Taking the Bastile (21 page)

The iron hurricane traced through the crowd a long furrow of blood. Ten men shot dead, fifteen or twenty wounded, were the consequences of this discharge. Billot slid down from the roof of the guardhouse to the ground, on reaching which he found Pitou, who had come there he knew not how. Pitou’s eyes were quick, as are those of all poachers. He had seen the artillerymen preparing to put their matches to the touch-holes of their guns, and, seizing Billot by the skirts of his jacket, jerked him violently towards him, and thus they were both protected by the angle of the wall from the effects of their first discharge.

From that moment the affair became really serious. Ten thousand muskets were at once fired round the Bastille, more dangerous in their effect to the besiegers than to the besieged. At length a cannon served by the French Guards had mixed its thunder with the musketry. The noise was frightful, but the crowd appeared to be more and more intoxicated by it; and this noise began to terrify even the besieged, who, calculating their own small number, felt they could never equal the noise which was then deafening them. At this moment, and amid the noise of artillery and musketry, amid the bowlings of the crowd, as some of them were rushing to pick up the dead bodies of their companions to form of them a new incitement, there appeared at the entrance of the first courtyard a small group of unarmed, quiet citizens. They made their way through the crowd, and advanced, ready to sacrifice their lives, protected only by a white flag, which preceded them, and which intimated that they were the bearers of a message to the governor. It was a deputation from the H6tel de Ville. The electors knew that hostilities had commenced, and, anxious to prevent the effusion of blood, had compelled Flesselles to send new proposals to the governor. The deputies came, therefore, in the name of the city to summon M. de Launay to order the firing to cease, and to guarantee at once the lives of the citizens, his own, and those of the garrison; to propose that he should receive one hundred men of the civic guard into th interior of the fortress. Thia was the rumour, which was spread as the deputies advanced. The people, terrified at the enterprise they had undertaken, were quite ready

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to support this proposal. Let De Launay accept a half defeat, and satisfy himself with half a victory. At their approach, the fire of the second courtyard ceased. A sign was made to them that they might approach; and they accordingly advanced, slipping on the ensanguined pavement, striding over carcasses, and holding out their hands to the wounded. The fire from the fortress had ceased. Billot was leaving it, in order to stop that of the besiegers. At the door he meets Gonchon Gonchon, altogether unarmed, exposing himself like one inspired, calm, as if he were invulnerable.

‘Well,’ inquired he of Billot, ‘what has become of the deputation?’

‘It has gone into the fortress,’ replied Billot; ‘order our men to cease firing.’

‘It will be useless,’ said Gonchon, ‘they will not consent.

‘That matters not,’ rejoined Billot; ‘it is our duty to make the attempt. Let us respect the usages of war, since we have become soldiers.’

‘Be it so,’ said Gonchon.

Then, addressing himself to two men in the crowd, who appeared to command under him the whole of the assembled mass,

‘Go, Elie go, Hullin,’ said he, ‘and see that not a musket-shot be fired.’

The two aides-de-camp rushed out, and, obeying the orders of their chief, pressed through the crowded masses and soon the firing of the musketry diminished, and thep ceased altogether’ A momentary quiet was established. Advantage was taken of it to attend to the wounded, the number of whom had already amounted to thirty-five or forty. During this respite, the prison clock struck two. Tho attack had begun at noon, the combat had already lasted two hours. Billot had returned to his post, and it was Gonchon in his turn who followed him. His eyes were turned anxiously towards the gate. His impatience was visible.

‘What is the matter with you?’ inquired Billot.

‘The matter is,’ replied Gonchon, ‘that if the Bastille is not taken within two hours from this time, all is lost. 1

‘And why so?’

‘Because the court will be informed of the work we are about and will despatch the Swiss to us, under Beaenval,

138 TAKING THE BASTILLE

and Lambesq’s dragoons; so that we shall then be caught between three fires.’

Billot was compelled to acknowledge that there was some truth in what Gonchon was saying. At length tie deputies reappeared. From their countenances it was evident they had obtained no concession.

‘Well,’ cned Gonchon, whose eyes sparkled with delight, ‘what did I tell you? Things that are predicted must happen. The accursed fortress is condemned !’

Then, without waiting even to put a question to the deputation, he sprang out of the first courtyard, crying, ‘To arms, my children I to arms I The commandant refuses.’

And, in fact, the governor had scarcely read the letter from Flesselles, when his countenance brightened; and, instead of acceding to the proposals which had been made to him, he exclaimed, ‘Gentleman Parisians you hava insisted on a battle : and now it is too late to speak of treating.’

The bearers of the flag of truce persisted in urging their suit; they represented to De Launay all the evils which his defending the castle might entail; but he would not listen to them; and he concluded by saying to the deputation what he had said two hours before to Billot, ‘Leave the fortress, or I will have vou shot.’

And the bearers of the nag of truce were compelled to leave the governor. On this occasion it was De Launay who resumed the offensive. At the first discharge, three persons fell one of them dead, two others wounded. One of the wounded was a French Guard; the other, one of the deputies. On seeing a man whose office should have rendered him sacred carried forth covered with blood, the crowd became more enraged than ever.

Gonchon’s two aides-de-camp had returned to their

E laces at his side; but each of them had had time to go oine to change his dress. Hullin, who had in the first place been a watchmaker at Geneva, then chasseur to the Marquis de Conflans, returned in his brilliant livery, which gave him the appearance of a Hungarian officer. Elie, formerly an officer in the Queen’s Regiment, had put on his uniform, which inspired the people with greater confidence, ai it made them believe that the army was for them and with them. The firing recommenced with greater fury than ever. And at that moment, the major

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of the Bastille, M. de Losme, approached the governor. He was a brave and faithful soldier; but there were some remains of the citizen in him, and he saw with much regret what had taken place, and, above all, what was likely to ensue.

‘Sir,’ said he, to De Launay, ‘we have no provisions, and of this you must be aware.’

‘I know it,’ replied the governor.

‘You also know that we have no orders.’

‘I beg your pardon, Monsieur de Losme; my orders are to keep the gates of the Bastille closed, and it is for that puipose that the keys are entrusted to me.’

‘Sir, the keys are used as well to open the gates as to close them. Beware that you do not cause the massacre of the whole of the garrison, without saving the castle, two triumphs on the same day. Look at those men whom we are killing; they appear to spring up from beneath the pavement. This morning there were at first only five hundred of them : three hours ago there were ten thousand. They are more than sixty thousand now; to-morrow they will be a hundred thousand. When our guns shall be silenced, and it must at last end in that, they will be strong enough to take the Bastille with their hands.’

‘You speak not like a soldier, Monsieur de Losme.’

‘I speak like a Frenchman, sir. I say, that his majesty, not having given us any order I say that the Provost of the Merchants having made us a proposal which was a very acceptable one, which was that of admitting a hundred men of the civic guard into the castle, you might, to avoid the evils which I foresee, accede to the proposal of Monsieur de Flesselles.’

‘In your opinion, then. Monsieur de Losme, the power which represents the city of Paris is a power which we ought to obey?’

‘In the absence of the direct authority of his majesty, yes, sir, it is my opinion.’

‘Well, then,’ said De Launay, leading the major into a corner of the courtyard, ‘read that, Monsieur de Losme.’

And he handed him a small square piece of paper.

‘Hold firm I I amuse the Parisians with cockades and promises. Before the close of the day, Monsieur de Bezenval will send you a reinforcement.

‘Dm FLESSELLBS.’

1 40 TAKING THE BASTILLE

‘How, then, did this note reach you, sir?’ inquired the major.

‘In the letter which the gentlemen of the deputation brought me. They thought they were delivering to me a request to surrender the Bastille, while they were delivering to me an order to defend it.’

The major bowed his head.

‘Go to your post, Monsieur de Losme, and do not leave it until I send for you.’

M. de Losme obeyed. De Launay very quietly refolded the letter, and put it into his pocket. He then returned to his artillerymen, and recommended them to fire low, and to take good aim. The artillerymen obeyed, as M. de Losme had obeyed. But the fate of the fortress was predestined. No human power could delay its fulfilment. To every cannon-shot the people replied by shouting, ‘We will have the Bastille I’ And while mouths were shouting, arms were vigorously acting. Billot, courageous and confident, as is the bull-dog, had from the first rushed forward, defying balls and grape-shot. Pitou, prudent and circumspect, endowed to a supreme degree with the instinct of self-preservation, made use of all his faculties to watch the danger and avoid it. His eyes knew the embrasures which sent forth the most deadly fire; they distinguished the almost imperceptible movement of the brazen mouth which was about to be fired. He had at last studied the thing so minutely that he could divine the precise moment when the battery gun was about to be fired across the drawbridge. Then his eyes having performed their office, it was the turn of his limbs to work for their proprietor. His shoulders were drawn in, his chest contracted, his whole body did not seem to offer a larger surface than a plank when seen edgeways. In these movements of Pitou, there remained only a geometrical line, which had neither breadth nor thickness. He uad selected for his post a corner in the passage from the first drawbridge to the second, a sort of vertical parapet formed by jutting stones; his head was protected by one of these stones, his body by another, his knees by a third, and Pitou congratulated himself that nature and the art of fortification were thus so agreeably combined that a itone was given to him to protect each of the parts where a wound might have proved mortal.

From his corner, in which he was covered like a hare

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in its form, he now and then fired a shot, but merely for form’s sake, for he had before him only walls and pieces of timber; but this evidently pleased Billot, who from time to time called out : ‘Fire, you lazy fellow, fire I’

And he, in his turn, would cry to Billot, but in order to calm Ms exuberant ardour instead of exciting it, ‘But do not expose yourself so much, Father Billot.’ Or else : ‘Take care of yourself, Monsieur Billot, there is a cannon pointed at you; there, I have just heard them cocking the gun.’

And scarcely had Pitou uttered these words, so full of foresight, than the cannon belched forth its grape-shot, sweeping the passage between the bridges. Notwithstanding all these injunctions, Billot performed prodigies of strength and activity, but of perfect inutility.

Ten times did Pitou seize him by the skirts of his jacket, and pulled him to the ground in spite of his great strength, at the moment when a discharge would have assuredly swept him off. But each time Billot jumped up again, not only with renewed strength, but with some new idea. At one time this idea consisted in venturing upon the platform of the bridge to hack at the beams which the chains upheld, as he had before done. Then Pitou uttered fearful howls to restrain the farmer, and finding that his howling was of no avail, he would rush from his place of safety to him, crying, ‘Monsieur Billot, my dear Monsieur Billot, why, Madame Billot will be a widow, if you go on in this way.’

And the Swiss soldiers could be seen, placing their muskets obliquely through the embrasure of the Musette, to aim at the audacious man who was endeavouring to reduce their bridge to chips. At another time he called upon his men to bring up a cannon to destroy the head-work of the bridge; but then the defenders fired, the gunners retreated, and Billot remained alone to load the gun and fire it, which again brought out Pitou from his retreat.

‘Monsieur Billot,’ cried he, ‘Monsieur Billot, in the name of Mademoiselle Catherine, I conjure you, reflect a moment. Should you get yourself killed. Mademoiselle Catherine will be an orphan.’

And Billot yielded to this reason, which appeared to have much more influence on his mind than the first. At length the fruitful imagination of the farmer gave birth to another idea.

I 4 a TAKING THE BASTILLE

He ran towards the square, crying, ‘A cart 1 bring a cart here I’

Pitou considered that that which was good would be rendered excellent by being doubled. He followed Billot, vociferating, ‘Two carts I two carts I*

And immediately ten carts were brought.

‘Some straw and some dry hay I’ cried Billot.

‘Some straw and some dry hay I’ reiterated Pitou.

And almost instantly two hundred men came forward, each carrying a truss of straw or hay. They were obliged to call out that they had ten times more than they wanted. Billot placed himself between the shafts of a cart loaded with straw, and instead of dragging it, he pushed it on before him. Pitou did the same, without knowing what it could be for, but thinking that he could not do better than to imitate the farmer. Elie and Hnllin divined Billot’s intention; they each seized a cart and pushed it before them into the courtyard. They had scarcely entered when they were assailed by a discharge of grape-shot; they heard the balls strike with a whizzing sound among the straw or hay, or against the woodwork of ti a carts. But neither of the assailants received a wound. As soon as this discharge was over, two or three hundred men with muskets rushed on behind those who were pushing forward the carts, and, sheltered by those moving ramparts, they lodged themselves beneath the apron of the bridge itself. There Billot drew from his pocket a flint, a steel, and some tinder, formed a match by rubbing gunpowder on paper, and set fire to it. The powder ignited the paper and the paper ignited the straw and hay. Each formed a torch for himself, and the four carts were simultaneously set fire to. The flames reached the apron, caught the timbers, and ran along the woodwork of the bridge. A shout of joy then uttered from the courtyard, was taken up by the crowd in the Square Saiut-Antoine, and reiterated with deafening clamours. They saw the smoke rising above the walls, and they hence imagined that something fatal to the besieged was occurring. In fact, the reddened chains detached themselves from the beams. The bridge fell half broken and destroyed by hre, smoking and cracking. The firemen rushed forward with their engine* and soon extinguished the flames upon the bridge.