Stories of persons and places in Europe . r hundred years therestood at the gate of St. Antoinein Paris, a building whose veryname brought up thoughts ofhorror. It was used by the kingsof France, from the time ofCharles V., who built it, until theFirst French Revolution, as aprison in which they put suchpersons as had offended them,aroused their jealousy or stood intheir way. There were eight round tow-ers in the building each full ofcells, and beneath it dark dun-geons nineteen feet below the•courtyard. Here prisoners were kept for years. They were not allowed to receive orsend messages to th
Stories of persons and places in Europe . r hundred years therestood at the gate of St. Antoinein Paris, a building whose veryname brought up thoughts ofhorror. It was used by the kingsof France, from the time ofCharles V., who built it, until theFirst French Revolution, as aprison in which they put suchpersons as had offended them,aroused their jealousy or stood intheir way. There were eight round tow-ers in the building each full ofcells, and beneath it dark dun-geons nineteen feet below the•courtyard. Here prisoners were kept for years. They were not allowed to receive orsend messages to their friends, were in fact buried alive and no one ever knew their fate. When the enraged people of Paris in 1789 tore down this building, theyfound in it seven persons, one of whom had been there since he was elevenyears old ; another had been shut up for forty years. When set free hewas bewildered, like a man awaking out of his sleep. His reason was en-tirely gone. , But of all the prisoners known to have been in the Bastile none nave. CATHERINE DI MEDICI. 312 Persons and Places in Europe. awakened so much sympathy and curiosity as a man who was imprisonedthere during the reign of Louis XIY. He was known as the Man in theIron Mask. His real name has never been found out. His face was alwayscovered with a black velvet mask, fastened with steel springs, which he wasforbidden, on pain of instant death, ever to remove. When the otherprisoners heard mass, he was forbidden to speak or show himself, andarmed soldiers who stood by with loaded muskets had orders to shoot himif he made the attempt. The great fear of whoever had put this man there seemed to be that hewould let some one know who he was. To prevent this he was constantlywatched by the governor, who alone seems to have been entrusted with thesecret. He alone brought the prisoner his meals, attended to histoilet, and carefully examined or destroyed the linen he had worn, lest heshould have left some mark upon it telling wh
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