CHAP. IV. 1789. July 20, an undisciplined multitude, however generally armed and strongly excited. But the accession of the Gardes Françaises, three thousand five hundred strong, to the insurgent ranks, and the guns taken at the Invalides, promised them the inestimable advantages of experienced discipline and Moniteur, a siege equipage. It was known that though the fortress was amply supplied with ammunition, it was almost destitute of provisions; the garrison consisted only of eighty- 207, 208. two Invalids and thirty-two Swiss; and the facility with Deux Amis, which the great arsenal of the Invalides had been captured Dusault sur and sacked, encouraged the belief that the humanity of 400, 408. the King would never permit its guns to be turned upon the people.1 1789, p. 90. Lac. vii. 83, Toul, í. 76. 85. Lab. iii. i. 305, 307. la Bastile, 99. tions for the Bastile. A few musket-shots were discharged during the night of the 13th at the sentinels who mounted guard on the PreparaBastille, but without doing any injury, or provoking any storming act of hostility on the part of the garrison. At ten o'clock July 14. on the morning of the 14th, a crowd collected round its gates, and attempted to force their way in, while several shots were fired at the sentinels. De Launay upon this directed a discharge of musketry, which, without injuring any one, dispersed the crowd, and at the same time ordered some of the great guns to be pointed down the Rue St Antoine, the principal theatre of the assemblage. The sound of this fusillade, and the intelligence that the cannon of the Bastille were directed on Paris, speedily spread like lightning, and drew larger crowds to the spot, who alleged that they had been sent, some by the sections, some by the districts, to avert the threatened calamity. De Launay, anxious to avoid extremities, admitted M. Belon, the deputy from the Hotel de Ville, and Thuriot de *"Quatre-vingt-deux soldats invalides, dont deux canonniers de la compagnie de Monsigni, et trente-deux Suisses du régiment de Salis-Sarnade, commandés par M. Louis de Flue, lieutenant de grenadiers, composaient la garnison. Tel était l'état de ses forces le 14 Juillet; mais les munitions de guerre lui avaient fait oublier les provisions de bouche. Elles consistaient en deux sacs de farine, et un peu de riz. Il n'avait pas d'autre eau que celle que fournissaient des canaux par le moyen d'un bassin extérieur-faible ressource, dont on pouvait aisément les priver."-Moniteur, 20 Juillet 1789, p. 90. IV. 1789. CHAP. la Rozière, the deputy from the Quarter of St Catherine; and at their entreaty agreed to draw the guns pointed towards the capital within their embrasures, and informed them that they were not loaded. At the same time some slight measures of defence were taken several waggon loads of balls and iron missiles were brought up and placed on the ramparts, to defend the approaches to the bridge. While these preparations were going on within the fortress, the crowd outside rapidly increased; the faubourg 408. Biog. St Antoine emptied its immense population; every avenue de Launay, leading to the Bastille was soon filled with a prodigious De Amis, multitude; and to those who, from the summit of its Prudhom. towers, beheld the sea of heads, the spectacle was so appalParis, 12th ling that de Launay, taking Thuriot by the arm, said, 1789, p. 22. turning pale, "Ah, sir! you abuse a sacred name to betray 1 Dussault, Univ. Art. ii. 312, 315. Rév. de to 17th July 100. of the Bas The old castle of the Bastille was surrounded by eight Description lofty round towers, the walls of which were six feet in tille. thickness, and they were joined to each other by a wall still more massy, being no less than nine feet across. Its entry was at the extremity of the Rue St Antoine: above the principal gate was a considerable magazine of arms, but they had all been removed to the Invalides shortly before, with the exception of six hundred muskets, which had been withdrawn into the interior of the building. Within the exterior walls was, as in all other castles of considerable extent, an interior court, in which were the barracks of the troops and stables of the governor; access could be obtained to this court both by the principal gate, fronting the Rue St Antoine, and by another entrance on the side of the arsenal, which was, in the same manner as the first, defended by a drawbridge over the ditch, which entirely surrounded the edifice. Within this outer, was another inner court, separated from the first by a dry ditch, traversed by a drawbridge, defended by a strong guardhouse, intended as the last refuge of the besieged if the outer house was carried, and in it was the governor's CHAP. 1789. house. After passing through this interior court, access was obtained by an iron gate to the great court, within the donjon, which was a hundred feet long by seventy broad, surrounded by the state prison, flanked by lofty towers, and in which the captives were allowed to take the air. The exterior ditch was usually dry except in wet weather, or when the Seine, with which it communicated, was high; but as the outer wall of the donjon was thirty-six feet in 1 Deux height, and exposed to a flanking fire from the towers, 2. which were forty-six feet in elevation, the place was con- Moniteur, sidered impregnable, except by regular approaches-and 1789, p. 90 so it was, if it had been regularly garrisoned and provisioned.1 309, 312. 20th July gents break fortress. Belon and Thuriot, being satisfied that no offensive 101. measures were intended by the governor, withdrew, and The insurendeavoured to persuade the crowd that their alarm was into the groundless. But the capture of the fortress had been resolved on, and the multitude, every instant increasing, surged round the walls. While the whole attention of the garrison was fixed on the principal gate, two old soldiers, named Louis Tournay and Aubin Bonnemère, mounting on the roof of a house which rested on the ramparts, contrived to reach the top of the parapet, and descended into the court where the governor's house stood, which they found deserted as the garrison, with the exception of the guard at the outer gate, had all been withdrawn into the keep. Seizing a hatchet, which they found lying in the court, these brave men succeeded in cutting the chains of a little drawbridge which admitted foot-passengers from the outside, and thus gave an entry to several of the insurgents, who speedily cut the chains of the principal bridge, which fell with a terrible crash. Instantly the crowd rushed in; the governor's house was immediately inundated; and pillage had already commenced, when de Launay ordered a fire of musketry from the top of the walls of the donjon into the court, which was filled with people, and the ditches. Several of the IV. CHAP. assailants fell; the court was cleared in an instant; but the combat continued round the drawbridge, and a sharp fire of musketry was kept up on both sides. Still the governor declined to fire the great guns on the top of the castle, which, loaded with grape, and discharged down on the dense crowd in front of the fortress, would have occaMoll. i. 326. sioned a frightful loss of human life, but must speedily have driven back the assailants.1 1789. 1 Deux Amis, i. 317, 318. Lab. iii. 211, 212. Bert. de Toul. i. 76. 102. Arrival of the Gardes Matters were in this state when a battalion of the Gardes Françaises arrived, with part of the guns taken Françaises. that morning from the Invalides. This powerful reinforcement, and, still more, the skill which they communicated to the assault, had a decisive effect. Their first care was to station a large part of their number on the roofs and at the windows of the adjoining houses, who kept up a heavy and well-sustained fire on the ramparts; while, at the same time, the guns began to batter the exterior walls. Meanwhile the crowd, who had broken into the outer court, returned, under cover of the fire of the cannon, and set fire to the governor's house, which was speedily in flames. Furious at the resistance they experienced, the mob seized hold of a young and beautiful girl, daughter of an officer in the garrison named Monsigni, whom they had found in the governor's house, and mistook for his child. Exclaiming that she should be burned alive if the place was not instantly surrendered, they stretched her on a bundle of straw, to which they were just applying the torches, when the dreadful spectacle caught the eye of her father, who was on the top of one of the towers. UtterAmis, 319, ing the most piercing cries, he descended and rushed into Lab.iii. 212. the court, when he fell, pierced by two balls; and the Moll. i. 328, flames were just reaching Mademoiselle Monsigni, when Parl. ii. 103. the brave Aubin Bonnemère, coming forward, succeeded in undeceiving the mob as to who she was, and conducting her to a place of safety.2 2 Deux 320, 330. Bert. de 329. Hist. Lac. vii. 86, 88. After the conflict had continued in this manner for above three hours, without the guns of the fortress being IV. 1789. 103. Proposals civic autho once fired, the besieged repelling the attack with musketry CHAP. only, a deputation from the Hotel de Ville, preceded by a flag of truce, and headed by Ethys de Corny, who had succeeded in getting possession of the Invalides, arrived at the principal gate of the Bastile. They were admitted made by the into the first court; but de Launay, perceiving that the rities. pillage of his house and the conflagration of the buildings around it continued, and that the attack on the inner drawbridge went on with undiminished vigour, ordered the fire of musketry to be renewed, which, without injuring any person, drove the deputation back out of the court.* At the same time one of the great guns, the only one which was fired during the assault, was discharged from the top of the towers down the Rue Saint Antoine, but did very little damage. little damage. Two other deputations afterwards arrived, but they returned to the Hotel de Ville without even entering the fortress, alleging they could not do so for the fire of the garrison. Meanwhile de Launay was sorely beset-the French Invalids, swayed by seeing the uniforms of the Gardes Françaises among the assailants, vehemently urging him to surrender; the Swiss, who, though only thirty in number, had alone been hearty in the cause, with the heroic constancy of their nation insisting that he should hold out. Finding the outer gate carried, he withdrew the garrison into the inner court or keep of the castle, hoping he would be able to hold out till the Baron de Besenval, who commanded the troops in the Champ de Mars, should send forces to his succour, as * "You see," said de Launay to his soldiers, "this deputation is not from the town: it is a white flag of which the people have got possession, and with which they seek to surprise us. If they had been really deputies, they would never have hesitated, after the promises you made them, to have come forward to make us acquainted with the intentions of the Hotel de Ville."-Deux Amis, ii. 322, 323. The letter which they bore was in these terms, to which de Launay could never have acceded :-"The permanent committee of the Parisian militia, considering that there should not be in Paris any military force which is not under the control of the town, charges the deputies, whom it sends to M. le Marquis de Launay, commandant of the Bastille, to inquire of him whether he is willing to admit into the place the troops of the Parisian militia, to keep guard jointly with his troops, who are to be at the disposal of the civic authorities. DE FLESSELLES, Prévôt des Marchands."-Ibid. ii. 326. |