ois.--From a
Pen-and-ink Sketch in an Original Manuscript (Arch. of the Empire)]

In the course of this simple and graphic description mention has been made
of the _lit de justice_ (seat of justice). All judicial or legislative
assemblies at which the King considered it his duty to be present were
thus designated; when the King came there simply as a looker-on, they were
more commonly called _plaidoyers_, and, in this case, no change was made
in the ordinary arrangements; but when the King presided they were called
_conseils_, and then a special ceremonial was required. In fact, by _lit
de justice_ (Fig. 393), or _cour des pairs_, we understand a court
consisting of the high officers of the crown, and of the great executive
of the State, whose duty it was to determine whether any peer of France
should be tried on a criminal charge; gravely to deliberate on any
political matter of special interest; or to register, in the name of the
absolute sovereignty of the King, any edict of importance. We know the
prominent, and, we may say, even the fatal, part played by these
solemnities, which were being continually re-enacted, and on every sort of
pretext, during the latter days of monarchy. These courts were always held
with impressive pomp. The sovereign usually summoned to them the princes
of the blood royal and the officers of his household; the members of the
Parliament took their seats in scarlet robes, the presidents being habited
in their caps and their mantles, and the registrars of the court also
wearing their official dress. The High Chancellor, the First Chamberlain,
and the Provost of Paris, sat at the King's feet. The Chancellor of
France, the presidents and councillors of the Parliament, occupied the
bar, and the ushers of the court were in a kneeling posture.

Having thus mentioned the assemblies of persons of distinction, the
interviews of sovereigns (Fig. 394), and the reception of
ambassadors--without describing them in detail, which would involve more
space than we have at our command--we will enter upon the subject of the
special ceremonial adopted by the nobility, taking as our guide the
standard book called "Honneurs de la Cour," compiled at the end of the
fifteenth century by the celebrated Alienor de Poitiers. In addition to
her own observations, she gives those of her mother, Isabelle de Souza,
who herself had but continued the work of another noble lady, Jeanne
d'Harcourt--married in 1391 to the Count