Project Gutenberg 2025-09-20 Public domain in the USA. 899 Davenport, R. A. (Richard Alfred) 1852 Davenport, Richard Alfred The history of the Bastile, and of its principal captives $aLondon :$bThomas Tegg and Son, $c1838. Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) "The history of the Bastile, and of its principal captives" by R. A. Davenport is a historical account written in the early 19th century. It examines the notorious Paris state prison, detailing its origins, structure, administration, the machinery of lettres de cachet, the daily realities of confinement, and the stories of prominent prisoners across successive French reigns, with a clear moral stance against arbitrary power. The opening of the work sets its scope and purpose: the author admits space constraints, promises accuracy and fairness, and aims to unite information with engagement. It then outlines the book’s breadth via a detailed contents list and a plan of the fortress, before Chapter I gives a close, almost architectural tour of the Bastile—its courts, towers, dungeons, rooms, meagre furnishings, food allowances and abuses, the tiny library, and chapel niches—alongside an explanation of lettres de cachet, their uses and abuses, and the secrecy that shrouded arrests, correspondence, illness, death, and burial. Vivid particulars include corrupt provisioning, the suppression of letters, bans on tools and even compasses, night-time isolation, medical delays, refusal to permit wills, and the masking of identities after death; a first-person narrative of an eight-month inmate illustrates the routine of arrest, processing, confinement, limited exercise, controlled reading, and ultimate release with none of his letters delivered. Chapter II begins the chronological history: the term “Bastile,” early Paris bastiles, the founding efforts of Stephen Marcel and later enlargements by Hugh Aubriot (whose downfall to university and clerical hostility and brief liberation during a popular rising are recounted), then political imprisonments under Charles VI, including Noviant and La Rivière, the fall of Montaigu, and the factional struggle between Burgundians and Armagnacs centered in Paris. It closes amid the rise and peril of Provost Peter des Essarts—his seizure of the Bastile and the Burgundian-orchestrated popular siege—where the excerpt breaks off. (This is an automatically generated summary.) https://archive.org/details/historyofbastile00daveuoft/page/n5/mode/2up 20230707231955davenport 1838 GB en Bastille -- History Prisons -- France -- History Political crimes and offenses -- France DC Text 974922 2025-11-30T09:50:00.943116 text/html 949847 2025-09-20T16:42:21 text/html 717817 2025-11-30T09:50:09.883546 application/epub+zip 721797 2025-11-30T09:50:02.625088 application/epub+zip 493708 2025-11-30T09:50:01.718131 application/epub+zip 1162369 2025-11-30T09:50:15.969519 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 1114818 2025-11-30T09:50:09.156103 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 927044 2025-11-30T09:50:00.174114 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 907002 2025-09-20T16:42:21 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 16526 2025-11-30T09:50:16.108516 application/rdf+xml 14062 2025-11-30T09:50:01.998101 image/jpeg 2247 2025-11-30T09:50:01.856186 image/jpeg 754592 2025-11-30T09:50:01.028098 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia