Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 11.pdf/449

 416

very strong, and has its oubliettes. In a work on the prisons of Paris, published about 1820, it is said: "The principal dungeon is even more terrible than those of Bicetre. It is sunk to the depth of thirty feet, its vault is so low that a man of mid dling stature cannot stand upright, and so great is its humidity that it produces water in a sufficient quantity to set the straw afloat which serves the prisoners for beds. Accord ing to the opinion of a physician, a person could not dwell there more than twenty-four hours without being liable to perish." Military men of all ranks, accused of mis demeanors, are imprisoned here till they are summoned before a court-martial. The prisoners are less vigorously treated here than in other prisons. When the day of trial arrives, the prisoner is conducted to the court-martial, whose sittings are held at the Hotel de Toulouse, rue du ChercheMidi. If condemned to the galleys or to death, the prisoner returns to the Abbaye, from which, in the former case, he is sent among the galley-slaves at Bicetre; and, in the latter, to the place of execution. Sa1nte Pelag1e. The buildings of this prison were for merly occupied as a female penitentiary, under the direction of a community of nuns called Filles de Saint Thomas, and subject to the control of the managers of the gen eral hospital. Its name is derived from Sainte Pelagie, an actress of the city of Antioch, who became a penitent in the fifth century. Upon the suppression of religious orders, in 1789, the Hopital de Sainte Pelagie re mained some time vacant. In January, 1792, when the Prison de la Force was set on fire, the prisoners for debt were trans ferred to Saint Pelagie, which, from that period, became a debtor's prison. In Sep tember, 1792, the time of the general mas sacre in the prisons of Paris, not only did

Sainte Pelagic escape, although it contained other prisoners than debtors (among whom were the Abbe Dillon, Madame de Noailles, and Madame de Damas), but the debtors were set at liberty and the prisoners who had escaped the massacres in other houses of detention were transferred to Sainte Pe lagie. During the reign of terror, this prison was occupied principally by the persons called les suspects. That part of the build ing in which the infirmary is now established was appropriated to female suspeetes, among whom were Madame Roland and several actresses of the Theatre Francais. Besides the suspeets, persons charged with theft and other offenses were confined here. Sainte Pelagie afterwards underwent va rious changes previous to April 4, 1798, when it again became a prison for debtors and persons sentenced to corporal punish ment. In March, 1811, it was constituted a state prison, to which all persons confined in the different prisons for political offenses were transferred. Upon the occupation of Paris by the allies, in 18 14, the state pris oners were set at liberty on the second of April, by command of the sovereigns. The prison is now appropriated to debt ors, persons sentenced to corporal punish ment, those committed for misdemeanors, and children sent there by their parents. In point of architecture, the buildings of the prison present nothing remarkable. They are spacious, well-ventilated, and in every respect adapted to their purpose. Pr1son of La Grande Force. The buildings which form the Prison de la Grande Force originally belonged to the Duke de la Force. Upon the site of this hotel there existed a palace built by Charles, brother of Saint Louis, who was crowned king of Naples and Sicily in 1 266. At his death it descended to his son, Charles-le Boiteux, who resided in it till 1292, when he