Bastille

properly means any strong castle provided with towers, but as a proper name is applied to a famous castlé which once existed in Paris, in which State a ante and other persons arrested by lettres de cachet were confined. It was founded by Hugues d’ Aubriot in 1369, and completed by the addition of four towers in 1383. The lettres de cachet mentioned above were i ued in the name of the king, but the names of ——————— 0 the individuals were inserted by the 7, who were the depositaries of these letters, The invention of the lettres de cachet immediately opened the door to the tyranny of ministers and the intrigues of favorites, who supplied themselves with these orders, in order to confine individuals who had become obnoxious to them. ‘These arrests became continually more arbitrary, and men of the greatest merit were liable to be imprisoned. On July 14, 1789, the Bastille was surrounded by a_tumultuous mob, who first attempted to negotiate with the governor, Delaunay, but this failing attacked the fortre . For hours they continued the siege without being able to effect more than an entrance into the outer court of the Bastille, but at last the arrival of some of the Royal Guard with a few pieces of artillery forced the governor to let down the second drawbridge and admit the populace. The governor was seized, but on the way to the Hotel de Ville he was torn from his captors and put to death. The next day the destruction of the Bastille, commenced. A bronze column has been erected on its site. The event considered by itself was of no great national importance, but it marked the beginning of the French Revolution.