The Key of the Bastile. "Letters de Cachet."

Lettres de Cachet, or sealed letters, were written orders bearing the seal of the King of France, and banishing the persons to whom they were addressed, or imprisoning them indefinitely. These terrible documents were sold, as a source of revenue, to the ministers or officers of the king, and were supposed to be used only for state purposes; but the privilege of sending state offenders to prison was greatly abused, and innocent people were imprisoned to avenge mere personal grievances. Victims thus imprisoned might remain buried alive for thirty, forty, or even sixty years (as in the case of A. M. Dussault, incarcerated by Cardinal Richelieu), the cause of their arrest being nowhere recorded, and each succeeding officer taking it for granted that they were held for reasons of state. Nine thousand lettres de cachet were issued during the reign of Louis XIV., and St. Florentin, one of Louis XV.'s ministers, is said to have given away fifty thousand of these arbitrary orders.

To protect Englishmen from oppressions analogous to the lettres de cachet of Louis XIV., the habeas corpus act was devised and enacted during his reign. This law provides that no man shall be imprisoned without knowing the reason why within twenty-four hours.

The ancient state prison of France, where most of the prisoners by lettres de cachet were confined, was known as La Bastille--literally, the building. It was a sort of citadel, built by Charles V., in 1369, strengthened in succeeding reigns, and for more than four hundred years a dernier resort, a last argument used by the French kings to convince and cow their subjects. It was situated in Paris, at the gate of St. Antoine. The prison walls were reinforced by eight round towers of massive masonry. Surrounding it was a ditch twenty-five feet in depth. The place was kept and guarded by a governor, his subordinate officers, and a strong garrison. On the ever-memorable 14th of July, 1789, the mob of Paris made a rush for the Bastile, with a fury scarcely paralleled since the days of the Crusades. They stormed the entrances, and in spite of the commander and his garrison, took possession of the prison. The insurgents poured into the towers and chambers, drew the long-confined prisoners from subterranean cells and dungeons, ransacked the whole Bastile and then razed it to the ground.

To the people the Bastile was a symbol of monarchy, which to them meant tyranny, and nothing short of its entire obliteration satisfied them. Napoleon intended to erect on its site a huge bronze elephant, seventy-eight feet in height, the plaster model of which was for a long time preserved. After the Revolution of 1830, the remains of the "July heroes" were interred on the spot, and the present July Column was erected by the French nation to their memory, in 1840. The entire height of the Column is one hundred and fifty-four feet, and it bears the names of six hundred and fifteen of the victims who fell in the Revolution. It is one of the most beautiful pieces of monumental architecture extant. The foundation was laid in 1831, by Louis Philippe, and seventeen years after, his throne was burned at its base. It was the intention of the Communists, in 1871, to destroy the Column, and for this purpose powder was placed beneath it, but the powder was found to be needed for other purposes, and the Column was spared.

The key of the Bastile was presented by Lafayette to Washington. It is a large key, antique in shape, and still hangs in the main hall of Washington's mansion at Mt. Vernon, as a prized relic.