Paris (France) -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- History
prisoners had been detained, and if he remembered what they were charged
with. In Louis XIV.'s reign 2228 persons were incarcerated there; in
Louis XV.'s, 2567. From the accession of Louis XVI. to the destruction
of the prison the number had fallen to 289. Seven were found there when
the fortress was captured--four accused of forgery, two insane; one, the
Count of Solages, accused of a monstrous crime, was detained there to
spare the feelings of his family. The Bastille, some time before its
fall, was already under sentence of demolition, and various schemes for
its disposal were before the court. One project was to destroy seven of
the towers, leaving the eighth standing in a dilapidated state. On the
site of the seven a pedestal formed of chains and bolts from the
dungeons and gates was to bear a statue of Louis XVI. in the attitude of
a liberator, pointing with outstretched hand towards the remaining tower
in ruins. But Louis XVI. was always too late, and the Place de la
Bastille, with its column raised to those who fell in the Revolution of
July, 1830, now recalls the second and final triumph of the people over
the Bourbon kings. Some stones of the Bastille were, however, built into
the new Pont Louis Seize, subsequently called Pont de la Revolution and
now known as Pont de la Concorde: others were sold to speculators and
were retailed at prices so high that people complained that Bastille
stones were as dear as the best butcher's meat. Models of the Bastille,
dominoes, inkstands, boxes and toys of all kinds were made of the
material and had a ready sale all over France.
Far to the west and on the opposite side of the Seine is the immense
area of the Champ de Mars, where, on the anniversary of the fall of the
Bastille, was enacted the fairest scene of the Revolution. The whole
population of Paris, with their marvellous instinct of order and
co-operation, spontaneously set to work to dig the vast amphitheatre
which was to accommodate the 100,000 representatives of France, and
400,000 spectators, all united in an outburst of fraternal love and hope
to swear allegiance to the new Constitution before the altar of the
Fatherland. The king had not yet lost the affection of his people. As he
came to view the marvellous scene an improvised bodyguard of excavators,
bearing spades, escorted him about. When he was swearing the oath to the
Constitution, the queen, standing on a balcony of the _Ecole militaire_,
lifted up the dauphin as if to associate him in his father's pledge.
Suddenly the rain which had marred the great festival ceased, the sun
burst forth and flooded in a splendour of light, the altar, Bishop
Talleyrand, his four hundred clergy, and the king with upraised hand.
The solemn music of the _Te Deum_ mingled with the wild pæan of joy and
enthusiasm that burst from half a million throats.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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