PAGE INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I. THE ARCHIVES 47 CHAPTER II. HISTORY OF THE BASTILLE 57 CHAPTER III. LIFE IN THE BASTILLE 85 CHAPTER IV. THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK 114 CHAPTER V. MEN OF LETTERS IN THE BASTILLE 147 I. VOLTAIRE 148 II. LA BEAUMELLE 152 III. THE ABBÉ MORELLET 155 IV. MARMONTEL 158 V. LINGUET 163 VI. DIDEROT 165 VII. THE MARQUIS DE MIRABEAU 166 CHAPTER VI. LATUDE 168 CHAPTER VII. THE FOURTEENTH OF JULY 238 INDEX 277 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Model of the Bastille _Frontispiece_ Facsimile of Du Junca's note regarding the entry of the Iron Mask _Facing page_ 115 Facsimile of Du Junca's note regarding the death of the Iron Mask " 116 Facsimile of the Iron Mask's burial certificate " 142 Facsimile of the cover of Latude's explosive box " 173 Facsimile of Latude's writing with blood on linen " 188 Portrait of Latude " 229 The Capture of the Bastille " 257 INTRODUCTION At the great Exhibition of 1889 I visited, in company with some friends, the reproduction of the Bastille, calculated to give all who saw it--and the whole world must have seen it--an entirely false impression. You had barely cleared the doorway when you saw, in the gloom, an old man enveloped in a long white beard, lying on the "sodden straw" of tradition, rattling his chains and uttering doleful cries. And the guide said to you, not without emotion, "You see here the unfortunate Latude, who remained in this position, with both arms thus chained behind his back, for thirty-five years!" This information I completed by adding in the same tone: "And it was in this attitude that he so cleverly constructed the ladder, a hundred and eighty feet long, which enabled him to escape." The company looked at me with surprise, the guide with a scowl, and I slipped away.