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Home , Bastille, Storming of the Bastille

he dramatic epis0d.e which, on 14 July, 1789, ushered in the French was one of {he great symbolic events 4f in alone, but throughout all Europe, the capture of the was hailed at the time as the herald of a new era for the world. With the fall of the grim fortress many tyrannies tottered, and the news was heard with an exultant joy by lovers of liberty everywhere. And in Ireland, especially, the great event was acclaimed- 'it agitated all nations,' writes Gustave de Beaumont, the French historian, 'but there was no country to which the impulse was communicated so quickly and so faithfully as Ireland.' For many weeks before 14 July, was a city of turmoil and anxiety. Unemployment was widespread and food scarce, while wandering bands of hungry brigands raided the shops for bread. Everyday saw the gulf widening between the Court and the people, who placed responsibility for all the disorder and suffering on the Government and the king's advisers. In addition, the intrigues of the Orleanist party, who were plotting to put the Duke of Orleans, Philippe Egalitk, on the throne, fanned the flame of popular discontent, and wild rumours were circulated that the royal troops, quartered at Versailles and at various points outside the city, were awaiting the order to move in and massacre the patriot citizens."' On Sunday, 12 July, a crisis seemed to be imminent when the news spread that Necker, a popular minister, had been dismissed. That evening saw tumultuous scenes in street and boulevard. Gunsmith's houses were raided and arms seized, wine-taverns were looted, while brigands robbed the food-shops and passers-by. Perils from within and without threatened the city, and no one within its gates, the contemporary chroniclers tell us, slept that night but children. On the following day, 13 July, the disorder continued, and early in the forenoon the representatives of the sixty municipal districts of Paris came together at the Hotel de Ville to devise measures for the protection of property and for the defence of the city against a possible attack of the royal troops. A turbulent gathering of citizens about the building clamoured for arms, while another animated crowd filled the gardens of the Palais Royal where the tense situation was eagerlv discussed. At the latter that six roceed to ;S on the need for 11s militia inagh, an Irishman who had come some time previously from Lille to Paris to carry on his trade of bootmaker, was one of the six selected for the purpose. On arrival at the Hotel de Ville, the deputation was informed that the ~epresentativeshad just passed a decree enjoining the citizens to proceed at once to the churches of the various districts, each of which was to raise 200 volunteers as the nucleus of a citizen army. The deputies returned to the Palais Royal with the news, and the large assembly at once broke up and proceeded to the different churctes. Kavanagh, realising the urgent need for arms for the people and bringing with him a small group of citizens, then went to the guard-house of the Tuileries and demanded the weapons stored there. On being informed that the place contained none, he requested permission to search it, and the result was that twenty-four guns were discovered hidden away under mattre~ses.'~)With the coming of evening, patrols of the newly-formed citizen guards, some of them armed, succeeded in restoring a little order in the streets, but nevertheless another night of suspense fell on the anxious city. The morning of the fateful 14 July was ushered in by the ringing of the tocsin from Notre Dame and all the church towers of Paris. Groups of citizens began to gather early at the popular assembly places and an incessant clamour for arms was heard everywhere. During the night the barriers, where taxes were levied on provisions entering the city, had been attacked and burnt, and early in the morning Joseph Kavanagh set out to view the damage that had been done. On his arrival, he saw outside the barriers half-a-dozen waggons, laden with guns and war-equipment, that had halted on their journey from the great camp at Metz to the royal camp at . Seeing an opportunity to increase the limited supply of arms available for the The . citizens, he went to the procureur of the district and asked for assistance to seize fran~aisesto bring to the Hotel de Ville waving their hats and shouting 'To t the gun-laden waggons. Ten men were six waggons of arms, which Citizen Bastille! Let us take the Bastille!' Th furnished to him, the booty was seized, Kavanagh has left in trust in Sainte- occasionally halted on the way to ere and he proceeded with it towards the Marguerite a$ the request of M. Turpin, barricades and to spread the rumour tha Hotel de Ville. As they passed through Procureur-Fiscal. royal troops were advancing on the ci the faubourg Sainte-Marguerite, however, (Signed) Le Grand de St. Renk, news which had no foundat they were stopped by its residents, who (Member of the Committee). which inflamed the populace, refused to allow the waggons to pass-no De Flesselles, tense with emotion. They drove district in Paris, they claimed, was more (Provost of the Merchants Hotel de Ville with the story a exposed to attack and in greater need of and President of the Committee). there an immense gathering see weapons of defence. Kavanagh, leaving 14th July, 1789. with excitement, for the rumour the convoy under the protection of his Accompanied by some French Guards, arrived before them. The clamour men, hurried away alone to the Hotel de Kavanagh on returning to Saint- arms was renewed, and the crow Ville where he interviewed De Flesselles, Marguerite found consternation among accompanied by Kavanag the chief magistrate of the city. Timorous its residents. A rumour had just come for the Hotel des Invalides, and vacillating, that official dallied with that four royal regiments were marching muskets were stored. Ha the request and adopted the policy from Carrieres and were, indeed, on the these, they hurried on t which, later in the day, was to cost him point of entering the faubourg, Kavanagh, which had already been at his life. When Kavanagh, however, leaving the French Guards to defend the-c_qmrades of the faubourg Sal aggressively demanded help in the name barriers as best they could, immediately Antoine.'" For four hours the assault o of the nation, he gave way and wrote an commandeered a horse and carriage. the great fortress continued, until it fell i order in these words: ir Selecting two men, he placed one in front the late afternoon before the valour an The Permanent Committee of the Paris and one behind, and all three drove determination of the people. militia requests the kelp of the Gardes quickly in through the city streets, Although the capture of the ~astille at the attack was secretly

ployment of a number of panic- rs to spread wild rumours, like advance of the royal troops, of the means adopted to te an insurrection, and seems to have been one of the

manuscript of the victors of the . A certain number claim to have at the attack who were not there. e are others whose names one is ised at not findlng in the llst, e.g., agh, who was "the first to dlrect opulace to the Bastllle", as mme says' It 1s well known, at among the 863 attackers, the exact number of those ctlve part in the siege, many wish at krst to be regarded as ough later when those attackers oked on as heroes who deserved ns and medals, the number of ho claimed to have taken part

ds the end of the year 1791, h'" was appointed by the e as one of the twenty-four pectors for Paris, and a year e unexpectedly appears in a ter light. He was then one of the composed of the most abandoned ns in Paris, whom the Commune d to carry out the terrible prison cre in September, 1792 - that deed 90 much tarnished the cause of the St. Patrick's fhapel, Irish College, Paris, drawn by Jeremy Williams. ution. He was employed in the foul at the prison of La Force during the the thought that the death of the in the modest apartment nothing was week when fifteen hundred leader would save France, discovered but a Bible opened at the enceless men and women were came up to Paris from story of Judith. Kavanagh was engaged hered without mercy; and one her native town of Caen. For several days in various duties of this kind till the ot help linking hls name wlth that of she tried unsuccessfully by varlous Terror passed, and later, when those Wllard, the ring-leader of the subterfuges to obtain an interview with accused of being involved in the him. She called once at his house on the were about to be night of 13 July, 1793, and, forcing her brought to trial, he seems, like the way m, stabbed him in his bath, 'as a majority of these, to have disappeared main source' she declared, 'of the perils and is heard of no more. His part in the and calamities of France'. Immediately Revolution would appear to be a rather arrested, she was hustled off to prison ignoble one, and one remembers him where, on arrival, she disclosed the name chiefly as a panic-monger in the wild of her city lodging. Towards midnight, ~ffuly,1789, and a prison assassin Kavanagh and another police officer in the dreadful week of September, hurried off to the little Hotel de 1792... Providence with the hope of finding Two other Irishmen, better known to accomplices or incriminating papers, but fame, who were present at the siege of the Bastille - the brothers John and with such fury as made them make a condition must have been hopeless, Henry Sheares - appeared there merely very precipitate retreat, and the young we find his relatives, some months be as spectators. Three months later, in student was carried in great triumph to the fall of the Bastille, depriving hir October, 1789, they saw, too, that wild the College, amidst the acclamations of a his civil rights by ordinary procession of the Parisian mob which vast multitude. procedure and transferring. his urnn swept to Versailles and brought the ring On the day of the attack on the Bastille in mock triumph to Paris. In the early the news was immediately conveyed to years of the Revolution, they frequented the National Assembly, which was in out in triumph from the ~astilldbv the political clubs and became session at Versailles. 1t created a good acquainted with Robespierre, Brissot, deal of excitement among the members, Roland and other popular leaders. In and a deputation was selected which was public and private they denounced the to proceed immediately to the city with despotic government of their own the object of pacifying the people and wild procession swept him a10 country and spoke of the necessity of an ending the disorder. Lally Tollendal(", towards the Palais Royal. In a despa Irish :evolution. They were present in scion of an illustrious Irish family, was already referred to, sent by the Bri November, 1792, at the famous meeting one of its members, but when he and his Ambassador in Paris to his governm in Paris of the Irish, English and colleagues reached Paris the fortress had describing the events of these days, American sympathisers with the already fallen. On their arrival at the Rue tells that: Revolution who resided in that city, and St Antoine, they met the wild procession, Whute was questioned bu so the names of both brothers are among the flushed with triumph, surging towards signatories to the address of the Hotel de Ville and bearing the congratulation sent by the gathering to tattered flags of the Bastille and human the National Assembly. In the previous heads on pike-ends as trophies of victory. August, when the royal palaie of the Thus the siege and capture of the express himself only incoherently; Tuileries was stormed by an insurgent Bastille precipitated the Revolution. For beard was at least a yard long; wha mob and the king and queen barely more than a hundred years, the famous very extraordinary, he did not know escaped with their lives, the beautiful fortress was to Frenchmen a sinister the Bastille was the place of Theroigne de Mericourt led a body of symbol of tyranny and dark deeds. An confinement but thought he had be pikemen in the attack. She and John evil tradition, fed on stories that often shut in in Saint Lazare, nor did , , Sheares had frequently met at the enough had no actual foundation, had appear to be sensible of his good fort revolutionary clubs and salons and had grown up around it. It was known that in being released; he expressed, howe become intimate friends. He conceived lovers of truth and justice had been cast a strong desire to being taken to a la such a passionate admiration for the into its dungeons like the gallant Irish Another eye-witness of events desc famous heroine that he proposed gentleman, Lally of Tullaghnadaly, who him as 'a little feeble old man . . marriage to her. served France so loyally and who was exhibited an appearance of childish However strong his revolutionary led out of it on the death-cart execution... and fatuity; he tottered as he walked sentiments may have been, they do not When the stout fortress fell on the his countenance exhibited little mo seem to have affected the generous and afternoon of the fourteenth of July, the than the smile of an idiot . . chivalrous character of the young joy of the citizens was unbounded, and sympathetic citizen gave the unha Irishman. Swayed by a generous in the wild excitement of their triumph man shelter for the night and next da enthusiasm for the finer ideals of the there was no immediate thought of the was transferred to the lunatic asylu Revolution, the two young apostles of prisoners within its walls. But a little Charenton, where the remainder o liberty returned to their own country later in the evening, when the doors of its life was spent.('"' where, five years later, they were to dungeons were burst open, the people suffer martyrdom for its cause. found with no little surprise that it REFERENCES Paris was then, as now, the centre of contained only seven captives. And their 1. Some regiments of the Irish Briga the fashionable world and, notwith- surprise became greater on finding on account of their traditio standing the feverish excitement in its among them no martyr for truth or devotion to the French monar streets during those July days of 1789, it victim of despotism. Four of the were reputed to be among t was at the time full of visitors from many prisoners were forgers, one was a troops. Le Moniteur of the 4 July, lands. Many Irish people, of whom we debauchee, the remaining two suffered reports: 'New regiments have no definite record, must have from mental weakness. Of these latter, constantly arriving from assisted, at least as passive spectators, at one was an Irishman - James Francis frontiers, and the people observ the siege and fall of the Bastille. And, in a Xavier Whyte who was also known as with some concern that these are fo contemporary Irish journal, the following Count Whyte ae Malleville. An officer of the greater part composed of S curious incident is related:IhJ the Irish Brigade, he had gone insane Germans and Irish.' Durin During the late commotions in Paris, a eight years before, was removed by his days of tension preceding young man, who is a student in the Irish relatives to the asylum at Vincennes and General Daniel O'Connell, College in that city, distinguished transferred in 1784 to the Ba~tille.~" marider of the German regiment himself in a very particular manner. Whyte was born in Dublin in the year Salm-Salm, is credited with havi Being perfect master of the French 1730 and went in his youth to France, advised in favour of the forei language and possessing a very where many of his family had legions moving in on the ci uncommon flow of eloquence, together, distinguished records of military service. dispersing the revolution with all the graces of oratory, every He became a cornet in the Soubise gatherings and thu evening he harangued the populace in Volunteers and subsequently a captain in firmly the threatened the different public places of the capital, the Irish Regiment of Lally. In 1767, he 2. Another account says pointing out to them their natural rights married at Paris, and fourteen years later in addition, looted as men and animating them in the most began to suffer from dementia, which money from a ches forcible manner to assert their well- necessitated his confinement by his-,_- house. founded clairns to freedom and family at the old fortress of Vincennes. In 3. Another version of this inciden independence. One evening, in the midst 1784, he was removed with others to the declares that Kavanagh, havin of an animated oratipe, a party of police Bastille, where he constantly suffered induced the crowd to march to th attempted to take him into custody, but from delusions and delirium until the Invalides and on the wav fearin tke populace immediately attacked them ion. His mental danger, slipped quietly out of The seven prisoners, led by the bearded Dublin man, Tames Francis Xavier Whyte, are taken from the Bastille.

procession and made his way home. triumph from Versailles to Paris in transferred from Vincennes to the 4. This pamphlet, of which there is a October, 1789. He returned, however Bastille. How many years had he been copy in the Biblioth6que Nationale, is in 1792, but was immediately there? No one knew, and he, being entitled Exploits glorieux du ce'l2bre arrested and barley escaped being a insane, was unable to give any account Kavanagh, cause premi2re de la Liberte' victim of the dreadful prison of his former life. He stared at the franqaise, and was published in 1789. massacres in September. (He was captors of the Bastille without seeing 5. A contemporary official record released on the evening previous to them, he heard them speak without describes him thus: Joseph Kavanagh the massacres, $robably through the understanding them. Unheeding, he - age 49 - Lille - Bootmaker - Police influence of Danton.) Again !eaving was carried through the joyous city. He Officer - Residence, rue de Hurepoix France, he did not return till the exchanged his prison only for a cell - 11,7. restoration of the Bourbons. This after a few days he was locked up in 6. Walker's Hibernian Magazine, August, illustrious Franco-Irish family is now Charenton. 1789. extinct - the last of them died 10. It may be mentioned here that at the 7. Lally Tollendal was a grandson of practically a pauper in a lodging- time of the attack on the Bastille an Lally of Tullaghnadaly, in the County house in London in the 1920's. Irish priest, the Abb6 MacMahon, of Galway, an Irish nobleman who 8. There was not at this period, as there was the chaplain to the place. In the left his native country with the 'Wild is to-day, any very finely-drawn line Archives Nationales (0'500 596-597) Geese' after the Siege of Limerick. between criminality and lunacy, and there is a detailed account of the Lally of the Revolution was a striking it was not unusual to confine cases of granting of a pension to him on the figure among the French nobles of mental aberration in prisons, while 11 Dec. 1789. The De La Ponce MSS. the time. In the first year of the criminals were sometimes placed in in the R.I.A., give the Abb4's name Revolution he was strongly in favour mental homes. among those of the MacMahon of reform, and, while warmly 9. In his Life of , Jules "T'.Cfamily serving in the Irish Brigade at attached to the King, advocated the Claretie gives a vivid picture of the beginning of the Revolution. establishment of g democratic Whyte: He appeared in the light of day monarchy. He left France in disgust and no one knew from where he came or (Reprinted from Ireland and Irishmen in after Louis XVI was brought in mock who he was. One day, he had been the , London, 1932).