ul to behold.

* * * * *

"Bow down before the Majesty of the Law!" His Grace the Archbishop,
solemnly proclaimed, while two priests from Santa Soffia stepped forth
from under the arcades, reverently carrying the illuminated MS. of the
Evangel which had been the treasure of their monastery from earliest
ages; and behind them came others of their brotherhood bearing the
quaint, copper casket in which were enshrined those revered Books of the
Law known as the "_Assizes of Jerusalem_," and esteemed among all the
codes of the nations for their wisdom and justice.

The ancient volumes which bore this title had long since disappeared, in
the destruction of Jerusalem; and tradition, prone to assign to
well-known authors of illustrious deeds many good feats accomplished by
those who remain nameless, had ascribed the compilation of this early
masterpiece of judicial wisdom to Godfrey de Bouillon. It had been
sacredly kept in the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and
guarded by a decree ordaining that it should not be opened except in the
presence of certain high officials.

Upon the maxims of this ancient work, faithfully digested in the famous
law-schools of Nikosia by their greatest scholars, the present volume of
Assizes had been founded; and among those most largely concerned in its
authorship was Joan of Iblin--the distinguished ancestor of Dama
Margherita.

Dama Margherita had never been present when the volume was opened, for
like the famous code which had preceded it, it was hedged about with
solemn formalities and might not be unsealed save in the presence of the
Sovereign and four barons of the realm; and she leaned eagerly forward
as the herald, who parted the crowd before the bearers of the sacred
chest reiterated again and again the command:

"Bow down before the Majesty of the Law!"

The little procession proceeded slowly through the intricacies of the
throng, all heads bowing as they passed, until they brought it under the
dome that was raised over the dias where the thrones were set for the
Sovereigns, and where, looking upward, one might read in great golden
characters, wrought above the frieze, this admonition from the Book of
the Law:

_Whoever shall appear in this Court and bear false witness, be he the
noblest in the land, he shall lose his head._

The Queen, to show her reverence, had risen from her throne as they
paused before her, and descending the s