from
this enactment the names by which the various places of confinement
composing this spacious municipal prison were known. A prisoner who was
confined in the _Beauvoir, La Mate_ or _La Salle_, had the right of
"having a bed brought from his own house," and only had to pay the _droit
de place_ to the gaoler; any one who was placed in the _Boucherie_, in the
_Beaumont_, or in the _Griseche_, "which are closed prisons," had to pay
four deniers "_pour place_;" any one who was confined in the _Beauvais_,
"lies on mats or on layers of rushes or straw" (_gist sur nates ou sur
couche de feurre ou de paille_); if he preferred, he might be placed _au
Puis_, in the _Gourdaine_, in the _Bercueil_, or in the _Oubliette_, where
he did not pay more than in the _Fosse_. For this, no doubt, the smallest
charge was made. Sometimes, however, the prisoner was left between two
doors ("_entre deux huis_"), and he then paid much less than he would in
the _Barbarie_ or in the _Gloriette_. The exact meaning of these curious
names is no longer intelligible to us, notwithstanding the terror which
they formerly created, but their very strangeness gives us reason to
suppose that the prison system was at that time subjected to the most
odious refinement of the basest cruelty.

From various reliable sources we learn that there was a place in the Grand
Chatelet, called the _Chausse d'Hypocras_, in which the prisoners had
their feet continually in water, and where they could neither stand up nor
lie down; and a cell, called _Fin d'aise_, which was a horrible receptacle
of filth, vermin, and reptiles; as to the _Fosse_, no staircase being
attached to it, the prisoners were lowered down into it by means of a rope
and pulley.

By the law of 1425, the gaoler was not permitted to put more than _two or
three_ persons in the same bed. He was bound to give "bread and water" to
the poor prisoners who had no means of subsistence; and, lastly, he was
enjoined "to keep the large stone basin, which was on the pavement, full
of water, so that prisoners might get it whenever they wished." In order
to defray his expenses, he levied on the prisoners various charges for
attendance and for bedding, and he was authorised to detain in prison any
person who failed to pay him. The power of compelling payment of these
charges continued even after a judge's order for the release of a prisoner
had been issued.

[Illustration: Fig. 354.--The Bastille.--From an ancient Engr