Page:Peterson Magazine 1869B.pdf/131

 MARIE

ANTOINETTE'S

TALISMAN.

BY MRS. ANN S. STEPHENS. [Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by Mrs. Ann S. Stephens, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York.] CONTINUED FROM PAGE 66. CHAPTER XIII. enough to quarrel about if we had them all here THE governor of the Bastile had retired to his but for a single month. " "Ah !" said the governor, who seemed on exown apartments within that grim old fortress. All the duties of the day had been performed.cellent terms with his man. "But how are we The allowance of black bread and impure water to get them here, when we never see the king's had been doled out to the prisoners, and the signature, except it be to empty our cells of doors closed, leaving them in utter darkness. their prisoners ? He seems to forgive all men All these horrible duties being settled to his before they are sentenced, especially his own satisfaction, the governor was ready for his own enemies. I tell you, Christopher, this king, in luxurious supper, and sat waiting for it with his leniency, has brought this fortress of the some impatience. Originally this man was Bastile down to the level of a common jail ; and neither hard-hearted or cruel ; but holding a his conduct fills me with such disgust, that I am position where these qualities were exacted at times half resolved to throw up my commisfrom him, they had gradually become a part sion. " of his nature. Unlimited power of the worst The keeper looked through one of the narrow kind had made him a tyrant, and hardened his windows, and took a survey of the ponderous heart to iron. walls ; then, turning with a grim smile, he As this man sat, calm and indifferent, in an said, atmosphere of misery, which rose around him "If the walls were less thick, a resignation like a miasma, a grim, stalwart man, in the might be prudent just now; but I think they dress of a keeper, knocked at the door and will defy all the clubs in Paris." "Or in all France, " answered the governor, came in, removing the cap from his head in token of respect for the presence he was in. laughing. "My drawbridge once up, and no The governor turned in his chair and recog- monarch in Europe sits as firmly on his throne nized the man. as I do. Would to heaven his majesty was half "Well, Christopher, " he said, " what news as safe in Versailles !" from the city ? A little more quiet, I hope." "Nay, I think the people hate the man they " Not a bit," answered the keeper, promptly. } call their tyrant of the Bastile worse than they "I have been among the clubs, as you bade me, do the monarch at Versailles," said the keeper, and have made my observations. The feeling a little maliciously —for cruel men are very seldom kind to each other. of discontent grows stronger and stronger." "Let them hale," laughed the governor. "It "Well, what do they expect to accomplish by grumbling, the varlets ? I wish we had them will be a long time before their malice can reach here, Christopher ; a week or two of such lodg- him." "Yes, as I said, the walls are thick." ings and fare as we could give them, would " And here comes my supper, Christopher, bring down their courage. We have that whole lower range of cells unoccupied now, for our which your news from the city shall not spoil, ” Louis is chicken-hearted about sending his sub- cried the governor, interrupting his subordijects here, merely to oblige his friends ; and he nate, as a door was opened, and a daintilyhas no favorites, Marie Antoinette looks well to arranged table revealed in the next roem. "Step in, though, and let me hear all the news that." "Yes ; and she it is who prevents the prison you have gathered." The man stepped into the supper-room, and being full, as it was in the good old time, when we registered a lettre- de- cachet every day. It is stood leaning against the door- frame, while his this clemency that emboldens the people, and superior placed himself at the table. "It is the Bastile against which the people sets them clamoring for the thing they call liberty!' Liberty, indeed, we would give them hurl hatred, and launch their curses most 134