Bastille Day had often held people jailed on the basis of "lettres de cachet" (literally "signet letters"), arbitrary royal indictments that could not be appealed and did not indicate the reason for the imprisonment. The Bastille held a large cache of ammunition and gunpowder, and was also known for holding political prisoners whose writings had displeased the royal government, and was thus a symbol of the absolutism of the monarchy. As it happened, at the time of the attack in July 1789 there were only seven inmates, none of great political significance. The crowd was eventually reinforced by mutinous "Gardes Françaises" ("French
Governor of the Bastille removing the Dauphin who was amidst his enemies and protected him by welcoming him to the Bastille. On 29 May 1418, the Dauphin left the Bastille to take refuge in Bourges with loyalists. ""Tanneguy ran to the Dauphin's room and, finding him asleep, wrapped him in one of his sheets and had him brought to the Bastille. The Dauphin slept there only one night, and the next morning he went to Melun and from there to Montargis. Tanneguy had returned to Paris by the Porte Saint-Antoine, of which he was the master because of the Bastille."" Arriving at the Bastille,