died when his death was too late to save his good name, his family, or the monarchy.