| [Incident during the Communal Revoltsof the Twelfth Century] | Frontispiece | |
| [Isle St. Marguerite] | Page | 54 |
| [The Castle of St. André] | ” | 82 |
| [The Bastile] | ” | 190 |
| [Chateau D’if, Marseilles] | ” | 250 |
[EARLY FRENCH PRISONS]
[CHAPTER I]
ORIGINS AND EARLY HISTORY
The Feudal System—Early prisons—Classes of inmates—Alike in aspect, similar in discipline—Variety of penalties—Chief prisons of Paris in the Middle Ages—Great and Little Châtelets—History and inmates—The Conciergerie still standing—For-l’Évêque, the Bishop’s prison—The Temple, prison of the Knights Templars—Bicêtre—Notable prisoners—Salomon de Caus, steam inventor—St. Pélagie—St. Lazare.
Let us consider the prisons of Old France in the order of their antiquity, their size and their general importance in French history.
First of all the two Châtelets, the greater and less, Le Grand and Le Petit Châtelet, of which the last named was probably the earliest in date of erection. Antiquarians refer the Petit Châtelet to the Roman period and state that its original use was to guard the entrance to Paris when the city was limited to that small island in the Seine which was the nucleus of the great capital of France. This fortress and bridge-head was besieged and destroyed by the Normans but was subsequently rebuilt; and it is mentioned in a deed dated 1222 in which the king, Philip Augustus, took over the rights of justice, at a price, from the Bishop of Paris. It stood then on the south bank of the Seine at the far end of the bridge long afterwards known as the Petit Pont. Both bridge and castle were swept away in 1296 by an inundation and half a century elapsed before they were restored on such a firm basis as to resist any future overflowing of the Seine. At this date its rôle as a fortress appears to have ceased and it was appropriated by Charles V of France to serve as a prison and to overawe the students of the Quartier Latin. Hugues Aubriot, the same Provost of Paris who built the Bastile, constructed several cells between the pillars supporting the Petit Châtelet and employed them for the confinement of turbulent scholars of the university.
The Grand Châtelet was situated on the opposite, or northern bank of the river, facing that side of the island of the Cité, or the far end of the Pont au Change on the same site as the present Place du Châtelet. Like its smaller namesake it was also thought to have been a bridge-head or river-gate, although this is based on no authentic record. The first definite mention of the Grand Châtelet is in the reign of Philip Augustus after he created the courts of justice and headquarters of the municipality of Paris.
The Chapel and Confraternity of Notaries was established here in 1270. The jurisdiction of the Provost of Paris embraced all the functions of the police of later days. He was responsible for the good order and security of the city; he checked disturbances and called the riotous and disorderly to strict account. He was all powerful; all manner of offenders were haled before the tribunals over which he presided with fifty-six associate judges and assistants. The Châtelet owned a King’s Procurator and four King’s Counsellors, a chief clerk, many receivers, bailiffs, ushers, gaolers and sixty sworn special experts, a surgeon and his assistants, including a mid-wife or accoucheuse, and 220 sergents à cheval, or outdoor officers and patrols, over whom the Procurator’s authority was supreme. The Procurator was also the guardian and champion of the helpless and oppressed, of deserted and neglected children and ill-used wives; he regulated the markets and supervised the guilds and corporations of trades and their operations, exposed frauds in buying and selling and saw that accurate weights and measures were employed in merchandising.