Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1880 — The Hostile. [ARTICLE]

The Hostile.

Monday, July 14, was the ninetieth anniversary of the storming and destruction of the Bastile. the state prison and citadel of Paris. The building of the prison was begun in 1369 by Charles V., it was enlarged in succeeding reigns, and destroyed by the people in 1789. It was situated at the gate of St. Antoine. The inhuman treatment to which prisoners in the Bastile were subjected has few parallels in tne history of penal cruelty. Put there without accusation or trial, on a simple leitre de cachet, their final fate was entirely dependent on the caprice of the caprice of the monarch, and unknown even to their families or their most intimate friends, as no communication was allowed the prisoners with the outside world. Voltaire, Bichelieu, and the man in the iron mask, whose identity has never been fuUy established, were among the prisoners in this dungeon of despotism. When, in 1789, the people of France rose in their might to throw off the abominable yoke of despotism, the storming of this dungeon was one of the first actions taken by the enraged populace. It was captured, ransacked, and the prisoners, some of whom had been confined on frivolous charges for more than thirty years, liberated, and its towers razed. Ou its site now stands a magnificent column erected in memory of the patriots of 1789.