One of Dumas’ most absorbing romances deals with the fateful events which culminated at the Bastille on the 14th Thermidor, 1789. “This monument, this seal of feudality, imprinted on the forehead of Paris,” said Dumas, “was the Bastille,” and those who know French history know that he wrote truly.
The action of “The Taking of the Bastille,” so far as it deals with the actual assault upon it, is brief. So was the event itself. Dumas romances but little in this instance; he went direct to fact for his details. He says:
“When once a man became acquainted with the Bastille, by order of the king, that man was forgotten, sequestrated, interred, annihilated....
“Moreover, in France there was not only one Bastille; there were twenty other Bastilles, which were called Fort l’Evêque, St. Lazare, the Châtelet, the Conciergerie, Vincennes, the Castle of La Roche, the Castle of If, the Isles of St. Marguerite, Pignerolles, etc.
“Only the fortress at the Gate St. Antoine was called the Bastille, as Rome was called the city....
“During nearly a whole century the governorship of the Bastille had continued in one and the same family.
“The grandfather of this elect race was M. de Chateauneuf; his son Lavrillière succeeded him, who, in turn, was succeeded by his grandson, St. Florentin. The dynasty became extinct in 1777....
“Among the prisoners, it will be recollected, the following were of the greatest note:
“The Iron Mask, Lauzun, Latude.
“The Jesuits were connoisseurs; for greater security they confessed the prisoners.