Paris (France) -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- History
Of the Bastille nothing remains except a few stones which formed the
substructure of one of the old towers; and these have been carefully
removed to the Célestins Quay, along the Seine, where they are visible
to-day. In vain, therefore, would any one now seek for a vestige of the
sombre fortress over which so many legends hovered. Latude's great shade
itself would hardly locate the spot; and yet how full Paris history is
of this traditional Bastille, which the people, amazed with their easy
victory, could not tire of visiting after the 15th of July 1789. Such
was their curiosity and such their eagerness that Soulès, the governor
appointed by the Parisian municipality, was compelled to stop the
visits, on the curious ground "that such damage had already been done to
the fortress by visitors that more than 200,000 livres would be required
to repair it." Repair the Bastille! The souvenir manuscripts of Paré
tell us the fury excited by this strange pretension in Danton, sergeant
of a section of the National Guard, who, with his company, was turned
back by the order.
Danton had himself admitted into the presence of the unfortunate Soulès,
seized him by the collar and dragged him to the Town Hall; the
prohibition was removed; and Citizen Palloy was thenceforth allowed to
exploit the celebrated State prison. The stones were "hewn and cut into
images of the fortress and dedicated to the various departments and
assemblies," or into "commemorative slabs intended to rouse people's
courage." Palloy cut up the leads into medals, and made rings with the
iron chains; out of the marble he manufactured games of dominoes, and
had the delicate thought to offer one of these games to the young
Dauphin to inspire him with "the horror of tyranny."
[Illustration: COMMEMORATIVE BALL ON THE RUINS OF THE BASTILLE
Dancing here
_From a coloured engraving of the eighteenth century_]
Balls were held on the site of the Bastille. Wine flowed, fiddles were
scraped, and printed calicoes of that period show us the ruins of the
old Parisian citadel surmounted with this inscription: "Dancing here."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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