File:La chute du despotisme. The downfall of despotism (BM 1925,0701.11).jpg

English: A symbolical representation of the fall of the Bastille. The inscriptions, in incorrect French, are translated beneath the design, here given in brackets. On the right is a portion of the building, still intact, with a lowered drawbridge on which stand two emaciated prisoners with long beards and talons for nails clad only in scanty draperies. They address Orléans, who stands, with extended arms saying, "*Regardez Mes amis les effet louables [sic] d'aristocracie! (*Behold, my friends, the lamentable, effects of Aristocracy)". A prisoner exclaims, clasping his hands, "†Oh! Quel luminaire glorieux! (†Hail, thou glorious luminary!)". On the roof sits Liberty with the staff and cap of 'Libertas', on a circular pedestal inscribed 'Montesquieu, Raynal, Voltaire, Rousseau'. At her feet stand an officer and a civilian displaying Liberty to those below; they are presumably Lafayette and Necker. All three are irradiated. On the ground below, Louis XVI kneels in profile to the left with his back to the Bastille, facing with clasped hands the Comte d'Artois and Marie-Antoinette enclosed in a setting sun (of tyranny), which sinks below the level of the ground; round its disk are instruments of torture: chains, scourges, an axe, a wheel, a harrow. Artois, stamping and clasping his forehead in despair exclaims, "*Helas! Artois miserable Q'un Sortie est le tion! (*Miserable Artois, what an exit's thine.)" The Queen says to Louis, "†Renvoyez vos troupes au plus vit nous avons perdu (†Send back your Troops - all is over)". Behind the King the attackers of the Bastille, all in regimentals, with a flag inscribed 'Libertas', are fighting at close quarters with the garrison; muskets are being fired and sabres used. 14 August 1789
Hand-coloured etching