CAGED IN FRANCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2436, 21 November 1900, Page 63

CAGED IN FRANCE.

(Gentleman's Magazine.) When we examine ancient prisons beneath ■ the keep of a Norman fortress or the palace i of Venetian doges, we won dor what race | of beings could possibly have endured all [ the squalor, filth, horror, and privations I whica must have been the lot of the un- ! fortunate persons confined in such places. j 'And 'yet month by month, and year by year, they lived on. . . . But of ali ' gloomy and terrible dungeons those of ' Mont . St. Michel are perhaps the most hideous and awful. Those' who entered them might well sigh their fond adieus to hope and liberty. Few visitors to Mont St. Michel are likely to forget this fearful prison within a pri- ; son, so associated is it with horror, cruel ' tortures, and death. The cage is hung in : a dark sepulchral chamber nigh the cavelike holes in the rock which furnished cells for less distinguished prisoners than those ; who were confined in the cage. Most of , the substructures in the South-west portions of the fortress were built by Robert de Toringni, who ruled as Abbot at the end of the twelfth century. Between the kitchens and the prison is the beautiful crypt of the Aquilon, designed by Roger II about the same period. Passing through this noble chamber .with its six massive columns, we enter the prisons, and in a recess in the wall hangs the " Cage de Fer.'' It is composed of thick beams of wood, held together by strong iron bars , which Avould defy the most determined efforts to escape. Caged singing birds are allowed to enjoy the -sunlight which in- , spires their songs and renders pleasant their j captivity. But the unhappy victims of the iron cage were .almost in total darkness. Day followed day and year succeeded to year, but it was' all the same to t]}£m — one continued existence of gloom, torture, and horror. Such a life must 'inevitably have shattered reason. In 1749 there lived in Paris a young poet named i>eforges, or Desforges. Af^er^the fatal rising of 1745 in. England the Young Pretender fled to France, and found a welcome and safety in the French capital. Negotiations, however, were made "by the English Government for his arrest, and the French King yielded to their demands. In the crowded Opera House one evening the last of the Stuarts was arrested, and Deforges was present at the time. Indignant at this violation of the sacred rights of hospitality, he believed that the honour of his nation was. compromised, and at once ]}roceeded to pour forth his complaints against the injustice of the act in bitter and envenomed verse. His "poem began with the lines : Peuple jadis si fier, aujouvd'hui si servile, Dcs princes malheureux tv n'es done plus l'asile? The line, " All is wicked in these places, Ministers and mistresses," especially aroused the anger of the Court, and caused Madame de Pompadour to fly into a violent fit of passion. Such plain language was too much for the susceptibility of the King and his Ministers. The enraged poet was discovered and doomed to perpetual imprisonment in "Le Cage de Fer." For three long . years he was confined in this terrible cell, the floor of which was only Bft square ; a faint glimmer ,of light contrived to find its way through certain crevices in the ceiling, but only sufficient to make the daikne.ss 'Visible. The poor poet endured his terrible punishment with courage md resignation, and won the heart of his jailer, -M. de'Broglie, the Abbe, who felt great pity for his misfortunes. At the end of the three years the Abbe contrived that Defox'ges should exchange the cage for the Abbey, and released him from his prison. He wisely took great precautions lest the

| sudden return to the lijrht >f d.?v after so long a sojourn m darkness should cause blindness. Nor did (he good Abbe's kind offices uea&e. He procured for him his release ' after' five years' imprisonment, obtained for him the office of secretary to Marechal de Broglie, his brother, ' and on the death of Madame de Pompadour De-toi-ges became Commissioner of War. In this case, happily death was not the only release afforded to the victims of the iron cage. The Dutch writer Dubourg was not so fortunate. His real name was Victor de la 'Cassagno, a journalist of Holland f who had taken the liberty of censuring the acts of the King of France, Louis XV. This criticism appeared in a public print ai, Frankfort Although he was living beyond the borders of French territory, at Leyden in Holland, he v,as not safe from the emis- ■ sarjes of Louis. /The agents of the royal police .succeeded in gaining possession" of his person and conveying him to ! ' Mont St. Michel. There he was confined in the age. Touched by his supplications, the prior of the Abbey to send a letter to his wife at Leyden-,- the mother of four children, acquainting her with the fact that he was alive, but entombed in the 1 cells of Mont St. Michel. ' He was certainly entombed ! Overcome by despair and by the sufferings and privations which he had endured, Bubourg died in the ni^ht of August 27,. 1746. In the morning his body was found almost devoured by a legion, of rats. The State papers contain an account ol the burial of '-"the body of a man named Dubourg, aged about 3o years, who died in a cage situated in the castle I of the town, where he had been detained j by the order of his Majesty." It is credit- • able to the humanity of ' Charles X chat I when he visited the island fortress as Count i dArtois, in 1/77, he ordered the cage to jbe destroyed. Ibis command was not 5 car1 ried out, though ihe cage was no longer | used as a place of confinement until Louis P^-appe visited Mont St. Michel in 1837, when ho caused it to be broken up before • his eyes. The present cage is a restoration and exact representation of "this ancient relic of barbaric tyranny.