to escape from it, had published most terrifying accounts. Those formidable towers, those vigilant sentinels, who suffered no one, even by stealth, to cast a look towards them; those numerous, ferocious-looking guards, frightful by their appearance, and more frightful still by their deep silence—all united to excite terror and anxious curiosity. Nevertheless, the State prison was not dangerous for the people; it was designed for persons of high birth, or for literary people who ventured to displease the Ministry. But to the wish of satisfying curiosity, was added a noble feeling of pity for the numerous victims supposed to be shut up in the fortress, and the whole population of Paris resolved to make themselves master of the Bastille."
II.
THE HANGING OF FOULON.
Lavalette saw the hanging of poor old Foulon. He evidently does not believe that Foulon ever used the phrase which had been attributed to him: "Why don't the people eat grass?" or, as Lavalette gives it, "Hay was good enough to feed the Paris rabble." Anyhow, the sight of his execution produced a great effect upon Lavalette, and shaped his after career as it did that of so many others.
"I crossed the Place de la Grève to the Comédie Française; it rained, and there was
