2-888-481 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Departure of Prisoners from the Abbaye, at Paris, 1850. 'One of the results of the recent Socialist movement in Paris was the conviction of eighty-three soldiers, for having deposited crowns at the Bastille. They were sentenced to be transported to Algeria; and the scene which our Artist has sketched, shows the party on foot, on their way from the Military Prison of the Abbey to the Railway Station. They were escorted by cavalry and foot; and the crowd strongly sympathised with them by shaking hands with them. Women might be seen begging alms, linen, provisions, &c., from the persons at the balconies and windows: the police attempted to remove them. Children got between the legs of the escort, who, however, did not repel them: in short, every mark of sympathy is shown to the prisoners on their way through the quartier, and from every class of persons'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.