Sometimes the Bastille was under governors who had a good deal of the milk of human kindness in their composition, and sometimes it was under the control of men who had as little feeling and sympathy as a stone. Prisoners were well or badly treated according as the governor was good or bad in character, and also according to the instructions which had been received concerning their treatment. The most horrible feature about the Bastille was the mode of sending persons to it. No man could be safe from imprisonment there, and he was subject to the whims and caprices of the minister of state, whom no appeals could reach, and by whom no call for justice would be heard or heeded. If any man incurred the displeasure of the minister, or of any one who had sufficient influence to secure an order for his arrest under the royal seal, he might be taken to the Bastille at any moment. If his accuser desired that he should never more go out into the world, and never hold communication with any one, the accuser’s will became law. Hundreds of men were sent to the Bastille without knowing the cause of their arrest or the names of their accusers, and without being allowed to communicate with family or friend. It was this uncertainty, this ever-present fear of injustice and cruelty, that made the name of the Bastille appalling, and led every Frenchman to regard it as a place full of horrors. [Sidenote: HORRORS OF THE BASTILLE.] It is said that some of the most barbarous cruelties ever inflicted within the walls of the Bastille were during the reign of Louis XI. Louis himself was the author and inventor of some of the worst barbarities. It is recorded in history, that he caused dungeons to be made in the Bastille surrounded with smooth and polished masonry, where the prisoners, who were lowered into them, were obliged to remain in an unnatural position, which they could not change. According to history, the princes of the house of Armagnac were shut up in these horrible pits, and were drawn out twice a week to be scourged in the presence of the governor, and once in every three months to have two of their teeth torn from their jaws. Sometimes split sticks of dry wood were placed on their fingers, and then the sticks would be set on fire and allowed to consume. Richelieu sent many of his enemies to the Bastille, some of whom were treated with extreme consideration, while others endured great severity. One of these men, the notorious Bassompierre, was immured there twelve years by the order of Richelieu. [Sidenote: MAN IN THE IRON MASK.]