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.