BITCHE AND ITS PRISONERS.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 760, 7 January 1871, Page 2

BITCHE AND ITS PRISONERS.

The almost impregnable fortress of Bitche is situated in a pass of the Yosged, ten leagues north of Stras-, bourg'and fifteen miles from Sarreguemiues. This citadel stands in a valley upon a steep rock, one thousand" feet above the level of the sea. The town, formerly called Fvaltenhauseu, nestles at the foot of the •threatening Tcfiff, near a large shallow lake, whence the Borne takes its . source.. The three tnousana inhabitants live on the profit's of the fine pottery for which they are famous, construct paper snuff-boxes, or labor in the great glass works of Munsthal. The rock, vaulted and • casemated, : wiih d'our .bastions and a half-moon battery, "mount's eighty pieces of cannon, all told, may be garrisoned by oiie thousand has a good supply of water."* Thottgh not a Gibraltar, or au : Ehrenbreitstein, Bitche is a -sufficiently tough nut to crack. In the defenw' time (1803 — 1810) the garrison, consisted of seventeen gendarmes and-one hundred veterans. ' The place of : |tears,' as the English prisoners-during the old Napoleon war usedto calb.it, for it was then the. depot for all the lees and dregs of Verdun, is ascended on one side by a zigzag footpath, on the other by a winding carriage road. Both these roan's (Prussian gentlemen'may feel an interest in knowing) 'meet at a drawbridge that communicates with an inclined, plane raised upon arches, leading, to a gate at the entrance to tbd foot, the approaches to which are swept by the lire of ten | heavy, guns!" The entrance is by a tunnel .cut through the rock, one hundred -and. twenty feet long, with a massive gate at each end and one in the centre. The rock is cut through in two places as low as the ditch, one extremity beiug called the Grros&OvTete; arid the other the Petite Tdtel arid both are connected with' the body v ofi the <1 fort- by flraw- ' bridge's.' thdrejis a mortar'battery. h the fort stand two large barracks,-and at the two ends are storehouses 'and.' ihagaziri-is.) The! ifotk is hollowed to contain the garrison and the provisions, and is divided* by'.• cbm'rtartmenfs connected by narrow passages with massive doors. There is also a subterranean qassage communicating with the town below. Although the fort is of solid rock, cut down perpendicularly ninety to one hundred and fifty feet) it is faced nearly all round with masonry. The place cost so much to fortify, that Louis XIV when asked for money to complete it inquired, with a smile, if they were building it of louis d'ors. The English sailors confined in the

: ; <jreat x eQ.uterra.ui: oi Bitchy 'terror "of their* guards. ' They,%ere Often known fti mutiny, jaftd arising themselves wittjjj' billets; and broken up beds to defy tlio whole garrison'., - ', On one their leader, a gigantic 7 Guernsey smuggler, said,' Dou't let us attack them, lads, but if the beggars draw blood from any of us, fall on them and murder them all.'- -Whenever the gendarmes .nama down at eight o'clock to put but-the lights, according to''order/the}* were hats and-shoes. . AtJast the commandant decided' that the prisoners should *be allowed to figufj and drink, and govern themselves." The, prisoners; : henceforth : beldr tyieir own courts-martial," "ana sentenced pilferers and other,offenders to so many lashes. When they refused to put out the candles, t; the M; trampled in the .skylights, and stopped the expanse out' l bf ' the men's pay. Each prisoner, was allovyed as much firewood as he could 1 ! burnj brie* pound of and a half a pound of beef a day, six sous every'five' days,^and?occasionally a small quantity, of vegetables. In turn, the'prisoners ; had the privilege of going to the town market, accompanied by gendarmes, three times a week. The men were mustered : three '''-' times''' 'and counted down at night. In" summer •they were unloosed atr sis iiii/'tne morning, and locked up at eiglft o'clock in the evening ; in winter they were shut in at four in the afternoon, and; -unlocked at eight in, the morning. The noise all day was intolerable, the men dancing on .the.;benches, singing and carousing.' Escapes were -frequent, in, spite of all the precautions. In one attempt a 'ship's 'carpenter and a sailor, while cutting'througb, a were bayoneted; iri'anothbr a ria'val lieutenant was'killed by the breaking of a rope as he 'descended the rock."All the Year Rounds"'