Compléter STORMING OF THE BASTILLEVersion en ligne Reading and filling de gaps with key vocabulary. par Alfonso Poza 1 Invalides XVI reinstatement trial defend murdered thousand joined dismissed looted refused siege drawbridge slaughtered Marquis surrender Louis made two fateful decisions . Sometime around July 4th , the King ordered the assembly of royal troops at several critical locations ; it appeared the king was planning to regain his power . Too , on July 11th Louis his popular finance minister , Jacques Necker , Necker's dismissal triggered several days of insurrection in Paris . On July 12th a crowd of several thousand people gathered demanding Necker's . The city's military garrison was called out to restore order but its soldiers to open fire on the people ; in fact , many Guardsmen broke ranks and the insurrectionists . The people of Paris also spent July 12th and 13th gathering arms , in order to the city from an anticipated Royalist assault . On the morning of July 14th , a crowd of several people marched on the Hôtel des Invalides in western Paris and arms , gunpowder and even cannons . The Bastille was guarded by around 120 soldiers ( , soldiers who had been injured and could no longer fight in the field ) . People of Paris demanded to withdraw the fortress's 18 cannons , pointed threateningly at the suburbs below , and to surrender the Bastille's gunpowder to the people . De Launay agreed to the first but not the second . Then , a small group gained access to the Bastille courtyard through a half raised . Fearing a full - scale attack , the governor ordered his soldiers to fire on the invaders . Then , the Bastille came under . Two detachments of the French Guard defected and joined the people . The crowd was unable to operate the artillery pieces stolen from the Invalides , so the involvement of mutinous soldiers was critical . By late afternoon , the fortress was coming under cannon fire , much of it targeting the drawbridge . Convinced the situation was hopeless and fearing they would be , De Launay's officers urged him to . Leaders ordered De Launay to be taken to the town hall to stand , however , on the way he was seized by the crowd , choked and .