THE PALAIS DE JUSTICE.
The _Palais de Justice_--Its Historical Associations--Disturbances in
Paris--Successive Fires--During the Revolution--The Administration of
Justice--The _Sainte-Chapelle_.
Next to Notre-Dame the most interesting edifice in the island of the
City, at the corner of the Quai de l'Horloge, is the Palais de Justice,
which dates from the time of the Romans. So much at least has been
inferred, apart from the tradition on the subject, from the fact that
when some years ago the building was reconstructed, Roman remains were
discovered in the foundations. All, however, that can be affirmed with
historical certainty as to the origin of the Palace is that towards the
end of the ninth century it existed in the form of a fortress, and was
the residence of the Frankish kings of the second race. It played an
important part in the defence of Paris against the Normans invading the
city by water from Rouen and the lower Seine. At the Palais de Justice
lived the Counts of Paris, and afterwards the kings of the line which
came to an end with the unfortunate "Louis Capet" (as in Revolutionary
parlance he was called) who lost his head beneath the guillotine.
Louis le Gros, the protector of the Communes, died at the Palace in
1137. Philip Augustus, while undertaking the entire reconstruction of
the Château du Louvre, made the Palace his habitual residence, and it
was there that he married Ingelburga, sister of Canute, King of Denmark.
Under the reign of this monarch, the court or tribunal of the King
received for the first time the name of Parliament, its functions being
to discuss and decide questions submitted to it by the Sovereign, and
to pronounce on the illegality or legality of certain acts. In these
days the royal residence was not luxuriously furnished, hay doing duty
for carpet during the winter, and a matting of weeds during the summer.
These primitive coverings of the palatial floors were given by Philip
Augustus to the hospital known as the Hôtel-Dieu whenever the Court left
Paris.
The King's Palace was called the Palace of Justice from the fact that
here the Sovereign held Court, and decided the cases submitted to him
by his subjects, sometimes with, sometimes without, the assistance of
the before-mentioned Parliament. Here, too, St. Louis formed in a hall
adjoining the Holy Chapel a library, in which he collected copies of all
valuable manuscripts placed at his disposal. This library was open to
learned and studious men, with whom the king loved to converse.
Philip the Fair enlarged the Palace; and under his reign the Parliament,
formerly styled "ambulatory," became sedentary: it no longer, that is to
say, followed the king in his journeys from one residence to another.
The members of Parliament had lodgings assigned to them in that part of
the building now occupied by the prison of the Conciergerie. Under the
reign of Charles V. the first great clock that had ever been seen in
France was placed in a square tower on the quay; whence the name "Quai
de l'Horloge."
It was in the Palais de Justice that Charles VI. received the Greek
Emperor, Manuel Palæologus, and the Emperor Sigismund, King of Hungary.
A strange incident happened in connection with the visit of the latter
sovereign. He had expressed a desire to witness the pleading of a case
before the Parliament, and at the beginning of the process astonished
everyone by taking the seat reserved for the King of France. One of the
parties to the suit was about to lose his action on the ground that he
was not a nobleman, whereupon, in a spirit of equity and chivalry, not
appreciated by the assembly, Sigismund rose from his seat, and calling
to him the pleader, who, from no fault of his own, was getting defeated,
made him a knight; which completely changed the aspect of affairs, and
enabled the man who was in the right to gain his case.
It was at the Palace of Justice that the marriage of Henry V. of England
with Catherine of France, daughter of Charles VI., was celebrated. Here,
too, Henry VI., King of England, resided at the time of his coronation
as King of France. Under the reign of Charles VII. certain clerks,
"_les clercs de la basoche_," obtained permission to represent "farces
and moralities" in the great banqueting hall, an immense marble table
at one of the extremities of the hall serving as stage. According to a
writer of the time, this table was "so long, so broad, and so thick,
that no sheet of marble so thick, so broad, and so long was ever known
elsewhere." The morality of the so-called "moralities" seems to have
been more than doubtful; for after a time they were stopped by reason of
their alleged impropriety. This was in 1476.
Soon, however, the clerks attached to the Palace of Justice reappeared
on the marble table; when they again got themselves into trouble
by satirising the Government of Charles VIII., and even Charles
himself. Several of the authors and actors concerned in the piece were
imprisoned, and were only liberated at the instance of the Bishop of
Paris, who claimed for them "benefit of clergy."
The clerks of the tribunals and the students of the university were,
in those days, troublesome folk. The students have always formed an
exceptional class in Paris. Unlike the university students in England,
they live in the capital, are exposed to its temptations, and take part
in its struggles.
During the present century in commotions and insurrections they have
always been on the popular side. In former times, however, they formed
a party in themselves; and the students of Paris would engage with the
citizens in formidable contests, which, with exaggerated features,
resembled the "town and gown" rows of which our own universities have so
often been the scene.
"In the year 1200," says the author of "Singularités Historiques," "a
German gentleman studying at Paris sent his servant to a tavern to buy
some wine. The servant was maltreated, whereupon the German students
came to the aid of their fellow-countryman, and served the wine-dealer
so roughly that they left him nearly dead. The townspeople now came
to avenge the tavern-keeper; and, taking up arms, attacked the house
of the German gentleman and his fellow-countrymen. There was great
excitement throughout the town. The German gentleman and five students
of his nation were killed. The Provost of Paris, Thomas by name, had
been at the head of the Parisians in this onslaught; and the heads of
the schools made a complaint on the subject to King Philip, who, without
waiting for any further information, arrested the provost and several of
his adherents, demolished their houses, tore up their vines and their
fruit-trees, and fearing lest all the foreign students should desert
Paris, issued a decree for the protection of the schools and those
who frequented them. Thomas, for having incited instead of preventing
disorder, was condemned to perpetual imprisonment."
In 1221 the students of the university, encouraged by the privileges
granted to them by Philip Augustus, gave themselves up to all kinds
of excesses, carrying away women and committing outrages, thefts,
and murders; whereupon Bishop Guillaume pronounced excommunication
against all who went about by night or day with arms. As the decree
of excommunication produced little effect, the bishop caused the most
seditious to be put in prison, and drove the others out of the town,
thus re-establishing tranquillity.
In 1223 a violent quarrel and disturbance broke out between the scholars
and the inhabitants. Three hundred and twenty students were killed and
thrown into the Seine. Several professors went to the Pope to complain
of so cruel a persecution; and some of them withdrew, with their
students, from the capital. Paris was interdicted; and its schools,
so superior to those of the other towns of France, remained without
professors or scholars, and were closed.
During the thirteenth century there was as much credulity and fanaticism
as there was anarchy in Paris. This was fully shown when a new sect,
composed entirely of priests, declared itself. Its members denied the
Real Presence, looked upon most of the ceremonies of the Church as
useless, and ridiculed the worship of saints and relics. They addressed
themselves particularly to women, persuading them that nothing they did
was sinful so long as it was done from charity.
An ecclesiastic named Amaury, the chief of this sect, set forth his
doctrine to the Pope, who condemned it. Amaury, it is said, died of
grief, and was buried in the cemetery of St. Nicholas-in-the-Fields.
The disciples he left behind him were nearly all ecclesiastics, or
professors of the University of Paris. There was, however, one goldsmith
among them, who, we are assured, uttered prophecies.
To discover the members of this sect a stratagem was employed. Raoul
de Nemours and another priest pretended to share the opinions of the
heretics, that they might afterwards denounce them. The offenders were
then arrested and taken to the Place des Champeaux, when three bishops
and doctors in theology deprived them of their degrees, and condemned
them to be burnt alive. Fourteen of the unhappy men underwent this
frightful punishment and supported it with courage. Four were excepted
and condemned to perpetual imprisonment. The execution took place on the
21st of October, 1210.
[Illustration: THE QUAI DE L'HORLOGE.]
The bishops and doctors, assembled in council to pronounce judgment,
condemned at the same time two books of Aristotle on metaphysics;
and after delivering them over to the flames forbade all persons to
transcribe them, read them, or "retain the contents in their memory"
under pain of excommunication.
Under Louis XII. the irrepressible clerks of the Basoche ridiculed the
sovereign as the personification of Avarice. The king was urged to treat
the presumptuous young men as his predecessors had often done. "Let them
play in all freedom," he replied. "Let them speak as they will of me and
my Court. If they notice abuses why should they not point them out, when
so many persons, reputed sage, are unwilling to do so?"
After the death of Louis XII. the representations of the clerks were
subjected to a more and more severe censorship; and towards the end
of the sixteenth century the Theatre of the Marble Table was given up
altogether.
To pass to the reign of Francis I., it was at the Palais de Justice
that this monarch received the challenge from the Emperor Charles
V. His successors took up their residence in the Louvre, abandoning
altogether the ancient palace, which was now occupied exclusively by
the Law Courts. In 1618 a great portion of the building was destroyed
by fire; and it was only by incurring great personal risk that the
Registrar succeeded in saving the records of the Parliament. The fire
was generally attributed to accomplices, real or supposed, of Ravaillac,
the assassin of Henri IV. Although Ravaillac had declared himself
solely responsible for the murder, and had received absolution only on
condition of his swearing solemnly to the truth of his declaration,
the police seemed resolved to implicate a number of other persons; and
when a certain amount of evidence had been collected against them the
suspected ones thought it judicious (so the story ran) to destroy all
that had been written down against them. All the most characteristic,
the most picturesque part of the building was destroyed, including the
large hall lighted solely through windows of coloured glass, in which
stood the statues of the Kings of France. Charles VII. had cut, with a
chisel, the English King's face; and it was only by these mutilations
that the statue of Henry VI. was recognised among the ruins. The famous
marble table at the western extremity of the hall had been damaged
beyond remedy by the flames. At the eastern extremity, the Chapel of
Louis XI., in which that devout but treacherous monarch was represented
kneeling to the Virgin, had been entirely destroyed.
[Illustration: PONT AU CHANGE AND PALAIS DE JUSTICE.]
Nearly all that remained of the ancient palace was the prison or
"conciergerie," where Montgomery, who by mishap had slain his king in a
tournament, and, at a later period, Damiens of the Four Horses had been
confined. The tower of the conciergerie was for a long time called the
Montgomery Tower.
Besides the conciergerie, the hall known as the Salle des Pas Perdus and
the so-called "Kitchen of Saint-Louis," with an immense chimney-piece in
each of the four corners, formed part of the ancient building.
In 1776 the Palais de Justice again took fire, and again was in great
part reconstructed. In 1835, under Louis Philippe, the Town of Paris
decided to enlarge it, and the plan by M. Huyot, the architect, was
adopted by the Municipal Council in 1840. The royal sanction was then
obtained; but Louis Philippe did not remain long enough on the throne
to see the work of construction terminated. The Republican Government
of 1848 stopped the building; and it was only under the Second Empire
in 1854 that it was resumed, to be completed in 1868. More important by
far than the re-alterations, additions, and reconstructions of which the
Palais de Justice has in successive centuries been made the subject have
been the changes in the French law, and in various matters connected
with its administration. Up to the time of the Revolution citizens were
arrested in the most arbitrary manner on mere suspicion, and imprisoned
for an indefinite time without being able to demand justice in any form.
Some half a dozen years before the uprising of 1789 the king had decreed
that no one should be arrested except on a definite accusation; but the
order was habitually set at nought.
The Palais de Justice of the present day occupies about one third of
the total surface of the Cité. Enclosed on the east by the Boulevard
du Palais, on the west by the Rue de Harlay, on the north by the Quai
de l'Horloge, and on the south by the Quai des Orfèvres, it forms a
quadrilateral mass in which all styles are opposed and confused, from
the feudal towers of the Quai de l'Horloge to the new buildings begun
in Napoleon III.'s reign, but never completed. To the left of this
strange agglomeration the air is pierced by the graceful spire of the
Sainte-Chapelle, admirable monument of the piety and of the art of the
middle ages.
Some portions of the ancient Palace of Justice are preserved in the
modern edifice, but only the substructures, as, for instance, in the
northern buildings facing the Seine. The principal gate, and the central
pavilion with its admirable façade at the bottom of the courtyard
opening on to the Boulevard du Palais, were constructed under the reign
of Louis XVI. The northern portion, from the clock tower, at the corner
of the quay, to the third tower behind, has been restored or rebuilt in
the course of the last thirty years. All the rest of the building is
absolutely new.
The clock tower, a fine specimen of the military architecture of the
fourteenth century, was furnished in 1370 by order of Charles V. with
the first large clock that had been seen in Paris, the work of a German,
called in France Henri de Vic. To this clock the northern quay owes
its name of "Quai de l'Horloge du Palais" or "Quai de l'Horloge." The
bell suspended in the upper part of the tower is said to have sounded
the signal for the massacre of the Protestants on the eve of St.
Bartholomew's Day, August 24, 1572; a doubtful honour, which is also
claimed for the bell of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois.
The Palais de Justice, as it now exists, possesses a threefold
character--legal, administrative, and punitive. Here cases are tried,
here the Prefect of Police performs the multifarious duties of his
office, and here criminals are imprisoned. Of the various law courts the
Palais de Justice contains five: the Court of Cassation, in which appeal
cases are finally heard on questions of form, but of form only; the
Court of Appeal, the Court of Assizes, the Tribunal of First Instance,
and the Tribunal of Police. These fill the halls of the immense building.
The Court of Cassation, divided into three chambers, counts forty-eight
counsellors, a first president, three presidents of chamber, a
procurator-general, six advocates-general, a registrar-in-chief, four
ordinary registrars, three secretaries of the court, a librarian,
eight ushers, and a receiver of registrations and fines; altogether
seventy-seven persons. The Court of Appeal, divided into seven chambers,
is composed of a first president, seven presidents of chamber,
sixty-four counsellors, a procurator-general, seven advocates-general,
eleven substitutes attached to the court, a registrar-in-chief, and
fourteen ordinary registrars; altogether 106 persons. The number of
officials and clerks employed in the Tribunal of First Instance is
still greater. Divided into eleven chambers, the tribunal comprises
one president, eleven vice-presidents, sixty-two judges, and fifteen
supplementary judges, a public prosecutor, twenty-six substitutes,
a registrar-in-chief, and forty-five clerks of registration. As for
the Police Court, it is presided over in turn by each of the twenty
magistrates of Paris, two Commissaries of Police doing duty as
assessors. With the addition of two registrars and a secretary the
entire establishment consists of six persons. The entire number of
judges, magistrates, registrars, and secretaries employed at the Palais
de Justice amounts to 351; without counting a floating body of some
hundreds of barristers, solicitors, ushers, and clerks, thronging like a
swarm of black ants a labyrinth of staircases, corridors, and passages.
Yet the Palais de Justice, constantly growing, is still insufficient for
the multiplicity of demands made upon it.
The history of the Palais de Justice is marked by the fires in which it
has from time to time been burned down. The first of these broke out on
the night of the 5th of March, 1618, when the principal hall and most
of the buildings adjoining it were destroyed. The second, which took
place on the 27th of October, 1737, consumed the buildings forming the
Chamber of Accounts, situated at the bottom of the courtyard of the
Sainte-Chapelle--an edifice of surpassing beauty, constructed in the
fifteenth century by Jean Joconde, a monk of the Order of Saint Dominic.
The third fire declared itself during the night of January 10, 1776,
in the hall known as the Prisoners' Gallery, from which it spread to
all the central buildings. In this conflagration perished the old
Montgomery Tower. The last of the fires in which so many portions of
the Palais de Justice have turn by turn succumbed, was lighted by order
of the insurgent Commune on the 24th of May, 1871, when the troops from
Versailles were entering Paris. The principal hall, the prison, the old
towers with all the civil and criminal archives (in the destruction of
the latter the insurgents may have been specially interested) were all
consumed.
These repeated catastrophes, together with numerous restorations, have
left standing but very little of the ancient Palais de Justice. The
central pavilion, reconstructed under Louis XVI. in accordance with
the plans of the architect Desmaisons, is connected with two galleries
of historical interest, on one side with the Galerie Mercière, on
the other with the Galerie Marchande. The names of "Mercière" and
"Marchande" recall the time when the galleries so named, as well as
the principal hall and the outer walls of the palace, were occupied
by stalls and booths in which young and pretty shop-girls sold all
sorts of fashionable and frivolous trifles, such as ribbons, bows, and
embroideries. Here, too, new books were offered for sale. Here Claude
Barbin and his rivals sold to the patrons and patronesses of the stage
the latest works of Corneille, Molière, and Racine. Here appointments of
various kinds were made, but especially of one kind.
The Palace Gallery, or Galerie du Palais, was the great meeting-place
for the fashionable world until only a few years before the great
Revolution, when it was deserted for the Palais Royal. Some of its
little shops continued to live a meagre life until the reign of Louis
Philippe. Now everything of the kind has disappeared, with the exception
of two privileged establishments where "toques" and togas--in plain
English, caps and gowns--can be bought, or even hired, by barristers
attending the "palace."
The entrance to the central building is from the Galerie Mercière,
through a portico supported by Ionic columns, and surmounted by the arms
of France. The visitor reaches a broad, well-lighted staircase, where,
half-way up, stands in a niche an impressive statue of Law, the work of
Gois, bearing in one hand a sceptre, and in the other the Book of the
Law, inscribed with the legend "In legibus salus."
[Illustration: THE CLOCK OF THE PALAIS DE JUSTICE.]
The grand staircase of the Palais leads through a waiting-room, which
serves also as a library, to the three first chambers of the Court of
Appeal. The rooms are of a becomingly severe aspect. The walls are
painted a greenish grey, of one uniform tint. The tribunal is sometimes
oblong, sometimes in horse-shoe form. On the right sits the assessor
representing the Minister of Justice, on the left the registrar on duty.
In the "parquet," or enclosure beneath the tribunal, is the table of the
usher, who calls the next case, executes the president's behests, and
maintains order in the court, exclaiming "Silence, gentlemen," with the
traditional voice and accent.
The "parquet" is shut in by a balustrade technically known as the bar,
on which lean the advocates as they deliver their speeches. The space
furnished with benches which is reserved for them, and where plaintiff
and defendant may also sit, is enclosed by a second bar, designed to
keep off the public properly so-called, and prevent it from pressing too
closely upon the court. There is no witness-box in a French court. The
witness stands in the middle of the court and recites, often in a speech
that has evidently been prepared beforehand, all he knows about the case
under trial.
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE COURT OF ASSIZE.]
Such is the general disposition of all the assize chambers in the Palais
de Justice. Some, however, present features of their own. The first
chamber, for instance, contains a magnificent Calvary, by Van Eyck; one
of the rare objects of art which survive from the ancient ornamentation
of the palace. On the centre of the picture, rising like a dome between
two side panels, is the Saviour on the Cross. On His right is the Virgin
supported by two holy women, by Saint John the Baptist and by Saint
Louis, graced with the exact features of King Charles VII., under whose
reign this masterpiece was executed. On the left are Saint John the
Evangelist, Saint Denis, and Saint Charlemagne. Above the head of our
Lord are the Holy Ghost and the Eternal Father surrounded by angels,
while the background is occupied by a landscape less real than curious;
for it represents the City of Jerusalem, the Tower of Nesle, the Louvre,
and the Gothic buildings of the Palais de Justice. This work, by the
great painter of Bruges, executed in the early part of the fifteenth
century, was formerly in the Principal Hall of the Parliament, beneath
the portrait of Louis XII., which the people (whose "father" he claimed
to be) destroyed in 1793. The portion of the building which contains the
three first chambers of the court--behind the portico opening on to the
Galerie Mercière--escaped the fire of 1776. Its lateral and southern
façade, turned towards the courtyard of the Sainte-Chapelle, is pierced
with lofty windows, sculptured in the Renaissance style. It must have
been constructed under the Valois, or under the reign of Henri IV. But
it is difficult to ascertain its early history, for but few writers have
given much attention to the subject.
[Illustration: THE PALAIS DE JUSTICE.]
[Illustration: THE PALAIS DE JUSTICE AND SAINTE-CHAPELLE.]
The fifth, sixth, and seventh chambers of the Court of Appeal are all
entered from the Galerie Marchande; while the fourth chamber stands in
the north-east corner of the said gallery. On the left of the Galerie
Mercière is the famous Salle des Pas Perdus, seventy-four metres
long and twenty-eight broad. This is the great entrance hall to the
courts generally. Why it should be called "Salle des Pas Perdus" is
not evident, though the name may be due either to the "lost steps"
of litigants bringing or defending actions without result, or, more
probably, to the "lost steps" of those who walk wearily to and fro
for an indefinite time, vainly expecting their case to be called
on. Whatever the derivation of its name, the Salle des Pas Perdus
is considered one of the finest halls in Europe. Twice has it been
destroyed by fire and twice rebuilt. The first large hall of the palace,
as it was at that time called, was built under Philip the Fair and
finished towards 1313. It was adorned successively with the statues
of the kings of France from Pharamond to Francis I.; the successful
ones being represented with their hands raised to heaven in token of
thanksgiving, the unfortunate ones with head and hands lowered towards
the ground. The most celebrated ornament of the large hall was the
immense marble table of which ample mention has already been made.
After the fire of 1618 (in which the table split into several pieces,
still preserved in the vaults of the palace) a new hall on the same
site, and of the same dimensions as the old one, was built by Jacques
Desbrosses, which was burnt in 1871 by the Commune, to be promptly
rebuilt by MM. Duc Dommey and Daumet.
The seven civil chambers of the tribunal are entered through the Salle
des Pas Perdus, either from the ground floor or from the upper storey,
which is reached by two staircases. This portion of the palace was
partly reconstructed in 1853 under the reign of Napoleon III., Baron
Haussmann being Prefect of the Seine. The fact is recorded on a marble
slab let into one of the walls. In the middle of the south part of
the Salle des Pas Perdus, a marble monument was raised in 1821 to
Malesherbes, the courageous advocate who defended Louis XVI. at the bar
of the Convention. The monument comprises the statue of Malesherbes
with figures of France and Fidelity by his side. On the pedestal are
low reliefs, representing the different phases of the memorable trial.
The statues are by Cortot, the illustrative details by Bosio. The Latin
inscription engraved on the pedestal was composed by Louis XVIII.,
in whose reign the monument was executed and placed in its present
position. This king, who translated Horace and otherwise distinguished
himself as a Latinist, is the author of more than one historical
inscription in the Latin language, and he commemorated by this means,
not only the heroism of Malesherbes, who defended Louis XVI. at the
trial, but also the piety of the Abbé Edgeworth, who accompanied him to
the scaffold.
Towards the end of the hall, on the other side, is the statue of
Berryer, which, according to M. Vitu, is "the homage paid to eloquence
considered as the auxiliary of justice." In the north-east corner of the
Hall of Lost Steps, to the left of Berryer's monument, is the entrance
to the first chamber, once the bed-chamber of Saint Louis, and which,
reconstructed with great magnificence by Louis XII. for his marriage
with Mary of England, daughter of King Henry VII., took the name of the
Golden Room. It afterwards played an important part in the annals of the
Parliament of Paris. Here Marshal de Biron was condemned to death on the
28th of July, 1602. Here a like sentence was pronounced against Marshal
d'Ancre on the 8th of July, 1617. Here the kings of France held their
Bed of Justice, solidly built up at the bottom of the hall in the right
corner, and composed of a lofty pile of cushions, covered with blue
velvet, in which golden fleurs de lis were worked. Here, finally, on the
3rd of May, 1788, the Marquis d'Agoult, commanding three detachments of
French Guards, Swiss Guards, Sappers, and Cavalry, entered to arrest
Counsellors d'Épréménil and Goislard, when the president, surrounded by
150 magistrates and seventeen peers of France, every one wearing the
insignia of his dignity, called upon him to point out the two inculpated
members, and exclaimed: "We are all d'Épréménil and Goislard! What crime
have they committed?"
A resolution had been obtained from the Parliament declaring that the
nation alone had the right to impose taxes through the States-General.
This resolution and the scene which followed were the prelude to the
French Revolution. Four years later there was no longer either monarch
or parliament, French Guards or Swiss Guards. The great chamber of the
palace had become the "Hall of Equality," where, on the 17th of April,
1792, was established the first Revolutionary Tribunal, to be replaced
on the 10th of May, 1793, by the criminal tribunal extraordinary; which
was reorganised on the 26th of September by a decree which contained
this phrase, still more extraordinary than the tribunal itself: "A
defender is granted by law to calumniated patriots, but refused to
conspirators." Here were arraigned--one cannot say tried--that same
d'Épréménil who had proclaimed the rights of the nation, and Barnave,
the Girondists, the Queen of France, Mme. Élizabeth, Danton, Camille
Desmoulins, Chaumette, Hébert, and Fabre d'Églantine; then, one after
the other, the Robespierres, with Couthon, Collot d'Herbois, Saint-Just,
Henriot, and Fouquier-Tinville--altogether 2,742 victims, whose 2,742
heads fell into the red basket either on the former Place Louis
XV., which had become the Place de la Révolution and was afterwards
to be known as the Place de la Concorde, or on the Place du Trône.
The numbered list, which used to be sent out, like a newspaper, to
subscribers, has been preserved. It began with the slaughter of the 26th
of August, 1792, in which La Porte, intendant of the civil list, the
journalist Durozoi, and the venerable Jacques Cazotte, author of "Le
Diable Amoureux," lost their heads.
Cazotte had kept up a long correspondence with Ponteaux, secretary
of the civil list, and had sent him several plans for the escape of
the Royal Family, together with suggestions, from his point of view
invaluable, for crushing the revolution. The letters were seized at
the house of the intendant of the civil list, the before-mentioned
La Porte; and thereupon Cazotte was arrested. His daughter Elizabeth
followed him to prison; and they were both at the Abbaye during the
atrocious massacres of September. The unhappy young girl had been
separated from her father since the beginning of the executions, and
she now thought only of rejoining him either to save his life or to
die with him. Suddenly she heard him call out, and then hurried down a
staircase in the midst of a jingle of arms. Before there was time to
arrest him she rushed towards him, reached him, threw her arms around
him, and so moved the terrible judges by her daughterly affection that
they were completely disarmed. Not only was the old man spared, but he
and his heroic daughter were sent back with a guard of honour to their
home. Soon afterwards, however, the father was again arrested, and
brought before the revolutionary tribunal. On the advice of the counsel
defending him, he denied the competence of the court on the plea of
_autrefois acquit_. It was ruled, however, that the court was dealing
with new facts, and the judges had indeed simply to apply the decree
pronounced against those who had taken part in preparing the repression
of the 10th of August. The evidence against Cazotte was only too clear,
and he was condemned to death; which suggested the epigram that "Judges
struck where executioners had spared."
But these very judges, bound by inflexible laws, could not refuse the
expression of their pity and esteem to the unhappy old man. While
condemning him to death they rendered homage to his honesty and his
courage. "Why," exclaimed the public accuser, "after a virtuous life of
seventy-two years, must you now be declared guilty? Because it is not
sufficient to be a good husband and a good father; because one must also
be a good citizen." The President of the Court, in pronouncing sentence,
said with gravity and emotion: "Old man, regard the approach of death
without fear. It has no power to alarm you. It can have no terrors for
such a man as you."
Cazotte ascended with fortitude the steps of the scaffold, and
exclaimed, before lowering his head: "I die as I have lived, faithful
to my God and to my king." The last victim of the 2,472 was Coffinhal,
vice-president of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and member of the
Council-General of the Paris Commune.
No show of equity, no imitation even of judicial forms, gave colour to
these bloody sacrifices. Most of the victims, condemned beforehand,
were brought to the prison of the Conciergerie at eight in the morning,
led before the tribunal at two, and executed at four. A printing office
established in a room adjoining the court was connected with the latter
by an opening in the wall, through which notes and documents relating
to the case before the tribunal were passed; and often the sentence was
composed, printed, and hawked for sale in the streets before being read
to the victims.
"You disgrace the guillotine!" said Robespierre one day to
Fouquier-Tinville, the public accuser.
Of this historic hall nothing now remains but the four walls. Still,
however, may be seen the little door of the staircase which Marie
Antoinette ascended to appear before the revolutionary jury, and which
she afterwards descended on the way to her dungeon.
The Galerie Saint-Louis is the name given to the ancient gallery
connected with the Galerie Marchande, its name being justified by the
various forms in which incidents from the life of Saint Louis are
represented on its walls. Here, in sculptured and coloured wood, is the
effigy of Saint Louis, close to the open space where, when centuries ago
it was a garden, the pious king was wont to imitate, and sometimes to
render, justice beneath the spreading trees. One of the bureaux in the
Palais de Justice contains an alphabetical list of all the sentences
passed, by no matter what court, against any person born in one of the
districts of Paris or of the department of the Seine. This record,
contemplated by Napoleon I., was established in 1851 by M. Rouher, at
that time Minister of Justice. The list is kept strictly secret; nor is
any extract permitted except on the requisition of a magistrate, or on
the application of one of the persons sentenced, requiring it in his own
interest.
[Illustration: THE FAÇADE OF THE OLD PALAIS DE JUSTICE.]
The Bureau of "Judicial Assistance," dating from 1851, enables any
indigent person to plead _in formâ pauperis_, whether as plaintiff or
defendant. Nor is he obliged to plead in person. Not only stamped paper,
but solicitors, barristers, and every legal luxury are supplied to
him gratuitously. It is at the expense of the lawyers that the pauper
litigant is relieved.
Two curious bureaux connected with the Palais de Justice are those
in which are kept, sealed up and divided into series indicated by
different colours, objects of special value taken from persons brought
before the court, or voluntarily deposited by them; together with sums
of money which, in like manner, have passed into the hands of legal
authorities. Still more curious is the collection of articles of all
kinds stored in a sort of museum, which presents the aspect at once
of a bazaar and of a pawnbroker's shop. Here, in striking confusion,
are seen boots and shoes, clothes, wigs, rags, and a variety of things
seized and condemned as fraudulent imitations; likewise instruments
of fraud, such as false scales. Here, too, in abundance are murderous
arms--knives, daggers, and revolvers. Singularly interesting is the
collection of burglarious instruments of the most different patterns,
from the enormous lump of iron, which might be used as a battering ram,
to the most delicately-made skeleton key, feeble enough in appearance,
but sufficiently strong to force the lock of an iron safe. There is now
scarcely room for the constantly increasing collection of objects at the
service of fraud and crime.
Beneath this strange exhibition, rendered still more sinister by
the method and order with which it is arranged, are disposed in two
storeys the four chambers which together constitute the civil tribunal.
Connected with the criminal tribunal, their duty is to try offences
punishable by a scale of sentences, with five years' imprisonment as
the maximum. According to one of the last legislative enactments of
the Second Empire, persons brought before a police-court remained
provisionally at liberty except under grave circumstances. Cases,
moreover, in which the offender has been taken _in flagrante delicto_
are decided in three days. "This is a sign of progress," says M. Vitu;
"but Paris still needs an institution of which London is justly proud,
that of district magistrates, something like our _juges de paix_,
deciding police cases forthwith. The principal merit of this institution
is that it prevents arbitrary detention and serious mistakes such as
unfortunately are only too frequent with us. Instances have occurred,
and will occur again, in which an inoffensive man, arrested by mistake,
in virtue of a regular warrant intended for another of the same name, is
sent straight to the criminal prison of Mazas. It will then take him a
week to get set at liberty. In London he would have been taken at once
to the magistrate of the district, who would have proceeded without
delay to the verification of his identity. It would have been the
affair of two hours at most, thanks to the service of constables at the
disposal, day and night, of the English magistrate."
[Illustration: THE SALLE DES PAS PERDUS.]
The police-courts have sometimes to deal with remarkable cases, but as
a rule their duties are of a somewhat trivial character. Adventurers of
a low order, swindlers on a petty scale, and street thieves who have
been caught with their hands in the pocket of a gentleman or the muff
of a lady, are the sort of persons they usually deal with. To these
may be added vendors of pretended theatrical admissions, hawkers of
forbidden books, and a few drunkards. From morning till night the police
are constantly bringing in poor wretches of both sexes; the men for the
most part in blouses, the women in rags. They arrive in "cellular"
carriages, vulgarly called "salad baskets"; and leaving the vehicle
they are kept together by a long cord attached to the wrist of each
prisoner. The place of confinement where they remain pending the trial
is called the "mouse-trap": two rows, placed one above the other, each
of twenty-five cells, containing one prisoner apiece. Every cell is
closed in front by an iron grating, in the centre of which is a small
aperture--a little square window looking into the corridor. Through this
window, which can be opened and shut, but which is almost invariably
kept open, the prisoner sees all that takes place in the passage,
and the occasional arrival of privileged visitors helps to break the
monotony of his day. The wire cages in which the prisoners are detained
suggest those of the Zoological Gardens; and the character of the wild
beast is too often imprinted on the vicious criminal features of the
incarcerated ones.
Disputes with cab-drivers and hackney coachmen generally are, as a
rule, settled by the commissary of the district or the _quartier_. But
serious complaints have now and then to be brought before the Tribunal
of Police. In former times the hackney coaches of Paris were at once
the disgrace and the terror of the town. "Nothing," writes Mercier,
"can more offend the eye of a stranger than the shabby appearance of
these vehicles, especially if he has ever seen the hackney coaches
of London and Brussels. Yet the aspect of the drivers is still more
shocking than that of the carriages, or of the skinny hacks that drag
those frightful machines. Some have but half a coat on, others none at
all; they are uniform in one point only, that is extreme wretchedness
and insolence. You may observe the following gradation in the conduct of
these brutes in human shape. Before breakfast they are pretty tractable,
they grow restive towards noon, but in the evening they are not to be
borne. The commissaries or justices of the peace are the only umpires
between the driver and the drivee; and, right or wrong, their award is
in favour of the former, who are generally taken from the honourable
body of police greyhounds, and are of course allied to the formidable
phalanx of justices of the peace. However, if you would roll on at a
reasonable pace, be sure you take a hackney coachman half-seas-over.
Nothing is more common than to see the traces giving way, or the
wheels flying off at a tangent. You find yourself with a broken shin
or a bloody nose; but then, for your comfort, you have nothing to pay
for the fare. Some years ago a report prevailed that some alterations
were to take place in the regulation of hackney coaches; the Parisian
phaetons took the alarm and drove to Choisy, where the King was at that
time. The least appearance of a commotion strikes terror to the heart
of a despot. The sight of 1,800 empty coaches frightened the monarch;
but his apprehensions were soon removed by the vigilance of his guard
and courtiers. Four representatives of the phaetonic body were clapped
into prison and the speaker sent to Bicêtre, to deliver his harangue
before the motley inhabitants of that dreary mansion. The safety of
the inhabitants doubtless requires the attention of the Government, in
providing carriages hung on better springs and generally more cleanly;
but the scarcity of hay and straw, not to mention the heavy impost of
twenty sols per day for the privilege of rattling over the pavement of
Paris, when for the value of an English shilling you may go from one end
of the town to the other, prevents the introduction of so desirable a
reformation."
In another part of his always interesting "Picture of Paris," Mercier
becomes quite tragic on the subject of Paris coaches and Paris coachmen.
"Look to the right," he says, "and see the end of all public rejoicings
in Paris; see that score of unfortunate men, some of them with broken
legs and arms, some already dead or expiring. Most of them are parents
of families, who by this catastrophe must be reduced to the most
horrible misery. I had foretold this accident as the consequence of that
file of coaches which passed us before. The police take so little notice
of these chance medleys that it is simply a wonder such accidents,
already too frequent, are not still more numerous. The threatening
wheel which runs along with such rapidity carries an obdurate man in
power, who has not leisure, or indeed cares not, to observe that the
blood of his fellow-subjects is yet fresh on the stones over which his
magnificent chariot rattles so swiftly. They talk of a reformation,
but when is it to take place? All those who have any share in the
administration keep carriages, and what care they for the pedestrian
traveller? Jean Jacques Rousseau, in the year 1776, on the road to
Mesnil-Montant, was knocked down by a large Lapland dog and remained on
the spot, whilst the master, secure in his berline, passed him by with
that stoic indifference which amounts to savage barbarity. Rousseau,
lame and bruised, was taken up and conducted to his house by some
charitable peasants. The gentleman, or rather savage, learning the
identity of the person whom the dog had knocked down, sent a servant to
know what he could do for him. 'Tell him,' said Rousseau, 'to keep his
dog chained,' and dismissed the messenger. When a coachman has crushed
or crippled a passenger, he may be carried before a commissaire, who
gravely inquires whether the accident was occasioned by the fore wheels
or the hind wheels. If one should die under the latter, no pecuniary
damage can be recovered by the heirs-at-law, because the coachman is
answerable only for the former; and even in this case there is a police
standard by which he is merely judged at so much an arm and so much a
leg! After this we boast of being a civilised nation!"
In addition to the place of detention already described, the Palais
de Justice contains a permanent prison known historically as the
Conciergerie, and, by its official name, as the House of Justice. Here
are received, on the one hand, prisoners about to be tried before the
Assize Court or the Appeal Court of Police; on the other, certain
prisoners who are the object of special favour and who consider
themselves fortunate to be confined in this rather than any other
prison. The list of celebrated persons who have been detained in the
Conciergerie would be a long one, from the Constable of Armagnac
(1440) to Prince Napoleon (1883). Here may still be seen the dungeons
of Damiens, of Ravaillac, of Lacenaire the murderer, of André Chenier
the poet, of Mme. Roland, and of Robespierre. The name whose memory,
in connection with this fatal place, extinguishes all others is that
of the unhappy Marie Antoinette. After a captivity of nearly a year in
the Temple the queen was conducted on the 5th of August, 1792, to the
Conciergerie, and there shut up in a dark narrow cell called the Council
Hall, lighted from the courtyard by a little window crossed with iron
bars. This Council Hall was previously divided into two by a partition,
which had now been removed; and in place of it a screen was fixed which,
during her sleep, shut the queen off from the two gendarmes ordered to
watch her day and night. The daughter of the Cæsars left her dungeon
on the 15th of October, 1793, dressed in black, to appear before the
Revolutionary Tribunal, and the next day, dressed in white, to step into
the cart which conveyed her to the guillotine erected on the Place Louis
XV.
[Illustration: POLICE CARRIAGES.]
This historical dungeon, which, says M. Vitu, could not contain the
tears which it has caused to be shed, and ought to have been walled up
in order to bury the memory of a crime unworthy of the French nation,
was transformed into a chapel by order of Louis XVIII. in 1816. The
altar bears a Latin inscription which, like others previously referred
to, was composed by the king himself.
Close to the queen's dungeon is the so-called Hall of the Girondists
(formerly a chapel), in which the most enlightened and the most heroic
of the Revolutionists are said, by a not too trustworthy legend, to have
passed their last night.
* * * * *
Locally and even architecturally connected with the Palace of Justice
is the Holy Chapel, one of the most perfect sacred buildings that
Paris possesses. The courtyard of the Holy Chapel, mentioned more than
once in connection with the Palace of Justice, stands at the south-east
corner of the principal building, and is shut in by the Tribunal of
Police and a portion of the Court of Appeal. It can be entered from five
different points: from the Boulevard of the Palace of Justice; by two
different openings from the Police Tribunal; from the so-called depôt of
the Prefecture of Police; and from the Cour du Mai on the north-east.
No more admirable specimen of the religious architecture of the middle
ages is to be found; nor is any church or chapel more venerable by its
origin and its antiquity. Founded by Robert I. in 921, the year of his
accession to the throne, it replaced, in the royal palace of which it
had formed part, a chapel dedicated to Saint Bartholomew, which dated
from the kings of the first dynasty.
[Illustration: THE CONCIERGERIE, PALAIS DE JUSTICE.]
The royal palace contained, moreover, several private oratories,
including in particular one dedicated to the Holy Virgin. In 1237
Baudouin II., Emperor of Constantinople, exhausted by the wars he had
been sustaining against the Greeks, came to France to beg assistance
from King Saint Louis. Baudouin was of the House of Flanders, and in
consideration of a large sum of money, he pledged to the French king
his county of Namur, and allowed him to redeem certain holy relics--the
crown of thorns, the sponge which had wiped away the blood and sweat
of the Saviour, and the lance with which his side had been pierced--on
which the Venetians, the Genoese, the Abbess of Perceul, Pietro Cornaro,
and Peter Zauni had lent 13,000 gold pieces. The relics arrived in
France the year afterwards, and crossed the country in the midst of
pious demonstrations from the whole population. The king himself, and
the Count of Artois, went to receive them at Sens and bore on their
shoulders the case containing the crown of thorns. Thus, in formal
procession, they passed through the streets of Sens and of Paris; and
the holy king deposited the relics in the oratory of the Virgin until a
building should be erected specially for their reception. This was the
Holy Chapel, of which the first stone was laid in 1245. The work had
been entrusted to the architect Pierre de Montreuil or de Montereau. In
three years it was finished, the chapel being inaugurated on the 25th of
April, 1248. "Only three years for the construction of such an edifice,"
exclaims a French writer, "when the nineteenth century cannot manage to
restore it in thirty years!"
[Illustration: THE SAINTE-CHAPELLE.]
The Holy Chapel is composed of two chapels one above the other, having
a single nave without transept, each chapel possessing a separate
entrance. The upper chapel, approached through the Galerie Mercière,
was reserved for the king and his family, who, from the royal palace,
entered it on foot. The lower chapel, intended for the inferior officers
attached to the court, became later on, in virtue of a papal bull, the
parish church of all who lives in the immediate neighbourhood of the
palace. If the Holy Chapel is admirable by its design and proportions,
it is a marvel of construction from a technical point of view. It rests
on slender columns, which seem incapable of supporting it. The roof, in
pointed vaulting, is very lofty; and for the last six centuries it has
resisted every cause of destruction, including the fire which, in 1630,
threatened the entire building.
No more beautiful specimens of stained glass are to be seen than in the
Holy Chapel, with its immense windows resplendent in rich and varied
colours. A remarkable statue of the Virgin bowing her head as if in
token of assent, now at the Hôtel Cluny, belonged originally to the Holy
Chapel. According to a pious legend, the figure bent forward to show
approval of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception as formulated by
Duns Scotus, who was teaching theology at Paris in 1304, and from the
time of the miracle until now maintains the same gesture of inclination.
More than one mediæval tradition makes statues, and especially statues
of the Virgin, perform similar actions. There is, for example, in the
_Contes Dévots_ a story of a statue of the Virgin to which a certain
_bourgeois qui aimait une dame_ prayed that she would either make the
lady return his love or cause that love to cease. Some time previously
a Hebrew magician had offered to secure the lady's affections for the
infatuated _bourgeois_ provided he would renounce God, the saints, and
especially the Blessed Virgin; to which the despondent lover replied
that though, in his grief and despair, he might abandon everything
else, yet nothing could make him relinquish his allegiance and devotion
to the Blessed Virgin. This fidelity, under all temptations, gave him
some right, he hoped, to implore the influence of the merciful Virgin
towards softening the heart of the woman he so passionately loved; and
the statue of the Virgin, before which he prostrated himself, showed by
a gentle inclination of the head that his prayer was heard. Fortunately,
the lady whose cold demeanour had so vexed the heart of her lover was
in the church at the very moment of the miracle, and, seeing the Virgin
bow her head to the unhappy _bourgeois_, felt convinced that he must be
an excellent man. Thereupon she went up to him, asked him why he looked
so sad, reproached him gently with not having visited her of late, and
ended by assuring him that if he still loved her she fully returned his
affection. Somewhat analogous to this legend, though in a different
order of ideas, is that of the Commander whose statue Don Juan invited
to supper, with consequences too familiar to be worth repeating.
The ancient statue of the Virgin, once in the Holy Chapel, venerated now
in the Hôtel Cluny, regarded simply as a curiosity, has been replaced
by a modern statue. The sacred relics which the Holy Chapel at one
time possessed are still preserved at Notre Dame. The gold case which
enclosed them was, at the beginning of the Revolution, sent to the Mint
to be converted into coin.
The spire which now surmounts the Holy Chapel is the fourth since the
erection of the building. The first one, by Pierre de Montreuil, was
crumbling away from age under the reign of Charles V., who thereupon had
it restored by a master-carpenter, Robert Foucher. Burnt in the great
fire of 1630, this second spire was re-constructed by order of Louis
XIII., and destroyed during the Revolution. The fourth edition of it,
which still exists, was built by M. Lassus in the florid style of the
first years of the fifteenth century.
The one thing which strikes the visitor to the Holy Chapel above
everything else, and which cannot but make a lasting impression on him,
is the wonderful beauty of the stained glass windows already referred
to. They date, for the most part, from the reign of Saint Louis, and
were put in on the day the building was consecrated in 1248. In their
present condition and form, however, they take us back only to the
year 1837. During forty-six years (1791 to 1837) the Holy Chapel was
given up to all kinds of uses. First it was a club-house, then a flour
magazine, and finally a bureau for official documents. This last was the
least injurious of the purposes to which it was turned. Nevertheless
the incomparable stained glass windows were interfered with by the
construction of various boxes and cupboards along the sides of the
building, no less than three metres of the lower part of each window
being thus sacrificed. Certain glaziers, moreover, employed to take down
the windows, clean them, and put them back, had made serious mistakes,
restoring portions of windows to the wrong frames. The subjects of the
stained art-work are all from the Holy Scriptures, and on a thousand
glass panels figure a thousand different personages.
The restoration of the windows had been entrusted, after a public
competition, to M. Henri Gérante, a French artist who, more than any
other, has contributed to the resurrection of the seemingly lost art
of painting on glass. But, unhappily, M. Gérante died before beginning
his work, which, thereupon, was divided between M. Steintheil, for the
drawing and painting, and M. Lusson for the material preparation. Their
labours were crowned with the most complete success. Entering the Holy
Chapel one is literally dazzled by the bright rich colours from the
windows on all sides, blending together in the most harmonious manner.
[Illustration: THE LOWER CHAPEL OF THE SAINTE-CHAPELLE.]
Right and left of the nave the place is shown where Saint Louis and
Blanche de Castille were accustomed to sit opposite one another to
hear mass and other religious services. A corner, moreover, is pointed
out, with an iron network before it, where, according to a doubtful
tradition, the suspicious Louis XI. used to retire in order to hear mass
without being seen; perhaps also to watch the faithful at their prayers.
In many an old French church corners and passages may be met with,
protected by a network or simply by rails, which served, it is said, to
shut off lepers from the general congregation.
* * * * *
Closely associated with the Palais de Justice is the Tribunal of
Commerce, which has its own code, its own judges and functionaries.
Three centuries ago the necessity was recognised in France of leaving
commercial and industrial cases to the decision of men competent, from
their occupation, to deal with such matters. Paris owes its Tribunal of
Commerce to King Charles IX.; but the code under which issues are now
decided dates only from September, 1807--from the First Empire, that is
to say. The commercial judges are named for two years by the merchants
and tradesmen domiciled in the department of the Seine. Formerly the
Tribunal of Commerce, or Consular Tribunal, held its sittings at the
back of the Church of Saint-Méry in the Hôtel des Consuls, the gate of
which used to support a statue of Louis XIV., by Simon Guilain.
[Illustration: THE UPPER CHAPEL OF THE SAINTE-CHAPELLE.]
This mercantile court consists of five merchants, the first bearing
the title of judge, and the four others that of consuls. The Tribunal
of Commerce was removed from the old house in the Rue Saint-Méry in
1826, to be installed on the first storey of the newly constructed
Bourse. Soon, however, the place assigned to it became inadequate for
the constantly increasing number of cases brought before the court;
and a special edifice was erected for the Tribunal of Commerce in
the immediate vicinity of the Palais de Justice. This structure,
quadrilateral in form, is bounded on the north by the Quai aux Fleurs,
on the east by the Rue Aubé, on the south by the Rue de Lutèce, and on
the west by the Boulevard du Palais. To build a new Palais de Justice
it was necessary to destroy all that existed of the ancient Cité. One
curious building, which, after undergoing every kind of modification,
ultimately, in order to make room for the Court of Commerce, disappeared
altogether, was the ancient Church of Saint Bartholomew. This sacred
edifice during the early days of the Revolution, when churches had
gone very much out of fashion, became the Théâtre Henri IV., to be
afterwards called Palais Variété, Théâtre de la Cité, Cité Variété, and
Théâtre Mozart. Here was represented, in 1795, "The Interior of the
Revolutionary Committees," the most cutting satire ever directed against
the tyranny of the Jacobins; and, in another style, "The Perilous
Forest, or the Brigands of Calabria," a true type of the ancient
melodrama. Suppressed in 1807, this theatre underwent a number of
transformations, to serve at last as a dancing saloon, known to everyone
and beloved by students under the title of The Prado.
[Illustration: THE TRIBUNAL OF COMMERCE.]
The cupola of the Tribunal of Commerce is a reproduction, as to form, of
the cupola of a little church which attracted the attention of Napoleon
III. on the borders of the Lake of Garda while he was awaiting the
result of the attack on the Solferino Tower. The Audience Chamber of
the Tribunal is adorned with paintings by Robert Fleury, representing
incidents in the commercial history of France from Charles IX. to
Napoleon III.