The victors of the 14th of July set free seven prisoners: four forgers whose arrest had been ordered by the Châtelet, whose case had been regularly tried, and whose proper place was an ordinary prison; two madmen who ought to have been at Charenton; and the Comte de Solages, a young nobleman who had been guilty of a monstrous crime over which it was desired to throw a veil out of regard for his family; he was maintained on a pension paid by his father. The conquerors of the Bastille destroyed an old fortified castle: the state prison no longer existed. They "broke in an open door." That was said of them even in 1789. CHAPTER III. LIFE IN THE BASTILLE. Having sketched rapidly and with bold strokes the outlines of the history of the Bastille from its foundation to its fall, we intend to show how the rule to which prisoners in the fortress of the Suburb Saint-Antoine were submitted underwent its own process of transformation, parallel with the transformation of the prison itself. To understand the facts which follow, and which are of a kind to astound the mind of everyone in these days, it is necessary to remember what we have already said as to the character of the Bastille. It was the prison of luxury, the aristocratic prison of the _ancien régime_, the _prison de luxe_ at a period when it was no dishonour, as we shall see later, to be confined there. We must remember the phrase of the minister of Paris writing to D'Argenson, in regard to a personage of but modest rank, that this individual did not deserve "consideration" enough to be put in the Bastille. Let us reflect on this observation of Mercier in his excellent _Pictures of Paris_: "The people fear the Châtelet more than the Bastille. Of the latter they have no dread, because it is almost unknown to them."