Bastia
the former capital of sisted of 82 old soldiers and 33 Swiss. Corsica, in the N. E. part of the island, 95 miles N. N. E. of Ajaccio. Antimony mining, boat building, iron founding, tunny and coral fishing are carried on; besides, there is some trade in oil, wine, and fruit. Population about 30,000.
Bastia was founded in 1388 by the Genoese Leonello Lomellino, and was the seat of the Genoese governors for 400 years. It has several times been in the hands of the English, who, under Admiral Hood, last captured the town in 1794.
BASTILLE (bäs-tel'), formerly, in France, a general term for a strong fortress defended by towers or bastions, and in this sense it was used in England after the Norman Conquest. The famous prison to which the name was latterly appropriated was originally the Castle of Paris, and was built by order of Negotiations with the governor of the prison having failed, the mob cut the chains of the drawbridge and a contest took place, in which one of the besieged and 150 of the people were killed or severely wounded. The arrival of a portion of the troops which had already joined the people, with four field-pieces, turned the fortune of the conflict in favor of the besiegers. Delaunay, the governor-who had been prevented by one of the officers when on the point of blowing the fortress into the air-permitted the second drawbridge to be lowered, and the people rushed in, killing Delaunay himself and several of his officers. The destruction commenced on the following day, amid the thunder of cannon and the pealing of the Te Deum.
This event, in itself apparently of no great moment, leading only to the re- BASTION lease of three prisoners, broke the spirit of the court party and changed the current of events in France. The anniversary of the fall of the Bastille has been regularly observed since France last became a Republic.