The Conciergerie

The word concierge is derived from the Latin Conservius, the conserver, i.e., door-keeper. The Conciergerie is an annex to the Palais de Justice in Paris. It takes its name from the house of the Concierge in the time of the Kings. He had a right to two "poules" a day, and to the cinders and ashes of the King's chimney. The Conciergerie has always been a prison, and it was here that the Count d'Armagnac was murdered, June 12th, 1418. Here was made, below the level of the Seine, the prison called La Souriciere (Mouse-trap), from the rats which had the reputation of eating the prisoners alive. The present conciergerie occupies the lower story of the right wing of the existing Palais de Justice, and extends along the Quai de l'Horloge as far as the towers of Montgomery and Caesar. It has an entrance on the quai, before which the guillotine carts received the victims of the Reign of Terror, and another to the right of the grand staircase in the Cour d'Honneur. All other associations of the Conciergerie pale in interest before those which were attached to it by the great Revolution. The cell in which Marie Antoinette suffered her seventy-five days' agony, from August 2d till October 15th, when she was condemned, has since been turned into an expiatory chapel. The lamp is still in existence which lighted the august prisoner and enabled her guards to watch her through the night; and the door is shown which was cut on purpose of a height less than the Queen's stature, so as to compel her, in passing through, to bow her head, an indignity which she had vowed the rabble should never force upon her. After her condemnation, she was not brought back to this cell but taken to one much worse; but it was in her first quarters that the Girondins spent their last night, which has been depicted so strikingly on canvas by one of the most eminent artists of modern times. The adjoining cell, now used as a sacristy, was the place of Robespierre's confinement. Other prison quarters, lighted through narrow windows from the same court, are those occupied in turn by Bailly, Malesberbes, Mme. Elizabeth, Mme. Roland, Camille Desmoulins, Danton and Fabre d'Eglantine. In 1792, no less than 288 prisoners were massacred in the Conciergerie. The life led by the poor wretches, their occupations and amusements, are thrillingly described by M. Thiers in his history of the French Revolution. Georges Cadoudal was imprisoned here, and Count de Lavalette was rescued from this building by the courage of his wife. In later days Louvel (the assassin of the Duc de Berri), Teste, Beranger Proudhon have been among its inmates. Louis Napoleon, the last Emperor of the French, was also kept here in custody for a time (though subjected to no indignities), after his unsuccessful enterprise in Boulogne.