Show n THE WORLDS GREAT EVENTS ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE U Q by dodd company the fan fall of 0 the ae bastile aty V OUR OCK majesty the people are 1 starving for lack of bread I 1 then replied queen marie antoinette tol nette of france in utter surprise why dont they eat cake the frivolous queen did not ask this question as a joke she lad bad so little knowledge of poverty and of the needs of a nation that she could not understand how low unappeased hunger could exist this one speech of hers sizes up better than could a whole volume the grievances that led to t that hat red horror tho the french alv those high in authority neither knew nor cared how the great mass of the people existed louis XIV after france by his extravagances had been succeeded by his great grandson lou louis Is XV the latter had till all the grand monarchs vices and extravagance with none of tits his ge genius rilus lie left france almost bankrupt the clergy and the nobles were exempt by law from taxation thus tile the fearful bur den of taxes tell fell pit on the and peasants to make matters the taxes were nere funded funned far ined out and the collectors arun wrung the helpless poor still further to obtain graft for themselves our oni of the transaction so while the court reveled in unheard of luxury and magnificence the plain people who paid tor for it all we were re left to starve moreover the aristocracy taking their cue cile from the king oppre oppressed ased and ill treated their luckless tenants grinding them to the dust unspeakable outrages were perpetrated by the nobles dobles against their defenseless peasants and undeserved life imprisonment torture and death were common occurrences AD and for centuries the people ot of france had submitted so long in fact that their masters had ceased to regard it as possible that the downtrodden slaves could ever revolt cut bu during all these centuries the seeds of 0 revolution were germinating seeds which were one day to burst into a bloody blody harvest ot of retribution that should set the whole world aghast among the vilest abuses of the era was the bastile this huge fortress was at once the state prison and the citadel of paris when a monarch a nobleman or a man of power had an enemy lie could not legally dispose of he procured it if lie he had influence a secret warrant known as a lettre de cachet and had tits his foe or victim seized and convened to the haselle Has there without trial without hope of rescue with his friends ignorant of his whereabouts the prisoner would linger often foa lifetime the bastile was the visible symbol and sign of despotic power and as such the people of france hated it even as they feared it louis XV had been wise in tits his way lie ile had calculated to a nicety the number of years the people would continue to endure such treatment it will last out my time said he be but I 1 pity my grandson arid and the painted bedizened bedizen ed duchesse Due hesse de pompadour at his side croaked the gruesomely epigrammatic prophecy after us the del deluge 1 and now louis XV was dead and his grandson louis XVI reigned in ili his big stead the sixteenth louis was an amiable stupid weak willed fellow lie ile was married to an austrian archduchess marl e antoinette whose mother had planned the match find and had coached the girl queen how bow to promote aust Aus rias influence at tile the french court louis XVI had begun his reign with some vague theories as to the rights of tile the people but marle antoinette and her party at court had soon sonn driven drive 11 such notions from ills his stupid head the people grew to loathe marle antoinette tol nette and to blame her tor for their suffering the american revolution had met with warm warin support from france but plunged that country into disastrous war with england and moreover fired the people with republican ideas if america had cut free from the bondage of royal despotism why should not terance france the people begun to awake and to think famine was rafe throughout the rural districts throngs of country falk folk flocked into parisi paris riots and other disturbances sprang up A national guard was formed by the municipality and lafayette was placed at its head the people were at last aroused they did riot not yet dare to turn against royalty itself but they assailed its most hated symbol the bastile ra I 1 asalle stile as on july 14 1789 a mob inoa marched on this fortress calling on the governor de daunoy launoy to surrender delaunay launay Oe refusal fu aJ then the crowd attacked de la lacally dally a stanch lyal old soldier fought them off for hours till some of the guard came up with several ij pieces of artillery and forced hirn him to yield the mob soldiers pea peasants Nants end and townsfolk alike rushed irto ir to tile bastile released tile the prisoners some of whom were insane or dazed from long confinement billed Del delaunay and proceeded to tear down the fortress on the wall of one cell they found this prophecy scrawled a halt half century earlier by cagliostro Cagl lostro the charlatan magician tile lIn stile shall be debaro destroyed ed and the people shall lance dance on its site the latter part of the prophecy was fulfilled by screaming blood streaked streak d revolutionists who accompanied thel their wild dance with ith songs of 0 vengeance the french revolution had bad dawned |