sentences:  The July Column itself remained contentious and Republican radicals unsuccessfully tried to blow it up in 1871.Meanwhile, the legacy of the Bastille proved popular among French novelists.Alexandre Dumas, for example, used the Bastille and the legend of the "Man in the Iron Mask" extensively in his d'Artagnan Romances; in these novels the Bastille is presented as both picturesque and tragic, a suitable setting for heroic action.