PRISON BREAK
As dawn broke over the Bastille on 14 July 1789, Bernard-René Jourdan de Launay – governor of the 400-year-old royal fortress – must have sensed that this was to be a day like no other.
How could he have thought otherwise? For days now, a mob had rampaged through the streets of Paris, clashing with royal troops, attacking properties owned by the clergy, and looting food and weaponry.
De Launay would, no doubt, have looked on with alarm at the chaos unfolding around him from his vantage point near the River Seine. Yet, for all the mayhem, not even de Launay
