He is known ( a little) in History as LATUDE, but was born Jean HENRY ( such a common name !) in 1725, in the small village of Montagnac in Languedoc, from an unknown father.

His mother belonged to the small provincial Bourgoisie, and raised him alone, trying to provide this young, ardent, imaginative, presumptuous and undisciplined child with the best possible education, but her best was not enough.

At age 17, he enrolls as a Garon Chirurgien ( Surgeon Assistant) in the French Army, when the War of Austrian Succession storms all over Europe. He shaves beards and pulls teeth between the battles, and after victories or defeats, holds the wounded during amputations, or carries the dead to the common grave. He dreamt of a glorious or at least enviable destiny, and this one is certainly not compliant with his chimera.

When the war is over, he resigns, and his relentless ambition calls him to Paris , the center of the world, and the City of all opportunities: he changes his name for the first time, in Jean Danry, and is flabbergasted by the hectic life of the French Capital, and by the Parisiennes. His hopes for opportunities to earn a fortune without working are disappointed though, and the spare money he kept from his Army years soon runs short. He has to find an idea soon.

At the same time, the rumor spreads through Versailles and Paris of a great conflict between Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV s favorite, and the Comte de Maurepas, Minister of State, and Chancellor of the Royal Treasure. Madame de Pompadour convinces the king to dismiss Monsieur de Maurepas, and it causes an uproar at the Royal Court.

Jean Henry or Danrys time has come: he gets the idea of having a parcel delivered to la Marquise de Pompadour, and this gift contains a bomb of his own making. A miserable, inefficient bomb, but actually his idea is to warn the Versailles Security before the parcel reaches the Marquise, and therefore to attract attention on himself, and appear as the savior of the Favorite. He hopes a reward, and who knows? a pension, or a place in Versailles.

But things turn otherwise: he is suspected ( the Security had him writing down his testimony of the facts , and his handwriting is very much the same as the one on the parcel), the Pompadour harasses the King to discover who plotted against her behind the scenes, the opposing party rages against the PompadourThe King senses that if he lets the Parliament ( name of the Court of Justice) deal with this affair, as ordinarily he should, the scandal will go on and on, and grow up and up: he decides to sign a lettre de cachet, which is an order to lock Danry in the State Prison of La Bastille, at the eastern border of Paris, without any trial . This is much more discreet! We are in 1749, Danry is 24 years old.

He is set on the grill ( metaphorically) there, by investigators, to reveal who are his sponsors and accomplices in this plot: of course, he says nothing, since theres nothing to say! Time passes, other plots or intrigues happen in Versailles, the interest in his case fades awayHe is transferred to another jail, the Dungeon of Vincennes: this prison is looser than la Bastille: he can walk in the yards, meet the other prisonersHe soon begins to court his jailers daughter, who brings back , every Sunday, the laundry of prisoners who can afford to have their linens washed and ironed.

They chat and flirt in the main courtyard of Vincennes, and the girls dog barks and plays around them.

Danry-Latude throws a twig to the dog, the dog brings it back; he throws it again further, and it hits a small door in the Prison wall: the dog rushes to this place, and catching the twigswings the door opened! It wasnt locked!

So Danry, quietly, without running, escapes and disappears in the streets.

A few days later, wandering at loss in the streets of Paris, he comes back in the Vincennes vicinity, and is caught. Back to Bastille!

This time he is more severely locked in, with another prisoner: soon, the two jailpartners manufacture a rope ladder, out of logs for their fireplace, and threads from sheets and clothes. After six years , it is ready, and they escape again! A sensation! it never had happen before in La Bastille!

( engraving of La Bastille Prison during the 18th century)

Danry-Latude crosses the border and takes refuge in the Netherlands: after six months, he is captured again, and sent back to La Bastille: this second escape aggravates his case, so he is thrown alone in an isolated jail, deeper, damper, and filthier than the former ones.

He lives there in the sole company of rats, and, sharing his daily food with them, tries to tame them, giving them first names, and pretending he is their new kingHe also begins to write letters to all the influent and mighty people of Versailles, Paris, Nobles, members of the Parliament, writers, religious dignitaries, intending to attract their attention on the unfair and desperate situation he has been unjustly thrown in. He flatters them most of the times, and sometimes, as no answer is coming, he threats. Irritated by the lack of reactions to his pleas, he writes more and more letters, giving advices on how the kingdom should be governed. He signs these letters Masers de Latude: its more chic! He will now be known as Latude.

After the death of Madame de Pompadour in 1764, he is transferred again in Vincennes, to alleviate his pains. There again, he can walk outside, even out the prison itself, on the strict condition to be accompanied by a guard. One day, as he walks side by side with his warden in the streets of Vincennes, a thick fog suddenly wraps them.What do you think of the weather?asks Latude.

-Methinks its bad says the soldier

-Methinks its good, answers Latude, - for an escape, at least! By-ye!.

Once free, he naively, stupidly or madly goes on writing letters here and there, asking for protection, demanding indemnities for his unjust imprisonment, detailing wondrous fanciful political projectsand of course is trapped again. Back to Vincennes.

In 1775, the Minister Malesherbes, visiting the state jails, meets Latude, and convinced the latter is plain insane, has him sent him to Charenton, an asylum. Two years after, he is released, but obliged to stay out of Paris. He doesnt, and is soon accused of extorsion, and sent first to the Jail of Le Chatelet, and next to the asylum of Bicetre. Latude gets sick, catching scurvy, but goes on writing letters, and his biography.

(Latude's escape rope ladder)

Finally, he is freed in 1784, having spent 35 years in jail WITHOUT ANY TRIAL, and having escaped six (or seven?) times. He then has his book, Despotism Unveiled, or the Memoirs of Henri Masers de Latude, jailed for 35 years in different State Prisons, published in 1787 in the Netherlands ( to avoid French censorship).

He suddenly becomes the talk of the town, the toast of the Enlightened, and the darling of Society Ladies: times have changed. The monarchy is exhausted , needs reforms which the undecided King is unable to promote against the opposing lobbies, the enlightened ideas are gaining the ground the absolute monarchy is yielding, and the word Revolution, blossoming on many lips, is not anymore taboo; besides, the overall mood of the day is clearly pre-romantic, and many Nobles and Bourgeois shed a tear on the ill fate of this poor victim of despotism. Some of them begin to sponsor Latude, for the first time in his life.

But the best , for him, is yet to come: on the 14 ^th of July 1789, the Bastille is assaulted by the people of Paris, its the starting day of the French Revolution. Latude goes there immediately, and grabs, before the Bastille is demolished, his escape ladder that had been kept there for 28 years(this same ladder can still be seen nowadays in the Paris History Museum, Muse Carnavalet).

In his old days he becomes a hero of the people, a legend, a symbol of the victims of false arrests and Royal Arbitrary: he is awarded a life-time pension by the Convention( political Parliament of the Revolution), and every Lady with a Salon definitely wants him at her Dinner Parties! Day after day, year after year, he is asked again and again to tell about his escapes, and oh my, does he like it!

The Duchesse dAbrants invites him one evening and writes in her Memoires : Lorsquil arriva, je fus au devant de lui avec un respect et un attendrissement vraiment difiants. Je le pris par la main, je le conduisis un fauteuil, je lui mis un coussin sous les pieds ; enfin, il aurait t mon grand-pre que je ne laurais pas mieux trait. A table, je le mis ma droite. But the charm soon dissipates , and she adds : Il ne parlait que de ses aventures, et avec une loquacit effrayante. To sum it up, he is a self assured bore.

He has his final escape, without return, on January, the first 1805. I like to imagine him on the threshold of Heaven, anxiously looking at St Peters bunch of keys, and wondering if Hes not one more jailer

Thus ends the story of an otherwise unremarkable fellow whose remarkable destiny illustrated one of the aspects of Justice in 18 ^th Century. If you are interested in more legal details , read the footnote to be published separately

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(Donjeon de Vincennes, former Latude's prison)