DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Thin Red Line; and Blue Blood" by Arthur Griffiths. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

In the Paris of the first half of this century there was no darker, dingier, or more forbidding quarter than that which lay north of the Rue de Rivoli, round about the great central market, commonly called the Halles. The worst part of it, perhaps, was the Rue Assiette d'Etain, or Tinplate Street. All day evil-looking loafers lounged about its doorways, nodding lazily to the passing workmen, who, blue-bloused, with silk cap on head, each with his loa under his arm, came to take their meals at the wine-shop at the corner; or gossiping with the porters, male and female, while the one followed closely his usual trade as a cobbler, and the other attended to her soup. By day there was little traffic. Occasionally a long dray, on a gigantic pair of wheels, drawn by a long string of white Normandy horses in single file, with blue harness and jangling bells, filled up the roadway. Costermongers trundled their barrows along with strange, unmusical cries. Now and again an empty cab returning to its stable, with weary horse and semi-somnolent coachman, crawled through the street.

British military officer and prison administrator Arthur Griffiths provided a concise history of prison in France. He covered everything from its origin to the situation during his time, delivering some unknown facts to the readers. Griffiths explained the various kinds of prisons that existed in France and the different features, practices, punishments, and disciplines that were followed. Contents include: Origins and Early History Struggle with the Sovereign Vincennes and the Bastile The Rise of Richelieu The People and the Bastile The Man with the Iron Mask The Power of the Bastile The Terror of Poison The Horrors of the Galleys The Dawn of Revolution Last Days of the Bastile