Taking the Bastile (24 page)

De White was a man advanced in years, somewhere about sixty; he uttered strangely incoherent words, and with a foreign accent. To the (juestions which poured in upon him from all sides, he replied that he did not know how long he had been incarcerated, or what had been the cause of his arrest. He remembered that he was the cousin of M. de Sartines, and that was all. One of the turnkeys, whose name was Guyon, said that he had seen M. de Sartines, on one occasion, go into White’s cell, where he made him sign a power of attorney. But the prisoner had completely forgotten the circumstance.

Tavernier was the oldest of them all. He had been shut up for ten years in the lies Sainte Marguerite; thirty years had he been immured in the Bastille. He was up-wards of ninety years old, with white hair and long white beard; his eyes had become dimmed by remaining so long in a dark ceil, and he saw everything as through a cloud. When the crowd broke open his door, he could not comprehend what they wanted with him; when they spoke to him of liberty, he shook his head; then, afterwards, when they told him that the Bastille was taken, ‘Ho I ho P cried he, ‘what will Louis XV., Madame de Pompa-dour, and the Duke de la Vrilliere say to all this?’ Tavernier was not even mad; like De White, he had become an idiot. The joy of these men was frightful to behold, for it cried aloud for vengeance, so much did it resemble terror. Two or three of them seemed almost expiring in the midst of the clamour raised by a hundred thousand voices. At the moment that Gilbert made his appearance,

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the most enthusiastic among the crowd proposed that the prisoner should be carried in triumph a proposal which was unanimously adopted. Cries of ‘To the Hdtel de Ville I To the Hdtel de Ville I’ resounded on all sides, and Gilbert was raised in an instant on the shoulders of twenty persons. In vain did the doctor resist, in vain did Billot and Pitou distribute among their victorious brethren the most vigorous fisticuffs; joy and enthusiasm had hardened the skins of the populace. These, and even blows given with pike-handles, and the butt-ends of muskets, appeared only gentle caresses to the conquerors, and only served to redouble their delight. Gilbert was therefore compelled to mount the triumphal car. This car was formea of a square table, in the middle of which was stuck a lance, to serve as a support to the victor, and enable him to preserve his balance. The doctor, therefore, was raised above this sea of heads, which undulated from the Bastille to the Arcade Saint Jean, a tempestuous sea, whose waves were bearing, in the midst of pikes and bayonets, and arms of every description, of every form* and of every age, the triumphant prisoners.

But at the same time, this terrible and irresistible ocean was rolling on another group, so compact and closely formed that it appeared an island. This group was the one which was leading away De Launay as a prisoner. Around this group arose cnes not less tumultuous, nor less enthusiastic than those which accompanied the prisoners; but they were not shouts of triumph, they were threats of death. Gilbert, from his elevated position, did not lose a single detail of this frightful spectacle. He was the only one among all the prisoners who had been restored to liberty, who was in the enjoyment of all his faculties. Five days of captivity were merely a dark spot in his life. His eyes had not been weakened or rendered dim by his short sojourn in the Bastille.

In great popular commotions, the masses whom fear has withheld from aiding in the fight, whom noise has irritated, the masses, at once ferocious and cowardly, endeavour, after the victory has been gained, to claim their share of the triumph which they had not dared to accelerate. They take their share in the vengeance. From the moment of his leaving the Bastille, the procession was the commencement of the governor’s execution. Elie, who hud taken the governor’s life under his own responsibility.

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marched at the head of the group, protected by his uniform and by the admiration of the people, who had seen him one of the first to advance amid the enemy’s fire. After him came the guard of the royal taxes, holding in his hand the keys of the fortress; then Maillard, bearing the standard; and after him a young man carrying the regulations of the Bastille on his bayonet; an odious rescript by means of which so many bitter tears had flowed. The governor walked next, protected by Hullin and two or three others, but who disappeared amid the throng of threatening fists, of waving sabres and of quivering lances.

By the side of this group, and rolling onward in an almost parallel tine with it in the great artery of the Rue Saint Antoine, another could be distinguished, not less threatening, not less terrible than the first : it was that which was dragging forward Major de Losme, whom we have seen for a moment combating the will of the governor, and who at length had been compelled to bow down his head before the determination which De Launay had taken to defend himself. Major de Losme was a worthy, brave, and excellent young man. Since he had been in the Bastille he had alleviated the sorrows of many of the prisoners by his kind treatment of them. But the people were ignorant of this. The people, from his brilliant uniform, imagined that he was the governor. Such was the spectacle which offered itself to the grieved eyes of Doctor Gilbert. His look, even in the midst of dangers, was always calm and observing, qualities which were inherent in his powerful organisation.

Hullm, on leaving the Bastille, had called around him his most trusty and devoted friends, the most valiant of the popular soldiers of that day, and four or five had responded to his call, and endeavoured to second him in his generous design of protecting the governor. Among them are three men of whom impartial history has consecrated the memory; their names were Arne, Chollat, and De Lepine. Around them had ranged themselves some grenadiers of the French Guard, whose uniform, having become popular during the last two days, was an object of veneration to the people, M. de Launay had escaped receiving any blow as long as the arms of his generous defenders were able to ward them 08; but he had net escaped insulting language and threats. At the corner of the Rue de Jouy, of the fire grenadiers of the French

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Guards, who had joined the procession on leaving the Bastille, not one remained. From that momentGilbert had foreseen that the victory which had been gained was about to be tarnished by a sanguinary sacrifice; he had attempted to jump from the table which served him as a triumphal car, but arms of iron had riveted him to it. In his powerless position, he had directed Billot and Pitou to rush forward to defend the governor, and both of them, obedient to his voice, had made every effort to reach M. de Launay. And in fact the little group of his defenders stood in great need of a reinforcement. Chollat. who had not tasted food since the previous evening, had felt his strength giving way, and at length had fainted; it was with great difficulty that he had been raised and saved from being trampled underfoot. But this was a breach made in the wall, a falling in of th dyke.

A man rushed through this breach, and whirling the butt of his gun over his head, aimed a deadly blow at the uncovered Bead of th governor. But De Lepine. who saw the terrific blow descending, had time enough to throw himself with outstretched arms between the governor and his assailant, and received on his forehead the blow intended for the governor. He staggered, and covered his face with bis hands, and, when he could again see, the governor was twenty paces from him. It was at this moment that Billot, dragging Pitou after him through the crowd, came up to him.

‘Let us only reach the Hotel de Ville,’ said Hullin, ‘and I will answer for your safety.’

‘Yes,’ replied De Launay, ‘but shall w reach it?’

‘With the help of God, we will attempt it,’ rejoined Hullin.

And in fact there was some hope of succeeding, for they were just entering the square before the Hotel de Ville; but this square was thronged with men with naked arms, brandishing pikes and sabres. The report, which had flown from street to street, had announced to them that the governor and the major of the Bastille <*ere being brought to them. As soon as they saw the procession approach they rushed towards the governo**. Hullin saw that this was the moment of extreme danger, of the last struggle; if he could only get the governor to the front steps, and get him to rush up the staircase, De Launay was saved.

I6o TAKING THE BASTILLE

‘To me, Elie ! to me, Maillard I to me, all men with hearts,’ cried he; ‘our honour is at stake.’

Elie and Maillard heard the appeal; they made a rush into the centre of the mob, and the people seconded them but too well; they made way for them to pass, but closed in behind them. In this manner Elie and Maillard were separated from the principal group, and were prevented returning to it. The crowd saw the advantage it had gained, and made a furious effort. Like an enormous boa, it entwined its gigantic folds around the group. Billot was lifted off his feet and dragged away; Pitou, who thought only of Billot, allowed himself to be forced away in the same throng. Hullin, being hurried on by the crowd, stumbled against the first step of the H6tel de Ville, and fell. He got up, but it was to fall again almost immediately, and this time De Launay fell with him. The governor was constant to the last; up to the final moment, he uttered not a single complaint; he did not ask for mercy, but he cried out in a loud, shrill tone,

‘Tigers that you are, at all events do not allow me to remain thus in suspense; kill me at once.’

Never was order more promptly executed than this reproachful request of the poor governor. For a moment nothing could be seen but upraised and threatening hands, grasping poniards which as suddenly disappeared; then was seen a head severed from the body, and which was raised, still streaming with blood, upon the end of a pike; the features had retained their livid and contemptuous smile. Gilbert, from his elevated position, could see all that was passing; Gilbert had once more attempted tc spring to the assistance of the governor, but two hundred arms prevented him. He turned his head from the disgusting spectacle and sighed. This head, with its staring eyes, was raised immediately in front of the window in which De Flesselles was standing, surrounded and protected by the electors.

It would have been difficult to decide whether the face of the living or that of the dead man was the most pale and livid. Suddenly an immense uproar arose from the spot on which was lying the mutilated body of De Launay. His pockets had been searched by his assassins, and in his breast-pocket had been found the note which the Provost of the Merchants had addressed to him, and which he had shown to De Losme.

T.B. PayeJ.

‘ Billot spurred on Margot through the fire.’

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This note was couched in the following terms :

‘Hold firm 1 I amuse the Parisians with cockades and promises. Before the close of the day M. de Rezenval will send you a reinforcement.

‘Da FLBSSELLES.’

The most blasphemous imprecations rose from the pavement of the square to the window of the H6tel de Ville in which De Flesselles was standing. Without guessing the cause of this new tumult, he fully comprehended the threat, and hastily drew back from the window; but every one knew that he was there; the crowd rushed up the staircase, and this time the movement was so universal that the men who had been carrying Doctor Gilbert abandoned him to follow the living tide which was overflowing the great staircase. Gilbert would also have gone into the H6tel de Ville, not to threaten but to protect Flesselles. He had already ascended three or four of the front steps, when he felt himself violently pulled back. He turned round to disengage himself from this new obstruction, but ho recognised Billot and Pitou.

‘Oh 1’ exclaimed Gilbert, who from his commanding position could glance over the whole square, ‘what can they be doing yonder?’

And he pointed with his convulsively clenched hand to the corner of the Rue de la Tix6randerie.

‘Come with us, doctor, come 1’ simultaneously cried Billot and Pitou.

‘Oh I the assassins 1’ cried the doctor, ‘the assassins !’

And indeed at that moment Major de Losme fell, killed by a desperate blow from a hatchet the people confound-ing in their rage the egotistical and barbarous governor, who had been the persecutor of his prisoners, with the generous man who had been their friend.

‘Oh I yes, yes,’ said he, ‘let us be gone, for I begin to be ashamed of having been liberated by such men.’

‘Doctor,’ said Billot, ‘be not uneasy on that score. The men who fought down yonder are not the same men who are committing these horrid massacres.’

But at the moment when the doctor was about to descend the steps which he had gone up, to hasten to the assistance of Flesselles, the flood which had poured into the building was again vomited forth. Amid the torrent of men was one who was struggling furiously as they dragged him forward.

T-*. F

ifrs TAKING THE BASTILLE

‘To the Palais Royal I to the Palais Royal P cried the crowd.

‘Yes, my friends yes, my good friends to the Palais Royal 1’ repeated the man.

And they went towards the river, as If this human inundation had wished, not to bear him towards the Palais Royal, but to drag him towards the Seine.

‘Oh !’ cried Gilbert, ‘here is another they are about to murder I let us endeavour to save him at least.’ But scarcely had he pronounced these words when a pistol-shot was heard, and De FlesseUes disappeared amid the smoke.

Gilbert covered his eyes with both his hands, with a gesture of excessive anger; he cursed the people who, after having shown themselves so great, had not the firmness to remain pure. He retreated along the Rue de la Vannerie, Billot and Pitou accompanying him.

AT the corner of the Rue Planche Mibray the doctor met a hackney -x>a.ch, made a sign to the coachman to stop, and hastily got into it. Billot and Pitou quickly followed him.