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CHAPTER XV.
MAZAS
The police-vans, escorted as far as Mazas by Lancers, found another
squadron of Lancers ready to receive them at Mazas. The Representatives
descended from the vehicle one by one. The officer commanding the Lancers
stood by the door, and watched them pass with a dull curiosity.
Mazas, which had taken the place of the prison of La Force, now pulled
down, is a lofty reddish building, close to the terminus of the Lyons
Railway, and stands on the waste land of the Faubourg St. Antoine. From a
distance the building appears as though built of bricks, but on closer
examination it is seen to be constructed of flints set in cement. Six
large detached buildings, three stories high, all radiating from a
rotunda which serves as the common centre, and touching each other at the
starting-point, separated by courtyards which grow broader in proportion
as the buildings spread out, pierced with a thousand little dormer
windows which give light to the cells, surrounded by a high wall, and
presenting from a bird's-eye point of view the drape of a fan--such is
Mazas. From the rotunda which forms the centre, springs a sort of
minaret, which is the alarm-tower. The ground floor is a round room,
which serves as the registrar's office. On the first story is a chapel
where a single priest says mass for all; and the observatory, where a
single attendant keeps watch over all the doors of all the galleries at
the same time. Each building is termed a "division." The courtyards are
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