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434 General History of Europe "deed of patriotism." One of the bands turned to the ancient fortress of the Bastille. The castle had long had a bad reputa- tion as a place of confinement for prisoners of State and for those imprisoned by "sealed letters." When the mob demanded admis- sion, it was naturally denied them, and they were fired upon and nearly a hundred were killed. After a brief attack the place was surrendered, and the mob rushed into the gloomy pile. They found only seven prisoners, but one poor fellow had lost his wits and another had no idea why he had been kept there for years. The captives were freed amidst great enthusiasm, and the people soon set to work to demolish the walls. The anniversary of the fall of the Bastille is still celebrated as the great national holiday of France. 754. Abolition of Feudalism, August, 1789. About the first of August news began to reach the National Assembly of the serious disorders in the provinces. In some cases the peasants burned the country houses of the nobles so as to destroy the registers enumerating the feudal dues. This led to the first important reforms of the Assembly. A momentous resolution abolishing the survivals of serfdom and other institutions of feu- dalism was passed in a night session (August 4-5) amid great excitement. The exclusive right of the nobility to hunt and to maintain pigeon houses was abolished, and the peasant was per- mitted to kill game which he found on his land. The tithes of the Church were done away with. Exemptions from the payment of taxes were abolished forever. All citizens, without distinction of birth, were thereafter to be eligible to any office. Moreover, all the peculiar privileges of the provinces were revoked and absorbed into the law common to all Frenchmen. All France was to have the same laws, and its citizens were henceforth to be treated in the same way by the State. The Assembly soon went a step farther in consolidating and unifying France. It wiped out the old provinces altogether, by dividing the whole country into districts of convenient size, called de- partments. These were much more numerous than the ancient divisions and were named after rivers and mountains. This obliterated from the map all reminiscences of the feudal disunion.