Towards the end of the ninth century, this palace was begun by Eudes.
It was successively enlarged by Robert, son of Hugh Capet, by St.
Lewis, and by Philip the Fair. Under Charles V, who abandoned it to
occupy the _Hôtel St. Paul_, which he had built, it was nothing more
than an assemblage of large towers, communicating with each other by
galleries. In 1383, Charles VI made it his residence. In 1431,
Charles VII relinquished it to the Parliament of Paris. However,
Francis I. took up his abode here for some time.
It was in the great hall of this palace that the kings of France
formerly received ambassadors, and gave public entertainments.
On Whitsunday, 1313, Philip the Fair here knighted his three sons,
with all the ceremonies of ancient chivalry. The king of England, our
unfortunate Edward II, and his abominable queen Isabella, who were
invited, crossed the sea on purpose, and were present at this
entertainment, together with a great number of English barons. It
lasted eight days, and is spoken of, by historians, as a most
sumptuous banquet.
This magnificent hall, as well as great part of the palace, being
reduced to ashes in 1618, it was rebuilt, in its present state, under
the direction of that skilful architect, JACQUES DE BROSSES. It is
both spacious and majestic, and is the only hall of the kind in
France: the arches and arcades which support it are of hewn stone.
Another fire, which happened in 1776, consumed all the part extending
from the gallery of prisoners to the _Sainte Chapelle_, founded by
St. Lewis, and where, before the revolution, were shewn a number of
costly relics. The ravages occasioned by this fire, were repaired in
1787, and the space in front laid open by the erection of uniform
buildings in the form of a crescent. To two gloomy gothic gates has
been substituted an iron railing, of one hundred and twenty feet in
extent, through which is seen a spacious court formed by two wings of
new edifices, and a majestic façade that affords an entrance to the
interior of the palace.
In this court Madame La Motte, who, in 1786, made so conspicuous a
figure in the noted affair of the diamond necklace, was publicly
whipped. I was in Paris at the time, though not present at the
execution of the sentence.
In the railing, are three gates, the centre one of which is charged
with garlands and other gilt ornaments. At the two ends are pavilions
decorated with four Doric pillars. Towards the _Pont St. Michel_ is a
continuation of the building ornamented with a bas-relief, at present
denominated _Le serment civique_.
At the top of a flight of steps, is an avant-corps, with four Doric
columns, a balustrade above the entablature, four statues standing on
a level with the base of the pillars, and behind, a square dome.
These steps lead you to the _Mercière_ gallery, having on the one
side, the _Sainte Chapelle_, and on the other, the great hall, called
the _Salle des Procureurs_. In this extensive hall are shops, for the
sale of eatables and pamphlets, which, since the suppression of the
Parliament, seem to have little custom, as well as those of the
milliners, &c. in the other galleries.
In what was formerly called the _grande chambre_, where the
Parliament of Paris used to sit, the ill-fated Lewis XVI, in 1788,
held the famous bed of justice, in which D'ESPRESMENIL, one of the
members of that body, struck the first blow at royalty; a blow that
was revenged by a _lettre de cachet_, which exiled him to the _Ile de
St. Marguerite_, famous for being the place of confinement of the
great personage who was always compelled to wear an _iron mask_. The
courage of this counsellor, who was a noble and deputy of the
_noblesse_, may be considered as the _primum mobile_ of the
revolution. Under the despotism of the court, he braved all its
vengeance; but, in the sequel, he afforded a singular proof of the
instability of the human mind. After haying stirred up all the
parliaments against the royal authority, he again became the humble
servant of the crown.
After the revolution, the _Palais de Justice_ became the seat of the
Revolutionary Tribunal, where the satellites of Robespierre, not
content with sending to the scaffold sixty victims at a time,
complained of the insufficiency of their means for bringing to trial
all the enemies of liberty. Dumas, at one time president of this
sanguinary tribunal, proposed to his colleagues to join to the hall,
where the tribunal sat, part of the great hall of the palace, in
order to assemble there five or six hundred victims at a time; and on
its being observed to him that such a sight might in the end disgust
the people; "Well," said he, "there's but one method of accomplishing
our object, without any obstacle, that is to erect a guillotine in
the court-yard of every prison, and cause the prisoners to be
executed there during the night." Had not Robespierre's downfall
involved that of all his blood-thirsty dependents, there seems no
doubt that this plan would have been carried into speedy execution.
Nothing can paint the vicissitude of human events in colours more
striking than the transitions of this critical period. Dumas who made
this proposal, and had partially satisfied his merciless disposition
by signing, a few hours before, the death-warrant of sixty victims,
was the very next day brought before the same tribunal, composed of
his accomplices, or rather his creatures, and by them condemned to
die. Thus did experience confirm the general observation, that the
multiplicity and enormity of punishments announces an approaching
revolution. The torrents of blood which tyrants shed, are, in the
end, swelled by their own.
In lieu of a tribunal of blood, the _Palais de Justice_ is now
appropriated to the sittings of the three tribunals, designated by
the following titles: _Tribunal de cassation_, _Tribunal d'appel_,
and _Tribunal de première instance_. The first of these, the
_Tribunal de cassation_, occupies the audience-chambers of the late
parliament; while the _grande chambre_ is appointed for the meetings
of its united Sections. The decoration of this spacious apartment is
entirely changed: it is embellished in the antique style; and a
person in contemplating it might fancy himself at Athens.
Adjoining to the _Palais de Justice_, is the famous prison, so
dreaded in the early periods of the revolution, called